Socioeconomic disparities in early language are widespread and have long-lasting effects. The aim of this study is to investigate when social gaps in language problems arise and how they change across the first years of schooling. We address this question in two large longitudinal Norwegian datasets: the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental…

Can early childhood education (ECE) support the societal language development of children from linguistically diverse backgrounds? This study examined how existing variation in classroom interaction quality (CLASS Pre-K), classroom composition (percentages of children from low-income backgrounds and dual language learners [DLLs]), and duration of…

This study aimed to examine the unique and joint contributions of behavioral and emotional self-regulation to key but understudied emergent literacy and early social skills, disentangling sex-differentiated paths. The participants were 231 Portuguese preschoolers (50% boys; M[subscript age] = 59.5 months; SD = 8.5) enrolled in 47 classrooms. In…

The current study was designed to determine whether classroom quality (i.e., the quality of teacher--child interactions) served as a mediator of peer effects with respect to preschool children's gain in language skills over an academic year. Participants were 670 preschool-age children (64.6% boys; "M" = 4 years, 4 months, "SD"…

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…

This study used the FACES 2009 cohort to examine the effect of classroom language diversity on the social-emotional development (defined as social skills, approaches to learning, and behavior problems) of the ELL and non-ELL children. A three-level hierarchical linear modeling in which time was nested within the child and the child was nested…

A person-centered approach was used to explore how preschool school readiness profiles predict Grade 3 academic performance among a large (N = 43,044) low-income, ethnically-diverse longitudinal sample of children. Study aims: (a) determine the number and type of preschoolers' school readiness profiles, (b) determine how profile membership relates…

Many preschool language-focused interventions attempt to boost language and literacy skills in young children at risk in these areas of development, though the long-term effects of such interventions are not well-established. This study investigated kindergarten language and reading skills, specifically the subcomponents of vocabulary, decoding,…

Does making an inference lead to better learning than being instructed directly? Two experiments evaluated preschoolers' ability to learn new words, comparing their memory for words learned via inference or instruction. On Inference trials, one familiar and one novel object was presented and children were asked to "Point at the [object name (i.e.,…

Read It Again (RIA) is a curriculum for pre-kindergarten (pre-K) classrooms that targets children's development of language and literacy skills. A cluster randomized trial was conducted in which 104 pre-K classrooms in the Appalachian region of the United States were randomly assigned to one of three study conditions: Control (n = 30), RIA only…

MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is a teacher professional development program designed to improve the quality of teacher-child interactions in pre-kindergarten classrooms and children's language and literacy development. The program includes language/literacy activities and two Web-based resources--video exemplars of effective interactions and…

This article compares regression modeling and propensity score analysis as different types of statistical techniques used in addressing selection bias when estimating the impact of two-year versus one-year Head Start on children's school readiness. The analyses were based on the national Head Start secondary dataset. After controlling for…

This study examined associations between quality of social and physical environments in preschools and children's development of academic, language, and literacy skills, and the extent to which preschool quality moderated the associations between child risk and development. Participants were a diverse sample of 540 four-year-old children in…