Preschool Sound Skills Track With Early Writing in Turkish Children

Preschoolers who are better at hearing and playing with the sounds of language tend to become stronger early writers a year later, according to a longitudinal study of Turkish children moving from preschool into first grade. Researchers followed 97 children aged 66 to 77 months, recruited from preschools in a socioeconomically diverse Turkish district, across two academic years. In the first year, the team measured each child's phonological awareness with a standardized test and assessed emergent literacy skills using the LAP-3 Early Literacy Subtest.

One year later, once the children were in first grade, their writing was evaluated with a validated sentence construction assessment. The study took advantage of Turkish orthography, which is transparent, meaning letters map onto sounds in a highly consistent way. Statistical analyses, based on non-parametric tests and correlation analyses, showed that early writing performance correlated significantly with both phonological awareness and emergent literacy.

The correlation with phonological awareness was moderate at r = .46, while the correlation with emergent literacy was r = .32, both significant at p < .01. Several specific sub-skills stood out. Syllable segmentation, rhyming awareness, and letter-sound correspondence showed the strongest associations with how well children performed on the writing task a year after the preschool assessments.

Notably, the measured skills did not differ significantly by age or gender within the sample, suggesting that the pattern of associations held across the children studied rather than being driven by demographic differences. The authors frame the results as highlighting the foundational role of preschool phonological and emergent literacy skills in early writing development, and as contributing empirical data from a transparent orthography, a context less often represented in the literacy research literature. Because the design is correlational, the findings should be interpreted as evidence consistent with developmental literacy theories rather than as confirmation of causal or predictive mechanisms.

The study cannot establish that stronger sound skills cause better writing, only that the two are linked over time in this sample. The researchers emphasize the practical importance of early identification and instructional support in preschool settings to promote future writing success, noting that children's sound-awareness and emergent literacy profiles can be assessed well before formal writing instruction begins.

Subject of Research: Longitudinal links between preschool phonological awareness, emergent literacy and early writing in Turkish children

Article Title: From sounds to sentences: A longitudinal study of phonological and emergent literacy predictors of early writing in Turkish children

Article References: Ferah Özcan, A., & Tunçeli, H. İ. (2026). From sounds to sentences: A longitudinal study of phonological and emergent literacy predictors of early writing in Turkish children. PLOS One, 21(10), e0361638. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361638

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0361638

Keywords: phonological awareness, emergent literacy, early writing, Turkish orthography, preschool children, longitudinal study, syllable segmentation, letter-sound correspondence, first grade, literacy development, sounds, sentences