Early maternal language input and classroom instructional quality in relation to children's literacy trajectories from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Both early childhood maternal language input and the quality of classroom instruction in elementary school have been shown to be important environmental supports in predicting children's literacy skill development. However, no studies have simultaneously examined these two environmental supports in relation to children's early language skills and later literacy skills across elementary school. The current study examined how multiple years of early maternal language input from 6 to 36 months and later classroom instructional quality from pre-kindergarten (pre-K) through fifth grade were related to children's early language at 36 months and later literacy trajectories in word recognition and reading comprehension across elementary school.

Elementary Teachers' Intervention Fidelity in Relation to Reading and Vocabulary Outcomes for Students at Risk for Reading-Related Disabilities.

Teachers' implementation of differentiated supplemental instruction is critical to help students with or at risk for reading-related disabilities acquire early reading and vocabulary skills. This study represents an initial investigation of whether classroom teachers' intervention fidelity (exposure, adherence, and quality) of targeted reading instruction (TRI, formerly called targeted reading intervention), a professional development program with embedded student intervention and weekly webcam literacy coaching support, was related to spring reading and oral vocabulary gains for students at risk for reading-related disabilities. The study also examined whether teachers' years of participation in TRI (1 year vs.

Examining the Effects of Changes in Classroom Quality on Within-Child Changes in Achievement and Behavioral Outcomes.

This study examines whether changes in classroom quality predict within-child changes in achievement and behavioral problems in elementary school (ages spanning approximately 6-11 years old). Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of children in predominantly low-income, nonurban communities (n = 1,078), we relied on child fixed effects modeling, which controlled for stable factors that could bias the effects of classroom quality. In general, we found that changes in classroom quality had small and statistically nonsignificant effects on achievement and behavior.

Latent Class Growth Trajectories of Letter Name Knowledge During Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten.

A major developmental task for young children in the United States involves the acquisition of knowledge about the letters in the English alphabet. In the current study, we examined the growth trajectories of children's letter name knowledge (LNK) during pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. A diverse sample of 1,015 children was drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning Multi-State Study of Pre-Kindergarten.

Infant and Toddler Child-Care Quality and Stability in Relation to Proximal and Distal Academic and Social Outcomes.

This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. Quality was measured separately as caregiver-child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and stability was measured as having fewer sequential child-care caregivers. This longitudinal examination involved a subsample (N = 1,055) from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in rural counties in the United States.

How Early Maternal Language Input Varies by Race and Education and Predicts Later Child Language.

The maternal language input literature suggests that mothers with more education use a greater quantity and complexity of language with their young children compared to mothers with less education although race and socioeconomic status have been confounded in most studies because of small sample sizes. The current Family Life study included a representative sample of 1,292 children, oversampling for poverty and African American, followed from birth. This study found no race differences within maternal education levels on five measures of maternal language input from 6 to 36 months.

Early student (dis)engagement: Contributions of household chaos, parenting, and self-regulatory skills.

Previous studies suggest that the roots of school dropout (a) can be established early in life, (b) are likely to involve multilevel factors (home, child, classroom) operating prior to and during the elementary school years, and (c) can be identified by 3rd grade. The decision to drop out of school is thus a dynamic developmental process that can begin with disengagement in elementary school. Yet few studies have examined the multilevel factors that might contribute to children's early disengagement from school.

Otitis media and respiratory sinus arrhythmia across infancy and early childhood: Polyvagal processes?

Otitis media (OM)-or middle-ear inflammation-is the most widely diagnosed childhood illness, with evidence implicating OM in a range of distal problems (e.g., language delays, attention problems).

Rural Families' Use of Multiple Child Care Arrangements from 6 to 58 Months and Children's Kindergarten Behavioral and Academic Outcomes.

