Bilingual children's language abilities and early reading outcomes in Head Start and kindergarten.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Head Start children's receptive language development and their kindergarten reading outcomes.


METHODS
Eighty-eight bilingual children who were eligible to attend Head Start for 2 years participated in the study. Growth curve models were used to examine the relationship between children's language abilities during 2 years in Head Start and end-of-kindergarten reading outcomes.


RESULTS
The results revealed that children's English and Spanish receptive language abilities increased during Head Start, and children's early reading abilities in English were within the typical range of monolingual norms at the end of kindergarten. Children's early reading abilities in Spanish were nearly 1 SD below the test mean or lower. The results also showed that children's growth in their English and Spanish language abilities during Head Start predicted their early reading abilities in English and Spanish.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings imply that preschool programs are needed that target children's growth in language and not their performance measured at a particular point in time. Also, the results demonstrate the importance of early and regular evaluation of bilingual children's development in both languages in order to monitor children's growth in their two languages.
Hammer
Carol Scheffner
CS
The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 110 Moore Building, University Park, PA 26802, USA. cjh22@psu.edu
Lawrence
Frank R
FR
Miccio
Adele W
AW
D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011932:Reading