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Background: Strong connections between children's teachers and their parents fosters their learning and development in early childhood and throughout their schooling. Developing strong connections in preschool may ease the transition to elementary school for children. Objective: The goal of this study is to examine the initial implementation of the Kindergarten Transition Practices intervention, its impacts on parental engagement, and how these impacts varied by family race/ethnicity, maternal education, and children's behavior problems. Method: Children (N=391) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: KTP-Classroom, where they received a classroom-level intervention; KTP-Plus, where they received both the classroom intervention and an additional home visiting component; or the business-as-usual control group. Transition Coordinators worked with both teachers and parents throughout the intervention to build connections between parents and their children's teachers and schools. Results: Results showed that the classroom intervention (KTP-Classroom) led to significantly higher levels of teacher-reported parent involvement and that, for Hispanic families, the classroom plus home visiting intervention (KTP-Plus) led to more positive teacher perceptions of parent involvement, parent-teacher relationships, and parent values. Conclusions: These findings suggest that connection-focused models may be one way to enhance parental engagement during preschool. [This article was published in "Child & Youth Care Forum" (EJ1347893).]

The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom language contexts characterized by peer language skills and proportions of dual language learners (DLL) influenced English language development for DLL and non-DLL children. Participants were 2,131 children from 135 classrooms across preschool through Grade 3. Children were classified into fluent bilinguals (FBs, 12%), emergent bilinguals (EBs, 13%), and non-DLL (or English monolinguals [EMs], 75%). Over an academic year, FBs experienced similar growth in expressive vocabulary compared to EMs, both of which showed more growth than EBs, suggesting a bilingual advantage. Peer language skills and DLL composition were positively associated with DLLs' and non-DLLs' language development. Although having more EBs in the classroom lowered peer language skills, the overall influence that proportion of EBs had on children's language development remained positive. These findings shed light on the heterogeneity of DLLs and the complex social process of learning underlying linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.

The transition to formal schooling is a large contextual change, which for many children in U.S. begins with the year of kindergarten. To better understand the challenges of this transition, the present study examines the extent to which children experience transition difficulties in five salient areas: making friends, following schedules, meeting academic demands, working within groups, and being organized. Using a sample of 688 kindergarteners from 45 classrooms, we found that challenges in the transition to kindergarten were prevalent based on teacher report. More than 70% of the children were reported to have difficulty in at least one area, and over 30% of children had challenges in all five areas. Meeting academic demands and being organized were two of the most common challenges kindergarteners experienced. Gender and IEP status consistently predicted transition difficulties, in that boys struggled more than girls, and children with disabilities (on the basis of IEP provision) were more likely to have difficulties than those without IEPs. Overall, this work highlights the need to support children during the transition to kindergarten.

Most children experience some form of grouping in the classroom every day. Understanding how teachers make grouping decisions and their impacts on children's social development can shed light on effective teacher practices for promoting positive social dynamics in the classroom. This study examined the influence of teachers' grouping strategies on changes in young children's social experiences with peers across an academic year. A total of 1,463 children (51% girls, M[subscript age] = 6.79, SD[subscript age] = 1.22) and 79 teachers from kindergarten to third-grade classrooms participated in this study. Teachers rated children's behavioral problems as the most important consideration when creating seating charts or assigning children to small groups. Promoting existing or new friendships was rated as the least important consideration. Heterogeneous ability grouping, rated as somewhat important by the teachers, was associated with a decrease in children's friendships and yet also a decrease in girls' experience with peer conflicts. Our findings begin to fill in the gaps in the literature on the social impacts of ability grouping for young children.

