This study tested the theory that future poor comprehenders would show modest but pervasive deficits in both language comprehension and production during early childhood as compared with future poor decoders and typical readers. Using an existing database (NICHD ECCRN), fifth-grade students were identified as having poor comprehension skills ("n"=16), poor decoding skills ("n"=11) or typical reading skills ("n"=35) based on standardised assessments of word recognition and reading comprehension. Language comprehension and production during the toddler and preschool years were retrospectively compared across these subgroups. Compared with future typical readers and poor decoders, poor comprehenders had the lowest abilities on language assessments at 15, 24, 36 and 54 months. For nearly all contrasts, the difference between poor comprehenders and the other groups of readers exceeded 0.5 standard deviation in magnitude, indicating that the early language skills of poor comprehenders exhibit appreciable lags. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)