Please cite this article in press as: McLeod, S., et al. A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for chil- dren identified with speech, language, and communication needs in early childhood. Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.004 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model EARCHI-1061; No. of Pages 12 Early Childhood Research Quarterly xxx (2018) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Early Childhood Research Quarterly A longitudinal population study of literacy and numeracy outcomes for children identified with speech, language, and communication needs in early childhood Sharynne McLeod * , Linda J. Harrison, Cen Wang Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 25 March 2016 Received in revised form 16 July 2018 Accepted 31 July 2018 Available online xxx Keywords: Speech Language Communication Literacy Numeracy Growth trajectories a b s t r a c t Speech and language competence in early childhood can influence academic achievement at school. The aim of this research was to examine longitudinal progress in literacy and numeracy achievement from age 8 through 12 years for children identified as typically developing or with speech and language concern (SLC) based on parent-reported concern about speech and language at ages 4–5 and 6–7 years. Participants were 4322 children in the K(indergarten) cohort and 4073 children in the B(irth) cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The majority of children identified with SLC had not accessed speech- language pathology services. Linked data from national testing of literacy and numeracy achievement were analysed for the K cohort in Grades 3, 5, and 7, and for the B cohort in Grade 3. Cross-sectional analyses showed that children with SLC achieved lower scores for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and numeracy at all assessment points than children with typical speech and language skills. Results for all children, however, were above the national minimum standard for each grade level. Longitudinal growth curve analyses showed no difference in the growth trajectories for literacy and numeracy test scores for children in the typically developing and SLC groups, suggesting that SLC children showed typical patterns of progression but did not catch up to the levels achieved by their typically developing peers. © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Children’s communicative capacity encompasses the ability to speak and listen using the conventions of speech 1 (consonants, vowels, prosody) and language (vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, discourse) in a variety of contexts. During early child- hood, most children learn to use the conventions of speech and language; however, a significant proportion have speech, language and communication needs in comparison to their peers (Law, Boyle, Harris, Harkness, & Nye, 2000; McLeod & Harrison, 2009; McLeod & McKinnon, 2007). These children require, and can bene- fit from, additional speech and language support to maximise their academic and social potential. In many countries, speech and lan- * Corresponding author at: Charles Sturt University, Panorama Ave, Bathurst, NSW, Australia. E-mail address: smcleod@csu.edu.au (S. McLeod). 1 Sign language is another mode of communication used instead of or in addition to speech, but is not addressed in this paper. guage disorder 2 is recognised in national legislation for children with disabilities, and speech-language pathology intervention is made available within educational settings (e.g., United Kingdom: Bercow, 2018; Department for Health, 2008; McCartney, Boyle, & Ellis, 2015; United States: Farquharson, Tambyraja, Logan, Justice, & Schmitt, 2015; US Department of Education, 2002). In Australia, however, despite national recognition of “the significant benefits to both the individual and society of a strategy that prioritises early intervention of speech and language disorders” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2014, p. 109), children with speech and language disorder are rarely mentioned in education, health, or disability legislation, policy or reports (McLeod, Press, & Phelan, 2010), and the provision of speech-language pathology intervention services is inconsistent across state and local government jurisdictions (Speech Pathology Australia, 2014). 2 Speech and language disorder is used in this paper as an umbrella term to encompass terms such as developmental language disorder (previously called specific language impairment), speech sound disorder, communication disorder, and speech, language and communication needs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.07.004 0885-2006/© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.