Abstract

Despite the important role assigned to analogical reasoning (AR) in cognition and language, the relationship between this ability and language skills in the emergent literacy period has not been sufficiently studied, especially in Spanish speakers. To explore this link, we examined two modalities of AR (verbal and non-verbal) as predictors of linguistic skills in Spanish-speaking preschoolers with typical language development. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted and non-probability sampling was used. Participants were assessed on listening comprehension, lexical skills, phonological awareness and verbal and non-verbal AR. The sample consisted of 48 monolingual Spanish-speaking children from 4.1 to 6.0 years old. Hierarchical regression analysis identified a general model of age and verbal AR as significant predictors of overall emergent literacy performance and also pointed out the different contributions of the verbal and non-verbal AR to models of listening comprehension, lexical skills and phonological awareness. These findings contribute to the discussion on the dynamics of this relationship in the emergent literacy period and underscore the need to analyse specific analogical modalities in models of language development.