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This study explores how music training impacts the development of inhibition control, phonological processing, and gross and fine motor skills in preschoolers. In a randomized controlled trial, 160 kindergarteners in a music programme, a motor programme, or a control group were examined. Children in the two experimental conditions took part in 19 weekly 40-minute sessions. At pretest and post-test, inhibition control and phonological processing were measured with two subtests from the NEPSY-II. Gross and fine motricity were assessed with the BOT-2 Short Form. Post-test results showed that children in the music condition improved significantly on automatic response inhibition. Phonological processing skills did not differ significantly between the two experimental conditions, but the music condition produced significant improvements over control. These findings corroborate previous evidence that music training contributes substantially to develop executive function and phonological awareness in preschoolers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research consistently demonstrates that behavioral self-regulation (BSR) is associated with early academic abilities, it may not yet account for the multiple ways in which young children symbolically communicate their knowledge. This study builds on previous research in the areas of early learning and self-regulation by including children's drawings as a method of accessing and assessing young children's learning and by exploring this relation over a two-year kindergarten program. Measures of BSR and academic skills (math, reading, writing, and drawing) were administered at the end of a two-year kindergarten program (Mage = 70.25 month) to 109 children (49 girls, 60 boys). Results from four separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that BSR significantly predicted academic skills (math, reading, writing, and drawing) after controlling for age and maternal education. Practical implications of these findings highlight how self-regulated behaviour in kindergarten fosters a wide range of academic development including drawing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at identifying the disciplinary methods used in controlling kindergarten children's behaviour and their degree of use by cooperating teachers and student teachers. The sample consisted of 161 female teachers and 53 student teachers who attend the field training programmes. The researchers constructed a questionnaire comprised of 22 items. Later, 12 cooperating teachers and 6 student teachers were interviewed. Results showed that the cooperating teachers' and student teachers' use of disciplinary methods to control kindergarten children's behaviour was medium. Disciplinary verbal was employed first, followed by disciplinary psychological, while disciplinary corporal came third, at a low level. Moreover, the results showed that there were no statistically significant differences attributable to the kindergarten sector. Additionally, the study found statistically significant differences attributed to certain variables of the study. It was concluded by offering some suggestions and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to observe record and evaluate the psychomotor development and its relationship to children's gender and age on attending public and private kindergartens in Greece. The sample consisted of 898 children (487 boys' 54% and 411 girls 46%) aged 64 ± 9 months from 64 kindergarten schools. A set of 18 MOT tests Zimmer and Volkamer [1987. Motor Test for Children Aged 4 to Six Years Old: MOT 4–6; Manual/MOT 4–6. Revised and Expanded Edition] was applied to evaluate psychomotor development. These tests were presented to children as a structured activity after telling the story of an adventure in the forest where the children were trying through the various tests to discover the hidden treasure. The results showed that the majority of children responded satisfactorily to the requirements of the game, with a small percentage of children failing to perform accurately, with a smaller percentage leaving the game without completing their efforts. No significant differences were found between boys and girls, but the groups of older children were found to perform better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the indicators of behavior, anxiety and social skills of 38 kindergarteners (52.6% girls, mean age 5.34 years; SD = 0.48) enrolled in a municipal school located in the southeastern region of Brazil. The children's parents/caregivers (86.4% mothers) and teachers completed the instruments: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Preschool Anxiety Scale (PAS) and Preschool Kindergarten Behavior Scale (PKBS-BR). Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Most children were classified in the non-clinical range for behavior problems and anxiety. The perceptions of the children's parents/caregivers and teachers diverged, with guardians more frequently identifying deficits in Total Anxiety, Obsessive- Compulsive Disorders, Fear of Physical Harm and Separation Anxiety (PAS); External Problems and Hyperactivity (SDQ); and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems (PKBS). A correlation was found between anxiety, behavior problems and social skills, reinforcing that there is interdependence between aspects of social- emotional development. These findings can support interventions at schools intended to promote prosocial behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing what kinds of patterns are easy for children to recognize early in their kindergarten year, and what kinds are difficult, can be a useful guide for patterning instruction. Hence, the ability of children to recognize complex patterns early in their kindergarten year was assessed in two experiments. One experiment showed that the children were significantly less accurate on patterns made of progressively higher numbers or of letters that came progressively later in the alphabet than on patterns made of clock faces that showed increasing amounts of time or were made of rotating objects. There was an interaction between the type of element of which the pattern was composed and the pattern's orientation. A second experiment showed that symmetric patterns were easier than growing patterns, and there were effects of orientation and the elements of which a pattern was composed, as well as interactions. This research indicates that instruction on clock faces and rotating objects should precede instruction on letters and numbers, and that symmetric patterns can also be easily understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten children's motivation choice after successfully completing a mathematical task. Three succeeding measurements took place in two-week intervals. In each measurement a different choice dyad was presented to participating children. After the successful completion of a mathematical activity, participants were asked to make one choice from among three dyads: social reward-tangible reward, social reward-harder task and tangible reward-harder task. Results revealed that children preferred the tangible reward (candy) over other choices and the social reward over the harder task. Logistic regression analyses revealed that children's choice of a tangible reward cannot be predicted by their mothers' and fathers' education and income levels, their mathematical level or their teachers' reward practices. Educators should be aware of practices that would harm the learner's inner process in order to avoid those applications in their classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined dual language learners' (DLLs n = 24) and English-only (EO n = 20) children's expressive and receptive language in kindergarten (Mage  = 5.7 years) as well as the relation to peers' language use. Expressive language skills (vocabulary diversity, syntactic complexity) were measured in the fall, winter, and spring (2014-2015 year). Receptive language skills (vocabulary, sentence comprehension) were measured in the fall and spring. Findings revealed increases in children's expressive and receptive language, except in terms of syntactic complexity. Moreover, peers' vocabulary diversity was positively associated with children's vocabulary diversity. Peers' syntactic complexity was positively associated with children's syntactic complexity and receptive vocabulary. Findings suggest that peers' language use may influence DLLs' and EO children's language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Compared inductive causal learning from joint actions, own actions, and observation. • Joint action improved first graders' causal inference relative to other conditions. • Joint action impaired kindergartners' causal inference relative to other conditions. • Learning from joint action undergoes a developmental shift in the early school years. • Joint action may help or may hinder learning depending on features of the learner. Abstract This study investigated whether early school-aged children's causal learning from collaborative joint action differs from their learning from their own individual action or observation. Children in a joint condition performed causal interventions with an adult on two causal systems. Children in an independent condition took turns and observed an adult perform the same interventions on one system and performed the same interventions themselves on the other system. Joint action improved first graders' (n = 60) causal inference compared with individual action and observation. However, joint action impaired kindergartners' (n = 60) inference relative to individual action and observation. These findings demonstrate that joint action, as a component of collaborative activity, can help or hinder inductive causal learning depending on features of the learner. Children's abilities to learn from collaborative joint action undergo a developmental shift during the early school years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Dynamic analyses of performance are possible in children at 5-6 years of age. • Automatic activation and suppression are already present at 5-6 years of age. • A formal model of conflict tasks accounts for both children and adults data. • Mechanism engaged by children are similar to adults, but with different time courses. Abstract The development of cognitive control is known to follow a long and protracted development. However, whether the interference effect in conflict tasks in children would entail the same core processes as in adults, namely an automatic activation of incorrect response and its subsequent suppression, remains an open question. We applied distributional analyses to reaction times and accuracy of 5- and 6-year-old children performing three conflict tasks (flanker, Simon, and Stroop) in a within-participants design. This revealed both strong commonalities and differences between children and adults. As in adults, fast responses were more error prone than slow ones on incompatible trials, indicating a fast "automatic" activation of the incorrect response. In addition, the strength of this activation differed across tasks, following a pattern similar to that of adults. Moreover, modeling the data with a drift diffusion model adapted for conflict tasks allowed one to better assess the origin of the typical slowing down observed in children. Besides showing that advanced distribution analyses can be successfully applied to children, the current results support the notion that interference effects in 5- and 6-year-olds are driven by mechanisms very similar to the ones at play in adults but with different time courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entry into school represents as much a challenge for children as it does for their parents. The authors examined the ways in which transition practices help children and their families feel prepared for school entry, as measured by the child's emotional adaptation during the first days in class and the family's sense of being prepared for this transition. Data were collected from a sample of 412 parents. The results indicate that children's emotional adaptation during the first days in school is related to their families' preparedness for school entry. Moreover, families' preparation is partly explained by the number of transition practices perceived by the parents. These data support the importance of transition practices in the preparation of the family as a unit. Transition practices could serve to reassure parents and their children that the school is ready to welcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Deficits in executive functions (EF) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified. However, there is limited evidence about patterns of deficits in EF‐related skills, especially at the neurobiological level, in young children with ASD and little is known about how these skills are related to other domains of functioning and symptom severity. In this study, we provide a focused review of EF‐related Event‐Related Potentials (ERP) studies in children with ASD, accompanied by preliminary data for neurophysiological correlates of EF on a child‐friendly Go/No‐go task. We focus our preliminary investigation on ERPs associated with stimulus processing (N2, P3) and error monitoring [error/correct‐related negativity (ERN, CRN), error positivity (Pe)] in 5‐year‐old kindergarteners with ASD and typical controls matched on age, gender and task accuracy. Children with ASD showed significantly greater amplitudes of ERN/CRN compared to matched controls, suggesting heightened response monitoring. The ASD group also showed less distinct inhibitory P3 compared to the TD group, potentially suggesting atypical stimulus processing. In children with ASD, higher autism symptom severity was correlated with larger P3. Better behavioral performance on an EF‐related task was correlated with smaller CRN. Our study is the first investigation to demonstrate the presence of N2, P3, ERN/CRN and Pe in kindergartners with ASD. The potential links between ERP patterns and behavioral and clinical features in more‐able children with ASD highlight the need for further exploration into the functional mechanisms of these atypical neural activities and for more focused behavioral interventions targeting cognitive control and response monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data on a recent birth cohort of U.S.