Reading in kindergarten Arabic-speaking children with low linguistic skills: A longitudinal study

The present longitudinal study aimed to explore the connections between different linguistic profiles at kindergarten and reading achievements at first grade. These profiles are based on the two-dimensional model (Bishop & Snowling, 2004), which associates reading skills with phonological and other language abilities. This model was examined mainly in Indo-European languages but scarcely in Arabic. Arabic-speaking children were assigned to four linguistic profiles in kindergartens: low language (LL; N = 111), low phonology (LPh; N = 120), low language and low phonology (LLLPh; N = 139), and typical language and typical phonology (TLTPh; N = 135). Multivariate analysis was used to compare their reading achievements at first grade, and the overlap between linguistic and reading profiles was estimated. The results revealed significant differences between the different linguistic profiles in all reading measures. LLLPh group gained lower scores in reading tasks compared to the other groups. Significant relationships have been found between linguistic and reading profiles indicating reading difficulties among 14.5% of the children from TLTPh, 63% of LLLPh, 35% of LL, and 35.6% of LPh. The findings support the relationship between low linguistic skills and reading difficulties and emphasize the potential roles of both phonological and language skills for reading.