<p> This dissertation examined the development of writing in school-age children from a process-oriented perspective by examining pause patterns and the characteristics of language bursts between pauses. Study 1 investigated the development and operation of different writing processes during on-line text production of typically developing third and fifth graders. Fifth graders paused less frequently than third graders, but their pause duration was similar to the pause duration of third graders&rsquo;. Fifth graders wrote more words between pauses than third graders. Revision rates were similar in both grades. The findings suggest that fifth graders are more advanced than third graders in the development of writing processes (i.e., planning, text generation, and transcription) whereas revising process does not mature from third grade to fifth grade. The advanced development of planning, text generation, and transcription in fifth grade facilitates the operation of these processes to partially overlap with each other. Revising process does not occur as frequently as other processes in both grades. However, when it does, its operation can sometimes overlap with the operation of text generation and transcription.</p><p> Study 2 investigated the effects of writing mediums (i.e., handwriting and typing) on the operation of writing processes during on-line text production of typically developing fifth and seventh graders and on the relation between writing processes and writing quality. Pauses occurred more frequently in typing than in handwriting. As typing skills improved from fifth grade to seventh grade, difference in pause rate between typing and handwriting decreased. Words between pauses were shorter in typing than in handwriting. Overall revision rate and meaning revising rate were higher in typing than in handwriting. There were some indications of positive association between meaning revision rate and writing quality. Overall pause rate was negatively associated with writing quality in fifth grade in both mediums. The findings suggest that the way handwriting and typing influenced the operation of different writing processes differed. However, the role of writing mediums in accounting for the relation between writing processes and writing quality appears to be limited.</p><p>

<p> Past studies examining child care and externalizing behaviors have produced conflicting results. This study examined whether an association exists between type of child care that a child attended the year before kindergarten and externalizing problem behaviors as rated by the child&rsquo;s kindergarten teacher. Ordinary least-squares regression was used to examine variables that impact ratings of externalizing behavior by evaluating data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010&ndash;2011 (ECLS-K:2011). The ECLS-K:2011 has up-to-date data that includes a nationally representative sample of children in the United States. Participants were 13,544 children. Additionally, SES and the total number of hours of weekly care were analyzed to see if they moderated the relationship between type of care and externalizing behaviors. Findings indicated that children who attended center care only exhibited more externalizing behaviors than children who attended other types or combinations of care. Children from lower SES families had significantly more externalizing behaviors than children from higher SES families. Findings also indicated that SES had less of an effect on externalizing behavior among children who attended relative and center care than children who attended center care only. The more hours a child spent in care each week, the greater their ratings of externalizing problem behaviors. Additionally, the effects of total hours on externalizing behaviors were lower for children who attended relative care only and relative and center care than those who attended center care only. Study implications for policymakers, parents, and researchers are discussed in depth. For instance, if parents wish to send their children to center care, they may want to incorporate an additional type of weekly care, which may act as a buffer to externalizing problem behaviors. Additionally, policymakers may want to facilitate greater access for child care other than center care only.</p><p>

There are certain ways of reading to young children that are more effective than others in increasing language, vocabulary, and building early literacy skills. Dialogic reading is a method to enhance shared book reading by providing a context for dialogue and interaction between the adult and the child. Dialogic reading has been shown to have positive effects on young childrens’ early literacy and language skills. Thus far, parents and teachers have used these techniques in the home and school in one-on-one or small group settings. However, results have been variable due to inconsistent implementation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of implementing dialogic reading techniques in a preschool setting via cross age tutoring by fifth grade students. Students in preschool and fifth grade were recruited from a school in Eastern Maryland. Fifth graders served as tutors and were trained to use dialogic reading techniques with preschool students in the same school. The tutoring dyads met three times a week for 30 minutes for 8 weeks.

