This study assessed the extent to which executive functions (EF), according to their factor structure in 5-year-olds (N = 244), influenced early quantity-number competencies, arithmetic fluency, and mathematics school achievement throughout first and second grades. A confirmatory factor analysis resulted in updating as a first, and inhibition and…

Many assume that cognitive and linguistic processes, such as semantic knowledge (SK) and self-regulation (SR), subserve learned skills like reading. However, complex models of interacting and bootstrapping effects of SK, SR, instruction, and reading hypothesize reciprocal effects. Testing this "lattice" model with children (n = 852)…

The present study followed a sample of first-grade (N = 316, M[subscript age] = 7.05 at first test) through fourth-grade students to evaluate dynamic developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Using latent change score modeling, competing models were fit to the repeated measurements of vocabulary knowledge and…

One hundred and ten English-speaking children schooled in French were followed from kindergarten to Grade 2 (M[subscript age]: T1 = 5;6, T2 = 6;4, T3 = 6;11, T4 = 7;11). The findings provided strong support for the Home Literacy Model (Sénéchal, M., 2002) because in this sample the home language was independent of the language of instruction. The…

Panel mediation models and fixed-effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = 0.39 year) across kindergarten through…

Although the research literature regarding language growth trajectories is burgeoning, the shape and direction of English Language Learners' (ELLs) language growth trajectories are largely not known. This study used growth curve modeling to determine the shape of ELLs' language growth trajectories across 12,248 oral narrative language samples…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

This study identified mechanisms through which child-mother attachment security at 36 months was associated with mother- and teacher-reported friendship quality at 3rd grade. Data from a subsample of 1,071 children (536 boys) participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth…

Two studies address the sequence of understandings evident in preschoolers' developing theory of mind. The first, preliminary study provides a meta-analysis of research comparing different types of mental state understandings (e.g., desires vs. beliefs, ignorance vs. false belief). The second, primary study tests a theory-of-mind scale for…