Using children's literacy activities to predict growth in verbal cognitive skills: A longitudinal investigation

Fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children participated in a 2-year longitudinal study to determine the predictive validity of the Title Recognition Test (TRT) and the Author Recognition Test (ART), 2 checklist measures of individual differences in exposure to print. Multiple regression analyses confirmed the ability of the TRT to predict growth in receptive vocabulary, general information, spelling, sight vocabulary, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension even after controlling for age, recognition memory, and previous performance in the same cognitive competency area. The ART was found to be a less robust predictor. Although correlational, our results suggest that print exposure may be an independent contributor to cognitive growth in the verbal domain.