Developmental trajectories of young rural Chinese children's skills in mathematics and word reading: The roles of cognitive-linguistic skills

This longitudinal study examined the relations between cognitive-linguistic skills and the developmental trajectories of mathematics and word reading abilities in 247 rural Chinese children. Baseline measures at age 4 (M ± SD = 50.46 ± 6.69 months) assessed four cognitive-linguistic skills (sustained attention, working memory, visual-spatial skills, and receptive vocabulary) and two academic skills (mathematics and word reading). Academic skills were reassessed at 12-month intervals over 2 years to examine the contribution of early cognitive-linguistic skills to academic development through age 6. Results of latent growth modeling showed that: (1) Sustained attention, working memory, and visual-spatial skills each made a unique contribution to the children's initial mathematics skills but not to their initial word reading skills; (2) Receptive vocabulary was related to children's initial word reading skills and their initial mathematics skills; (3) Working memory was related to the growth of children's mathematics and word reading skills, and sustained attention was related to the growth of their mathematics skills. These findings suggest that cognitive-linguistic skills contribute differentially to individual differences in mathematics and word reading skills among rural Chinese children. They also emphasize the need for educators and policymakers to improve rural education through implementing cognitive-linguistic intervention programs, thereby enhancing the academic development of rural children.