Linguistic Competence in Early Childhood Education as a Predictor of Verbal Naming Speed

Background: This study determined the predictive value of linguistic competence in children in Early Childhood Education for verbal naming speed. Method: The participants were 86 pupils in the second Early Childhood Education cycle. They were evaluated with WPPSI-IV Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence (Verbal Comprehension, VC) and Vocabulary Acquisition, VA; Childish Vocabulary Test (Vavel) and the Rapid and Automatic Naming Test. Results: Children who had high scores in the Verbal Comprehension Index and Vocabulary Acquisition spent less time doing the verbal naming task. Linguistic competence predicted verbal naming speed, with Vavel having the strongest correlation. Conclusions: Linguistic competence of children in Early Childhood Education allows us to predict their aptitude for verbal naming. Lexical-semantic knowledge was linguistic competence dimension with the highest predictive value for the Verbal Naming Task. Automatic Naming and Verbal Comprehension depend on the same cerebral area, Wernicke's area.