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Children with low performance in early numeracy are at risk of facing learning difficulties in mathematics, but few trials have examined how this can be ameliorated. A total of 120 first-grade children (M[subscript age] = 6.4 years) were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control condition. The 14-week intervention targeted early numeracy skills and was delivered in small groups three times a week. Immediately after the initial 8-week intervention phase, moderate and positive effects were found on early numeracy (d = 0.19), word problem solving (d = 0.41), and approximate number sense (d = 0.35). However, only the effects on word problems were significant, and all effects disappeared after the children undertook a second 6-week intervention phase. Overall, results indicate that (a) early numeracy skills are malleable in low-performing children, but (b) frequent and long-term interventions are needed for the positive effects to last.

Bilingualism appears to be related to poor language and reading comprehension in the instructional language (L2). However, in the long term, an early age of second language acquisition (AoA) may produce higher levels of second language skills than a later onset of L2 exposure. Most studies on school-aged second language learners (L2 learners) include children with 3-7 years of second language (L2) exposure. We compared 91 early bilingual (Norwegian and a variety of different native languages) 5th graders with 196 monolingual peers on a range of linguistic skills and their relationships with reading comprehension. All bilingual learners in the sample had been exposed to the instructional language by at least the age of 2. The results, using structural equation modelling and latent variables, show that early bilingual learners' vocabulary, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension are significantly lower than those of monolingual learners. Nevertheless, they have similar levels of knowledge of conjunctions and decoding skills and corresponding predictive patterns from linguistic skills to reading comprehension. We discuss the implications of the findings.

Listening comprehension involves the ability to understand and extract meaning from spoken sentences, stories, and instruction. This skill is vital for young children and has long-term effects on school achievement, employability, income, and participation in society. There is a lack of measures of young children's listening comprehension skills. We report on a new measure of listening comprehension (LURI) that we tested in a group of at-risk preschoolers. Using IRT (Item Response Theory) analysis, we examined the psychometric properties of the instrument. Moreover, in a series of regressions, we found that the LURI measure predicted a range of other language skills better than standardized measures. Thus, the LURI test is a reliable and valid measure of listening comprehension. Assessing listening comprehension is a time-effective way of measuring a skill critically important to language development and represents the product of a range of different oral language processes.

This paper describes a randomised control trial (RCT) of a small group intervention targeting articulatory consciousness in first graders with a reading delay (control condition: n = 57, intervention condition: n = 64). The programme in the intervention condition consisted of basic decoding and spelling tasks using articulatory cards to symbolise speech sounds. Training took place four times per week for five weeks. The control condition received "business as usual". The results show that the children in the intervention condition learned to use the articulatory symbols, but there were no effects of the intervention on reading and phonological awareness measures. Also, there was no relationship shown between initial phonological awareness skills and gains, or lack thereof, from the intervention.

We examined the concurrent relationship between narrative skills (the Renfrew Bus Story Test) and core language measures (vocabulary, grammar and verbal memory) at age 4 and the longitudinal relationship between core language and listening comprehension skills at age 7 in a sample of 215 children using latent variables and structural equation modelling. Our main purpose was to investigate to what extent narrative retell constitutes a unique influence on later language and listening comprehension skills. The results support a two-factor model of narrative retelling and core language representing different but related constructs at age 4. Narrative retell explained unique variance in later language skills but did not explain additional variance beyond the 58% explained by the age 4 language construct. Similarly, narrative retell predicted unique variance in later listening comprehension, but not beyond what was explained by core language skills at age 4. The strength of the relationship between narrative retelling at age 4 and the age 7 measures was not related to the level of narrative skills. The results indicate that age 4 traditional core language measures capture more of the skills that are important for later language and listening comprehension than narrative skills at the same age.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Early Numeracy Screener. The Early Numeracy Screener is a teacher-administered, paper-and-pencil test measuring counting skills, numerical relational skills, and basic arithmetic skills. Three hundred and sixty-six first graders took the Early Numeracy Screener at the beginning of the school year. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in order to examine whether the screening tool was identified as a one-factor model or a three-factor model. The confirmatory factor analysis found evidence for the three-factor model, establishing construct validity. Evidence for criterion-related validity was found in crosstabulation and correlation with the national test measuring overall mathematics performance taken towards the end of the school year. The Early Numeracy Screener may serve as an indicator of young children's performance in early numeracy. The brevity and ease of use of the Early Numeracy Screener make it suitable for classroom instructional settings.

Studies have identified concurrent, longitudinal, and bidirectional associations between language difficulties and internalizing problems. This is commonly explained by social exclusion or withdrawal from peers, but underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study uses sibling data to investigate if the comorbidity between language difficulties and internalizing problems is best explained by familial factors shared by siblings, such as genes or family environment, or nonfamilial factors specific to each child, such as peer environment. Data include 5,568 siblings at 5 years and 3,654 siblings at 8 years participating in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). We constructed a latent factor model at 5 and 8 years, including a family comorbidity factor capturing correlations between language and internalizing problems that were equally strong between as within siblings. Results showed that the correlation between one sibling's internalizing problems and the other sibling's language problems was mostly accounted for by a family comorbidity factor. The best-fitting longitudinal model included stability of the family comorbidity factor and stability of language and internalizing problems within each sibling and no cross-sibling or cross-trait longitudinal associations. This suggests that the association between language and internalizing problems may be best explained by family factors.

