Purpose: This study examined the differences in spoken Arabic (SpA) and standard Arabic (StA) in inflectional (gender, number, possessive pronouns, and tense) construction use in Arabic among preschoolers. Moreover, we tested the contribution of the inflectional constructions possessed in kindergarten to reading skills in the first grade and…

Within an Orff-based program implemented in Israel, this mixed-methods study examined the effects of age on emerging rhythmic literacy in children. Participants (N = 132) were kindergarteners (n = 45) and first-graders (n = 87) aged 4 to 7.8 years. The participants performed a rhythm entitled "Rhythm-A" through the body and instrumental…

Mental rotation has emerged as an important predictor of success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). By the age of 4.5 years, boys outperform girls in these abilities. Because parents use less spatial language with girls at this age (Pruden and Levine, 2017), the amount of spatial language that children are exposed to at home is…

Performance-based tools to assess school readiness domains such as Approaches to Learning are lacking in Low and Middle-Income Countries such as Kenya. This study aims to develop the Kenyan version of the FOCUS app (Finding Out Children's Unique Strengths), a game-like computer tablet assessment of two Approaches to Learning domains: mastery…

Definitions of dyslexia typically make reference to unexpected poor reading, although how best to operationalize unexpected remains an issue. When operationally defined as reading below expectations based on the level of oral language, cases of unexpected poor reading make up fewer than half of cases of poor reading, and cases of unexpected poor…

Background: The array of availability of diverse digital reading applications, the mixed results emerging from small-scale experimental studies, as well as the long-standing tradition and range of known positive developmental outcomes gained from adult-child storybook reading warrant an investigation into electronic storybooks (e-books) by…

Patterning, as a component of early mathematic knowledge, is a common activity carried out at elementary levels in which children are not equally successful. This study aimed to measure different variables affecting performance on patterning tasks in early childhood. For this purpose, the success of Pre-K (N = 33), K (N = 31) and first-grade…

Question asking plays a fundamental role in learning, and the cognitive development literature contains many studies of specific types of question-asking skills. However, little is known about the developmental course across different aspects of question asking, of which we explore: (a) the ability to ask questions that enable children to solve a…

Make-believe play has been theorized to promote self-regulation skills and other positive child outcomes. In this study, we examine the make-believe play approach featured in the "Tools of the Mind" (Tools) early childhood curriculum, which identifies students' self-regulation cultivation among its core programmatic aims. Using data from…

Purpose: This study investigated component skills in oral language development utilizing and validating a new assessment battery in a large (N = 800) and representative sample of Greek students 4-7 years of age. Method: All participants enrolled in public schools from four geographical regions (Attica, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Crete) that varied…

The importance of early vocabulary development to later reading comprehension has been well-established. However, there have been a number of criticisms that the assessments typically used to measure oral vocabulary knowledge do not adequately capture the complexity of this construct. This conceptual review works towards a more robust theoretical…

The primary goal in this study was to examine maternal support of numerical concepts at 36 months as predictors of math achievement at 4.5 and 6-7 years. Observational measures of mother-child interactions (n = 140) were used to examine type of support for numerical concepts. Maternal support that involved labeling the quantities of sets of…

Children start to develop number sense even well before they start the school. Developing number sense serves as an intermediate tool for learning conventional mathematics taught in schools. This number sense has three key areas: number knowledge, counting and arithmetic operations. As a result, the aim of this study was to examine aged related…

ASD symptomology and behavioral problems pose challenges for children with ASD in school. Disagreement between parents and teachers in ratings of children's behavior problems may provide clinically relevant information. We examined parent-teacher disagreement on ratings of behavior problems among children with ASD during the fall and spring of the…

This study explores the relationship between preschool phonological and nonphonological language performance and first-grade reading performance. Data were gathered from the files of 149 students who had completed a universal kindergarten screening program in the spring prior to enrollment. Bivariate correlation analyses, Steiger's Z comparisons,…