Forty middle-class American mothers and their preschool children were observed in a narrative activity which involved telling a story using the Berenstain Bears Play Set as a stimulus. The goal of the study was to examine the presence of story grammar elements in both maternal and preschool narratives. In addition, the study sought to explore the…

Purpose: Letter knowledge is a key aspect of children's language development, yet relatively little research has aimed to understand the nature of lowercase letter knowledge. We considered 4 hypotheses about children's lowercase letter knowledge simultaneously--uppercase familiarity, uppercase-lowercase similarity, own-name advantage, and…

Among a nationally representative sample of 2336 Head Start children, patterns of school readiness were compared at the beginning and end of children's first preschool year, and predictors of stability and change across readiness profiles were examined. The present study documented that although the majority of children remain in a qualitatively…

Researchers have suggested that children who are interested in literacy activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less literacy interest. Literacy interest, along with engaging literacy activities and responsive teaching, are important components in children's early literacy experiences. This…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a music training program on children's phonological awareness and naming speed in Spanish. Participants were preschool children whose first language was either Spanish (n = 45) or Tamazight ( n = 52), a Berber dialect spoken in Morocco's Rif area. The two-year pretest/posttest study…

This descriptive study provides a snapshot of the correlations between a child's learning experiences a year before entering kindergarten and the reading/literacy skills a child has entering kindergarten. Early literacy assessment scores were used to evaluate the effectiveness of four categories of learning experiences prior to entering…

The goal of this longitudinal study is to examine the relationships between early child factors (i.e., age at identification, enrollment in early intervention, oral language skills) and school readiness skills (i.e., conceptual knowledge) in a group of young children with hearing loss (HL). Standardized language, cognition, and conceptual…

Despite the conceptual link between self-regulation skills and school readiness capacities, questions remain regarding how distinct but related facets of self-regulation (i.e., attention regulation, behavior regulation) differentially impact the development of school readiness capacities during early childhood. Additionally, little is known about…

The purpose of this study was to examine the concurrent validity of two book and print awareness tests, the Concepts About Print test (CAP) and the Screening of Reading Readiness (SORR)--Book and Print Awareness portion. The variables of gender, family income, parents' education levels, and age were also examined to determine the effect that they…

This study is a population-based investigation of children's school readiness with a national sample of low-income children, utilizing data from the Family and Children's Experiences Survey (FACES; 2000-2003). Guided by a developmental ecological framework, we posed 3 research questions: (a) How do children's early school readiness skills in the…

The ability to understand causal connections in narrative has been shown to be related to a variety of school-related skills such as reading, comprehension, and memory in adults, school-age children, and children with disabilities. Research also shows that there is a developmental trend in the ability to use and understand causal connections. This…

The collision of the childhood obesity epidemic with pressure to achieve high academic standards is of serious concern in the United States. Growing numbers of low-income, minority children face double jeopardy as alarming obesity rates further widen existing achievement gaps. Health and education disparities persist when children enter…

This study examined the relationship between attention problems and expressive language and academic readiness skills in preschool-aged children from middle-class families. Forty-three children (44% female) were assessed individually for expressive language skills and knowledge of basic academic concepts (e.g. colours, letters and numbers). The…

As early as preschool, children who struggle with emergent literacy skills can benefit from effective response to intervention. Don't wait until later grades when they've already fallen behind--improve their literacy skills now with this evidence-based Tier 2 RTI curriculum, ready for any pre-K educator to pick up and use right away. Created by…

This exploratory study examined the relationship between use of an interactive (touchscreen) whiteboard and development of school readiness skills. Over one school year, public school regular education prekindergarten classrooms used an interactive whiteboard with preloaded literacy and math activities. The children were low-income and English…