Untangling the effects of shared book reading: Multiple factors and their associations with preschool literacy outcomes

Evidence strongly suggests that shared book reading at home and in preschool is important for young children's development of the foundational skills required for the eventual mastery of decoding and comprehension. Yet the nuances of how learning from book reading might vary across these contexts and with children's skills are not well understood. One hundred and thirty children participating in a longitudinal investigation of literacy development were videotaped reading a storybook with a parent. Children were also videotaped in their 33 preschool classrooms during the instructional book-reading portion of the day. Readings were coded for adult and child contextualized and decontextualized language relating to both decoding and meaning-making skills, and relations between this talk and emergent literacy outcomes were analyzed. Results demonstrate that parents and teachers overwhelmingly focus their book-related talk on meaning-related rather than code-related information, and that the relations between outcomes and talk depend in part on children's initial levels of vocabulary skills. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Antecedents to reading disability: Preschool language development and literacy experiences of children from dyslexic families

In a longitudinal study of the relation between preschool development and later reading abilities, children with dyslexic parents and/or older siblings were compared to children with no family incidence of dyslexia. Many children from dyslexic families developed reading problems by the end of the second grade, and these poor readers were characterized chiefly by weaker early syntactic and phonological skills and by less frequent exposure to books during their preschool years than the preschoolers who became normal readers. Some implications of the results for etiological theories of dyslexia are discussed.     

Genetic and environmental mediation of the prediction from preschool language and nonverbal ability to 7‐year reading

We use a genetically sensitive design to examine the relationship between language and nonverbal ability at 4½ and reading skills at 7 years of age in a sample of more than 1,000 children participating in the Twins Early Development Study. We find that nonphonological as well as phonological measures of early language make significant contributions towards the prediction of reading at 7, and that nonverbal ability at 4½ is an equally strong predictor. With respect to aetiology, we find substantial genetic contributions towards the relationship between early language skills and reading at 7, as well as a trend towards shared environmental influences. The genetic continuity is not specific to the verbal domain, however, as we also find a substantial genetic relationship between nonverbal ability at 4½ and reading at 7.     

The effect of individual differences in the inner and outer states of ICT on engagement in online reading activities and PISA 2009 reading literacy: Exploring the relationship between the old and new reading literacy

With the prevalence of ICT, the concept of reading literacy has evolved to encompass both online reading and printed texts. This study clarifies the relationship between reading printed texts and online electronic texts from the perspective of individual differences in the inner and outer phases of ICT in a partial mediation model. We used the PISA 2009 data with 297,295 fifteen-year-old students (49.6% males) across 42 regions. The inner state of ICT represents students' attitude toward computers and confidence in high-level ICT tasks, whereas the outer state of ICT represents students' access to ICT facilities at home or school. The indirect results showed students' reading literacy improved with better attitude toward computers, confidence, and ICT availability at home, as long as the effect was mediated through engagement in online reading activities, even though availability of ICT at home had a direct and negative impact on PISA 2009 reading literacy.     

Effects of Class Size and Length of Day on Kindergartners' Academic Achievement: Findings from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study

The study explored the effects of two kindergarten program organization factors—length of school day and class size—on kindergartners' reading, math and general knowledge achievement at the end of the kindergarten year. Two waves of data were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) with an analytic sample of 15,575 children. A slight positive relationship was found between small class size and children's achievement in reading and math, particularly for children from minority and lower SES backgrounds. No relationship was linked with class size and general knowledge achievement. The relationship between full-day program and the three early academic skills was positive and statistically significant: almost all children made slightly higher gains in full-day programs compared with their counterparts in part-day programs. The findings suggest that policy makers may consider reducing very large class size and making full-day programs available to young children, particularly to poor minority children, at the same time aligning class size and length of kindergarten day with a child's characteristics and school curriculum.     

