Nursery World - Early language learning linked to academic ability in primary school

Children who spend more time discussing letters and sounds with their parents are better at reading and mathematics when they start school, a new report by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) reveals.

The researchers found that children whose parents shared books with them before they started school did better at reading, spelling and maths at Key Stage 1

Researchers looked at the impact of the home learning environment, following 274 children from the age of four up to Year 2.

They found that during the pre-school period, parent-child interactions that focus on the links between letters and sounds – initiated when engaging with books, toys and environmental print such as signs and packaging – produced higher scores in reading, spelling and mathematics assessments at Key Stage 1.

These children also performed better at spelling in Year 2.

These are just two findings from the Liverpool Early Number Skills Project (LENS) at Liverpool John Moores University.

LENS – led by Drs Fiona Simmons, Anne-Marie Adams and Elena Soto Calvo - examined the impact of the home learning environment, following children from pre-school to Year 2.

Principal investigator Dr Fiona Simmons, in the School of Psychology at LJMU, said, ‘These early interactions can give children the tools to understand abstract symbolic systems - the idea that a printed symbol on a page can stand for something else.

‘If children can understand this concept as it relates to language, it might be easier for them to apply it to numbers and maths.’

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