Research Findings: Multiple factors likely influence the language development of young children growing up in low-income homes, potentially including stressors experienced by parents. Here, we ask: (1) What is the association between stress (i.e., economic hardship and parenting stress) and toddlers' language development? and (2) Does number of hours spent in nonparental childcare moderate the relation between stress (i.e., economic hardship and parenting stress) and toddlers' language development? Participants were 100 mother-child dyads participating in a longitudinal study when children were 0 to 24 months of age. Results showed a significant interaction between hours spent in nonparental childcare and parenting stress when predicting language growth: when parenting stress was high, childcare hours showed a positive relation with language growth; on the contrary, when parenting stress was low, the relation between childcare hours and language growth showed a negative tendency. Conversely, economic hardship did not predict language growth. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that one potential approach to facilitate language development for low-income children is to help high-stress families secure early years childcare. Furthermore, programs to reduce parenting stress may help to promote children's language growth, especially when families are not using nonparental care.

Research Findings: Preschoolers' vocabulary skills and inhibitory control have been demonstrated critical for later school success; however, the ways in which the individual classroom experiences dynamically interchange with these skills is still unclear. In this paper, we examine the role of children's individual engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks in facilitating children's skill development across the school year. Using a sample of 895 preschoolers across 223 classrooms drawn from the Professional Development Study, the current study examined engagement as both outcomes of children's vocabulary and inhibitory control in the fall of the preschool year and as mediators of linkages between them across the preschool year. Results suggested that vocabulary skills and inhibitory control each shape different aspects of classroom engagement. Children's vocabulary was associated with positive engagement with teachers and peers, whereas inhibitory control was associated with positive task engagement and negative engagement. We also found that negative engagement as composited by conflicts with teachers and peers and off-task behaviors mediated the association between fall inhibitory control with spring vocabulary and inhibitory control. Practice or Policy: Together, these findings suggest the critical role of individual classroom experiences in explaining children's vocabulary and inhibitory control development.

Previous research suggests that the ways in which early childhood classrooms are organized may facilitate children's language learning. However, different measures of classroom organization often yield inconsistent findings regarding child outcomes. In this study, we investigated multiple aspects of classroom organization across two time points in classrooms where children made varying language gains. Using a purposeful sample of 60 early childhood classrooms, 30 in which children made higher language gains and 30 in which children made lower language gains, we explored the organization of the physical classroom literacy environment, classroom management, classroom time, and classroom activities. Research Findings: Results indicated that the organization of classroom time and classroom activities, but not of the classroom literacy environment nor of classroom management, differed across classrooms. Differences between classrooms were particularly salient in the fall. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest similarities and differences in the organizational patterns of classrooms, both at the start of the school year and across time. This has implications for how early childhood classrooms are organized to facilitate children's language learning and highlights the importance of supporting teachers with establishing classroom organization early in the school year. Furthermore, these results emphasize the value of using multiple measures when exploring classroom organization. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED621955.]

This study examined the links between classroom skill compositions and preschoolers' early learning and development in the nationally representative Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014 (FACES, n = 1,711 children/207 classrooms) and public pre-K programs in a county in Virginia (n = 1,467 children/123 classrooms). Results from a series of covariate-adjusted multilevel regression models revealed that there were small within-domain associations between classmates' skill mean and individual children's academic and executive function skill development in FACES, but not in the Virginia data. There were no consistent associations across skill domains nor as a function of classmates skills' heterogeneity. In addition, we found little evidence that these associations between classroom skill compositions and individual children's development varied by children's initial skill levels, family income, maternal education, and home language. When taken together, these findings inform the discourse on peer influences on children's learning in early childhood.

