Research Findings: This study aims to extend our knowledge regarding contributions of educator--child interactions to child language outcomes by examining the extent to which specific dimensions of the CLASS observational tool of educator-child interactions are associated with child language abilities, utilizing data from an Australian…

A sample of 496 early childhood teachers was assigned randomly in two phases to a series of professional development (PD) interventions. Phase I intervention was a 14-week course on effective teacher-child interactions. Participants were then re-randomized into Phase II intervention, which consisted of individual, interactions-focused coaching.…

Research Findings: The parental role in supporting young children's oral language development at home is crucial for children's language and literacy development. However, there is limited expertise in how teachers can support lower-educated parents effectively to enhance their interactions with their children and stimulate the use of language.…

Research Findings: The present study investigates both the proximal processes and contextual influences on children's oral language development in preschool. We examine whether teacher language practices vary across activity settings and program type, which teacher language practices predict children's oral language skills, and potential…

Research findings: Developing adequate socioemotional competencies is of great relevance for later health and academic outcomes. Shared book reading creates valuable social situations that provide opportunities to talk about characters' emotions and social interactions with children and thus might contribute to children's socioemotional…

Research Findings: This study used the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to examine barriers to teachers’ implementation of a supplemental academic language curricula. Despite high satisfaction with this scripted curriculum, three past studies indicated heterogeneity in teachers’ fidelity of implementing the curriculum as well as difficulty…

This article examines similarities and differences in Chilean teachers' competences, which were organized into profiles, and the associations of these profiles with children's language development. Teacher-child interactions were assessed when the children were 12 (n=99) and 30 months old (n=73), using the Adult Sensitivity Scale, the Evaluation…

Narratives have been extensively studied in recent decades, but studies investigating differences and similarities in the narrative features from a cross-cultural or cross-linguistic point of view are limited. This study investigated the narrative language of typically developing monolingual four- and eight-year-old Finnish, Italian and Canadian…

Research Findings: This article examines whether time spent in free choice and teacher-directed activity settings within preschool was associated with indicators of school readiness and the extent to which children's learning was associated with the quality of teachers' behavior within these settings. Participants were 325 preschool teachers and…

Research Findings: A total of 81 children participated in a longitudinal investigation of inhibitory control (IC) from 2 to 4 years of age. Child IC was measured via maternal report and laboratory measures under conditions of conflict and delay. Performance on delay IC tasks at 3 years was related to performance on these same tasks at 2 and…

Research Findings: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of linguistic training based on the use of the Drežancic method in educational settings. It is hypothesized that characteristics of this method, based on the typical stages of linguistic and cognitive development, could influence both language competence and executive function (EF). A…

Research Findings: Artfulness is rarely considered as an indicator of quality in young children's spoken narratives. Although some studies have examined artfulness in the narratives of children 5 and older, no studies to date have focused on the artfulness of preschoolers' oral narratives. This study examined the artfulness of fictional spoken…

Reading to children has been advocated as a way to enhance language and literacy skills (A. G. Bus, M. H. van IJzendoorn, & A. D. Pellegrini, 1995). However, little is known about reading with children under age 3 (K. L. Fletcher & E. Reese, 2005), particularly in at-risk samples (A. van Kleeck, 2003). In the current study of 87 primary caregivers…

Describes articles in special issue as claiming that in learning language children acquire resources to enact culturally sanctioned ways of being and that language-based interactions provide resources for co-constructing reality. Identifies three themes: sensitivity to how participation in social interaction is organized, use of nontraditional…

Research findings: Language development subcontexts within 20 Head Start classrooms were studied by observing teachers' child-directed talk during free play, mealtime, and book reading. In each context, observers coded all child-directed statements, directives, and questions, noted instances of pretend talk and decontextualized talk, and rated the…