While media have fast become an integral part of young children's daily lives, much remains unknown about how early media use may be influencing learning and development. The current study examined the relations between the amount of time young children spend viewing children's media, character familiarity, and their emerging gender knowledge. References to young children's media use in this report are referring to their viewing of children's shows on television and/or on DVDs. Television/ DVDs remain the predominant way most families view children's shows on a regular basis (Rideout, 2011). In the first phase of the study, parents responded to a survey on children's home media use and familiarity with animated characters. Surveys were distributed through 25 participating child care centers in Massachusetts. Parent survey responses helped determine the media-use measures for the study and the range of characters included in the testing phase with children, between 21 and 43 months (N =169). In phase two, children's character familiarity and gender knowledge of characters, people, and objects were examined through a series of four picture-identification tasks presented on a touchscreen computer monitor. The study revealed that young children are processing gender-based information from the characters they frequently see in children's media. Children with high levels of character familiarity significantly outperformed those with low levels on the gender knowledge of people and characters tasks. Results also found character familiarity to be predictive of children's gender knowledge. Although girls' and boys' overall familiarity with characters was comparable, girls (n = 84) were significantly more familiar with female and other-sex characters than boys. Boys (n = 85) were significantly more familiar with same-sex characters than girls. Another major finding revealed that children's media viewing did not directly contribute to their gender knowledge. However, media viewing was significantly related to and predictive of character familiarity. Together, the main findings provide new information revealing that young children's nascent ability to identify the sexes is mediated by their familiarity with the animated characters they see on screen. The results also reveal the significant contribution of media-based factors in children's gender-knowledge acquisition.

Early difficulties in children's academic and emotional development can set in motion long term patterns of maladjustment. Research which focuses on the intersection between these two developmental domains warrants increased attention. This study examined relationships between early internalizing problems, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, withdrawal, and social problems, and emergent academic skills cross-sectionally and over a six month period of preschool. Relationships were considered in light of relevant socio-cultural factors, namely gender and socio-economic status. This study utilized a multi-informant measurement of child behavior and objective measures of emergent academic skills. Participants included 134 preschool children, their mothers, and their teachers. Correlational and regression analyses were performed to evaluate hypothesized relationships. Although results support the overall hypothesis that internalizing symptoms and related social problems are associated with early academic skills, findings were mixed with respect to the strength of relationships and which symptoms and skills were related. Specifically, expressive language skills and letter naming skills were the academic skills most negatively associated with symptoms, and withdrawn behavior and social problems were the symptoms most related to skills. Different patterns of relationships were indicated for boys and girls and for SES groups including unanticipated positive associations between some skills and symptoms for high SES children. Several longitudinal associations were found. Initial symptoms predicted later letter knowledge and reading concept skills, and initial letter knowledge skills predicted later symptoms, pointing to bidirectional influences. These findings provide a step forward in drawing connections between children's early mental health and emergent skill development and in identifying gender and socio-economic differences and directions for future work.

The gap in academic achievement between English learners (ELs) and their monolingual peers is of increasing concern in the United States. Despite efforts to identify effective strategies to support ELs’ development and reduce this achievement gap, there are critical holes in the research base that preclude advances in EL education. Importantly, few studies have examined how ELs recognize English words, which is a necessary and foundational component of vocabulary, language, and literacy development. The purpose of the present research was to examine how ELs recognize words they hear in English and to explore the relationship between their recognition and their language and literacy skills. A sample of 31 Spanish-English speaking and 35 English-speaking monolingual preschoolers and kindergarteners were recruited to participate. To assess children’s recognition, their eye movements were tracked while they viewed four-picture arrays presented on a computer screen, following typical visual world paradigm procedures. The children listened to a target word presented in English and were instructed to click on the image that best represented that word. The four-picture arrays included a target image, a strategic competitor, and two unrelated images. The strategic competitors either represented English cohort competitors, Spanish cohort competitors, or semantic competitors. All participating children completed all three conditions and were administered a battery of language and literacy assessments. Children’s tracked eye movements were then examined by the type of image looked at and assessed in relation to their language and literacy skills. Results revealed that both monolingual and Spanish-English speaking participants appeared to activate their English phonological and semantic knowledge during spoken word recognition. No evidence of activation of Spanish phonological knowledge was obtained. Children with stronger English scores tended to decrease their looks to non-target images more quickly than children with lower English scores. These results suggest that there are significant differences between how bilingual children and bilingual adults recognize spoken words. Further, the findings indicate that strategies to support children’s identification of spoken words may be warranted to facilitate clearer and faster word recognition among children with weaker English skills. Most importantly, this work provides clear evidence that more research focused specifically on bilingual children is needed. Neither research targeting bilingual adults nor monolingual children generalizes clearly to bilingual children. Therefore, research explicitly including bilingual children is needed to have implications for this growing population. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / February 20, 2018. / Bilingualism, Child, Education, English Learning, Eye tracking, Spoken word recognition / Includes bibliographical references. / Carla L. Wood, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christopher Schatschneider, University Representative; Hugh Catts, Committee Member; Juliann J. Woods, Committee Member; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member.