Technology in the Home and the Achievement of Young Children: Findings From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study

Because technology in the home is becoming ever more available, understanding the role of technology in early childhood development is increasingly an opportunity and a concern for educators. This report examines data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99, to provide an overview of the role of technology in the home and its impact on reading and math achievement in the early grades. The results show that access and use of technology influence children's academic achievement. Although the results show that having access to technology can contribute significantly to the achievement of young children, mere access is unlikely to be sufficient for all young children to benefit from technology in the home. Adults will need to mediate the use of these potential learning tools for children. Based on the findings of this report, policymakers should support increasing the availability of computers for low-income families and continue to discourage extensive viewing of TV, and researchers should focus on the specific methods that parents can enact to realize the learning potential of an increasingly ubiquitous resource: computers and the Internet in the home.     

Before and after third grade: Longitudinal evidence for the shifting role of socioeconomic status in reading growth

Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative U.S. cohort, this study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and students?? reading growth between kindergarten and eighth grade. Piecewise latent growth modeling was used to describe nonlinear growth trajectories in reading during three developmental periods: kindergarten through first grade, first grade through third grade, and third grade through eighth grade. Results indicated that lower child SES was associated with faster rates of reading growth in the primary grades, but with slower rates of growth after third grade. Higher school concentration of students from low-SES backgrounds was also associated with slower rates of growth between third and eighth grade. Findings support increased attention from researchers and educators to reading achievement gaps after third grade.     

Investigating the contributions of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies to L2 reading comprehension: an exploratory study

While a number of studies have investigated the influence of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies on comprehension, no L2 research exists examining and comparing the unique contributions of these two variables examined together. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the combined and individual contributions of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies to reading comprehension. Data collected from 20 university-level English language learners were analyzed using regression analyses. The results indicated that background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies, operationalized as self-questioning, combined to account for a significant portion of variance in reading comprehension scores, with self-questioning being a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than background knowledge.     

Syntactic boundaries and comma placement during silent reading of Chinese text: evidence from eye movements

In an eye‐tracking experiment, we investigated whether and how a comma influences the reading of Chinese sentences comprised of different types of syntactic constituent such as word, phrase and clause. Participants read Chinese sentences that did or did not insert a comma at the end of a syntactic constituent. The results showed that the fixation times were shorter for the target word followed by a comma than for that followed by no comma, which suggests that a comma facilitated word identification during the reading of Chinese sentences. Furthermore, the insertion of commas shortened the total fixation times in the post‐target region only for the clause condition. The data are consistent with previous findings concerning the role of segmentation cues in reading, and compatible with the implicit prosody hypothesis.     

Children's Peer Relationships: Longitudinal Prediction of Internalizing and Externaliziing Problems from Middle to Late Childhood

In this longitudinal study, the predictive relations between social difficulties in early childhood (grade 2) and subsequent internalizing as well as externalizing problems in middle childhood (grade 5) were examined. Of particular interest was whether early indices of social isolation would predict internalizing problems 3 years later. A longitudinal sample of 87 children were assessed in both grades 2 and 5 on a variety of measures, including sociometric ratings, peer assessments of aggression and isolation, and self-appraisals of social competence. In the second grade, observations of isolated and aggressive behavior were made, as well, and teacher ratings of internalizing and externalizing difficulties were obtained. In the fifth grade, teacher ratings of shy-anxious and acting-out behavior and self-reports of loneliness and self-esteem were collected. Consistent with previous research, results demonstrated predictive links between early peer rejection (unpopularity) and aggression and subsequent externalizing difficulties. Internalizing problems in middle childhood were significantly related to early social difficulties, particularly those of an internalizing sort, including poor peer acceptance, social isolation, and perceptions of social incompetence. Social isolation, then, may indeed be a risk factor in early development.     

An evaluation of the written texts of children with SLI: the contributions of oral language, reading and phonological short-term memory

In this study, we performed a fine grained analysis of writing by children with a specific language impairment (SLI) and examined the contribution of oral language, phonological short-term memory (STM), nonverbal ability, and word reading to three writing constructs (productivity, complexity and accuracy). Forty-six children with SLI were compared with 42 children matched for chronological age, receptive vocabulary (N = 46) and reading decoding (N = 46) on a measure of narrative writing. The SLI group performed worse on all measures compared to children of a similar chronological age. The SLI group produced a greater proportion of orthographic spelling errors than children with similar receptive vocabularies, but were comparable to children matched for reading decoding. The children with SLI showed specific difficulties in the omission of whole words (e.g. auxiliary verbs and subject nouns) and omissions of grammatical morphology (e.g. past tense—ed) reflecting the difficulties shown in their oral language. Receptive grammar made a significant contribution to writing complexity and accuracy. Phonological fluency contributed to writing productivity, such as the production of diverse vocabulary, ideas and content and writing fluency. Phonological STM and word reading explained additional variance in writing accuracy over and above the SLI group’s oral language skills.     

