Preschoolers' Maternal Support and Cognitive Competencies as Predictors of Elementary Achievement

This article reports longitudinal data on the link between certain home environmental variables, cognitive prerequisites of preschoolers, and later school achievement in spelling/reading and arithmetic. Based on Gagné's (1962) learning component model and on the two-component model of parental reinforcement as conceptualized by Stapf, Herrmann, Stapf, and Stäcker (1972), data of 103 preschool children were gathered and analyzed over 3 years. Maternal support, as it was perceived by the preschoolers, had a significant direct impact on cognitive preschool competencies and academic achievement even when intelligence, age, and sex were taken into account. Metalinguistic, prenumerical, and visual-perceptual competencies had substantial direct effects, primarily on first-grade achievement in spelling/reading and arithmetic—even after controlling for initial IQ. Although preschoolers' cognitive competencies, as well as maternal support, substantially predicted later spelling/reading and arithmetic, school achievement at Grade 3 was primarily affected by prior achievement at Grades 1 and 2. Findings support a developmental understanding of academic success or failure, emphasizing the role of maternal support and associated prenumerical and metalinguistic competencies at the preschool level.