| The basis of this study was an investigation of whether the syntax and/or metalinguistic skills of children who enter kindergarten reading are different from those of their non-reading age peers and those of their school-instructed reading peers. Ten early readers were found and matched on the bases of sex, age, and IQ with non-reading kindergarten children; and on the basis of reading achievement with school-instructed second-grade children.;Early readers were first, only, or youngest children who came from smaller families than their age or reading peers. They were sent to pre-school earlier and mastered the alphabet earlier than their age and reading peers.;There were no major differences in expressive syntax or story structures. The early readers were found to be equal to their reading peers and superior to their age peers in their ability to repair anomalous sentences and in the clarity of their use of anaphoric pronouns to reference earlier-mentioned nouns in their narratives.;In short, the early readers were found to be superior to their age peers in their ability to step back and view language as a phenomenon. Though no causal relationship could be established, it was concluded that there is a relationship between reading and metalinguistic ability.;The areas investigated were: home environment, expressive syntax, story structures, and metalinguistic ability. Home background was investigated by means of a parent questionnaire; expressive syntax and story structure by means of a story narration task; and metalinguistic ability by means of a sentential judgement and repair task. |
