Perceptual discrimination as a predictor of achievement in reading and arithmetic.

Just prior to their entry into kindergarten, approximately 150 children were given a perceptual discrimination task using letterlike forms and their transformations. During the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, Ss were tested with a battery of tasks, including the arithmetic and reading portions of the Wide Range Achievement Test. The magnitude of the relation to subsequent achievement in reading differed for different transformations, depending on the difficulty of a transformation. More easily discriminated transformations were associated with higher correlations. The patterns of relation were similar for reading and arithmetic, suggesting that the perceptual discrimination test measured nonperceptual abilities related to early scholastic achievement. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Finger recognition skills and reading achievement: A developmental neuropsychological analysis.

Administered to 678 White kindergarten boys 4 finger recognition tasks (FRTs) and a battery of other tests, including the Embedded Figures Test, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, as part of a 6-yr longitudinal project. In their 3rd yr in school, the 80 Ss having the most significant difficulties in learning to read were identified and compared with 80 Ss who had acquired adequate reading skills. These 2 groups received the same FRTs in both their 3rd and 6th school years. FRTs (a) were differentially associated with other developmental variables in kindergarten, (b) were mastered at different ages, (c) demonstrated differential age-dependent relationships with reading status, and (d) were not related to neurological indices of brain integrity. Findings show that FRTs do not provide unitary measures of brain integrity in learning-disabled boys and do not have specific relationships with reading achievement. The significance of FRTs for reading achievement accrued primarily from their sensitivity to other developmental processes underlying reading acquisition. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal study of individual differences in cognitive development and scholastic achievement.

Assessed the effectiveness of a battery of commonly used cognitive and psychometric tasks in predicting achievement in reading and arithmetic in Grades 1-3. Tasks were administered to 255 children (mean age, 5.4 yrs) prior to kindergarten. Teachers' ratings were obtained in kindergarten. Combinations of 4 tasks yielded optimal predictions of achievement. More effective prediction could be made from prekindergarten tasks than from teachers' ratings. After Grade 1, the most effective prediction was derived from scores on prior tests of achievement. Relations among various tests of achievement both within and across years and the relation of achievement scores to age, IQ, and parental education were determined. Predictive tasks and teachers' ratings were used to select children who later had difficulty in school. Caution is urged, however, in using prekindergarten tasks to identify children who need extra help. Because prediction is imperfect, such tasks ought not to be used to assign children to special groups. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induced versus spontaneous attainment of concrete operations and their relationship to school achievement.

Tested whether 3rd grade school achievement can be enhanced by training children to conserve 1 or 2 yrs prior to the time they would be expected to spontaneously conserve substances. Ss were 60 White middle-class 3rd graders who had taken part in conservation training studies when in kindergarten and been designated as trained and early conservers and controls. When Ss entered the 3rd grade they were administered the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test and the Stanford Achievement test. Results show that although the spontaneous early attainment of conservation is a valid predictor of certain areas of school achievement, Ss trained to conserve in kindergarten did not do better in school achievement than their later conserving peers. Findings are interpreted in light of the distribution between learning and development. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: Two new school readiness indicators.

Duncan et al. (2007) presented a new methodology for identifying kindergarten readiness factors and quantifying their importance by determining which of children's developing skills measured around kindergarten entrance would predict later reading and math achievement. This article extends Duncan et al.'s work to identify kindergarten readiness factors with 6 longitudinal data sets. Their results identified kindergarten math and reading readiness and attention as the primary long-term predictors but found no effects from social skills or internalizing and externalizing behavior. We incorporated motor skills measures from 3 of the data sets and found that fine motor skills are an additional strong predictor of later achievement. Using one of the data sets, we also predicted later science scores and incorporated an additional early test of general knowledge of the social and physical world as a predictor. We found that the test of general knowledge was by far the strongest predictor of science and reading and also contributed significantly to predicting later math, making the content of this test another important kindergarten readiness indicator. Together, attention, fine motor skills, and general knowledge are much stronger overall predictors of later math, reading, and science scores than early math and reading scores alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting reading and mathematics achievement in fourth-grade children from kindergarten readiness scores.

