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

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 has had less attention. This study used two representative samples of Australian children (N = 4,983 and N = 4,570) to examine developmental patterns in early vocabulary (age 4 through 8) and in later reading comprehension (age 8 through 14). Univariate latent growth models demonstrated negative correlations between intercept and slope factors for vocabulary and reading in both samples, suggesting that children making the most progress in each domain were those who started with relatively poorer skills. The vocabulary intercept positively predicted the reading intercept but negatively predicted the reading slope, indicating that children with stronger vocabulary in preschool made the least progress on reading comprehension four to ten years later. Vocabulary growth was unrelated to reading comprehension growth from age 8 to 14.