-born children in low-income households (n = 2,800-3,700), this study investigates associations between the timing and intensity of early childhood food insecurity and children's kindergarten reading, math, and social-emotional outcomes. Descriptive patterns reveal that approximately 20% of low-income 0- to 5-year-old children reside in food-insecure households. Food insecurity experienced during early childhood is unfavorably associated with social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten, controlling for household income and prior assessments of child social-emotional skills. Results are less consistent for cognitive outcomes but similar in magnitude. If replicated, findings may inform policy efforts to reduce disparities in early skills for approximately 15 million U.S. children in food-insecure households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic and behavioral (externalizing and internalizing problems) outcomes associated with trajectories of breadth of participation in organized activities were examined in a sample of 548 children. Four previously modeled trajectories from Kindergarten to Grade 4 were compared: no participation, increasing breadth, decreasing breadth, high and stable breadth. Potential confounding variables (i.e. sex, academic and behavioral indicators in Kindergarten, and mother's education) were included as covariates in the analyses, and the children's disruptive behavior status was tested as a moderator. Following the inclusion of the covariates, the children assigned to the high trajectory displayed lower internalizing problems than the children assigned to the no participation and decreasing trajectories. Children's disruptive behavior status did not moderate the associations between breadth of participation trajectories and outcomes. It thus appears that participation in a wider range of organized activities during childhood may help prevent subsequent internalizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined how teachers' interpersonal behaviors (control, affiliation) and complementarity tendencies (i.e., return low control with high control and high affiliation with similar affiliation) were related to children's task behaviors (engagement, performance). Furthermore, we investigated whether the strength of these associations depended on children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Our sample included 48 teachers and 179 kindergartners (94 boys; mean age = 66.75 months) who were selected to represent a variation of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Independent observers rated teachers' interpersonal behaviors and children's task behaviors. Teacher control was negatively related to both children's task engagement and performance, whereas teacher affiliation was not associated with children's task behaviors. Furthermore, associations between teachers' complementarity tendencies on control and children's task performance depended on the level of control that children displayed themselves. To conclude, teachers should be made aware that controlling behaviors could be detrimental for children's task behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present study was to examine the concurrent correlates and longitudinal implications of anxiety among young Chinese children. Participants were N = 360 children (200 boys, 160 girls, M age = 4.72 years, SD = 0.63) attending kindergarten in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. At Time 1, mothers provided ratings of their children's anxiety, temperament (negative emotionality, shyness), attachment, as well as their own personality (neuroticism), parenting styles, and attachment beliefs. At Time 2 (one year later), mothers rated children's social and emotional difficulties, and teachers assessed children's social, emotional, and academic adjustment. Results from regression analyses indicated that: (1) child temperament, mother-child insecure attachment, and maternal insecure attachment beliefs were associated with child anxiety; and (2) child anxiety symptoms (particularly social anxiety) predicted peer, emotional, and academic problems one year later. Results are discussed in terms of the maladaptive implications of anxiety symptoms in young Chinese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many attitudes are acquired in early childhood. However, due to a lack of experimental research, little is known about the processes of how they are acquired. Two experiments were therefore conducted with 153 German kindergarten children aged 3-6 years that provide first evidence for childhood attitude formation in terms of evaluative conditioning. Specifically, it was found that children preferred novel stimuli previously paired with liked stimuli over novel stimuli previously paired with disliked stimuli. This effect occurred independently of age, generalized toward similar novel stimuli, and did not depend on children's recollection of how stimuli were paired. The findings are discussed in terms of the processes underlying childhood attitude formation, and implications for related research areas are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behavior is arguably influenced by an interaction between intrinsic dispositions (e.g., group bias) and extrinsic factors (e.g., institutional regulations). The current study investigated this interaction developmentally. Preschoolers (3- to 4-year-olds) and kindergarteners (5- to 6-year-olds; N = 111) participated in a resource distribution task in which they had to consider both the recipients' group membership (minimal color-based groups), and their own teachers' preferences regarding how to distribute (give "all" or "none"). The results revealed that only kindergarteners were influenced by the experimental factors and differently across genders. Specifically, when the recommendation was to give "none," girls followed it indiscriminately toward in- and out-group recipients, but boys did so only toward out-group recipients. Thus, boys exploited an authority's legitimization to act antisocially, according to a parochial bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that early identification of developmental dyslexia is important for mitigating the negative effects of dyslexia, including reduced educational attainment and increased socioemotional difficulties. The strongest pre-literacy predictors of dyslexia are rapid automatized naming ( RAN), phonological awareness ( PA), letter knowledge, and verbal short-term memory. The relationship among these constructs has been debated, and several theories have emerged to explain the unique role of each in reading ability/disability. Furthermore, the stability of identification of risk based on these measures varies widely across studies, due in part to the different cut-offs employed to designate risk. We applied a latent profile analysis technique with a diverse sample of 1215 kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students from 20 schools, to investigate whether PA, RAN, letter knowledge, and verbal short-term memory measures differentiated between homogenous profiles of performance on these measures. Six profiles of performance emerged from the data: average performers, below average performers, high performers, PA risk, RAN risk, and double-deficit risk (both PA and RAN). A latent class regression model was employed to investigate the longitudinal stability of these groups in a representative subset of children ( n = 95) nearly two years later, at the end of 1st grade. Profile membership in the spring semester of pre-kindergarten or fall semester of kindergarten was significantly predictive of later reading performance, with the specific patterns of performance on the different constructs remaining stable across the years. There was a higher frequency of PA and RAN deficits in children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. There was no evidence for the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion traditionally used to diagnose dyslexia. Our results support the feasibility of early identification of dyslexia risk and point to the heterogeneity of risk profiles. These findings carry important implications for improving outcomes for children with dyslexia, based on more targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous study, Mix et al. (2016) reported that spatial skill and mathematics were composed of 2 highly correlated, domain-specific factors, with