Non-parental child care prior to kindergarten is a normative experience for the majority of children in the United States, with children commonly experiencing multiple arrangements, or more than one concurrent child care arrangement. The experience of multiple arrangements has predominantly been shown to be negatively related to young children's health and behavioral outcomes. The present study examined the use of multiple concurrent arrangements for children in the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in six high-poverty rural counties.

Maternal depressive symptoms, mother-child interactions, and children's executive function.

This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. At 24 and 36 months of age, mother-child interactions during play were rated for warmth-sensitivity and harsh-intrusiveness, and dyadic joint attention and maternal language complexity were assessed from a book sharing activity.

The interplay among socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting in the prediction of child conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors.

Child conduct problems (CP) reflect a heterogeneous collection of oppositional, aggressive, norm-violating, and sometimes violent behaviors, whereas child callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors reflect interpersonal styles of interactions reflecting a lack of guilt and empathy as well as uncaring and shallow emotional responses to others. Taken together, high levels of child CP and CU behaviors are thought to identify a relatively homogenous group of children at elevated risk for persistent and more severe problem behaviors across childhood and into adulthood. Although a large body of research has examined the developmental etiology of CP behaviors, only recently has a developmental psychopathology approach been applied to early CU behaviors.

The role of household chaos in understanding relations between early poverty and children's academic achievement.

The following prospective longitudinal study used an epidemiological sample ( = 1,236) to consider the potential mediating role of early cumulative household chaos (6-58 months) on associations between early family income poverty (6 months) and children's academic achievement in kindergarten. Two dimensions of household chaos, disorganization and instability, were examined as mediators. Results revealed that, in the presence of household disorganization (but not instability) and relevant covariates, income poverty was no longer directly related to academic achievement.

The contribution of children's time-specific and longitudinal expressive language skills on developmental trajectories of executive function.

To investigate whether children's early language skills support the development of executive functions (EFs), the current study used an epidemiological sample (N=1121) to determine whether two key language indicators, vocabulary and language complexity, were predictive of EF abilities over the preschool years. We examined vocabulary and language complexity both as time-varying covariates that predicted time-specific indicators of EF at 36 and 60 months of age and as time-invariant covariates that predicted children's EF at 60 months and change in EF from 36 to 60 months. We found that the rate of change in children's vocabulary between 15 and 36 months was associated with both the trajectory of EF from 36 to 60 months and the resulting abilities at 60 months.

Developmental Delays in Executive Function from 3 to 5 Years of Age Predict Kindergarten Academic Readiness.

Substantial evidence has established that individual differences in executive function (EF) in early childhood are uniquely predictive of children's academic readiness at school entry. The current study tested whether growth trajectories of EF across the early childhood period could be used to identify a subset of children who were at pronounced risk for academic impairment in kindergarten. Using data that were collected at the age 3, 4, and 5 home assessments in the Family Life Project ( N = 1,120), growth mixture models were used to identify 9% of children who exhibited impaired EF performance (i.

Predictors of behavioral regulation in kindergarten: Household chaos, parenting, and early executive functions.

Behavioral regulation is an important school readiness skill that has been linked to early executive function (EF) and later success in learning and school achievement. Although poverty and related risks, as well as negative parenting, have been associated with poorer EF and behavioral regulation, chaotic home environments may also play a role in understanding both early EF and later behavioral regulation at school age. To explore these relationships, a unique longitudinal and representative sample was used of 1,292 children born to mothers who lived in low-wealth rural America who were followed from birth into early elementary school.

Household Chaos and Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Does Childcare Play a Buffering Role?

Evidence suggests that household chaos is associated with less optimal child outcomes. Yet, there is an increasing indication that children's experiences in childcare may buffer them against the detrimental effects of such environments. Our study aims were to test: (1) whether children's experiences in childcare mitigated relations between household chaos and children's cognitive and social development, and (2) whether these (conditional) chaos effects were mediated by links between chaos and executive functioning.

Multiple aspects of self-regulation uniquely predict mathematics but not letter-word knowledge in the early elementary grades.

