Criterion-Related Validity of Interpretations of Children's Performance on Emergent Literacy Tasks

Researchers in emergent literacy have described an array of reading and writing behaviors and concepts exhibited by children prior to entry into formal instruction in school. Although these descriptions suggest that children's early literacy behaviors are legitimate aspects of literacy development which ultimately develop into conventional reading and writing, the validity of these assumptions has not been examined. The present paper reports the findings from two studies in which the emergent literacy behaviors of 5-year-olds were described and correlated with scores on a standardized reading readiness test in kindergarten and scores on a reading achievement test in third grade. In Study 1, 39 children from two kindergarten classrooms from one school district were presented with four emergent literacy tasks and the Metropolitan Readiness Test. In Study 2, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills was administered to 34 children from Study 1. Results showed a wide range of behaviors across emergent literacy tasks in Study 1. Further, significant correlations were found between all four emergent literacy tasks and the readiness test in kindergarten, as well as between all five measures of early literacy development in kindergarten and literacy achievement in third grade. These findings present two forms of criterion-related evidence to support the validity of literacy-related interpretations arising from these emergent literacy tasks.