Early Reading Skills in Bilingual Children: A Systematic Review

Project Team: Insiya Bhalloo, Kai Leung

Project Description: Early oral language skills, including vocabulary, memory and phonological awareness (a group of skills including the understanding that sounds make words and that we can manipulate these to change a word) are all considered necessary to prepare a child for reading. Teachers work on these early oral language skills, even before a child begins to read! The aim of this systematic review is to determine if these skills are similar in children who speak one language, as compared to those who speak two or more languages (including children who speak English as well as additional languages). This review also examines whether these early skills, along with bilingual language background factors (such as child language experience, proficiency, and the relationship between the two spoken languages), predict future reading skills in bilingual children.

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