The very early stages of reading require oral language. Toddlers who picture walk through a book, predict and tell their own story based on the pictures is the beginning stages of reading. Oral fluency and reading are very much related. Words are a collection of sounds that are represented by letters. If a child has difficulty producing sounds the child will have difficulty reading.
Reading is initially introduced through modeling and read alouds beginning when children are babies. If a child is unable to mimic the modeling, learning to read can be difficult and delayed.
Children who have difficulty with oral speech, may have difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words and predicting what the word. The sounds that they are producing while phonemically producing a word doesn't sound similar to words that they hear from others.
Also using oral language to answer in complete sentences, mimic vocabulary and begin to understand meaning are also crucial skills.
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