Research Findings: The classroom physical literacy environment is a malleable and domain-specific contributor to children's emergent literacy acquisition. However, what shapes the physical literacy environment remains unclear. In this study, we drew on a sample of 895 4-year-olds across 223 classrooms from the Professional Development Study and…

Research Findings: This study compared the peer interaction patterns in mixed-age and same-age Chinese preschool classrooms using videotaped behavioral observations. A total of 179 children (ages 3-6) from three mixed-age classes and three same-age classes were involved in this study. A total of 170 valid videos were obtained, including 85 videos…

Research Findings: Evidence suggests that teachers are effective at improving the social and emotional readiness of low-income children. However, few measures are available to assess teachers' use of specific social-emotional practices within their classrooms. This paper compares an observational measure of teachers' social-emotional practices,…

Examined how preschoolers' experiences with mixed-age peers in family child care homes affect development. Found that interaction with younger and same-age peers was associated with less complex social and cognitive play and lower receptive language scores. Interaction with older peers was related to more complex cognitive play. The setting…

Studied the longitudinal stability of measures of peer acceptance, social status, and social reputation and the role of children's ages relative to classmates during the transition from same-age kindergarten to mixed-age ungraded primary classes. Found that overall peer acceptance and aggressive social reputation were moderately stable. Half of…