Most U.S. preschoolers have consumed media created with funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Ready To Learn (RTL) initiative, which was established to promote school readiness among children ages 2-8. Synthesizing data from 45 evaluations (N = 24,624 unique child participants), this meta-analysis examined the effects of RTL media…

Bilingual children's reading as a function of age of first bilingual language exposure (AoE) was examined. Bilingual (varied AoE) and monolingual children (N = 421) were compared in their English language and reading abilities (6-10 years) using phonological awareness, semantic knowledge, and reading tasks. Structural equation modeling was applied…

The present study explored the environmental and genetic etiologies of the longitudinal relations between prereading skills and reading and spelling. Twin pairs (n = 489) were assessed before kindergarten (M = 4.9 years), post-first grade (M = 7.4 years), and post-fourth grade (M = 10.4 years). Genetic influences on five prereading skills (print…

Followed development of children at family risk for dyslexia from 3 years to 8 years. Found that 66 percent of high-risk group had reading disabilities at age 8 compared with only 13 percent in a control group. However, family risk of dyslexia was continuous. Interpreted findings within a model in which problems in establishing a phonological…