Abstract
Research findings from studies using event-related potential measures of phonological processing support the importance of these measures as correlates and predictors of language and reading skills in school-aged children. A research study is reported focusing on preschool-aged children to understand how event-related potential measures of phonological processing relate to oral language and emergent literacy skills. In this study, 33 preschool-aged children (42-54 months) participated in assessments of receptive and expressive language skills from the Preschool Language Scale and assessment of letter identification from the Wide Range Achievement Test. On the basis of previous findings with older children, it was expected that event-related potential responses would discriminate differences in children's skills. The results of both analysis of variance and discriminant function analyses showed that event-related potential responses identify differences in letter naming but not receptive language skills as measured in this study.