This paper uses meta-analytic techniques to estimate the separate effects of the starting age, program duration, and persistence of impacts of early childhood education programs on children's cognitive and achievement outcomes. It concentrates on studies published before the wide scale penetration of state-pre-K programs. Specifically, data are…

Purpose: This study investigates the heritability of language, speech, and nonverbal cognitive development of twins at 4 and 6 years of age. Possible confounding effects of twinning and zygosity, evident at 2 years, were investigated among other possible predictors of outcomes. Method: The population-based twin sample included 627 twin pairs and 1…

Do children who go on to develop dyslexia show normal verbal and nonverbal development before reading onset? According to the aptitude-achievement discrepancy model, dyslexia is defined as a discrepancy between intelligence and reading achievement. One of the underlying assumptions is that the general cognitive development of children who fail to…

We review the development of the Jamaican home visiting intervention for children under 4 years and its evidence base. The intervention has focused on supporting mothers to promote the development of their children through interacting in a responsive way, labelling the environment and activities. The curriculum is structured and cognitively…

Background: Girls with fragile X syndrome (FXS) have a wide range of cognitive and language abilities. The range of language outcomes experienced by girls with FXS, however, has been relatively unexplored. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine receptive and expressive language, with a focus on vocabulary and syntax, in a group of…

There are few long-term follow-up studies of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who attended intensive intervention programmes in their pre-school years. Thirty-six children with ASD enrolled in relatively intensive, specialist pre-school programmes (minimum of 15 h intervention per week for 2 years at a mean age of 3.4 years) were…

Background: Several authors have highlighted areas of overlap in symptoms and impairment among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with specific language impairment (SLI). By contrast, loss of language and broadly defined regression have been reported as relatively specific to autism. We compare the incidence of language loss…

Many studies have shown that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have had early indicators of language delay. The aim of the present study was to examine the cognitive profile of school age children referred to a specialist clinic for ASD, ADHD, or both, and relate this profile…

The study investigated whether young children's health status is significantly related to their performance on measures of intelligence, language, and behavior, as well as parents' concerns, stress, and perceptions of their children's development. One hundred twelve 3 to 5 year-old children, recruited from a large pediatric practice and three…

Acquiescence, the tendency to respond affirmatively regardless of the content of a question, was examined in 57 mentally retarded children (11 to 17 years old) and 91 nonretarded children (3 to 8 years old). Embedded within the standard interview schedule for both samples were two pairs of oppositely worded questions on the same topic.…

Reviews studies comparing short- and long-term effects of language-based socially and cognitively interactive play enrichment in day care and the home during infancy. Found that both day care and home children experiencing intervention advanced to high levels of language and cognitive functioning compared to control children. Advantages of home…

The practice of cognitive referencing to determine the presence of a specific language impairment (SLI) and eligibility for services is questioned by a study which compared the variability of the IQ scores of children with specific language impairment over time. The study found high IQ variability, suggesting that IQs reflect current abilities…

This paper reports on a 14-year follow-up study of two developmentally retarded Japanese children, a brother and sister, who had been kept shut up in a small shack before being rescued (at ages 5 and 6 respectively). Following birth they consistently suffered malnutrition, maternal deprivation, social isolation from adults, language deprivation,…

This document is the first year's report of a continuing study of the effects of two Head Start preschool experimental programs. Subjects were children from poverty areas in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Seven teachers who were most opposed to a Bereiter-Engelmann type highly academic structured program were assigned to Group I; and seven teachers least…