Towards a model of word reading acquisition in children from low income backgrounds

The present study examined a six-component theoretical model of word reading acquisition in 449 Spanish-speaking children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Measures of phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), vocabulary, letter name-sound knowledge, and parent education were obtained at the beginning of kindergarten and a measure of word reading at the end of grade I. A path analysis was applied to test specific hypotheses. The approach revealed a conditional dependence structure between the components as follows: (1) vocabulary depends on parent education; (2) PA depends on vocabulary; (3) letter name-sound knowledge depends on PA; (4) letter name-sound knowledge explained 76% of the variance in word reading; (5) vocabulary indirectly influences word reading through PA and letter name-sound knowledge. Plausible interpretations of the results regarding early reading acquisition among children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are discussed.