1999/12/01 by Deanne A. Crone, Grover J. Whitehurst · 130 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adult literacy #Child Development and Digital Technology #Developmental psychology #Early Childhood Education and Development #Emergent literacy #Linguistics #Literacy #Mathematics education #Pedagogy #Psychology #Reading (process) #Reading and Literacy Development #Reading comprehension #Reading motivation
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.604
published in Journal of Educational Psychology 91(4), 604-614 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 1999/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
This study examined the effects of age and schooling on emergent literacy and early reading skills of 337 children from low-income backgrounds. Children were followed longitudinally from the end of Head Start to the end of 1st grade. A subset of the sample (n = 183) was followed through the end of 2nd grade. The oldest children in preschool and kindergarten had significantly stronger emergent literacy skills than classmates who were younger by 10 months. These differences did not translate to differences in reading skill at the end of 1st or 2nd grade. Children who began school a year earlier than same-age peers outperformed these peers on measures of both emergent literacy skills and early reading skills. The impact of a year of schooling on emergent literacy skills was 1.7 times greater than the impact of other processes associated with age. The impact of a year of schooling on early reading was 4.3 times stronger than the effect of age.