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The Relationship Between Multiple Birth Children's Early Phonological Skills and Later Literacy

Sandra McMahon1, Kelly Stassi1, Barbara Dodd1

  • 1University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.

Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
|January 1, 1998
PubMed

Insights

Multiple birth children (MBC) with early speech difficulties often experience later literacy problems. These phonological challenges in preschool predict poorer reading and language skills years later, indicating a significant developmental disorder.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Speech-Language Pathology
  • Pediatric Literacy

Background:

  • Multiple birth children (MBC) are known to be at higher risk for early phonological difficulties.
  • Existing research suggests a link between these early difficulties and later literacy problems in MBC.
  • However, long-term follow-up studies specifically examining preschool phonological issues in MBC and their predictive power for literacy are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically investigate whether early phonological difficulties in multiple birth children (MBC) during the preschool years predict later literacy problems.
  • To compare the phonological processing and literacy skills of MBC with phonological difficulties to singleton controls.
  • To determine the long-term impact of early speech and language skills in MBC on academic achievement.

Main Methods:

  • A longitudinal study comparing 20 multiple birth children (MBC) with documented early speech and language skills to 20 singleton controls.
  • Assessment of phonological processing and literacy skills in preschool and follow-up evaluations 5 years later.
  • Analysis of correlations between early phonological skills, birth factors, and later literacy performance.

Main Results:

  • Multiple birth children (MBC) demonstrated significantly poorer performance on certain phonological processing tasks compared to singleton controls.
  • Early phonological skill deficits in MBC, specifically the use of inappropriate phonological processes, were correlated with poorer performance on visual rhyme recognition, word repetition, and phoneme detection tasks 5 years later.
  • No significant relationship was found between early biological factors (birth weight, gestation) and later phonological or literacy outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • Early speech and language difficulties in multiple birth children (MBC) are not transient but represent a significant disorder with lasting consequences.
  • These findings support the hypothesis that early phonological impairments in MBC predict later academic achievement challenges, particularly in literacy.
  • Intervention for early phonological difficulties in MBC may be crucial for mitigating long-term literacy problems and supporting academic success.

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