This longitudinal study combined, in a single study, different aspects of children's knowledge about mental phenomena and thus could investigate relations among the development of language, theory of mind, and later metamemory. In total, 183 German children were tested at ages 3, 4, and 5. Each time of testing included a set of theory-of-mind…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the quality of childcare and experience with otitis media (middle ear disease) as they relate to children's early naturalistic language development. Sixty children were followed longitudinally from childcare entry in the first year of life until three years of age. Half the children…

Campus administrators need to have a good understanding of strategies that work with diverse populations they serve. In this paper, the authors share a research-based intervention from a longitudinal randomized trial study funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The intervention is Story Retelling and Higher…

The use of four types of psychological state words (physiological, emotional, desire, and cognitive) during mother-child play sessions at ages 3, 4, and 5 years was examined in 30 children diagnosed with delayed expressive language at 24-31 months and 15 age-matched comparison children with typical development. The children's mean length of…

The English second language development of 19 children (mean age at outset = 5 years, 4 months) from various first language backgrounds was examined every 6 months for 2 years, using spontaneous language sampling, parental questionnaires, and a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Results showed that the children's mean mental age equivalency…

The hypothesis that native language (L1) proficiency promotes English acquisition and overall academic achievement, a key theoretical assumption underlying bilingual education, was tested using latent growth modeling of data from 899 limited-English-proficient (LEP) eighth graders who were followed for 12 years in the National Education…

Afrikaans and Sesotho are two of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa. Data on the acquisition of these languages are scarce. It is interesting to compare the acquisition of the two languages because they are very different in grammatical structure. In addition, cultural differences may possibly be visible in the style of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of preschool on children's school readiness in connection with their intellectual abilities, language competence and parents' education. The sample included 219 children from 68 to 83 months old attending the first year of primary school, differentiated by whether or not they had attended…

Problematic assessment and intervention issues present substantial challenges when making educational decisions for deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students who are experiencing reading difficulties. These students present a diverse set of language acquisition skills, hearing ability, and orientation to early school learning activities that are…

English language learners (ELLs) constitute one of the fastest growing subpopulations of students in the United States. It is important to determine whether the assessments used by states in determining students' proficiencies are valid and fair for ELLs. This study focused on several standards-based assessments in mathematics and science…

Learning new languages potentially gives people vital skills to build more successful relationships, and understanding the social influences at work today may help us to know which type of language education is most beneficial. This article explores three social influences--globalisation, localisation and glocalisation--from the perspective of…

The evidence of a general achievement gap, and more specifically, a reading gap between African American students and White students is a well documented and alarming phenomenon (Chatterji, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2004, 2007; Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin & Heilig, 2005; Fishback & Baskin, 1991; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Haycock, 2001;…

The awareness and knowledge of developmental milestones among health practitioners need to be enhanced to better enable early identification and intervention with children who have delays in development, intellectual deficit, and developmental disabilities and are residents in low-and middle-income countries. To meet this end, a simple one-page…

Viewing language acquisition as the product of a biased learner who takes advantage of the information available from a variety of sources in his or her environment, this book provides a new way of thinking about the process of language comprehension. The analysis in the book borrows insights from theories about the development of mental models,…

Research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on foreign language learning (FLL), often regarded as different and separate fields of inquiry, are compared in a brief review of literature. Perceptions about the scopes and characteristics of the research are examined. Concerns about the relationship between SLA research and theory and…