School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

BACKGROUND School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu. AIMS To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills. METHODS & PROCEDURES Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention.