Teachers' Use of Scaffolds Within Conversations During Shared Book Reading.

PURPOSE: We studied conversations initiated through teacher questions during shared book reading in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms as these conversations provide opportunities for the teacher to scaffold emerging language skills. This study provides detailed analysis of scaffolding strategies used by teachers after children answered teachers' questions. METHOD: Participants included 93 prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers who read aloud a standard narrative text to their class of students. All the sessions were video-recorded, transcribed, and then coded for conversational turns and teacher scaffolding strategies. RESULTS: Descriptive findings showed great variability in the length of conversations and the extent to which teachers used scaffolding strategies. Most teacher scaffolds matched children's accuracy of response such that they provided support after incorrect responses and provided additional challenge after correct responses. Significant sequential associations were observed between the level of children's response and multiple types of scaffolds (e.g., corrective feedback scaffold after incorrect response; discussing factual questions after a correct response). CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that during shared reading, teachers are responsive to children's answers and are able to provide challenge or support as needed. However, teachers infrequently used scaffolding strategies like causal effects, predictions, and recasts. Given evidence that strategies such as recasts support early language skills, professional development experiences could encourage early childhood teachers to incorporate this and other key scaffolding strategies.

A Categorical Content Analysis of Highly Cited Literature Related to Trends and Issues in Special Education.

This investigation employs categorical content analysis processes as a mechanism to examine trends and issues in a sampling of highly cited (100+) literature in special education journals. The authors had two goals: (a) broadly identifying trends across publication type, content area, and methodology and (b) specifically identifying articles with disaggregated outcomes for students with learning disabilities (LD). Content analyses were conducted across highly cited (100+) articles published during a 20-year period (1992-2013) in a sample ( n = 3) of journals focused primarily on LD, and in one broad, cross-categorical journal recognized for its impact in the field. Results indicated trends in the article type (i.e., commentary and position papers), content (i.e., reading and behavior), and methodology (i.e., small proportions of experimental and quasi-experimental designs). Results also revealed stability in the proportion of intervention research studies when compared to previous analyses and a decline in the proportion of those that disaggregated data specifically for students with LD.

Understanding Risk for Reading Difficulties in Children With Language Impairment.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively examine the preschool language and early literacy skills of kindergarten good and poor readers, and to determine the extent to which these skills predict reading status. Method: Participants were 136 children with language impairment enrolled in early childhood special education classrooms. On the basis of performance on a word recognition task given in kindergarten, children were classified as either good or poor readers. Comparisons were made across these 2 groups on a number of language and early literacy measures administered in preschool, and logistic regression was used to determine the best predictors of kindergarten reading status. Results: Twenty-seven percent of the sample met criterion for poor reading in kindergarten. These children differed from good readers on most of the skills measured in preschool. The best predictors of kindergarten reading status were oral language, alphabet knowledge, and print concept knowledge. Presence of comorbid disabilities was not a significant predictor. Classification accuracy was good overall. Conclusion: Results suggest that risk of reading difficulty for children with language impairment can be reliably estimated in preschool, prior to the onset of formal reading instruction. Measures of both language and early literacy skills are important for identifying which children are likely to develop later reading difficulties.

Uncorrected Hyperopia and Preschool Early Literacy: Results of the Vision in Preschoolers-Hyperopia in Preschoolers (VIP-HIP) Study.

PURPOSE: To compare early literacy of 4- and 5-year-old uncorrected hyperopic children with that of emmetropic children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. PARTICIPANTS: Children attending preschool or kindergarten who had not previously worn refractive correction. METHODS: Cycloplegic refraction was used to identify hyperopia (≥3.0 to ≤6.0 diopters [D] in most hyperopic meridian of at least 1 eye, astigmatism ≤1.5 D, anisometropia ≤1.0 D) or emmetropia (hyperopia ≤1.0 D; astigmatism, anisometropia, and myopia <1.0 D). Threshold visual acuity (VA) and cover testing ruled out amblyopia or strabismus. Accommodative response, binocular near VA, and near stereoacuity were measured. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Trained examiners administered the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (TOPEL), composed of Print Knowledge, Definitional Vocabulary, and Phonological Awareness subtests. RESULTS: A total of 492 children (244 hyperopes and 248 emmetropes) participated (mean age, 58 months; mean ± standard deviation of the most hyperopic meridian, +3.78±0.81 D in hyperopes and +0.51±0.48 D in emmetropes). After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, and parent/caregiver's education, the mean difference between hyperopes and emmetropes was -4.3 (P = 0.01) for TOPEL overall, -2.4 (P = 0.007) for Print Knowledge, -1.6 (P = 0.07) for Definitional Vocabulary, and -0.3 (P = 0.39) for Phonological Awareness. Greater deficits in TOPEL scores were observed in hyperopic children with ≥4.0 D than in emmetropes (-6.8, P = 0.01 for total score; -4.0, P = 0.003 for Print Knowledge). The largest deficits in TOPEL scores were observed in hyperopic children with binocular near VA of 20/40 or worse (-8.5, P = 0.002 for total score; -4.5, P = 0.001 for Print Knowledge; -3.1, P = 0.04 for Definitional Vocabulary) or near stereoacuity of 240 seconds of arc or worse (-8.6, P < 0.001 for total score; -5.3, P < 0.001 for Print Knowledge) compared with emmetropic children. CONCLUSIONS: Uncorrected hyperopia ≥4.0 D or hyperopia ≥3.0 to ≤6.0 D associated with reduced binocular near VA (20/40 or worse) or reduced near stereoacuity (240 seconds of arc or worse) in 4- and 5-year-old children enrolled in preschool or kindergarten is associated with significantly worse performance on a test of early literacy.

School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

BACKGROUND: School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu. AIMS: To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention.

School-readiness profiles of children with language impairment: linkages to home and classroom experiences.

BACKGROUND: This study represents an effort to advance our understanding of the nature of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), a population of children acknowledged to be at risk of poor academic achievement. The academic, social-emotional, and behavioural competencies with which children arrive at kindergarten affect the nature of their future educational experiences, and their overall academic achievement. AIMS: To examine whether there are reliable profiles that characterize children with LI just prior to kindergarten entrance, and the extent to which profile membership is associated with characteristics of children's homes and preschool experiences. Questions addressed were twofold: (1) To what extent are there reliable profiles of children with LI with respect to their school readiness? (2) To what extent is children's profile membership associated with characteristics of their homes and preschool classrooms? METHODS & PROCEDURES: Participants were 136 children with LI from early childhood special education classrooms. We utilized latent class analysis (LCA) to classify individuals into profiles based on individual responses on school readiness measures. We then used multilevel hierarchical generalized linear models to examine the relations between profile membership and children's home/classroom experiences. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: LCA analyses revealed that a four-profile solution was the most appropriate fit for the data and that classroom experiences were predictive of these profiles, such that children in classrooms with more instructional/emotional support were more likely to be placed in profiles characterized by higher school readiness skills. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: These results suggest that the school readiness profiles of young children with LI are associated with the quality of children's classroom experiences, and that high-quality classroom experiences can be influential for ensuring that young children with LI arrive in kindergarten ready to learn.

Language, motor and cognitive development of extremely preterm children: modeling individual growth trajectories over the first three years of life.

UNLABELLED: Survival rate of extremely low gestational age (ELGA) newborns has increased over 80% in the last 15 years, but its consequences on the short- and longer-term developmental competencies may be severe. The aim of this study was to describe growth trajectories of linguistic, motor and cognitive skills among ELGA children, compared to full-term (FT) peers, from the first to the third year of life, a crucial period for development. Growth curve analysis was used to examine individual and group differences in terms of initial status at 12 months and rate of growth through the second and the third year of life with five points of assessment. Twenty-eight monolingual Italian children, of whom 17 were ELGA (mean GA 25.7 weeks) and 11 were FT children, were assessed through the BSID-III at 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months for language skills and at 12, 24 and 30 months for motor and cognitive skills. ELGA children presented significantly lower scores than FT peers in language, motor and cognitive skills and they did not overcome their disadvantage by 3 years, even if their corrected age was taken into account. Concerning growth curves, in motor development a significant increasing divergence was found showing a Matthew effect with the preterm sample falling further behind the FT sample. In linguistic and cognitive development, instead, a stable gap between the two samples was found. In addition, great inter-individual differences in rate of change were observed for language development in both samples. Our findings highlight the theoretical and clinical relevance of analyzing, through growth curve analyses, the developmental trajectories of ELGA children in language skills taking into account their inter-individual variability also across motor and cognitive domains. LEARNING OUTCOMES: After reading this article, the reader will interpret: (a) characteristics and growth trajectories of ELGA children from the first to the third year of life with respect to FT children in language, motor and cognitive development; (b) the method of growth curve analyses to describe group as well as inter-individual trajectories; (c) the rate of inter-individual variability in language as well as motor and cognitive skills, which gives useful indications for early interventions.