Peer isolation poses risks to children's social-emotional and academic development, contributing to internalizing and externalizing problems and school adjustment difficulties. To deepen scholarly understandings of peer isolation in early classroom settings, the current study examined the co-occurrence of child characteristics associated with isolation, including children's language ability, executive function, social skills, aggression, and peer victimization. The sample included 1,275 children in 94 classrooms from preschool to grade three. Using a peer-nomination task, 254 children were identified as isolates who were at the bottom quartile on the "play most" peer nominations. Among the isolates, a multilevel latent profile analysis identified four heterogeneous profiles: "low executive function," "victimized and low social skills," "aggressive and victimized," and "average." These profiles were compared regarding children's language and social skills from the fall to the spring of the academic year. The findings caution against using a one-size-fits-all strategy to support the development of isolated children.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government-mandated shutdowns disrupted schooling, socialization, and family life for school-aged children during spring 2020. These disruptions may have contributed to increased child behavior problems. Thus, we examined behavior problems in 247 children aged 7 to 9?years during Ohio's shutdown period. We investigated whether differences in parent-reported child behavior problems were associated with concurrent parent distress during spring 2020 and/or children's social-emotional skills measured via teacher-reports from the previous year (spring 2019). Parent distress significantly predicted behavior problems, such that more distressed parents also reported more child behavior problems. Child pre-pandemic peer social skills also significantly predicted behavior problems, such that more skilled children exhibited fewer behavior problems. There were no interaction effects between parent distress and children's social-emotional skills on child behavior problems. Further research is needed to understand how children's social-emotional skills impact their ability to cope during times of epidemiological crisis.

Recent research has shown that the age composition of preschool classrooms influences children's early learning. Building on prior research, this study examines whether the association between classroom age composition and children's learning and development vary based on classroom quality and teacher characteristics using a subset of the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a nationally representative sample of 3- and 4-year-old children attending Head Start (n = 2,829). Results revealed that the association between age composition and children's academic skills was dependent on classroom quality and that classroom quality was less predictive of children's skills in mixed-age classrooms. Teacher education but not experience also moderated the influence of age composition such that mixed-age classrooms taught by a teacher with higher education were not associated with decreased literacy gains among older children.

We Learn Together is a 20-week, low-cost infant/toddler school-readiness intervention developed to provide instructional content and supportive tools for teachers to be more explicit and intentional in interactions with children to support early development. Short-term effects were established in a previously published real-world effectiveness randomized controlled trial. In the present quasi-experimental study, we examined the extent to which the effects remained approximately 1 year after the intervention. Because the original control group eventually also got the intervention, we compared mandatory municipal language assessment outcomes of 2,327 children in the treatment group to matched nontreatment children. The intervention effect was maintained at similar magnitudes at the 1-year follow-up for oral language skills (effect sizes = 0.09–0.14), and spillover effects were found for rhyming skills (effect size = 0.12). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: The amount of time and type of program that children experience in early childhood settings may be associated with children's kindergarten-entry skills, or kindergarten readiness. Taking a person-centered perspective, in the present study, we examined the extent to which reliable and unique profiles of early childhood experiences among a heterogeneous group of preschool children could be identified (N = 422). Based on parent reports of children's early education experiences in the year before kindergarten, three distinct profiles were identified. The three groups (Part-Time Head Start, Public Preschool and Other Care Programs, and Full-Time Head Start) significantly differed based on family and child characteristics. Children in the Public Preschool and Other Care Programs profile resided in families with greater maternal educational levels and incomes, and were more likely to be white than children in the other profiles. However, differences in children's kindergarten readiness by profile were not observed. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that time spent in different care arrangements was not associated with children's kindergarten readiness. It is important for future work to examine other factors, such as quality of care, that may promote children's learning across settings. [For the grantee submission, see ED614471.]

Combining work while attending college is a common strategy for youth with limited financial means to pursue postsecondary education. However, we know relatively little about the socioeconomic contexts behind the different work and school decisions and whether the meaning of each work and school experience vary by different socioeconomic backgrounds. Following a national sample of young adults, this study explored how personal financial responsibilities and parental social support are associated with employment or enrollment in college and youths' perceived relevance of them for their prospective careers. Youths' personal financial responsibilities were associated with higher odds of working only and combining school and work, compared to attending college only. Youths' personal financial responsibilities were positively linked to the career relevance of their work and school experiences, but only when they were experiencing low parental social support.