The successful development of children in the early childhood years is facilitated by positive interrelationships within the child's ecosystem. This ecosystem is composed of the family and home environment, and the schools, child care centers, and teachers involved with the child's education and care. However, the educational literature reports conflicts between teachers and parents over the education and guidance of children in the United States throughout this century. The misunderstanding and confusion surrounding the different perspectives of teachers and parents can be problematic for the child's growth and development, and can jeopardize communication between the school and the home. Clarification of the similarities and differences between the teacher and parent roles will add to our understanding of these multiple perspectives, as they influence the child, and will suggest ways to improve teacher preparation with regard to parent and family communication. One direct way of getting data on the complementary and conflicting aspects of the parenting and teaching roles is to study women who experience them simultaneously, that is who teach their own child in an early childhood classroom. This study uses phenomenological interview data and a developmental assessment of self-knowledge to gather more information concerning the complex dynamics of the teacher and mother roles. The data collection proceeded in three parts. First, a written questionnaire designed to assess self-knowledge level of teacher/mothers was administered. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten of the survey respondents, all of whom taught their own child in an early childhood group setting. The interview protocol focused on each participant's personal background as a teacher and a mother, her experience as a 'teacher called mommy', and the importance and meaning of that experience to her as a teacher and as a mother. The interviews were transcribed and edited into a profile of each participant. Profiles were coded for common themes and issues across participants. The third phase involved sharing the themes in a Focus Group session with the interview participants. They considered the relevance and salience of the themes in light of their own experiences and made recommendations for teachers, parents, administrators, and future 'teachers called mommy'. The findings point to common themes within the experience of the 'teacher called mommy', and indicate a range of experiences within each theme. Developmental analysis of the self-knowledge levels of the participants is used to group the responses within each of the themes, and provides a helpful model for understanding the variations within each theme. Recommendations suggest strategies to facilitate parent and teacher communication in general, and more specifically to supporting the simultaneous dual role situation of 'teacher called mommy'.

Constructivist educators are concerned with methods that will help teachers understand young children's thinking in order to facilitate their learning along a developmental continuum in the acquisition of knowledge. This study focuses on the development and testing of the Broderick Notation System. The BNS is a format and system for teachers to map observable interactions of children's play over time in relation to teachers developing inferences about what children know and hypothesize about friendship, leadership, roles, and rules. The intention of this concept mapping system is to help teachers gain a deeper understanding of what children are thinking so they can more accurately assess appropriate entry points for facilitating learning with children. ^ Four preschool teachers were trained to use the BNS in six 2-hour trainings while viewing 2 short (under 10 minutes) videotapes of children at play. They were asked to use the BNS to identify the conceptual thinking underlying children's spontaneous play in the areas of friendship, leadership, roles, and rules. ^ Following the 6-week period each subject was tested individually. The test consisted of viewing two unseen videotapes (under 10 minutes each) that are similar but different from the original training videos. Subject's were allowed to take as long as they liked to complete the process of observing and coding with the BNS, and the video footage as seen on a computer that they could easily pause, forward, and reverse the footage in order to complete the notation to their satisfaction. Following the test each teacher was interviewed to obtain his/her record of the beginning and ending of each coded concept on the computer's time display. Teachers were interviewed to obtain more detailed information about the conceptual meaning they attached to each coded symbol and the behavior each coded symbol relates to. ^ The testing of interrater reliability among teacher subjects is a first step in a research program to be carried out over the next three to four years, in which the BNS will be tested for validity and use among trained educators.* ^ *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation).^

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices provide guidance to families and professionals about the most effective ways to improve learning outcomes and promote development of young children, birth through age 5, who have, or are at risk for, developmental delays or disabilities. Family: Knowing Families, Tailoring Practices, Building Capacity is the third edition of the DEC Recommended Practices Monograph Series, and it offers professionals and families multiple ways to implement the family practices across the settings in which children grow and learn. The articles in this collection provide guidance by illustrating how to implement the Family Recommended Practices with fidelity and flexibility. The monograph offers a unique contribution to the field by including authentic family voices as primary or equal contribution.

Early childhood environments can offer valuable opportunities for student collaboration. Social interactions allow students to practice listening to each other and learn how to work together. This study focused on the roles and perspectives of early childhood educators related to student collaboration in the classroom. Six educators from one elementary school in New Hampshire participated in two focus group discussions, the first of which included a presentation on student collaboration with first graders. Participants also completed four concept maps highlighting their perspectives about student collaboration and one written reflection comparing their perspectives before and after engaging in the focus group discussions. Participants’ awareness of strategies for student collaboration grew through these discussions among peers. Implications of the study include providing opportunities for educators to engage in discussions that examine their approaches for planning, preparing, and offering a variety of collaborative activities throughout the day.