Learning, language, memory, and reading: the role of language automatization and its impact on complex cognitive activities

Two related models of the role of developing and automatized language skills in the cognitive processing of deaf and hearing children are presented. One model focuses on explaining apparent delays in the emergence of a memory strategy (cumulative rehearsal) in children who are deaf, linking strategy use with the child's emerging language skills and the automatization of those skills. The second model is larger in scope and integrates this rehearsal model with added components relevant for higher-level cognitive activities such as reading. A program of research is reviewed that provides support for various components of the models with deaf children. Implications of the models for potential concurrent learning disabilities are discussed.     

Two-year follow-up of a code-oriented intervention for lower-skilled first-graders: the influence of language status and word reading skills on third-grade literacy outcomes

For 2 years we followed lower-performing English learner (EL) and native English speaking (non-EL) students who participated in an efficacy trial of a supplemental first-grade code-oriented intervention implemented by paraeducators. At the end of grade three, across all students (n = 180 of the original 187 students), treatment effects were maintained on word reading (approximate d = .45), spelling (.36) and reading comprehension (.24). However, treatment effects tended to be smaller for EL students, and were significantly smaller for spelling in particular. While pretest grade one word reading did not moderate treatment response for either ELs or non-ELs, it was found to strongly predict all three end-of- grade-three outcomes, although to a lesser extent for ELs on reading comprehension. Findings add support to previous research on the benefits of early code-oriented tutoring.     

Vocabulary,metacognitive knowledge and task orientation as predictors of narrative picture book comprehension: from preschool to grade 3

This is a study of early picture book comprehension, its determinants and later development through primary school. More specifically, picture book comprehension was analyzed longitudinally from age 5 to age 9, delineating the unique contributions of vocabulary, metacognitive knowledge and task orientation to the initial level as well as to the growth of comprehension. A total of 90 Finnish-speaking children participated in the study. The children’s narrative picture book comprehension was assessed at age 5, age 6 and age 9. Vocabulary, metacognitive knowledge and task orientation were evaluated at age 5. Latent growth curve modeling showed a pattern of decreasing achievement gaps in narrative picture book comprehension. Vocabulary and metacognitive knowledge uniquely contributed to the concurrent level of narrative picture book comprehension. The results further showed that metacognitive knowledge and task orientation were positive and statistically significant predictors of the growth of picture book comprehension over and above the initial level of narrative picture book comprehension. These findings add to our knowledge about the development of inter-individual differences in narrative picture book comprehension and the roles of vocabulary, metacognitive knowledge and task orientation in it. They also suggest a novel way to assess the narrative comprehension potential among students with compromised working memory or decoding ability.

     

Early Childhood Education and Care in the Time of COVID-19: Introduction to a Special Issue of Early Childhood Education Journal

Early Childhood Education Journal -     

国内外幼小衔接研究趋势的比较

近十年来幼小衔接对于儿童发展的重大影响已经受到了国内外研究者的重视,但国内外关于幼小衔接的研究存在诸多差异,国内相关研究与国外相比还存在一定差距.国外研究不仅关注了家长在儿童幼小衔接期中关注的问题,家长对儿童入学准备的认识,而且涉及了家长对幼小衔接的感受,参与幼小衔接的愿望等内容.国内研究主要只是关注了家长对幼小衔接的不正确认识,而且缺乏较大规模的相关调查.虽然国内外研究都涉及了教师对儿童入学准备的期望和对幼小衔接活动的看法,国外相关研究更为具体、深入,而且还比较了教师与家长在儿童入学准备认识上的差异,对幼小教师关于托幼机构与小学之间一致性与连续性的看法进行了考察.此外,国外研究还充分重视幼小衔接中最大利益相关者儿童的情感态度与认知、期望,相比之下国内尚未有这方面的研究,很值得在将来的研究中弥补这方面的空白.对各个利益相关者关于幼小衔接重要问题的认识与情感态度进行比较,尤其是对家长和教师、幼小教师、儿童与成人之间的观点进行比较,将有助于促进不同利益相关者之间的沟通与交流,改善幼小衔接实践,帮助儿童平稳、顺利地度过幼小衔接的关键时期.     

