Past research has established that children typically learn better from live demonstrations than from two-dimensional (2D) media. In the present set of experiments, we investigated the efficacy of a new 2D learning medium-the self-paced slideshow. A primary goal was to determine whether the "video deficit effect" extended to self-paced…

The purpose of this study was to develop an intervention for 2-year-old children to enhance play and language skills. The intervention was implemented over a 4-week period and included components of reading, modeling, and positive reinforcement of language and play. Specifically, children were read a story and played with a matching toy set.…

Many tests provide users with several different types of scores to facilitate interpretation and description of students' performance. Common examples include raw scores, age- and grade-equivalent scores, and standard scores. However, when used within the context of assessing growth among young children, these scores should not be…

In recent years, the Chinese government has initiated a national plan to universalize quality kindergartens for all age-eligible Chinese children. Kindergarten is the main form of early childhood education and care (ECEC) service across China. However, the government faces two thorny issues on the journey toward realizing educational equity for…

As an aspect of the confluence between schooling and lived experiences, children develop literate identities and build personal theories of literacy. The purpose of this study was to explore the construction or children's literate identity in different contexts. Four children, two from Canada and two from the United States, were interviewed…

The study investigated a relationship between National Board certification and perceived use of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). A self-developed survey, the Early-childhood Teacher Inventory of Practices, was e-mailed to participants. Participants included 246 non-National Board-certified (non-NBCT) and 135 National Board-certified…

This study evaluated the effects of Adapted Reciprocal Teaching (ART) on the receptive and expressive flight-word vocabulary of 1st-grade students. During ART, classroom interactions produced narrative contexts within which students assumed responsibility for applying new flight words in personally meaningful ways. Students in the control group…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the ability of preschool children to take on a perspective, based on their self-perception and gender. A relational survey method was used, with 124 children between ages 5 and 6 participating--74 girls (59.7%) and 50 boys (40.3%). The Self-Perception Scale for Children and Perspective-Taking Test was…

Preschool children listened to a children's storybook about an animal character, with reading being terminated prior to, or after, problem resolution. The children's empathic understanding of how the animal character felt was assessed, and they were then asked to draw, with strength of pressure on the page (as evident on attached carbon copies)…

The Ethiopian government has called for educational improvement, emphasizing the employment of active, student-centered pedagogy. One way of maximizing an interactive learning approach involves blending a cross-age reading buddies program with high-quality, culturally relevant children's literature. Employing descriptive, mixed-method research,…

Taking into consideration the central role played by argumentation in children's culture, comparative studies regarding the relative contribution of peer talk and children-teacher talk to children's argumentative discourse at kindergarten are relatively scarce. In this study, the researchers gathered ethnographic data of natural peer interactions…

This paper examines the predictors and indicators of immigrant children's school achievement, using the two of the most predominant groups of American immigrants (103 Koreans and 100 Mexicans). Regression analyses were conducted to determine which independent variables (acculturation, parenting school involvement, parenting style, parent…

Israeli 1st-grade children in two different schools in the same neighborhood who were using either a gender-stereotyped or a gender-fair basal reader were asked to judge for a series of female-stereotyped, male-stereotyped, and gender-neutral activities whether they were characteristic of females, of males, or of both. Children using the…

This study examined the composition of vocabulary and preschoolers' vocabulary learning in an early literacy program. Fifty-six children with typical achievement, with special needs, and at risk for disabilities participated. Curriculum-based measures (CBM) were used to track children's receptive and expressive vocabulary growth over three…

The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive relationship between the level of symbolic representation in preschoolers' sociodramatic play and reading and mathematics abilities and rate of growth in early elementary grades for children with and without disabilities. The relationship of three aspects of sociodramatic play--symbolic…