Associations of language-based bedtime routines with early cognitive skills and academic achievement: A follow-up from kindergarten to middle school.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the extent to which language-based bedtime routines (LBR) reported by parents before kindergarten were associated with early cognitive skills at kindergarten and subsequent academic achievement in typically developing children.

Method: We followed a community-based sample of 664 French-speaking adolescents from kindergarten (5-6 years) to the end of middle school (15 years). Kindergarten measures included a parental questionnaire aimed at assessing the presence or absence of any kind of LBR, such as storytelling, looking at children's books, reading a story, listening to songs, or singing nursery rhymes, as well as family contextual characteristics. Children also performed standardized assessments of oral language, pre-reading skills, and non-verbal reasoning. In middle school, children sat a national diploma typically used as an indicator of general academic achievement in Grade 9.

Results: After adjusting for family characteristics, the presence of language-based bedtime routines (57%) predicted cognitive-academic skills in kindergarten, and was positively associated with academic achievement at Grade 9, related to the beneficial effect on children's vocabulary in kindergarten.

Conclusion: The presence of language-based bedtime routines may provide an indicator of positive parental behaviour including exposure to literacy activities, contributing to children's early cognitive development and subsequent academic achievement.