Youth receive inadequate treatment for their behavioral health conditions (BHCs; e.g., ADHD, Depression, Anxiety), with only 20% of youth with diagnoses receiving treatment for their condition (American Academy of Pediatrics, [...], Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the preliminary feasibility and acceptability of screening for family functioning in a family medicine setting, and secondarily to explore differences in parent-child dyad interest in behavioral health service utilization by demographics, pediatric behavioral symptoms, and pediatric QOL. Method: The McMaster Family Assessment Device General Functioning subscale was used to assess family functioning among 58 parent-child (ages 11-26) dyads in family medicine. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed through study interest and participation and interest and attendance in behavioral health services. Associations with interest in services, Child Behavior Checklist, Pediatric QOL Inventory, and select demographics were conducted using independent samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests. Results: Fifty-eight parent-child dyads participated in the study. Close to half of dyads who expressed interest in the survey completed the assessment (46%). Dyads who completed the assessment had a family functioning impairment rate of 45%, and 54% of dyads with impairment expressed interest in services. Interest in services was significantly associated with several domains of childrens' behavioral health symptoms and pediatric QOL, but no demographics. Discussion: Dyads experienced high rates of clinically significant family functioning impairment, without interest in receiving colocated behavioral health services. Future research should continue to explore how family functioning assessment can be utilized to identify child behavioral health symptoms broadly and engage families in colocated behavioral health services. Public Significance Statement The present study can be used to indicate that family functioning should be screened for in family medicine, since parent-child dyads in family medicine experience high rates of clinically significant family functioning impairment. Additionally, interest in utilizing services was significantly associated with incongruent family functioning impairment reporting by dyad, higher child behavioral health symptoms, and lower pediatric quality of life. Keywords: family functioning, psychosocial screening, family medicine, integrated care

This study provides a broad, macro-analysis of how the home literacy environment (HLE) manifests among Mayan families with preschool-aged children in Yucatan, Mexico. Despite a substantial body of work showing the significant contribution of the HLE to children's reading achievement in the U.S., little work examines the HLE and children's learning outside of European American contexts. The aims of the present study were to examine the dimensions of the HLE in Mayan communities in the Yucatan Peninsula and whether the HLE was related to children's emergent-literacy skills. Mayan caregivers (n = 413) completed questionnaires asking about their literacy practices and beliefs. Children completed direct assessments of their emergent-literacy skills. Research Findings: Results indicated there were two dimensions of the HLE and there was substantial variability in the frequency of home literacy activities reported. Further, aspects of the HLE were related to children's emergent literacy. Practice or Policy: The variability of the HLE and the associations with children's emergent literacy has practical implications for the support of literacy development in these communities. For instance, increased parent involvement in children's education may increase literacy materials and activities in the home.

Research Findings: The classroom physical literacy environment is a malleable and domain-specific contributor to children's emergent literacy acquisition. However, what shapes the physical literacy environment remains unclear. In this study, we drew on a sample of 895 4-year-olds across 223 classrooms from the Professional Development Study and tested the role of classroom age composition in shaping the physical literacy environment. Additionally, we examined the extent to which the physical literacy environment explained the associations between classroom age composition and emergent literacy outcomes. We found that classrooms with a higher proportion of younger children (2- or 3-year-olds) provide less book use, writing materials, and writing around the room. Notably, the lack of writing displayed around the room served as one potential reason why 4-year-olds demonstrate smaller gains in expressive language skills in these classrooms. Practice or Policy: Together, these findings highlight the need for investing in the classroom physical literacy environment to ensure that it meets the needs of all children in mixed-age classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As early childhood education programming expands across the globe, there is an increased need to understand how features of these programs influence children's development. The composition of children's age within a classroom is one such feature, although it is much less studied than other features. Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that children's development may be influenced by the age range of their classmates. This study examines the relations between classroom age variability on children's vocabulary development for 2,743 children between the ages of two years, nine months, and six years, 11 months enrolled in early childhood education settings in Denmark. Findings indicate a significant nonlinear relationship between the range of child age within a classroom and children's vocabulary development, such that classrooms with a maximum age range of 24 months were associated with the greatest gains in vocabulary growth. Results give direction to policy efforts focused on expansion of early childhood education programming.