Child and environmental risk factors predicting readiness for learning in children at high risk of dyslexia

Abstract We investigate the role of distal, proximal, and child risk factors as predictors of reading readiness and attention and behavior in children at risk of dyslexia. The parents of a longitudinal sample of 251 preschool children, including children at family risk of dyslexia and children with preschool language difficulties, provided measures of socioeconomic status, home literacy environment, family stresses, and child health via interviews and questionnaires. Assessments of children's reading-related skills, behavior, and attention were used to define their readiness for learning at school entry. Children at family risk of dyslexia and children with preschool language difficulties experienced more environmental adversities and health risks than controls. The risks associated with family risk of dyslexia and with language status were additive. Both home literacy environment and child health predicted reading readiness while home literacy environment and family stresses predicted attention and behavior. Family risk of dyslexia did not predict readiness to learn once other risks were controlled and so seems likely to be best conceptualized as representing gene–environment correlations. Pooling across risks defined a cumulative risk index, which was a significant predictor of reading readiness and, together with nonverbal ability, accounted for 31% of the variance between children.

[1]  D. Bishop,et al.  Developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment: same or different? , 2004, Psychological bulletin.

[2]  A. Monaco,et al.  The genetic lexicon of dyslexia. , 2007, Annual review of genomics and human genetics.

[3]  A M Jepson,et al.  Parents for children. , 1977, British medical journal.

[4]  R. Bradley,et al.  The Relation of Infants' Home Environments to Mental Test Performance at Fifty-four Months: A Follow-up Study. , 1976 .

[5]  M. Snowling,et al.  Parents of children with dyslexia: cognitive, emotional and behavioural profile. , 2014, Dyslexia.

[6]  A. van der Leij,et al.  The Effect of Parents’ Literacy Skills and Children’s Preliteracy Skills on the Risk of Dyslexia , 2014, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

[7]  Kim Plunkett,et al.  Do infant vocabulary skills predict school-age language and literacy outcomes? , 2015, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[8]  M. Denckla,et al.  Rapid ‘automatized’ naming (R.A.N.): Dyslexia differentiated from other learning disabilities , 1976, Neuropsychologia.

[9]  D. Stewart,et al.  The effect of postpartum depression on child cognitive development and behavior: A review and critical analysis of the literature , 2003, Archives of Women’s Mental Health.

[10]  L. Sroufe,et al.  When more is not better: the role of cumulative risk in child behavior outcomes. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[11]  A. van der Leij,et al.  Child and parental literacy levels within families with a history of dyslexia. , 2012, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[12]  B. Maughan,et al.  Annotation: long-term outcomes of developmental reading problems. , 1995, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[13]  S. Greenspan,et al.  Intelligence quotient scores of 4-year-old children: social-environmental risk factors. , 1987, Pediatrics.

[14]  M. Msall,et al.  Prematurity and school readiness in a nationally representative sample of Australian children: does typically occurring preschool moderate the relationship? , 2014, Early human development.

[15]  Heikki Lyytinen,et al.  Very early phonological and language skills: estimating individual risk of reading disability. , 2007, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[16]  Heikki Lyytinen,et al.  Language Development, Literacy Skills, and Predictive Connections to Reading in Finnish Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia , 2010, Journal of learning disabilities.

[17]  S. Ceci,et al.  Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: a bioecological model. , 1994, Psychological review.

[18]  B. Pennington,et al.  Early reading development in children at family risk for dyslexia. , 2001, Child development.

[19]  A. van der Leij,et al.  The intergenerational multiple deficit model and the case of dyslexia , 2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[20]  Dongping Li,et al.  Cumulative risk and child development. , 2013, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  Surveys.,et al.  Standard occupational classification , 1990 .

[22]  J. Lani,et al.  General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) , 2010 .

[23]  E. Votruba-Drzal,et al.  School Readiness of Children from Immigrant Families: Contributions of Region of Origin, Home, and Childcare. , 2014 .

[24]  Psychologie.  Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence , 2011, Definitions.

[25]  C. Hulme,et al.  Validity of a Protocol for Adult Self-Report of Dyslexia and Related Difficulties , 2012, Dyslexia.

[26]  Charles Hulme,et al.  The science of reading: A handbook. , 2005 .

[27]  S. Scarr,et al.  How people make their own environments: a theory of genotype greater than environment effects. , 1983, Child development.

[28]  H. Scarborough,et al.  Preschool Literacy Experience and Later Reading Achievement , 1991, Journal of learning disabilities.

[29]  H. Scarborough,et al.  Very early language deficits in dyslexic children. , 1990, Child development.

[30]  Julia M. Carroll,et al.  Sex differences in developmental reading disability: new findings from 4 epidemiological studies. , 2004, JAMA.

[31]  S. Luthar,et al.  Annotation: methodological and conceptual issues in research on childhood resilience. , 1993, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[32]  R Plomin,et al.  Genotype-environment interaction and correlation in the analysis of human behavior. , 1977, Psychological bulletin.

[33]  R. Kumar,et al.  Impact of maternal postnatal depression on cognitive development of young children. , 1986, British medical journal.

[34]  H. Lyytinen,et al.  Modeling the Early Paths of Phonological Awareness and Factors Supporting its Development in Children With and Without Familial Risk of Dyslexia , 2007 .

[35]  K. Eklund,et al.  Effects of Multidomain Risk Accumulation on Cognitive, Academic, and Behavioural Outcomes , 2009, Journal of clinical child and adolescent psychology : the official journal for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, American Psychological Association, Division 53.

[36]  R. Goodman.  The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: a research note. , 1997, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[37]  G. S. Pettit,et al.  Multiple risk factors in the development of externalizing behavior problems: Group and individual differences , 1998, Development and Psychopathology.

[38]  M. Isaac,et al.  The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) , 1989, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[39]  C. Hulme,et al.  Preschool language profiles of children at family risk of dyslexia: continuities with specific language impairment. , 2013, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[40]  Julia M. Carroll,et al.  Literacy difficulties and psychiatric disorders: evidence for comorbidity. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[41]  D. Bishop,et al.  How Does Parental Reading Influence Children’s Reading? A Study of Cognitive Mediation , 2015 .

[42]  Julia M. Carroll,et al.  The roles of family history of dyslexia, language, speech production and phonological processing in predicting literacy progress. , 2014, Developmental science.

[43]  J. Eccles,et al.  The Academic Achievement of African American Students During Early Adolescence: An Examination of Multiple Risk, Promotive, and Protective Factors , 2002, American journal of community psychology.

[44]  M. Greenberg,et al.  Correlates of clinic referral for early conduct problems: Variable- and person-oriented approaches , 2001, Development and Psychopathology.

[45]  Charles Hulme,et al.  YARC York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (Secondary) , 2010 .

[46]  Lorna G. Hamilton,et al.  The role of the home literacy environment in the early literacy development of children at family-risk of dyslexia , 2013 .

[47]  Pam Sammons,et al.  Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Preschool Center Experience upon Literacy and Numeracy Development in Early Primary School , 2008 .

[48]  J. LeFevre,et al.  Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study. , 2002, Child development.

[49]  Beth M. Phillips.  Social Correlates of Emergent Literacy , 2008 .

[50]  Uta Frith,et al.  Family risk of dyslexia is continuous: individual differences in the precursors of reading skill. , 2003, Child development.