Developmental Patterns of Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension from Age 4 to 14: A Sequential Latent Growth Model Design

Abstract

Background: Early vocabulary knowledge is one of the best-known predictors of childhood reading comprehension. However, whether growth in receptive vocabulary predicts later growth in reading comprehension is less understood. Method: Using two representative samples from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (N = 4,983 and N = 4,570), this study used latent growth models to examine developmental patterns in early vocabulary (age 4 through 8) and in later reading comprehension (age 8 through 14). A sequential multivariate growth model was used to examine whether the intercept and slope terms of early vocabulary predicted the intercept and slope of subsequent reading comprehension. Results: Univariate models demonstrated negative correlations between intercept and slope factors for early vocabulary and later reading in both samples, suggesting that children making the most progress in each domain were those who started with relatively poorer skills. In the multivariate models, the vocabulary intercept positively predicted the reading intercept but negatively predicted the reading slope, indicating that children with stronger vocabulary in preschool, in fact, made the least progress on reading comprehension four to ten years later. Vocabulary growth was not related to reading comprehension attainment at age 8 or growth in subsequent reading comprehension to age 14. Discussion: This study furthers our understanding of relations between two interlinking aspects of literacy development spanning early childhood to adolescence. While these two domains are interrelated, we find no evidence that children with the fastest growth in early vocabulary also have the fastest growth in reading comprehension in later grades.