The relation of self-regulation measured prior to school entry to developing math and reading ability in prekindergarten through the second grade was examined in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children and families in predominantly rural and low-income communities in 2 regions of high poverty in the United States. Direct assessments of executive function, effortful control, and stress response physiology (indexed by resting levels of cortisol and alpha amylase obtained from saliva) were measured at child age 48 months and parents and teachers reported on children's effortful control using temperament rating scales at child age approximately 60 months. Math and reading ability, as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson III applied problems and letter-word subtests, respectively, were measured at prekindergarten through the second grade.

The mediating role of parenting in the associations between household chaos and children's representations of family dysfunction.

Children's drawings are thought to reflect their mental representations of self and their interpersonal relations within families. Household chaos is believed to disrupt key proximal processes related to optimal development. The present study examines the mediating role of parenting behaviors in the relations between two measures of household chaos, instability and disorganization, and how they may be evidenced in children's representations of family dysfunction as derived from their drawings.

Rural Neighborhood Context, Child Care Quality, and Relationship to Early Language Development.

Research Findings: Prior research with older urban children indicates that disadvantaged neighborhood context is associated with poorer early development, including poorer verbal ability, reading recognition, and achievement scores among children. Neighborhood disadvantage in rural communities and at younger age levels may also be related to development; however this relationship has received little examination. In this study we utilize data from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of babies born to mothers in poor rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, to address questions related to the relationship between neighborhood context (disadvantage and safety) and children's early language development.

Early communicative gestures prospectively predict language development and executive function in early childhood.

Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φs ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language.

Caregiver-Child Verbal Interactions in Child Care: A Buffer against Poor Language Outcomes when Maternal Language Input is Less.

Recent research has suggested that high quality child care can buffer young children against poorer cognitive and language outcomes when they are at risk for poorer language and readiness skills. Most of this research measured the quality of parenting and the quality of the child care with global observational measures or rating scales that did not specify the exact maternal or caregiver behaviors that might be causally implicated in the buffering of these children from poor outcomes. The current study examined the actual language by the mother to her child in the home and the verbal interactions between the caregiver and child in the child care setting that might be implicated in the buffering effect of high quality childcare.

The Family Life Project: an epidemiological and developmental study of young children living in poor rural communities.

About 20% of children in the United States have been reported to live in rural communities, with child poverty rates higher and geographic isolation from resources greater than in urban communities. There have been surprisingly few studies of children living in rural communities, especially poor rural communities. The Family Life Project helped fill this gap by using an epidemiological design to recruit and study a representative sample of every baby born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties over a 1-year period, oversampling for poverty and African American.

Child care and cortisol across early childhood: context matters.

A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large population-based sample of families from predominantly low-income backgrounds in rural communities, we tested the degree to which links between children's child-care experiences (at 7-36 months) and their subsequent cortisol levels (at 48 months) were moderated by their level of cumulative environmental risk.

Work Characteristics and Fathers' Vocabulary to Infants in African American Families.

Fathers' vocabulary to infants has been linked in the literature to early child language development, however, little is known about the variability in fathers' language behavior. This study considered associations between fathers' work characteristics and fathers' vocabulary among a sample of employed African American fathers of 6-month old infants who were living in low-income rural communities. After controlling for family and individual factors, we found that fathers who worked nonstandard shifts and reported more job flexibility used more diverse vocabulary with their infants.

Nonstandard Maternal Work Schedules: Implications for African American Children's Early Language Outcomes.

In this study, observed maternal positive engagement and perception of work-family spillover were examined as mediators of the association between maternal nonstandard work schedules and children's expressive language outcomes in 231 African American families living in rural households. Mothers reported their work schedules when their child was 24 months of age and children's expressive language development was assessed during a picture book task at 24 months and with a standardized assessment at 36 months. After controlling for family demographics, child, and maternal characteristics, maternal employment in nonstandard schedules at the 24 month timepoint was associated with lower expressive language ability among African American children concurrently and at 36 months of age.