Young children are often enrolled in either AM (morning) or PM (afternoon) sessions in early childhood programs. However, little research is available on this routine practice. We used multilevel analysis to investigate if there are differences in the literacy, math, and social outcomes for children who participate in AM or PM sessions beyond…

General measures of process quality are widely used in the early childhood education (ECE) field. However, the evidence regarding associations between the most widely used process quality measure, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008), and children's school readiness gains during the preschool year is mixed. Using…

The purpose of this study was (a) to describe the performance of preschool children from families with college-educated mothers on two norm-referenced measures, the Preschool Language Scale-4 (PLS-4) and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Tests-III (PPVT-III), and (b) to compare the findings with Qi and colleagues who reported PLS and PPVT scores for…

Research Findings: Mental state verbs (MSV), a component of literate and academic language, may facilitate vocabulary growth, as they relate to metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness as well as decontextualized talk, all of which have been associated with vocabulary growth. In this study, we examined teacher MSV use in group content…

Research Findings: This study examines lexical- and sentence-level dimensions of academic language to describe teachers' natural use of academic language and its association with vocabulary growth in 489 at-risk 4-year-olds enrolled in Head Start preschool classrooms. Using transcripts derived from video recordings of book-reading sessions in 52…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of teacher ratings for screening children's language skills. Teacher ratings were measured through the use of two tools, the "Children's Communication Checklist-2" (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) and the "Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy" (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, &…

Executive functions (EFs) and intelligence were examined concurrently and longitudinally in 126 preschool children. EF was assessed using the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P). Children's intelligence was assessed using the Verbal and Performance subtests from…

We investigated links between persuasive behavior and theory of mind (ToM) understanding using a novel naturalistic peer persuasion task in which children were invited to convince an interactive puppet to eat raw broccoli or brush his teeth. Sixty-three 3- to 8-year-olds (M age = 6 years, 6 months) took part in the persuasion task and were also…

This report evaluates a sample of students' achievement in the Austin Independent School District pre-K program during the 2013-2014 school year, based on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV (PPVT) and Test de Vocabularío en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP) results.

A classroom randomized trial (n = 31 classrooms) was conducted using the Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) curriculum compared to usual curricula. Head Start and community preschool classrooms enrolling low income children were randomly assigned to deliver SSEL (n = 16) or usual curricula (n = 15). Data are reported for four year olds…

Using a nationally representative sample of dual language learners (DLLs) attending Head Start, this study investigated how the language used for instruction and the proportion of DLLs in the class was associated with English and Spanish receptive vocabulary development between the fall and spring (n = 531). Based on teacher report of the language…

Research Findings: This study used data from a national sample to examine differences in school outcomes at the end of kindergarten between Head Start children who attended full-day and half-day programs. Propensity scores were used to match children who experienced different intensities of the program on a series of demographic characteristics in…

We explored longitudinal effects of a two-generation preschool programme on receptive language scores in children (n = 78) at age 10 years, living with low income. Scores at four time-points, programme intake, exit, age 7, and age 10 years were measured using the "Peabody picture vocabulary test" (3rd ed.). Effects of culture…

On average, Austin Independent School District prekindergarten students scored below the national average range on a test for receptive vocabulary ability in Fall 2012. English language learner students (ELLs) scored lower, on average, than did non-ELLs.

This study sought to determine the relationship among student- and task-level variables at play in the digital storybook listening experiences of 130 English-speaking preschoolers at risk of reading failure. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship among the (1) features of computer-based electronic storybooks, (2) preschoolers'…