Longitudinal Results on Phonological Awareness and Reading Performance of Turkish-Speaking Children by Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Although several studies show that phonological awareness predicts reading performance, longitudinal results in different socioeconomic levels are not clear enough. This study aimed to examine to what extent the phonological awareness skills of Turkish-speaking children coming from different socioeconomic levels are predictive of later reading performance. Children’s phonological awareness was assessed in three time points including in the fall and spring semesters of kindergarten and in the beginning of first grade while reading performance was assessed at the end fall semester in first grade. A total of 451 children participated in all assessments. Three regression models were tested for the analyses. The results showed that phonological awareness skills assessed during kindergarten and in the beginning of first grade predicted reading performance in first grade in children from all socioeconomic levels, and predictive power of phonological awareness skills were higher in the spring of kindergarten compared to other assessment points.