a few cross-domain loadings. The overall structure was consistent across grade (kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade), but the cross-domain loadings varied with age. The present study sought to replicate these patterns. Using the data from Wave 1 (n = 854) and data collected from a 2nd sample of kindergarten (n = 251), 3rd-grade (n = 247), and 6th-grade students (n = 241) with the same measures as in Wave 1, we carried out a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to compare the 2 waves. We also completed several analyses of the Wave 2 data alone. The overall pattern obtained in Wave 1—2 highly correlated domain-specific factors—was clearly replicated in Wave 2. However, more subtle effects involving cross-domain loading were only partially replicated and generally appear fragile and context-specific. In Wave 2, we also included 2 new measures (i.e., proportion matching and fraction identification) that were analyzed in a separate model. Including these new measures did not change the overall pattern of factors and domain-specific factor loadings but did alter some of the cross-domain loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to identify preventive effects of the Incredible Years (IY) teacher classroom management (TCM) programme, which is employed in Norwegian kindergartens for 3-year-old to 6-year-old children. IY TCM is a universal preventive intervention intended to reduce the frequency of inappropriate types of behaviour and support children's social- and emotional competence in kindergartens and schools. IY TCM was implemented in 46 kindergartens and compared to 46 matched kindergartens that did not receive the intervention. A total of 1049 children took part in the trial, 511 from the IY TCM group and 538 from the comparison group. Children's behaviours were measured using well-validated instruments at the beginning and end of a school-year cycle, approximately 9 months later. Findings showed promising reductions in aggression, internalising and attention problems, and increases in social competence in the IY TCM kindergartens. In a sub-sample comprising children who scored equal to or above the 90th percentile on aggressive behaviour before the intervention, promising developments were found in social competence among the children in IY TCM kindergartens. The IY TCM lead to promising preventive effects in young children's aggressive behaviours, internalisation, attention problems, and social competence in kindergartens in Norway. However, even if the changes were statistically significant, effect sizes were small. For children with severe behaviour problems, few positive results were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between caregiver confirmation and children’s attachment security during the transition to kindergarten. Caregiver-child dyads (N = 50) read a story about the transition to school, caregivers responded to hypothetical child statements of concern regarding starting school, and caregivers completed the Attachment Q-Sort measure (Waters, 1995). Caregivers’ behaviors during portions of the storybook task and their written responses to hypothetical child statements of concern were coded for verbal and nonverbal “confirmation as acceptance” and verbal “confirmation as challenge.” Children’s attachment security scores were produced from the Attachment Q-Sort. Caregivers’ level of education moderated the association between caregiver confirmation as verbal and nonverbal acceptance and children’s attachment security such that there was a positive association between confirmation and attachment security primarily for caregivers with low levels of formal education. Implications for the literatures on confirmation, attachment, and the transition to school are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Chronic school absenteeism is a pervasive problem across the US; in early education, it is most rampant in kindergarten and its consequences are particularly detrimental, often leading to poorer academic, behavioral and developmental outcomes later in life. Though prior empirical research has identified a broad range of determinants of chronic absenteeism, there lacks a single, unified theoretically driven investigation examining how such factors concurrently explain the incidence of chronic absenteeism among our nation's youngest schoolchildren. Thus, it is difficult to determine the relative importance of one factor over another, hence making it challenging to develop appropriate supports and services to reduce school absences. Purpose/Research Questions: Our study filled this critical void--we investigated multiple determinants of chronic absenteeism that were grounded, theoretically and empirically, in Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development. Specifically, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 and the method of hierarchical generalized linear modeling, we analyzed how the co-occurrence of key (a) process, (b) person, and (c) context (micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystem) factors was associated with kindergarteners' probability of being chronically absent. Findings/Results: Children who have poorer health, higher internalizing behaviors, and more frequent engagement in learning activities at home had higher odds of chronic absenteeism. Also, children from larger families and of lower socioeconomic status faced increased odds of chronic absenteeism. Conversely, children holding positive attitudes towards school had lowered odds of chronic absenteeism, a finding that remained robust across socioeconomic status groups. Finally, parent-school connections were associated with lowered odds of absenteeism. Conclusions/Recommendations: Overall, our findings strongly suggested that addressing chronic absenteeism will require comprehensive and multifaceted approaches that recognize these multiple factors. With this theoretically grounded, more descriptive approach, it is more feasible to identify key factors and subsequently design policies and practices to prevent absence behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the effects of instrumental music instruction on cognitive processes with kindergarten children can offer more information on the benefits of learning a musical instrument. To add to this body of research, in a randomized pretest-posttest control group design, the present study explored the effects of 5 weeks/15 hours of instrumental instruction using the violin Suzuki Method on (a) working memory efficiency, (b) visual-spatial processing, and (c) controlled attention among kindergarten students. Assessments were made using the Stanford-Binet 5 (SB-5) working memory and visual spatial subscales and the Kiddie Connor's Continuous Performance Test Version 5 (K-CPT) attention subscales. A MANOVA followed by a univariate ANOVA was conducted on the means of the prepost change scores between the Suzuki violin treatment group and the control group. Results indicated there was a multivariate effect (p ‹ .05) for the combined K-CPT measures and 1 univariate effect (p ‹ .01) for the specific K-CPT subtest of Hit Response Time between the treatment and control group. There were no statistically significant differences in the means of prepost change scores between the groups on the SB-5 subscales. These findings demonstrate that attentional control, a psychological process necessary in academic learning, may be enhanced with instrumental music instruction when presented in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-world contexts differ in the clarity of expectations for desired responses, as do assessment