Although pre-K students' average gains on the 2010-2011 Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT in English, TVIP in Spanish) significantly differed by vertical team, these differences were attributed more to the students' school or classroom rather than to the vertical team in which a school resided. [For "Prekindergarten Evaluation Series,…

The relation between children's mental state knowledge and metaknowledge about reading was examined in 2 studies. In Study 1, 196 children (mean age = 9 years) were tested for verbal ability (VA), metaknowledge about reading, and mental state words in a story task. In Study 2, the results of Study 1 were extended by using a cross-lagged design and…

Early individual differences in prosocial behaviors are pivotal for children's peer relationships. To investigate the interplay among verbal ability, emotion understanding, and mother-child mutuality as predictors of prosocial behaviors, we observed 102 children at the ages of two, three, and four. All time points included verbal ability and…

The current study analyzed the relationship between text comprehension and memory skills in preschoolers. We were interested in verifying the hypothesis that memory is a specific contributor to listening comprehension in preschool children after controlling for verbal abilities. We were also interested in analyzing the developmental path of the…

We previously reported that foetal valproate exposure impairs intelligence quotient. In this follow-up investigation, we examined dose-related effects of foetal antiepileptic drug exposure on verbal and non-verbal cognitive measures. This investigation is an ongoing prospective observational multi-centre study in the USA and UK, which has enrolled…

This study examined the degree to which dimensions of parenting predicted early academic outcomes in a sample of 111 low-income African American children. Three aspects of parenting were assessed when the children were 36 months old: language stimulation, math-related stimulation, and maternal sensitivity. Academic outcomes were assessed at 54…

In this study we examined the effects of social intelligence, empathy, verbal ability and appearance-reality distinction on the level of peer acceptance, as well as the moderating role of gender. Participants were 98 five-year-old children (43 boys and 55 girls; mean age 5 years 3 months for boys and girls). Our results showed a main effect of…

This study adds to the growing research on school outcomes associated with individual differences in preschoolers' theory of mind skills by considering whether "costs" of theory of mind (e.g., sensitivity to criticism) actually help to foster children's academic achievement. A group of 60 Italian children was tested during the last year…

Following a biopsychosocial model, the study investigated the role of child factors (gender, IQ), maternal factors (psychological distress, maternal education and vocabulary, maternal distress) and environmental factors (SES) in the relationship between language impairment and behaviour problems in preschool children. Participants were drawn from…

This study examined the prevalence and determinants of spanking of children at 3?years of age and the associations between spanking and externalizing behaviour and receptive verbal ability at age 5?years. Overall, we find maternal spanking rates of 55.2% and paternal rates of 43.2% at age 3?years. Mothers facing greater stress and those who…

While early childhood education has received increasing attention in the developing world in recent years, relatively little evidence is available from sub-Saharan Africa on its effects on child development and subsequent school enrolment. We use a prospective case-control design to evaluate the developmental impact of a community-based early…

The present study aims to examine whether the inhibitory processes and impulsive-cognitive style can influence the emergence of coordination level among 61 children aged 3 to 5 years. Luria's tapping tasks, Day-Night tasks, Hand-Candle tasks, Go-NoGo tasks and the Trail Making Tests of Reitan, all involving inhibitory processes, were conducted.…

The relationship between consistency of hand preference, left hemispheric specialization, and cognitive functioning was examined in an ongoing longitudinal investigation. Children were classified as consistent or inconsistent in their hand preference across 5 assessments from ages 18 to 42 months. Findings demonstrated that (a) this early…

Although more than a third of tested pre-K students (37%) entered AISD one standard deviation below the national average in receptive vocabulary, the AISD pre-K program accelerated these students' growth by nearly twice the national average by the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

The aim of this study is to investigate the efficiency of cooperative learning on preschoolers' verbal mathematics problem-solving abilities and to present the observational findings of the related processes and the teachers' perspectives about the application of the program. Two experimental groups and one control group participated in the study.…