Using a large sample of longitudinal assessment data from children in publicly funded infant/toddler care, preschool, and kindergarten (analytic N = 453,468), this study modeled language and literacy trajectories from early infancy through kindergarten for dual language learners (DLLs) from homes representing many different languages and their…

There is a virtual consensus regarding the types of language processes, interactions, and material supports that are central for young children to become proficient readers and writers (Shanahan et al., 2008). In this study, we examine these supports in both home and school contexts during children's critical transitional kindergarten year.…

A multilevel modeling approach was used to investigate the influence of age composition in 70 urban preschool classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models demonstrated that greater variance in classroom age composition was negatively related to development on the Child Observation Record (COR) Cognitive, Motor, and Social subscales. This was…

Developmental changes in the expression of superordinates in children's word definitions were studied with 96 elementary school students. Superordination increased significantly and changed qualitatively with age, although across grades children produced more superordinates for nouns than for adjectives or verbs. (SLD)

Individual growth curves were used to test whether the development of children with reading disabilities is best characterized by models of developmental lag or developmental deficit. Results with 403 children suggest that the developmental course of reading disabilities is best characterized by deficit models. (SLD)

A developmentally sensitive problem-solving task--the 20-Question Game--was used to examine development and treatment variables among 48 learning disabled and 48 normal boys at two age levels (8-13 years old). Results indicate that both younger boys and learning disabled boys demonstrated less efficient problem-solving skills than did others. (TJH)

In the continuation of an earlier study, 69 high school students who had completed an epistemological beliefs questionnaire in 1992 completed the questionnaire again as seniors in 1995. Beliefs in fixed ability to learn, simple knowledge, quick learning, and certain knowledge changed as they grew older. (SLD)

The developing relationship between children's metacognition and reading comprehension was examined for 87 third and 84 fifth graders. Students using the experimental curriculum--Informed Strategies for Learning--made significant gains in metacognition and the use of reading strategies when compared with control students. (TJH)

This study examined the ability of writers at two ages and three ability levels in generating textually-consistent superordinate main ideas and subordinate details for three types of text structures. Subjects were 62 third and 61 sixth graders. Analyses revealed significant main effects for grade, ability, and text type. (TJH)

Subsyllabic awareness was investigated with a word synthesis task completed by 96 children in kindergarten, first, and second grade. Evidence supports a developmental trend that shows performance improved with each grade. Children blended speech segments more easily when the segments were the syllable onset and rime. (SLD)

Four experiments involving 101 first and third graders investigated developmental changes in children's knowledge about the types of strategies that are appropriate for achieving goals of comprehension or memorization. Only third graders distinguished between comprehension and memory by consistently selecting the appropriate strategy. (SLD)

Differences in component processing skills of students of different ages and developmental changes over 1 year were studied for 96 students in grades 2 through 4 and 59 of them in a follow-up. Results trace the development of component processing skills and suggest a theory of the development of component skills. (SLD)

In a cross-sectional study of 95 kindergartners and 89 second graders, confirmatory factor analysis of a battery of phonological and control tasks was used to compare models of young readers' phonological processing abilities. Results suggest that phonological abilities are best conceptualized as relatively stable and coherent individual…

Eighty middle-class, ethnically diverse kindergarten (n=40) and fourth-grade (n=40) students rated their current academic competence and predicted their future academic attainment. Results suggest that developmental change in children's judgments about their competence must be understood in terms of interaction between age and classroom…

Effects of task demands, age, and skill level on memory and metamemory performance were examined for 62 average and 66 low-achieving learning-disabled children. Memory improved with age and skill level, and strategic metamemory revealed age and skill-level differences, but taxonomic metamemory revealed age differences in the average group only.…