Both early childhood maternal language input and the quality of classroom instruction in elementary school have been shown to be important environmental supports in predicting children's literacy skill development. However, no studies have simultaneously examined these two environmental supports in relation to children's early language skills and…

Research Findings: Children that experience neglect are at risk for maladaptive outcomes. One potential resource for these children is early childhood education (ECE), but there is currently limited evidence which is compounded by data limitations. This study used data from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-being II (N = 1,385) to…

Purpose: Children with a cleft palate (± cleft lip; CP±L) can have difficulties communicating and participating in daily life, yet speech-language pathologists typically focus on speech production during routine assessments. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; World Health…

We report two experiments on the emission of questions to request the names of unfamiliar stimuli by preschoolers. In the first experiment, 19 preschoolers with and without disabilities served as participants. Experiment 1 was a descriptive analysis of whether or not the 19 participants asked questions about unfamiliar pictures and objects in…

Universal screening of very early school-age children (age 4-7 years) is important for early identification of learning problems that may require enhanced learning opportunity. In this context, use of standardized instruments is critical to obtain valid, reliable, and comparable assessment outcomes. A wide variety of standardized instruments is…

The effects of high- versus low-quality child care during 2 developmental periods (infant-toddlerhood and preschool) were examined using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Propensity score matching was used to account for differences in families who used different combinations of child…

This research investigated the developing inter-relationships between language, graphic symbolism and symbolic play both concurrently and longitudinally from the fourth to the fifth year of childhood. Sixty children ("n"?=?60) aged between 3 and 4?years completed multiple assessments of language and assessments of graphic symbolism,…

Parents' interactions with their children can have influential effects on children's language outcomes. Special supports may be needed however, when young children live in poverty and show developmental delays early in life. This study analyzed data for a subset of children enrolled in Early Head Start (EHS) programs and participating in a…

Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the authors examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, at age 4.5, and in first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as…

Cognitive impairment often follows preterm birth but its early underlying nature is not well understood. We used a novel approach by investigating the development of colour cognition in 54 very preterm children born less than or equal to 30 weeks gestational age without severe neurosensory impairment and 37 age-matched term-born controls, aged 2-5…

Comparison of results obtained for 62 normally developing preschool children on the Bracken Basic Concept Scale, the Preschool Language Scale, and the Slosson Intelligence Test revealed low to moderate correlations between the three tests. Results suggest the tests do not measure the same abilities and thus cannot be used interchangeably. (DB)