ABSTRACT
Considerable research and theory describes young children’s developmental progressions in specific language skills, such as grammar, vocabulary, and narrative, with a focus on understanding universal patterns as well as individual differences. Other work has focused on the relations between specific language skills and skilled reading comprehension. This chapter seeks to bridge the gap between these two bodies of work by describing continuity between early language acquisition and future reading comprehension, and proposes a developmental model of reading comprehension that spans early to middle childhood. At the same time, this chapter seeks to close the gap between early childhood education and reading education within the primary grades by identifying classroom practices across the preschool to school-age continuum that can foster those language skills that are particularly influential to reading comprehension. We posit that the language-reading connection could serve as a platform for bridging early childhood and elementary education and discuss associated challenges and potential solutions. Additionally, we suggest that an interconnected and extended view of language and reading development may, in turn, support continuity in language and literacy instructional practices across grade levels and thus provide a more coherent learning pathway for children.
