Matthew Effects in Young Readers: Reading Comprehension and Reading Experience Aid Vocabulary Development
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The authors report data from a longitudinal study of the reading development of children who were assessed in the years of their 8th, 11th, 14th, and 16th birthdays. They examine the evidence for Matthew effects in reading and vocabulary between ages 8 and 11 in groups of children identified with good and poor reading comprehension at 8 years. They also investigate evidence for Matthew effects in reading and vocabulary between 8 and 16 years, in the larger sample. The poor comprehenders showed reduced growth in vocabulary compared to the good comprehenders, but not in word reading or reading comprehension ability. They also obtained lower scores on measures of out-of-school literacy. Analyses of the whole sample revealed that initial levels of reading experience and reading comprehension predicted vocabulary at ages 11, 14, and 16 after controlling for general ability and vocabulary skills when aged 8. The authors discuss these findings in relation to the influence of reading on vocabulary development.
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The Information and Vocabulary subtests are also impaired in developmental dyslexia because of the relationship between intelligence and reading development known as the 'Matthew effect'.
“as well the Information and Vocabulary subtests (Daley & Nagle, 1996) because of the relationship between intelligence and reading development known as the 'Matthew effect' (Cain & Oakhill, 2011; Stanovich, 1986).”
From WISC-III Cognitive Profiles in Children with ADHD: Specific Cognitive Impairments and Diagnostic Utility (2019) · cites this paper as Cain & Oakhill, 2011
The introduction defines the Matthew effect as a widening gap between good and poor readers, and the Discussion reports a Matthew effect in vocabulary growth linked to reading habits and comprehension. It does not establish that a relationship between intelligence and reading development causes impairment on the Information and Vocabulary subtests in developmental dyslexia; its study participants were not diagnosed with reading difficulties. The separate Daley and Nagle citation is attached to the subtest claim. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNarrative fiction reading experience is associated with later verbal ability, where children who read more books or novels perform better on tasks measuring children's verbal ability.
“It is noteworthy that narrative fi ction reading experience is also associated with later verbal ability (Cain & Oakhill, 2011; Sullivan & Brown, 2015; van der Kleij et al., 2022a), where children who read more books or novels perform better on tasks measuring children ' s verbal ability.”
From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Cain & Oakhill, 2011
The Results (‘Relations between reading habits and reading ability,’ page unavailable) report that reading habits were positively correlated with vocabulary knowledge, and the vocabulary-growth analyses found that reading experience predicted later vocabulary. The study measured general reading habits, including reading for pleasure and books read, rather than isolating narrative fiction or novels; it tested vocabulary rather than verbal ability broadly. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Cain, K., & Oakhill, J.
- Affiliations
- Lancaster University (GB)
- University of Sussex (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Cain, Kate
- Venue
- Journal of Learning Disabilities
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-07-19
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 431-443
- ISSN
- 0022-2194 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4780
- OpenAlex
- W2154775139
- Cited by
- 300
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 24.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- eprints.lancs.ac.uk
- Locations
- Journal of Learning Disabilities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- Matthew effect, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, reading development, children, longitudinal study, out-of-school literacy, reading experience, reading comprehension difficulties, word reading
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Dyslexia, Educational Measurement, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Models, Psychological, Reading, Vocabulary, Comprehension
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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