Predictors of Reading and Spelling Acquisition and Disorders in Children with or without Developmental Language Disorder – PRESAD

Learning to read and spell is a central area of children's development and provides the foundation for lifelong learning. In 2021, learning to read was declared major national cause (“Grande cause nationale”) by the French government. This policy decision was taken because national and international studies have shown that many pupils in France encounter significant difficulties in mastering written language. Multiple factors could be behind this poor performance. Although identifying these factors is the key to enhance literacy acquisition, predictors of written language performance have never been systematically and comprehensively studied in children learning to read and spell in French. Yet, it has been demonstrated that predictors of literacy acquisition in diverse orthographies do not fit a universal model and that predictors of learning French do have specificities when compared to other alphabetic orthographies. Moreover, to our knowledge, no large-scale longitudinal studies have explored, simultaneously and comprehensively, linguistic, cognitive and environmental predictors of both reading (decoding, word recognition, reading comprehension) and spelling in French learners. This issue is particularly important for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), for whom little is known about vulnerability and protective factors for written language disorders despite them being particularly at risk for written language disorders. The PRESAD project will directly address these issues. It aims to 1) examine how linguistic, cognitive and environmental factors solely or jointly predict written language (word recognition, reading comprehension, spelling) acquisition and difficulties/disorders in a large sample of children learning to read and spell in French, 2) identify protective and risk factors for written language acquisition/difficulties/disorders in children with DLD and thus to better understand the relationship between DLD and written language difficulties/disorders, and 3) propose to speech and language pathologists recommendations for evidence-based practice. The general hypothesis of the PRESAD project is consistent with multifactorial models, which hold that written language (dis)abilities may be related to unique or multiple protective and/or risk factors and that shared risk factors contribute to comorbidity between DLD and written language disorders/difficulties. In order to address the PRESAD project objectives, eight hundred children will be tested longitudinally, in kindergarten, in first grade and in second grade. Contrary to existing studies, children with DLD will be identified within the general population sample in order to avoid recruitment bias. Oral language and non-linguistic cognitive skills will be assessed in kindergarten and measures of protective/risk factors for written language learning will be collected via parental questionnaires. Reading and spelling skills will be assessed in first and second grade, along with other cognitive skills. Literacy predictors will be examined from a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective. They will be studied in the whole sample and within the groups of children with DLD and/or written language difficulties/disorders. Performance of children with and without DLD and with and without written language difficulties/disorders will be compared on all measures. Profile analyses will provide better understanding of (a)typical written language acquisition, in children with and without DLD. The PRESAD project will have considerable impact at both fundamental and applied levels. To our knowledge, it will be the first longitudinal study of this scope in children learning to read and write in French.