procedures, ranging along a continuum from maximal conditions that provide well-defined expectations to typical conditions that provide ill-defined expectations. Executive functions guide effective social interactions, but relations between them have not been studied with measures that are matched in the clarity of response expectations. In predicting teacher-rated social competence (SC) from kindergarteners' performance on tasks of executive functions (EFs), we found better model–data fit indexes when both measures were similar in the clarity of response expectations for the child. The maximal EF measure, the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, presents well-defined response expectations, and the typical EF measure, 5 scales from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), presents ill-defined response expectations (i.e., Abstraction, Perceptual Integration, Cognitive-Experiential Integration, and Associative Thinking). To assess SC under maximal and typical conditions, we used 2 teacher-rated questionnaires, with items, respectively, that emphasize well-defined and ill-defined expectations: the Behavior Rating Inventory: Behavioral Regulation Index and the Social Skills Improvement System: Social Competence Scale. Findings suggest that matching clarity of expectations improves generalization across measures and highlight the usefulness of the TAT to measure EF. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although rapid automatized naming (RAN) is one of the best predictors of reading across languages, its nature remains elusive. In the present study, we aim to elucidate the nature of RAN by examining the cognitive and environmental correlates of RAN. One hundred forty-one second-year kindergarten Chinese children (71 girls, 70 boys; mean age = 58.99 months) were assessed on measures of nonverbal cognitive ability, attention, visual processing, conceptual processing, semantic processing, phonological processing, short-term memory, articulation, speed of processing, RAN (digits and objects), and discrete naming. We also collected information on mothers' education and occupation, and children's home learning experiences. The results showed that formal home learning experiences, visual processing, phonological processing, and articulation were unique correlates of both RAN tasks. Semantic processing also correlated significantly with RAN objects. However, controlling for the effects of discrete naming eliminated the effects of most subprocesses on RAN. These findings suggest that RAN is indeed multicomponential, but not all components contribute the same way to RAN performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the role of naturally-occurring negative and positive emotion expressivity in kindergarten and children’s effortful control (EC) on their relationships with teachers, academic engagement, and problems behaviors in school. Further, the potential moderating role of EC on these important school outcomes was assessed. Emotion and engagement were observed at school. EC was assessed by multiple methods. Teachers reported on their student–teacher relationships and students’ externalizing behaviors. Children’s emotion expressivity and EC were related to engagement and relationships with teachers as well as behavioral problems at school. Children low in EC may be particularly vulnerable to the poor outcomes associated with relatively intense emotion expressivity as they struggle to manage their emotions and behaviors in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gross motor movement is a vital part of the growing process and ultimately plays a role in a person's ability to lead a physically active life. Researchers have analyzed the different ways in which individuals develop skills. At the heart of that discussion has been gender. Most recently, researchers have focused on the differences among various forms of disability. However, little has been done to understand how these variables interact with each other in the development of gross motor skills. Objective: Therefore, in this study I sought to explore the interaction of disability and gender on gross motor performance. Method: Utilizing a national dataset, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 dataset (ECLS-K), I utilized a 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA to understand the effects of gender and disability on gross motor score. Results: A large sample (N = 16,960) was utilized to indicate a significant interaction effect of gender and disability, as well as significant main effects. Results suggest that both gender and disability have an effect on gross motor performance; specifically, boys with disabilities are at a higher risk for having low gross motor skills. Conclusion: The significant results from this analysis demonstrate that gender and disability have an effect on the gross motor ability of young children. In contrast to other literature, in this study female participants performed slightly better than male participants did, and in line with other research, in this research the group without disabilities demonstrated a better gross motor score than the group with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the strengths and weaknesses of the Danish Bereavement response plans. These are used by teachers to support grieving students and have been implemented in 96% of all Danish schools. The study is based on an Internet survey conducted with 967 teachers. Issues investigated are: ‘generalisation of grief’, ‘forgetting long-term grief’, ‘teacher distress’ and ‘renewal of plans’. Participating teachers believe that the current system works well and that the bereavement response plans have made them feel more confident when confronted with loss. However, this comes at a potential cost of generalising children’s experiences of grief, so that they fit into the school support system. While the response plans are effective at ensuring initial support for bereaved children, their influence seems to diminish with time. The study found that many plans were around a decade old and that this could mean some had been forgotten or become outdated. The article concludes that while teachers find the current response plans effective, the bereavement response system could benefit from being updated. Such an update needs to focus on dealing with the issues highlighted in this article. Future response plans should also have greater emphasis on the needs voiced by bereaved students who have experienced the system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study evaluated whether positive and anger emotional frequency (the proportion of instances an emotion was observed) and intensity (the strength of an emotion when it was observed) uniquely predicted social relationships among kindergarteners (N = 301). Emotions were observed as naturally occurring at school in the fall term and multiple reporters (peers and teachers) provided information on quality of relationships with children in the spring term. In structural equation models, positive emotion frequency, but not positive emotion intensity, was positively related to peer acceptance and negatively related to peer rejection. In contrast, the frequency of anger provided unique positive prediction of teacher-student conflict and negative prediction of peer acceptance. Furthermore, anger intensity negatively predicted teacher-student closeness and positively predicted teacher-student conflict. Implications for promoting social relationships in school are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to evaluate bidirectional associations between peer acceptance and