学习品质视域下的学龄前儿童教育游戏设计与开发研究

实现"游戏性"与"教育性"的有效融合是学龄前儿童教育游戏设计开发的难点。学习品质作为学龄前儿童发展的重要领域,将儿童发展的关注点从"学什么"转变为"如何学",强调要从"完整学习者"和"主动学习者"的角度看待儿童的学习过程和学习行为,为教育游戏的设计研究提供了新的视角。基于学习品质的相关成果,该研究构建了基于儿童学习品质的教育游戏设计框架,从情感/动机和行动/行为两个维度呈现了学习品质各个要素在儿童游戏过程和学习过程中的交互关系和发展过程。根据该框架设计了针对3-6岁儿童的"唐诗咏流传"教育游戏并进行了实践。初步应用表明,该游戏对儿童的兴趣、快乐、动机等要素有明显影响,对坚持性、灵活性和自我调节的促进还需要进一步研究和完善。     

后现代主义视野下的幼儿教师教育变革:路径与策略

社会环境的巨大变迁使传统的幼儿教师教育系统面临严峻的形势,而后现代主义的流行为幼儿教师教育发展提供了两条路径,即基于多元学科视野的培养体系变革与课程体系重构,从而更加有效地应对来自内外部的压力。基于后现代主义的观点,在幼儿教师教育中可以灵活运用多种教学策略:情境性知识策略,确保在社会化与历史性的情境中将教学内容融入职前幼儿教师的知识体系;多元阅读策略,帮助职前幼儿教师感知后现代主义视野下的话语思想和掌握塑造教育与社会的话语方式;图片形象融入策略,则为职前幼儿教师提供了理解后现代主义中有关主观性的观点和教师工作所暗含蕴意的便捷途径。     

The role of phonological memory,word recognition,and comprehension skills in reading development: from preschool to grade 2

We examined the relationships among phonologicalawareness, phonological memory, and development ofreading skills in a longitudinal study, by following222 Finnish preschoolers through the grade 2.The main focus was on the role of phonological memoryin word recognition and comprehension. The skillsassessed were verbal abilities, phonological memory,phonological awareness, word recognition, listeningand reading comprehension, altogether comprising themost extensive set of variables so far used in thestudy of phonological memory and reading. We proposeda structural equation model for the developmentalrelationships among the variables. This model waslargely confirmed by the data. The most significantpredictor of word recognition was phonologicalawareness. Phonological memory had only a weak effecton phonological awareness at preschool age, andvia this connection, a weak indirect effect on grade 1 word recognition. Contrary toexpectations, phonological memory also had asignificant, albeit weak effect on grade 2word recognition. Phonological memory did notdirectly affect reading comprehension. However,it was strongly related to listeningcomprehension at preschool, and via the strongeffects of both listening comprehension and wordrecognition on reading comprehension, there weresignificant indirect effects of phonological memory onreading comprehension. The results also underline thestability of development of phonological memory, wordrecognition, and comprehension from preschool to theend of grade 2.     

Exploring the deep-level reasoning questions effect during vicarious learning among eighth to eleventh graders in the domains of computer literacy and Newtonian physics

This paper tested the deep-level reasoning questions effect in the domains of computer literacy between eighth and tenth graders and Newtonian physics for ninth and eleventh graders. This effect claims that learning is facilitated when the materials are organized around questions that invite deep-reasoning. The literature indicates that vicarious learners in college student populations show greater pretest to posttest learning gains when presented with deep-level reasoning questions before each content sentence, than when deep-level questions are omitted, or when learners interact with an intelligent tutoring system. This effect holds for vicarious learners across grade levels and domains.