Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, Arabic-speaking children enter their first year of school with immaturity in literary language and word representations in their mental lexicon. This study examined the effects of interactive story reading in kindergarten on future reading skills and whether this effect can be generalized to…

Listening comprehension (LC) is considered an important but complex skill that predicts later reading comprehension in various languages. In this study, we aimed at understanding the relationship of LC with different linguistic and cognitive components. For this purpose, 262 Arabic-speaking kindergartners participated in this study. Our regression…

The current study followed literacy skills development amongst 79 Arabic native speaking pupils from kindergarten to fourth grade. Based on reading comprehension attainments in fourth grade, two groups of skilled and poor readers were identified. Poor readers showed significantly lower performance on measures of phonological and morphological…

A large linguistic distance exists between spoken Arabic and the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) the literary language (a diglosia). Novice readers, therefore, struggle with the complex orthography of Arabic as well as the mastering of MSA. Here, we tested whether structured activities in MSA would advance kindergarteners' MSA aptitude by the end of…

In recent years, children from a kindergarten in central Israel have been exposed to learning experiences in technology as part of the implementation of a curriculum based on technological thinking, including topics related to behaving-adaptive-artifacts (e.g., robots). This study aims to unveil children's stance towards behaving artifacts:…

Traditionally, children's books are in a printed format and shared book reading is done with an adult. In recent years, interactive E-books have become a common medium for children's books and shared book reading is diminishing. This study compared the contribution of book format to the development of literacy in kindergarten children. We…

The effect of reading an electronic storybook (e-book) on Israeli children's language and literacy was examined in kindergarten children (N = 40; age 5:2-6:3) compared to first graders (N = 50; age 6:3-7:4). The children in each age group were randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention group which read the e-book five times and a control…

Reports on research done in collaboration with classroom teachers in Arab language kindergartens to demonstrate the educational values of storybook reading. (MG)

The objective of this study is to summarize Israeli children's information and interpretation of the 1973 Middle East War while the intense fighting was in process. (Author/KM)

Investigates whether listening to stories in literary Arabic would have salutary effects on kindergarten children's emergent literacy skills. Finds that children in the experimental classes outperformed control classes on comprehension and active use of language. Concludes that children can acquire a second register through exposure in school…

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between kindergarten word writing and Grade 1 literacy in a large sample of Israeli children. Kindergarten writing significantly predicted variance in all three measures of Grade 1 literacy, even after controlling for intelligence. Also examined the role of alphabetic skills and socioliteracy…

The current study follows up on Aram and Levin's (2001, "Cognitive Development," 16, 831?852) analysis of the role of maternal writing mediation among low SES Israeli kindergartners. That study's main finding indicated that the quality of maternal writing mediation correlated concurrently with kindergartners' literacy skills after…