This study assessed 266 young children's (mean age = 55.41 months, SD = 4.70 month) writing skills (name writing and letter writing), and decoding skills (letter knowledge, letter-word identification, and phonological awareness), and investigated whether children learn letter writing from their own names, and whether children's gender is related…

Research consistently documents that girls outperform boys in literacy achievement, yet, when considering the starting point--early literacy--we do not have consensus on the origin, meaningful nature, or persistence of such differences. In this two-part study analyzing 5,816 Norwegian students (48.1% girls, average age of 6.1 years), we first…

This study reports the dimensionality and measurement invariance of a modified version of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschoolers (PALS PreK). Practical constraints of conducting child assessments created an opportunity to develop a modified PALS PreK. The sample consisted of 1,168 children tested in a Southwestern state in…

The purpose of this study was to identify the types of early reading tasks with which final year (5-6 year olds) Jamaican basic school children are struggling that place them at-risk for reading difficulties. A sample of 409 (224 females, 185 males) children in the final year of basic school were tested using measures of language development,…

Socioeconomic status and gender are important demographic variables that strongly relate to academic achievement. This study examined the early literacy skills differences between 4 sociodemographic groups, namely, boys ineligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL), girls ineligible for FRL, boys eligible for FRL, and girls eligible for FRL.…

In a sample of 128 Canadian junior kindergarten children (66 boys), we examined sex differences in emergent literacy and behaviour when listening to and interacting with books of four types: alphabet books with simple text and illustrations, traditional alphabet books with complex text and illustrations, alphabet eBooks, and illustrated…

The present study investigated the general cognitive determinants of alphabetic letter knowledge. It involved 60 French kindergarten children (mean age: five years six months). Two test batteries were used: the CMS to evaluate general cognitive abilities (memory, attention, and learning), and the LKT to assess letter knowledge and its various…

Identifying and understanding the predictors of preliteracy skills can set the stage for success in a child's academic career. Recent literature has implicated social-emotional competence as a potential component in helping children learn preliteracy skills. To further understand the role of social-emotional competence in preliteracy, the…

Despite the reading research over the past forty years, there is a dearth of research in early literacy skills for Native American students. More specifically, there is a shortage of quantitative research for this population. The purpose of this quantitative causal comparative study was to determine if there is a significant difference in the oral…

This study investigated the relationships between children's home literacy environments and their early hypotheses about printed words in the year prior to entering school. There were 147 children (70 girls and 77 boys: mean age 57 months, range = 47-66 months, standard deviation = 4.5 months) in the study. Results showed that the children had…

We investigated the latent factor structure of the "Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarteners" in Spanish ("PALS español K"). Participants included 590 Spanish-speaking, public-school kindergarteners from five states. Three theoretically-guided factor structures were measured and tested with one half of our…

This study examined the degree to which dimensions of parenting predicted early academic outcomes in a sample of 111 low-income African American children. Three aspects of parenting were assessed when the children were 36 months old: language stimulation, math-related stimulation, and maternal sensitivity. Academic outcomes were assessed at 54…

Psychometric properties of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK) instrument were investigated in a sample of 4,518 children. PALS-PreK figures prominently in state and federal early literacy programs as an assessment of emergent literacy skills in preschool-aged children. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory…

The purpose of this case study was to explore the effects of a literature-based social-emotional learning curriculum on kindergarten students' social-emotional behaviors, awareness, and early reading skills in a large elementary school. The study examined beliefs/perceptions of kindergarten teachers in regards to what reading skills students…

The primary purpose of the current research was to determine whether low-income, high-risk young children's emergent literacy skills, including measures of oral language and letter knowledge, were related to their social competence. Other goals included determining the reliability of a social competence rating scale, the Social Competence…