Early bilingualism acquired from home or community is generally considered to positively influence cognitive development. The purpose of the present study was to determine to what extent bilingualism acquired through a second-language immersion education has a similar effect. Participants included a total of 106 French-speaking eight-year-old…

Among the academic challenges faced by students from low socio-economic (SES) homes is the loss of academic skills during the summer months. Unfortunately, the public schools are often unable to provide summer learning opportunities because limited space, funding, and teacher availability. Established community organizations frequently provide…

In a sample of 195 first graders selected for poor reading performance, the authors explored four cognitive predictors of later reading comprehension and reading disability (RD) status. In fall of first grade, the authors measured the children's phonological processing, rapid automatized naming (RAN), oral language comprehension, and nonverbal…

Developmental predictors of children's fraction concepts and procedures at the end of fourth grade were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study. Participants were 357 children who started the study in third grade. Attentive behavior, language, nonverbal reasoning, number line estimation, calculation fluency, and reading fluency each…

It has been hypothesized that students with low self-efficacy will struggle with complex reading tasks in assessment situations. In this study we examined whether perceived reading self-efficacy and reading task value uniquely predicted reading comprehension scores in two different item formats in a sample of fifth-grade students. Results showed…

The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between basic numerical cognition and domain-general abilities (such as working memory) in explaining school mathematics learning. First graders (N = 280; mean age = 5.77 years) were assessed on 2 types of basic numerical cognition, 8 domain-general abilities, procedural calculations, and word…

We present analyses of the impact of morphological awareness on spelling. Initial measures of morphological awareness and a number of control measures were taken at age 7 and spelling was assessed two years later (n = 115). Results indicated that the appreciation of morphology in oral language makes a contribution to spelling that is impervious to…

The authors examined individually administered IQ scores from an entire K-5 population (N = 432) of Limited English Proficient students referred for gifted program eligibility determination in a single large urban district in the southeastern United States. Of 8 IQ tests compared, only 1, the Stanford-Binet V, had scores appreciably lower than…

This article reports results of a four-year longitudinal study that investigated the impact of specific and non-specific precursors on mathematical school achievement. Preschool quantity-number competencies (QNC) predicted mathematical achievement in primary school. Furthermore, basic arithmetic fact retrieval in Grade 1 had an impact on early…

The goal of the current study was to explore the relations between shyness, academic engagement, and academic achievement in childhood. Participants were (n = 125) children (aged 9-13 years) attending public school boards in Canada. Children completed self reports of shyness and were administered a test of nonverbal IQ. Academic achievement was…

Purpose: To evaluate the learning effects of a deductive language-teaching procedure when teaching a novel gender agreement verb inflection to children with language impairment. Method: Thirty-two 6-8-year-old children with language impairment were randomly assigned to either a deductive (N = 16) or an inductive (N = 16) treatment group. In the…

Based on a sample of 480 academically at-risk first graders, we used a cluster analysis involving multimethod assessment (i.e., teacher-report, peer-evaluation, and self-report) of behavioral and psychological engagement to identify subtypes of academic engagement. Four theoretically and practically meaningful clusters were identified and labeled…

Background: The right shift (RS) theory of handedness suggests that poor phonology may occur in the general population as a risk associated with absence of an agent of left cerebral speech, the hypothesised RS + gene. The theory predicts that poor phonology is associated with reduced bias to right-handedness. Methods: A representative cohort of…

One hundred elementary- and middle-school students were administered the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT; B.A. Bracken & R.S. McCallum, 1998) and the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised (Leiter-R; G.H. Roid & L.J. Miller, 1997). Correlations between UNIT and Leiter-R scores were statistically significant ( p less…

Turner syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects only females, can cause various physical, emotional, and educational disabilities. This disorder may go undiagnosed until school age or later. Short stature and lack of spontaneous puberty are common characteristics and can lead to teasing by peers. Some experience attention deficit and the…