Research Findings: The present study investigates both the proximal processes and contextual influences on children's oral language development in preschool. We examine whether teacher language practices vary across activity settings and program type, which teacher language practices predict children's oral language skills, and potential…

Research Findings: The "Early Education Essentials" surveys use teacher and parent perceptions to measure 6 organizational conditions of early childhood education programs, extending and complementing existing measures of early childhood care and education (ECE) quality constructs. This study tests the reliability and concurrent validity…

Research Findings: We present 3 studies that focused on preschoolers' electronic book (e-book) reading in different contexts aimed at supporting children's early literacy. In Study 1 we researched the impact of children's age and number of independent readings on phonological awareness and word reading. We found that all age groups benefited from…

Research Findings: This observational study of preschoolers (N = 140) in their classrooms (N = 41) examined variation in teacher "orienting" (defined as explanations and demonstrations about the procedures and rationale behind activities, including center projects, to the whole group or to individual children) and associations between…

Research Findings: This study investigated the complexity of teacher questions in 14 preschool classrooms serving economically disadvantaged 4-year-olds. The purposes were to explore the frequency and complexity of teacher questions and to determine the extent to which question types varied for different classroom contexts. Using teacher…