Cognitive Precursors of Reading: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

In this paper, we survey current evidence on cognitive precursors of reading in different orthographies by reviewing studies with a cross-linguistic research design. Graphic symbol knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological and rapid automatized naming were found to be associated acquisition all investigated. However, apart from naming, association is mostly interactive, meaning that young children develop their awareness during development. Especially for involving phonologically transparent orthographies, both alphabetic non-alphabetic, suggests it may less hurdle than the complex English orthography. Cross-linguistic designs can useful methodological approach test limits theories initially developed orthographies.