both emotion and effortful control during kindergarten (N = 301). In both the fall and spring semesters, we obtained peer nominations of acceptance, measures of positive and negative emotion based on naturalistic observations in school (i.e., classroom, lunch/recess), and observers’ reports of effortful control (i.e., inhibitory control, attention focusing) and emotions (i.e., positive, negative). In structural equation panel models, peer acceptance in fall predicted higher effortful control in spring. Effortful control in fall did not predict peer acceptance in spring. Negative emotion predicted lower peer acceptance across time for girls but not for boys. Peer acceptance did not predict negative or positive emotion over time. In addition, we tested interactions between positive or negative emotion and effortful control predicting peer acceptance. Positive emotion predicted higher peer acceptance for children low in effortful control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through multimodal retellings of kindergarten children’s performances of “baby,” this article aims to contribute to the emerging “posthuman conversation” within early childhood studies. Specifically, this work makes moves toward reconceptualizing children’s becomings within educational contexts by, first, interrogating the ways in which adult notions of “time” came to bear upon children’s enactments of “babies” within classroom pretend play performances and, second, exploring how posthuman conceptions of temporality—specifically Pickering’s “mangle”—can disrupt developmental analyses of children’s (un)timely performances and accommodate a more nuanced version of childhood becoming(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluency in first graders’ processing of the magnitudes associated with Arabic numerals, collections of objects, and mixtures of objects and numerals predicts current and future mathematics achievement. The quantitative competencies that support the development of fluent processing of magnitude, however, are not fully understood. At the beginning and end of preschool ( M = 3 years 9 months at first assessment, range = 3 years 3 months to 4 years 3 months), 112 children (51 boys) completed tasks measuring numeral recognition and comparison, acuity of the approximate number system, and knowledge of counting principles, cardinality, and implicit arithmetic and also completed a magnitude processing task (number sets test) in kindergarten. Use of Bayesian and linear regression techniques revealed that two measures of preschoolers’ cardinal knowledge and their competence at implicit arithmetic predicted later fluency of magnitude processing, controlling domain-general factors, preliteracy skills, and parental education. The results help to narrow the search for the early foundation of children’s emerging competence with symbolic mathematics and provide direction for early interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this cross-case analysis of six young children’s wordless book readings, we examine the ways in which participants use social understanding during the reading of a wordless book to understand the narrative story. Using a conceptually based coding scheme, we identified places in children’s readings in which they imagined the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of characters. We refer to this use of social understanding during reading as social imagination, as it is occurs not in an actual but in a vicarious context. The findings indicated that children who frequently engaged in imagining the minds of others produced more as well as more varied meaning units and often ‘became’ the characters during their wordless book reading. Multimodal analysis of video data show that children who used social imagination relatively more frequently had livelier readings, with extensive use of inflection, emotion, and voicing of characters as well as a sense of continual investment in the narrative event as it unfolded. The use of social imagination appears to be critical in making sense of a story. The cases presented here demonstrate how understanding the minds of others leads to more complex thinking during the reader-text transaction. Implications for classroom practice and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Child development is considered a sequence of changes in behaviour and underlying processes that are influenced by biological and environmental factors. The screening and monitoring of neuropsychomotor development (NPMD) procedures have been shown to be effective in the early identification of different diseases in childhood. Objective: relate the condition of the NPMD in children aged 36-48 months attending Early Childhood Education Units (ECEU) in Belém, Pará, Brazil to certain personal characteristics and variables of their ecological environment. Methods: The following instruments were applied: Questionnaire of the biopsychosocial characteristics of the child, the Instrument for Measuring Urban Poverty Level, and fi nally, Developmental Screening Denver II Test. Result: The study revealed that of the 319 children evaluated, 77.74% had probable delays in development. The variables that were statistically significant were paternal education (0.000**), the child's primary caregiver (0.039*) and pregnancy planning (0.007*). Regarding the instrument of measurement for the level of urban poverty, the scores ranged from 28 to 52 points, and showed a statistically significant relation with the outcome (0.003*). Conclusion: The high prevalence of probable developmental delays seen in children of the city's ECEU showed the need to introduce early stimulation programs, encouraging the monitoring of child development through the screening, and, in addition, to alert for the issue of negative interference of socioeconomic factors related to family condition and city they reside in on child growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of creative understanding, this paper aims to investigate children’s creative learning of drama education in a group of preschoolers aged 4–5 in a Hong Kong kindergarten. The research was designed originally to offer a case study to identify the emergence of creative learning during and after drama lessons, and investigate its relation to teaching. The field observations, however, noticed the contrary effect brought by a product-oriented and a teacher-centred approach of teaching. These approaches had strongly undermined the stimulus to imaginative and playful participation that drama education is able to generate purportedly. Not only had they restricted dialogic encounters in the lessons but also the feasibility of identifying children’s creative response emerging from within. These observations led to a shift of the study focus to the method and data of draw-and-tell, which was used to enable children to creatively re-imagine and retell their drama experiences as a concluding reflection. The findings were analysed in three categories, namely Characterization, Re-conceptualization and Transformation to illustrate children’s capacity and techniques of restorying drama experiences with their interest, knowledge, language and culture. The research process as well as the results of the study reveal a complex interplay between teaching, learning and researching affirming that a particular type of creative learning of drama education is not only shaped by a particular form of teaching, but also the research method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined emotional reactivity to rejection and executive function (EF) skills as potential mediators of the social behavior problems