Method: Sixteen Kindergarten and Year 1 teachers (four from enclosed classrooms, three from double classrooms, six from triple classrooms, and three from a Kindergarten-to-Year 6 classroom) completed a questionnaire about their teaching background and style, the demographics of the children in their class, how they perceive the classroom listening environment, what internal and external noise s...

A growing number of studies demonstrate associations among false-belief understanding (FBU), executive function (EF), and social competence. This study extends previous studies by exploring longitudinal associations among FBU and its correlates within a low-income sample of preschoolers attending Head Start. Sixty-eight children (time 1 mean age = 5 years 2 months) were assessed over their pres...

OBJECTIVES.Many adults mention past incidences of verbal abuse by the teacher as the most overwhelming negative experience in their lives. The present study examined (1) the course and stability of verbal abuse by the teacher from kindergarten through grade 4 and (2) the link between verbal abuse by the teacher and children’s behavioral, emotional, and academic adjustment. DESIGN. Participants ...

BACKGROUND There is concern about the lack of diversity in children's diets, particularly low intakes of fruit and vegetables and high intakes of unhealthy processed food. This may be a factor in the rising prevalence of obesity. A reason for the lack of diversity in children's diets may be food neophobia. This study aimed to promote a healthy and varied diet among toddlers in kindergarten. The...

BACKGROUND Physical activity and motor skills acquisition are of high importance for health-related prevention and a normal development in childhood. However, few intervention studies exist in preschool children focussing on an increase in physical activity and motor skills. Proof of positive effects is available but not consistent. METHODS/DESIGN The design, curriculum, and evaluation strate...

This study examined the associations between parenting styles, teacher interactional styles, and children's reading and spelling skills. The sample consisted of 864 Finnish-speaking children and their parents (864 mothers, 864 fathers) and teachers (N=123). Children's risk for reading disabilities and reader status were assessed in kindergarten. Children were also tested on reading and spelling...

Temporal processing deficit could be associated with a specific difficulty in learning to read. In 1951, Stambak provided preliminary evidence that children with dyslexia performed less well than good readers in reproduction of 21 rhythmic patterns. Stambak's task was administered to 1,028 French children aged 5-6 years. The score distribution (from 0 to 21) was quasi-normal, with some children...

Data were analyzed from a population-based, longitudinal sample of 8,650 U.S. children to (a) identify factors associated with or predictive of oral vocabulary size at 24 months of age and (b) evaluate whether oral vocabulary size is uniquely predictive of academic and behavioral functioning at kindergarten entry. Children from higher socioeconomic status households, females, and those experien...

Since the mid-1990s, three states, including Oklahoma, have established a universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program. We analyze the effects of Oklahoma's universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program for four-year-olds on children in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS). The main difficulty with testing the causal impact of a voluntary pre-K program is that certain parents are more likely to select pre-K, ...

In this study we used data on a sample of children in the Chicago Public Schools in areas of concentrated poverty-related disadvantage to examine associations between school climate and low-income children's language/literacy and math skills during the transition to kindergarten. We also explored whether teacher-child closeness moderated these associations. Multilevel modeling analyses conducte...