Research shows that maternal education influences children's academic performance indirectly through the quality of the home environment. In this study, we tested the role of 12 variables within the home environment (e.g., eating meals together, reading for fun at home, number of children's books, watching TV, and bedtime) to help identify those…

In this 3-year longitudinal study, we examined the interplay of children's motivational orientations, spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) and number sequence and arithmetical skills from kindergarten (at age 6) to grade 1 (at age 7). We also examined the direct and indirect contributions of motivation and SFON to the acquisition of…

Background: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is consistently associated with poor school-level outcomes. Although school engagement is recognized as a protective factor associated with increased academic achievement, school retention/completion, and student well-being in the general population, little research has focused on school…

The study addressed the question of continuity in literacy achievements from kindergarten to first grade among Arabic-speaking children in Israel. We examined (1) how age and family socio-economic status (SES) predict children's literacy skills in kindergarten and (2) how age, SES, and early literacy skills in kindergarten predict literacy…

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationships between effortful control and early literacy and mathematics achievement. A total of 181 children (85 girls and 96 boys) from rural China were assessed when they were in Grades 1 and 2. Path analyses controlling for maternal education indicated that effortful control at the beginning of…

In this study we evaluated whether the sophistication of children's invented spellings in kindergarten was predictive of subsequent reading and spelling in Grade 1, while also considering the influence of well-known precursors. Children in their first year of schooling (mean age = 66 months; N = 171) were assessed on measures of oral vocabulary,…

Phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), letter knowledge, and oral language are all significant predictors of successful literacy acquisition in several languages. However, their relative importance is less clear and depends on language characteristics, the specific aspect of literacy assessed, and the phase of literacy…

Problem Statement: One of the main goals of education is to nurture individuals who know and improve themselves; who is well educated and have scientific perspective; who have developed communal coherency level; who are active, democratic and respectful to human rights. At the present time, according to an up to date mentality in mathematics…

This longitudinal study, conducted among a sample of Finnish primary-school children, examined the proposition that a single high-quality relationship (either with a teacher or a parent) can buffer against adjustment problems. Teachers rated the externalizing problems and prosocial behaviors of 378 children in Grade 1 and again in Grade 2.…

Research Findings: Several recent studies carried out in the United States and abroad (i.e., Asia and Europe) have demonstrated that the ability of young children to regulate their behavior (including inhibitory control, working memory, attentional control) significantly predicts their academic achievement. The current study examined the…

Children's social interactions with their peers influence their psychosocial adjustment; consequently, the relationship between class-wide peer liking, same-gender peer liking, and school adjustment was explored in two age groups. Peer liking was analysed using the social relations model (SRM). In Study 1, 205 children (103 female and 102 male,…

Path analysis was used to test theoretical models of relations among variables known to predict differences in children's memory--strategies, capacity, and metamemory. Children in kindergarten to fourth grade (chronological ages 5 to 11) performed different memory tasks. Several strategies (i.e., sorting, clustering, rehearsal, and self-testing)…