Prekindergarten and kindergarten predictors of reading comprehension in monolingual English and Spanish-English bilingual 6th graders

Gray, Shelley and Davies, Robert and Thompson, Marilyn and Restrepo, Maria Adelaida and Bridges, Mindy and Romeo, Savannah and Hu, Jinxiang and Cain, Kate (2026) Prekindergarten and kindergarten predictors of reading comprehension in monolingual English and Spanish-English bilingual 6th graders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. ISSN 1092-4388 (In Press)

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Abstract

Purpose: Poor reading comprehension performance by children in the US is a continuing concern. Early identification and intervention can reduce the number of children with significant reading problems. We documented prekindergarten and kindergarten predictors of Grade 6 reading comprehension for English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual groups and identified measures available to educators to flag children at risk for future reading comprehension problems. Method: In Grade 6, children in the monolingual (N = 88) and bilingual groups (N = 95) completed a reading comprehension measure. These children were in a longitudinal study with previously completed code-related, vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, higher-level language, working memory, and nonverbal IQ measures in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Results: Data were analyzed separately by language group. We fit a series of Bayesian mixed-effects models incorporating prekindergarten and kindergarten measures as predictors. For the monolingual group, the most promising prekindergarten predictor was letter identification, and the most promising kindergarten predictors were vocabulary, grammar/morphology, and listening comprehension. For the bilingual group, the most promising prekindergarten predictors were English vocabulary, listening comprehension in Spanish, and memory updating in Spanish, and the most promising kindergarten predictor was English vocabulary. Conclusion: We suggest measures that could be administered in prekindergarten and kindergarten to flag students who may be at risk for future reading comprehension problems. We review other steps that schools and families may take to prevent reading comprehension problems.