Methodological review of the quality of reach out and read: does it "work"?

A considerable percentage of American children and adults fail to learn adequate literacy skills and read below a third grade level. Shared book reading is perhaps the single most important activity to prepare young children for success in reading. The primary objective of this manuscript was to critically review the methodological quality of Read Out and Read (ROR), a clinically based literacy program/intervention that teaches parents strategies to incorporate while sharing books with children as a method of preventing reading difficulties and academic struggles. A PubMed search was conducted. Articles that met three criteria were considered. First, the study must be clinically based and include parent contact with a pediatrician. Second, parental counseling ("anticipatory guidance") about the importance of parent-child book reading must be included. Third, only experimental or quasi-experimental studies were included; no additional criteria were used. Published articles from any year and peer-reviewed journal were considered. Study quality was determined using a modified version of the Downs and Black (1998) checklist assessing four categories: (1) Reporting, (2) External Validity, (3) Internal Validity-Bias, and (4) Internal Validity-Confounding. We were also interested in whether quality differed based on study design, children's age, sample size, and study outcome. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. The overall quality of evidence was variable across all studies; Reporting and External Validity categories were relatively strong while methodological concerns were found in the area of internal validity. Quality scores differed on the four study characteristics. Implications related to clinical practice and future studies are discussed.

The role of frequent, interactive prekindergarten shared reading in the longitudinal development of language and literacy skills.

In this study, we examined the longitudinal relations between frequency and features of reading experiences within the preschool classroom to children's language and literacy outcomes in kindergarten and 1st grade. Frequency refers to the number of shared reading sessions conducted each week as measured by teachers' written reading logs recorded across the academic year. Features refers to teachers' extratextual talk about literal, inferential, or print or phonological topics as assessed by analysis of 6 videotaped readings of narrative and informational texts collected across the preschool year. Participants were 28 preschool teachers and 178 children. The children were largely at risk and randomly selected from among those in each classroom to complete longitudinal assessments. In preschool, results showed that the frequency of classroom shared reading was positively and significantly related to children's receptive vocabulary growth, as was the inclusion of extratextual conversations around the text; only extratextual conversations related to children's preschool literacy growth. There was no evidence of differential influences of these experiences for children; that is, the relationship between frequency or features and children's language and literacy development was not moderated by children's initial skill level. Longitudinally, extratextual talk during preschool shared reading remained associated with children's vocabulary skills through kindergarten, with trends toward significance extending to 1st grade literacy skills. The frequency of preschool shared reading was not a significant predictor of longitudinal outcomes.

Teacher-child relationships, behavior regulation, and language gain among at-risk preschoolers.

Many preschoolers from low socioeconomic-status (SES) backgrounds demonstrate lags in their language development, and preschool participation is viewed as an important means for mitigating these lags. In this study, we investigated how teacher-child relationship quality and children's behavior regulation within preschool classrooms were associated with grammar gain for low-SES preschoolers. Direct child measures and indirect teacher reports were used to assess child language gain, teacher-child relationship quality, and behavior regulation for 173 preschool children enrolled in targeted-enrollment preschool classrooms. Hierarchical linear modeling showed a positive link between close teacher-child relationships and preschoolers' grammar gain during the school year. Interestingly, a significant interaction between conflicted teacher-child relationships and children's behavior regulation indicated that multiple factors are associated with children's language development in the area of grammar. Nurturing classroom environments and strong behavior regulation abilities may act as protective mechanisms for preschoolers from disadvantaged backgrounds.