ABSTRACT
There is ample evidence that early literacy in kindergarten predicts the acquisition of literacy in the first years of school. Results, however, are not entirely consistent across measures. For example, the best predictors have been found to be phonological awareness, rapid naming, invented spelling, and letter knowledge (see e.g., Badian, 1998; Kirby, Parrila, & Pfeiffer, 2003; Levin, Share, & Shatil, 1996; McBride-Chang & Kail, 2002; Morris, Bloodgood, & Perney, 2003; Parrila, Kirby, & McQuarrie, 2004; Scanlon & Vellutino, 1996). Linguistic skills like vocabulary or morphological awareness, however, have been found to be inconsistently associated with later school literacy (see e.g., Aram, 2005; Chaney, 1998; Levin, Ravid, & Rapaport, 2001; Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carison, & Foorman, 2004; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Still, the indisputable conclusion is that literacy from an early age on is highly predictive for the later learning of reading, spelling, and language in school.
