Solving word problems is challenging for many children, but particularly for those with language difficulties. The objective was to examine the nature of the challenges experienced by children with language difficulties as they solved word problems in the context of a developmental-trajectory instructional sequence. We recruited 45 third graders…

Developmental delays in cognitive flexibility early in elementary school can potentially increase vulnerability for subsequent externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. The first goal of the current study was to identify latent subgroups of children characterized by different developmental trajectories of cognitive flexibility throughout…

Concentrated pockets of under-resourced neighbourhoods and schools exist in urban areas in which there are overwhelming numbers of children labelled 'at-risk.' Structural equation modelling was used to predict the associations between family social capital in kindergarten and third-grade learning and development outcomes for low-socioeconomic…

Background: This study examined how children's ability to understand what they read on screens is impacted by two specific digital features: hovering hyperlinks and scrolling. Methods: The participants were 75 English-speaking children (M = 9.90 years, SD = 0.90 years) in Grades 3 to 5 who participated in an online research study. Using a…

The purpose of this longitudinal study is to investigate the association between poor language skills in toddlers and later reading skills. In contrast to earlier research, the present study used an authentic assessment of language skills conducted by staff in early childhood education and care as a tool for early identification. The participants…

The present study examined whether literacy difficulties in both grades 2 and 3 are associated with social and generalized anxiety within the school environment in grade 5 and if children with different literacy difficulties differ in anxiety levels compared to typically developing children in grade 5 after controlling for inattention. Sixty-nine…

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have challenges in reading comprehension, especially when implicit information in narrative texts is involved. Three interrelated factors influencing reading comprehension have been proposed to explain these challenges: Theory of Mind -- ToM; executive functions -- EF; and central coherence -- CC.…

The current study examines the extent to which associations between internalizing problems, body mass index (BMI), and language skills from early (36 months) to late childhood (fifth grade) are due to relatively stable between-child differences, time-specific correlations, or cross-lagged paths. Data from the NICHD study, Early Child Care and…

This ethnographic study explores the ways that third grade children "story" in school through an expanded writers' workshop enhanced with making and filmmaking. This immersive maker literacies workshop will examine how children use a makerspace to imagine, create, play, and share their own "made" characters and create films to…

This study explored the relationship between mental health, i.e., depression and anxiety, and reading difficulties (RD) in Chinese elementary school children. Participants were 1535 grades 3, 4, and 5 students from three elementary schools in Xi'an, China. Children with and without RD were compared to their depression and anxiety. Additionally,…

The present study examined whether and how early cognitive flexibility, metalinguistic awareness, including phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA), Chinese word reading (CWR), and listening comprehension (LC) influenced Chinese children's later reading comprehension. In total, 153 Chinese children were recruited. Path…

Several cross-linguistic studies found that oral reading prosody (i.e., prosodic variations in reading aloud) correlates with reading comprehension. As an extension, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between oral reading prosody and beyond word-level reading abilities in tone languages like Mandarin. One hundred and nine…

This study aims to explore the specific contributions of derivational, inflectional, and compounding morphological awareness to reading comprehension through decoding and syntactic awareness. A total of 181 Grade 3 and 4 Chinese primary school children learning English as a second language in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results of…

This study examined the longitudinal changes in kindergarten demographics and child outcomes by comparing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K) 1998 and 2011 cohorts. Results demonstrated that there were significant changes in kindergarten in general and with regard to FDK and HDK schedules between 1998 and 2011. These…

Early purposes of education in the United States concentrated on preparing young citizens to understand democratic principles in order to participate in their democratic communities. Today elementary instruction has contracted in response to years of high stakes accountability measures. Social studies has not been a focus of federal accountability…