The rapid growth of digital devices in recent years has caused significant effects on children's screen time. Advancements in technology usage have a particularly strong impact on children in an era dominated by digital advancements, influencing their education, entertainment, communication, and socialisation, raising concerns about the…

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of kindergarten teachers concerning the skills that demonstrate the five components of readiness as organized by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and to identify which skills kindergarten teachers believe are most important for students to be successful. In November 2023, 136…

Recent findings from the Kids Activity and Learning Study complement North Carolina's multidimensional approach to promoting school readiness by emphasizing the integrated nature of motor and cognitive development in early childhood. Children whose motor skills improved the most over the course of an academic year also tended to demonstrate the…

The development of lexical competence in foreign languages is one of the skills that presents difficulties in the teaching-learning process, as it requires stimulation and retention on the part of the student and creativity from the teacher. In this sense, digital resources emerge as a conducive means to promote new knowledge and consolidate…

The diagnostic characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes challenges in social communication skills. Among different components of social communication, language, particularly vocabulary, must be supported early in children's development as language is shown to be associated with academic, social, cognitive, and adaptive skills and…

Efficient reading is essential for societal participation, so reading proficiency is a central educational goal. Here, we use an individualized diagnostics and training framework to investigate processes in visual word recognition and evaluate its usefulness for detecting training responders. We (i) motivated a training procedure based on the…

High-quality, centre-based education and care during the early years benefit cognitive development, especially in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns, access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) was disrupted. We investigate how this period affected the developmental advantages…

Background: Early childhood is a critical period of language development. Yet less is known about how language growth relates to the development of phoneme awareness and cognitive flexibility during this period. Aims: To examine the longitudinal associations between growth in phonological awareness and cognitive flexibility from 4 to 5 years in…

Background: Understanding memory retention in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) compared with their typically developing (TD) peers enhances our knowledge of memory processes. Aims: To examine long-term memory consolidation of a declarative object-location task and a procedural symbol-writing task, along with grammatical and…

English learners (ELs) are one of America's fastest-growing student groups, and their numbers are most concentrated in the country's Great Cities. In addition, the academic needs of these school children are complex and varied, especially as they are developing knowledge of multiple language systems. This document is continued evidence of how…

Shared book reading in preschool settings plays an influential role in supporting children's oral language and emergent literacy skills. Early childhood teachers can provide high-quality shared book reading experiences using extratextual utterances (reading beyond the story text) to maximise these learning outcomes. We report on the development…

Oral language skills underpin children's educational success and enhance positive life outcomes. Yet, significant numbers of children struggle to develop competence in speaking and listening, especially those from areas of high economic deprivation. A tiered intervention model, graduating the level of provision in line with levels of need, has…

Due to core challenges in social communication experienced by many young children with autism, children on the spectrum who are also dual language learners (DLLs) may benefit from developmentally-appropriate language supports in school settings. The current study examined whether home language status moderated the effect of a play-based…

This research explores into the issues faced by heritage language speakers and learners, a topic gaining increasing relevance as millions of individuals reside outside their country or region of birth for various reasons. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the experiences and proficiency of the heritage language among ethnic…

Purpose: A rich body of evidence has illuminated the importance of caregivers' use of prosody in facilitating young children's language development. Although caregiver-child shared reading has been repeatedly linked to children's language skills, caregiver prosody during shared reading interactions (i.e., oral reading expressiveness) has been…