2025

Vataja, Pia; Westerholm, Jari; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Aro, Mikko; Kronberg, Nea; Salmi, Paula

The purpose of the study was to investigate how the reading skills of monolingual Swedish (n = 269) and bilingual Finnish–Swedish (n = 229) children in Swedish-medium schools in Finland develop from Grade 1 to Grade 3 and how vocabulary, rapid automatized naming and decoding speed in Grade 1 predict reading fluency and comprehension in Grade 3. The results showed that the development of reading skills in language groups was similar. The SEM models were similar across both language groups. Decoding speed and rapid automatized naming (RAN) in Grade 1 predicted Decoding speed in Grade 3, and Decoding speed predicted Reading efficiency across both groups. The results underline the similarity in the developmental trajectories of reading skills despite group differences. The results suggest that the school system may help reduce differences in children’s reading development related to language background. However, group differences still persist in Grade 3.