The present research extends recent work on the prediction of preschool language skills by exploring prediction from decontextualized vocabulary comprehension. Vocabulary comprehension was a stronger predictor than parent-reported production, yielding a quadrupling of variance accounted for relative to prior studies. Parallel studies (Studies 1…

Purpose: Oral narrative, or storytelling, skills may constitute a linguistic strength for African American children, with implications for academic and social well-being. Despite this possibility, few studies have examined individual differences in oral narrative skill among African American children. To address this gap in the literature, this…

Recent studies demonstrate that emerging literacy depends on earlier language achievement. Importantly, most extant work focuses on "parent-reported production" prior to 30 months of age. Of interest is whether and how "directly assessed vocabulary comprehension" in the 2nd year of life supports vocabulary and kindergarten…