of inattentive and hyperactive kindergarteners. Participants included 171 children, including 107 with clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, 23 with sub-clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, and 41 typically developing children (63 percent male; 73 percent Caucasian, 11 percent African-American, 4 percent Latino/Hispanic, 1 percent Asian, and 11 percent multiracial; M age = 5.2 years). Inattention (but not hyperactivity) was uniquely associated with poor EF, social withdrawal, and aggression. In structural equation models, EF skills mediated the associations between inattention and both aggression and social withdrawal. Hyperactivity (but not inattention) was uniquely associated with rejection reactivity and each contributed uniquely to aggression. Findings suggest that difficulties with emotion regulation may warrant more attention in early interventions planned for children with high levels of ADHD symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: Early reading and mathematics skills predict later academic success, and child self-regulation and secure parent–child relationships are both predictors of early academic skills. Self-regulatory and family relationship factors have rarely been studied together as predictors of early academic success in populations of young children at risk for academic difficulties. This study examined child self-regulation and parents’ representations of parent–child relationships as predictors of young children’s academic achievement. Participants were 106 kindergartners attending charter schools that served impoverished neighborhoods in a large city. In a path analysis, child self-regulation and parental secure base script scores each uniquely predicted kindergartners’ academic achievement at the end of the school year when several key covariates were accounted for.Practice or Policy: Children’s self-regulation skills should be assessed at school entry to help identify the children at greatest risk for academic difficulties. The findings also provide further support for programs that promote healthy parent–child relationships and self-regulation prior to school entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: Home language and literacy inputs have been consistently linked with enhanced language and literacy skills among children. Most studies have focused on maternal inputs among monolingual populations. Though the proportion of American children growing up in primarily non-English-speaking homes is growing and the role of fathers in early development is increasingly emphasized, less is known about these associations in primarily non-English-speaking households or how mothers and fathers independently contribute to children’s skills. Using a subsample of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (N = 5,450), this study assessed the frequency of maternal and paternal inputs during early childhood and their prospective connections with children’s English language and literacy skills at age 5 across White, Mexican, and Chinese children from linguistically diverse households. Analyses revealed significant differences in inputs by ethnic/language group membership and significant associations between both maternal and paternal inputs and children’s skills. These associations did not differ across ethnic/language group membership.Practice or Policy: These results point to the importance of promoting rich home language and literacy environments across diverse households regardless of the language in which they take place or the parent from which they derive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: The current study examined how children’s parent-reported compliance at age 3 (36 months) moderated the effects of 2 dimensions of directly observed early care and education (ECE) process quality (positivity/responsivity and cognitive stimulation) during the prekindergarten year (54 months) on teacher reports of children’s classroom cooperation in the fall of kindergarten. Compliance at 36 months and cooperation in kindergarten are operationalized as overt, behavioral aspects of self-regulation as appraised by parents and teachers. The sample consisted of 996 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development who attended formal or informal ECE settings during the prekindergarten year. Results indicated that children with low compliance at age 3 tend to demonstrate stronger cooperation skills by kindergarten when they experience more positivity/responsivity from their ECE caregivers. Main effects of positivity/responsivity and cognitive stimulation on classroom cooperation were not detected for the overall sample.Practice or Policy: The discussion addresses the importance of preparing and empowering ECE providers to help young children who enter the preschool period struggling with behavioral aspects of self-regulation, such as compliance, to improve these skills through positive and responsive caregiving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently no accepted consensus over which aspects of school readiness abilities have noteworthy associations with later student achievement, independent of cognitive readiness, largely due to a limited range of non-cognitive abilities that are typically analyzed in school-based surveys. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) measures children’s school readiness prior to Grade 1 entry in five areas of development: physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive, as well as communication. EDI data in kindergarten were linked to Grade 3 reading, writing and math standardized achievement scores for 45,000 kindergarten students in Ontario, Canada to investigate the impact of kindergarten abilities on later academic achievement. Multi-level regression models showed that the cognitive domains had the strongest correlations with reading, writing, and math with the largest coefficients, controlling for individual and school-level demographic factors, but the physical, social, and emotional domains also were significantly associated with achievement scores, independent of cognitive readiness. The effect sizes of the non-cognitive domains’ impact were comparable to or larger than variables such as gender or first language. These findings demonstrate the importance of holistic measures of school readiness, encompassing cognitive and non-cognitive areas, for understanding early achievement and potential prevention of continuing underachievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between kindergartners’ Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and their number-related utterances during numerical picture book reading. Forty-eight 4- to 5-year-olds were individually interviewed via a SFON Imitation Task and a numerical picture book reading activity. We expected differences in the frequency of number-related utterances during picture book reading between children with a higher SFON score, providing more number-related utterances, and children with a lower SFON score. Our results showed large inter-individual differences in both kindergartners’ SFON and the frequency of their number-related utterances during picture book reading, yet SFON was not related to the frequency of number-related utterances. This unexpected result is discussed in terms of its scientific, methodological, and educational implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which morphological awareness in Chinese uniquely predicted counting ability in a Hong Kong sample. With age, nonverbal intelligence, visual–spatial skills, and phonological awareness being controlled, morphological awareness at the