How Early Cognitive Skills Predict Later Academic Achievement in Children
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Why do some children pick up reading, language, and math more easily than others? Kids begin developing foundational blocks for language, literacy, and numeracy long before formal schooling begins. The words they know, their ability to recognize letters or numbers, and how they think about quantity can all shape how they shape their grades in the years ahead. This leads to the question of whether we can predict the academic achievement of an individual based on their cognitive ability as a child. Recognizing these relationships can support early identification of children at risk for later learning challenges and shape early intervention strategies to help boost their performance.
A team of researchers followed 563 children from kindergarten to grade 2 to see which early skills mattered most for later school success. They wanted to know whether children’s progress in language, reading, and math could be traced back to a core set of foundations or whether each subject relies on largely distinct set of skills.
To investigate, they measured 3 different abilities: verbal (language) skills, symbolic skills, and magnitude skills, corresponding to precursors of language, reading, and mathematics, respectively. The researchers aimed to identify which early processes were shared across language, reading, and mathematics and which were unique to each subject.
Verbal abilities are important for the foundations of language. Important predictors of academic abilities involve vocabulary (expressive/receptive naming of pictured items), sentence recall (repeating sentences increasing in complexity), and arithmetic (oral problem solving, verbal reasoning involving numbers). While these skills are often associated with language development, they also support broader academic learning because they reflect children’s capacity for linguistic comprehension, verbal reasoning and manipulation of information using language.
Symbolic abilities are known to be important as foundations for reading, measured through phonological awareness (sound deletion/substitution tasks), letter-name and letter-sound knowledge (identify printed letters and produce their sounds), and rapid automating naming (RAN for short; quickly name familiar symbols, including letters and numbers). These tasks test children’s efficiency in processing and mapping symbolic information. Although symbolic processing is frequently investigated in relation to reading, it also supports early numeracy and general learning through rapid identification and manipulation of symbols.
Magnitude abilities fall under foundations for mathematics, with math precursors being measured through number line estimation (placing numbers on a visual line), arithmetic skills (basic calculations), and number naming (which links magnitude and symbolic understanding). The research team also utilized magnitude comparison tasks, where individuals choose the larger of two digits (symbolic task) and choose the larger of two dot arrays (non-symbolic). These measures demonstrate intuitive numerical reasoning and contribute to broader cognitive processes such as relational thinking and quantitative reasoning across academic domains.
Precursor abilities were measured in kindergarten and compared to marks from grade 1 and 2. Teachers assigned grades on an A to F scale at the end of grades 1 and 2, which were then put in a model to determine which of the 3 abilities could predict academic outcomes in language, reading, and math.
Their findings reveal verbal language processes predicted for all three subjects. For example, vocabulary and sentence recall supported understanding of math problems and reading comprehension. The findings suggest a strong interconnectedness between early language, literacy, and math skills, showing that early learning reflects shared cognitive foundations rather than cleanly separated subject areas (especially verbal and symbolic abilities). These skills help children succeed across subjects as they move through early grades.
Past studies have shown that children who start kindergarten with strong oral language skills are better prepared for later academic success due to language being the main medium through which learning occurs. Additionally, language supports the development of both math and reading skills.
Symbol recognition processes, such as recognizing letters and numbers or quickly naming them, were powerful predictors in both reading and math. Magnitude processes (comparing sizes or estimating number positions) were less connected. In summary, children who were strong with words and symbols in kindergarten tended to do better in all school subjects later on.
Grade 1 marks were predicted by kindergarten verbal processes (i.e., vocabulary, sentence recall, and arithmetic) and symbolic processes (i.e., phonological awareness, letter and number naming). Grade 2 marks were predicted directly by verbal processes and indirectly by symbolic processes (which were based on grade 1 performance). This may be due to word and symbol recognition becoming automatic, reflecting a shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. Magnitude comparison processes (symbolic/non-symbolic number sense) did not significantly predict outcomes when other factors were included.
Based on the findings of this study, early screenings (to predict potential long-term difficulties in children) may want to include assessments of foundational language skills (e.g., vocabulary, sentence recall) and symbolic skills (e.g., phonological awareness, letter knowledge), rather than focusing solely on math or reading-specific abilities. Interventions informed by these screenings could target verbal processing (such as naming or describing what objects are used for) and symbolic processing (such as matching pictures to words) to strengthen children’s readiness across academic domains. Teachers and clinicians may focus on broad foundations involving verbal, symbolic, and magnitude abilities rather than focusing on one specific type. Overall, the study shows how early cognitive predictors could predict later academic grades in early language, reading, and math subjects. These could have implications for screening practices to ensure students receive the necessary aid to improve in academic areas in which they have learning deficits.
Original Article: Pham, T., Joanisse, M. F., Ansari, D., Oram, J., Stager, C., & Archibald, L. M. (2024). Early cognitive predictors of language, literacy, and mathematics outcomes in the primary grades. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 70, 187–198. Https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.10.004