A longitudinal investigation of letter-name knowledge in a semi-transparent orthography

Abstract

Children's ability to correctly name letters is a key predictor of later reading abilities and skills, but research on letter naming from Scandinavian orthographies is scarce. The aim of this study is to explore how child- and letter-related factors (i.e., gender, child name, phonemic awareness, letter position in the alphabet and frequency, and speech sound development) are associated with Norwegian children's letter-name knowledge over time. The sample comprises 185 Norwegian children with an average age of 51.59 months (SD = 2.12) who completed a letter-naming task on three separate occasions one year apart. Results from mixed-effects models show that children were more likely to name the first letter of their own name, however, this effect diminished over time. Further, letter frequency significantly predicted letter naming, and the letter frequency and letter position in alphabet effects were larger in older children. This study contributes important and relevant information for teachers and educators.