The two major determinants of reading comprehension are language comprehension and decoding, but prior studies of the development of reading comprehension from an early age show inconsistent results. To clarify these inconsistencies we report a 6-year longitudinal study (starting at Age 4 years) where we control for measurement error and track the development and interrelationships between a range of predictors of reading comprehension (language, decoding, and cognitive skills). We found two main pathways to reading comprehension: a highly stable language comprehension pathway (reflecting variations in vocabulary, listening comprehension, grammar, and verbal working memory) and a less stable code-related pathway (reflecting variations in phoneme awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid automatized naming). Early language comprehension at Age 4 years is strongly related to code-related predictors (phoneme awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming), and influences decoding indirectly through these constructs. Early oral language skills predicted initial levels of reading comprehension and its growth between the ages of 7 and 9 years. Strikingly, language comprehension and decoding, together with their interaction and curvilinear effects, explain almost all (99.7%) of the variance in reading comprehension skills at 7 years of age. Our study adds to prior knowledge in several important ways and provides strong support for an elaborated version of the simple view of reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986).

Social functioning and reading proficiency are critical for success in school and society. Therefore, identifying children with such problems is important. This study had 2 parts: first, a random sample of 234 elementary schools was surveyed about which instruments they use to assess reading proficiency and social functioning. Second, a systematic review of the quality of these instruments was conducted using international standards for examining the quality of assessment instruments. The survey showed that schools more often assessed and had more instruments available for reading than for social functioning. The systematic review of the assessment instruments used revealed that the psychometric qualities of many was weak or undocumented, while the dimensions of test material quality were generally good. The findings demonstrate a need for a more thorough examination of the psychometric properties of assessment instruments to be used in school.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Elementary Social Behaviour Assessment (ESBA), a teacher-report measure of students' social skills and academic engagement adapted for use in Norwegian schools. At two times, 8 weeks apart, 151 teachers rated 793 students in Grades 1-6 on the ESBA and the Social Skills Rating System Teacher's form (SSRS-T). Exploratory factor analysis with the first assessment suggested one or possibly two factors. Confirmatory factor analysis with the second assessment confirmed the one- or two-factor models but did not offer strong evidence for one over the other. The ESBA demonstrated good to excellent reliability. Strong concurrent and predictive correlations with the SSRS-T established criterion validity. The school and teacher levels explained only a limited amount of the total variance in ESBA scores, suggesting that teachers rate students quite similarly. The Norwegian-adapted ESBA paralleled the reliability and validity evidence from US samples.

This study investigated an adaptation of the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) measure of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills into a European context for the Norwegian language, which has a more transparent orthography than English. Second-order latent growth curve modeling was used to examine the longitudinal measurement invariance of the ORF measure, the growth in oral reading fluency within and across grades 2-5, the relative stability of the ORF measure, and the relationship between the ORF measure and high-stakes national tests of reading proficiency. Results showed that the ORF passages measured the same underlying construct, but some passages stood out regarding the invariance pattern. The oral reading fluency growth curve models demonstrated a linear growth in grades 2 and 3 and a nonlinear growth in grades 4 and 5. Initial individual differences varied more than growth rates, which for all were positive but largest in grades 3 and 4. High relative stability in the ORF measure was found across grades. The concurrent and predictive relations of the ORF measure on the Norwegian national reading tests were moderate to strong (range = 0.44-0.75). Findings indicated that the ORF is a reliable and valid measure of reading in Norwegian grades 2-5 and easy and fast to administer. The ORF measure might contribute to early identification of students at risk for reading difficulties in an orthography more transparent than English. Implications for school practice and future research are discussed.

Second-language learners display poorer general language skills in the language used at school than their monolingual peers, which is a concern because general language skills (vocabulary, grammar, language expression, and comprehension) provide the foundation for later academic success. In a randomized controlled trial, we examined the efficacy of an intervention to improve second-language learners' general language skills in their second language. One hundred and fifteen children (mean age = 5.5 years) were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual control group or to an 18-week intervention program conducted by kindergarten teachers during the last semester of kindergarten. The children were assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention and a seven-month follow-up. The children in the treatment group demonstrated significant improvements on a custom measure of taught vocabulary. The language intervention program also produced effects that generalized to standardized measures reflecting expressive language skills. These findings suggest that intervention programs designed to enhance second-language learners' expressive language in the second language can be successfully implemented in kindergarten settings before school entry.

Background: Children with language comprehension difficulties are at risk of educational and social problems, which in turn impede employment prospects in adulthood. However, few randomized trials have examined how such problems can be ameliorated during the preschool years., Methods: We conducted a cluster randomized trial in 148 preschool classrooms. Our intervention targeted language comprehension skills and lasted 1 year and 1 month, with five blocks of 6 weeks and intervention three times per week (about 75 min per week). Effects were assessed on a range of measures of language performance., Results: Immediately after the intervention, there were moderate effects on both near, intermediate and distal measures of language performance. At delayed follow-up (7 months after the intervention), these reliable effects remained for the distal measures., Conclusions: It is possible to intervene in classroom settings to improve the language comprehension skills of children with language difficulties. However, it appears that such interventions need to be intensive and prolonged., (© 2017 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

In the study reported here, we assessed the theory that vocabulary learning in children depends critically on the capacity of a "phonological loop" that is indexed by nonword-repetition ability. A 3-year longitudinal study of 219 children assessed nonword-repetition ability and vocabulary knowledge at yearly intervals between the ages of 4 and 7 years. There was a considerable degree of longitudinal stability in children's vocabulary and nonword-repetition skills, but there was no evidence of any influence of nonword-repetition ability on later vocabulary knowledge. These results seriously call into question the claim that vocabulary learning in children is constrained by nonword-repetition ability, and they cast doubt on the broader theory that the phonological loop functions as a language-learning device.