Some factors associated with reading ability: a longitudinal study

Abstract
The paper reports a longitudinal study of factors associated with reading ability in a large sample (N=748) of children. Reading was assessed when the children were aged seven and later at age nine. The associated measures included measures of background, experiences and earlier cognitive development. It was found that the correlation between reading at age seven and reading at age nine was 0.87. However, reading at seven and nine were both associated with the background measures and to a lesser extent with experiential measures. Reading at seven was associated with earlier cognitive development. The implications of the results are discussed.