This article explores aspects of early language and literacy that may predict later literacy development. It explores a range of assessment procedures used for oral language, vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology and early reading and writing. The article then describes a small-scale study which highlights the disconnections between the oral language and early literacy and suggests that learning to read and write is akin to learning a second language for all children. Finally, the article suggests that young children's early language and literacy can best be assessed using ecologically valid procedures rather than the narrow high-stakes testing of one or two literacy components.