second year of kindergarten (K2) uniquely predicted children's abilities in counting sequence and counting forward at the third year of kindergarten (K3). Phonological awareness and visual–spatial skills at K2 explained unique variance in the ability of counting backward but not in the counting sequence or counting forward at K3. These findings contribute to our understanding of the association between metalinguistic skills and the development of numerical ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent of research on children’s speech in general and on disordered speech specifically is very limited. In this article, we describe the process of creating databases of children’s speech and the possibilities for using such databases, which have been created by the LANNA research group in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Czech Technical University in Prague. These databases have been principally compiled for medical research but also for use in other areas, such as linguistics. Two databases were recorded: one for healthy children’s speech (recorded in kindergarten and in the first level of elementary school) and the other for pathological speech of children with a Specific Language Impairment (recorded at a surgery of speech and language therapists and at the hospital). Both databases were sub-divided according to specific demands of medical research. Their utilization can be exoteric, specifically for linguistic research and pedagogical use as well as for studies of speech-signal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to identify which kindergarten children are simultaneously at risk of moderate or severe symptomatology in both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD) as adolescents. These risk factor estimates have not been previously available. We conducted multinomial logistic regression analyses of multiinformant ratings by the end of middle school of a population-based, longitudinal sample of children followed from kindergarten to eighth grade (N = 7,456). Kindergarten children from low SES households, those raised by mothers with depressive symptoms or experiencing emotional problems or substance abuse, or those who were punished by spanking were significantly more likely to later display severe levels of ADHD-CD symptomatology in eighth grade. Kindergarten children frequently engaging in ADHD-CD-type behaviors were more likely to later experience both moderate (covariate adjusted OR = 2.37) and severe (covariate adjusted OR = 3.63) ADHD-CD symptomatology. Low academic achievement uniquely increased the risk of both moderate and severe symptomatology (adjusted OR range = 1.7 to 2.24). The results should guide early screening and school-based intervention efforts for ADHD-CD. Reducing children's risk for adolescent ADHD-CD symptomatology may require remediating low behavioral and academic functioning by the end of kindergarten. When these 2 modifiable factors occur together they increase kindergarten children's odds of experiencing severe ADHD-CD symptomatology in eighth grade by a multiplicative factor of 8.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This two-wave study examined stability in kindergarteners' friendship patterns over 5 months. Methods: Participants were 501 five-year-old children (262 girls and 239 boys) attending kindergartens in Seoul, Incheon, and Kyounggi provinces in Korea. Each child nominated three individuals as his/her friends in July, and again in December of 2013. Depending on the presence/absence of friendships and the mutuality of identifying friends, the children's friendship patterns were categorized into five groups: stable, fluid, loss, gain, and friendless. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and chi-square tests. Results: Results revealed stability, as well as changes in friendship patterns, among kindergarteners over the 5-month period. The stable friendships, those that maintained the same friend(s) in both waves, was 43.7%, the fluid friendships, those that changed friends over the 5 month period was 18%, the gain friendships, those who had newly developed friends in wave 2 was 17%, and the loss friendships, those who had friends at wave 1 but lost friends at wave 2, was 9.8%. The friendless, those that had no friends in both waves, was 11.5%. Conclusion: Results showed that kindergarteners were capable of maintaining and making new friends over a 5-month period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reminding children to think about alternatives is a strategy adults often use to promote children's cognitive flexibility, as well as children's engagement in and enjoyment of the task. The current study investigated whether the impacts of reminders on kindergarten children's cognitive flexibility, intrinsic motivation, and mood are moderated by who provides the reminders. Eighty-three healthy 5-year-old kindergarten children were randomly assigned to 2 (Reminder: no reminders vs. Reminders) x 2 (Agent: Tester vs. Partner) conditions. Children's cognitive flexibility was measured via the Block Sorting Task (Garton and Pratt, 2001; Fawcett and Garton, 2005). Children reported their motivation and mood before Block Sorting, after practicing for Block Sorting, and after the actual Block Sorting. Children's intrinsic motivation was measured by evaluating children's choices during a period of free play after Block Sorting. The results revealed that, depending on who provides the reminders, reminding children of alternatives can influence kindergarten children's performance on Block Sorting, children's intrinsic motivation, and children's self-reported mood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home injuries are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity for young children. Most programs that aim to improve their knowledge of home safety have been narrowly focused on one injury type and/or required specialized personnel for delivery. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new Safety Detective Program that was designed to teach young children (4-6 years) about several types of home safety hazards and unsafe behaviors, with the program delivered in a classroom setting by non-experts based on manualized training. The current study used a randomized group, pre-post design to evaluate the effectiveness of the program to increase children's knowledge and understanding of home safety hazards and injury-risk behaviors to avoid. Children participated in six structured sessions, covering burns, falls, drowning, and poisoning. Each session involved play-based activities (storybook, song, and game or craft) to teach main messages about hazards and injury-risk behaviors, a take home activity, and a parent information sheet about the injury type covered that day. An individually administered photo-sort task with follow-up interview was used to measure intervention and control group participants' knowledge and understanding of injury-risk behaviors before and after program delivery. Children in the intervention, but not the control, group exhibited significant gains in their knowledge and understanding of home safety hazards and injury-risk behaviors to avoid, establishing the effectiveness of the program. This evaluation indicates that the Safety Detective Program can be delivered in classrooms without requiring specialized personnel or extensive training and with positive changes obtained. The program holds much promise as a means of improving kindergarten children's understanding of a broad range of home hazards and injury-risk behaviors that are relevant to their safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]