title: Phonological skills and vocabulary knowledge mediate socioeconomic status effects in predicting reading outcomes for Chinese children.
abstract: This study examined the relations among socioeconomic status (SES), early phonological processing, vocabulary, and reading in 262 children from diverse SES backgrounds followed from ages 4 to 9 in Beijing, China. SES contributed to variations in phonological skills and vocabulary in children's early development. Nonetheless, early phonological and vocabulary abilities exerted equally strong and independent mediation of the SES effects on children's reading achievement by the end of 3rd grade for this Chinese sample. These findings not only replicate studies in alphabetic languages but, because of their longitudinal nature, also demonstrate the potential for interventions focused on improving children's early language skills, and at which ages these factors may have the greatest impact.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, 19th, Xinjiekouwai Street, 100875, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Twila
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tardif
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McBride-Chang
authors.forename: Weilan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Zhixiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011932:Reading; D012923:Social Class; D012931:Social Environment; D013060:Speech; D014825:Vocabulary