Scientists identify two overlooked skills that predict reading success

A massive new study reveals that intelligence plays a surprisingly limited role in children’s reading success, while visual processing showed no meaningful connection at all. Instead, the strongest predictors are sound recognition, vocabulary, and background knowledge, offering new clues about how to help struggling readers. Scientists identify two overlooked skills that predict reading success.

Children who read easily have frequently been assumed to be more intelligent, while those who struggle have sometimes been viewed as less capable. Another common belief is that reading difficulties arise primarily from problems interpreting the words and letters on a page. A major new study challenges these assumptions, suggesting that the abilities most important for reading success may be very different from what many people expect.

Daniel Hajovsky, an associate professor in Texas A&M University’s Department of Educational Psychology, led one of the most extensive investigations to date into how cognitive abilities relate to reading performance. The research brought together scientists from the University of Kansas, St. John’s University, Montclair State University and Temple University to examine which mental skills best predict reading development and why some children encounter difficulties.