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: This study examined the dual language development and experience of the understudied Chinese dual language learners (DLLs). Twice in the preschool/pre-k year (about 4 months apart), we assessed 39 Chinese 3- and 4-year-old DLLs' receptive vocabularies in English and Chinese, interviewed 37 parents about the language use and…

Research Findings: The importance of self-regulation for children's successful academic performance has led to greatly increased interest in this topic in recent years. However, less is known about the interrelations among self-regulatory processes across different contexts. The present study investigated the structure of self-regulation in young…

The majority of early education programs promote children's learning through a mix of experiences in child- and teacher-managed contexts. The current study examined time spent in child- and teacher-managed contexts and the nature of children's experiences with teachers in these contexts as they relate to children's skill development. Participants…

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…