This study examined age and gender differences in verbal skills and visuomotor skills at kindergarten, in achievement in reading and mathematics at Grade 4, and in the link between skills at kindergarten and later achievement (n?=?281). Older children had higher verbal skills and visuomotor skills than younger children, and girls had higher visuomotor skills and reading achievement than boys. With controls for age, verbal skills uniquely predicted later reading achievement, whereas both verbal skills and visuomotor skills uniquely predicted later mathematics achievement. Readiness in the specific areas of auditory memory and verbal associations predicted later reading achievement, whereas readiness in the specific areas of auditory memory, number skills, and visual discrimination predicted later mathematics achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific contributions of phonological abilities to early reading acquisition: Results from a Dutch latent variable longitudinal study.

Contributions of phonological abilities to early reading acquisition were examined in a longitudinal study of 166 Dutch children from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Various phonological abilities, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and letter knowledge were assessed in kindergarten and Grade 1. Reading and arithmetic were examined in 1st and 2nd grades. The importance of individual differences in phonological ability for subsequent reading acquisition changed over time. At first, the effects of phonological abilities increased, but after Grade 1, these effects disappeared. Phonological awareness and rapid naming had independent and specific influences on reading achievement. Verbal working memory was associated with both reading and arithmetic acquisition. The results tend to support an interactive view of the relation between development of phonological abilities and learning to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in beliefs and achievement: A cross-cultural study.

Gender differences on tests of achievement in reading and mathematics, and on tests of cognitive ability, were assessed. Ss were children in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 5 in elementary schools in Taiwan, Japan, and the US (ns?=?1,975 to 4,266). Few gender differences were observed on curriculum-based tests of math computation and reading. Boys were more effective, however, in solving word problems and in answering questions involving estimation, visualization, and measurement. Cognitive tests revealed some gender differences at the 5th-grade level in all 3 cultures. Children and their mothers tended, as early as the 1st grade, to believe that boys were better at math and girls were better at reading. Children in the 3 cultures differed consistently in their scores in reading and math, but there were very few interactions between gender and location. The lack of frequent significant interactions between gender and location indicated the gender effects for both achievement scores and ratings were equivalent across Chinese, Japanese, and American contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of a French immersion program: The Ottawa study through Grade five.

Assessed a Canadian French immersion program in which English-speaking pupils attending English schools are taught partially or completely in French. The program involved nearly 33% of the children who entered the Ottawa public school system in kindergarten. The sample included 4 representative classes at each of Grades 3, 4, and 5 from the immersion program and 4 similar classes from the regular English programs. The 2 groups were matched according to socioeconomic status characteristics and were generally from a middle to upper-middle-class background. Ss were administered several measures including the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test and Canadian Tests of Basic Skills. Only Grade 5 students were given the Metropolitan Science Test only. French immersion pupils were given a set of achievement tests in French and tests of reading comprehension in French. Results indicate that immersion group Ss were in general on the same level with or ahead of the regular English in most academic areas considered (e.g., work-study skills and mathematics) and were performing satisfactorily in French. (French summary) (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of rapid naming ability and language analysis skills to kindergarten and first-grade reading achievement.

34 kindergartners and 34 1st graders completed a series of measures including the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities and the WRAT. Language analysis tasks (segmentation and rhyming) and rapid automatized naming tasks (objects, colors, and letters) were found to tap different components of linguistic processing in both kindergarten and 1st-grade Ss. In kindergarten, rapid naming of colors was significantly related to 5 of 6 reading measures, whereas rapid naming of objects, syllable segmentation, and rhyming were related to at least 3 of the 6. In the 1st grade, rapid naming of letters and phoneme segmentation were significantly related to all 3 measures of 1st-grade reading achievement. Ss who could analyze letter names (as indicated by speed on the letter naming task) were more likely to be among the better readers at the end of the 1st grade. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributive justice development and social class.

Two studies assessed distributive justice development in lower- and middle-class children attending social-class-integrated schools. In Exp I, 28 middle- and 28 lower-class (MC and LC) White children from kindergarten and Grade 3 were given the Distributive Justice Scale and a vocabulary test. Results show that regardless of grade, LC Ss lagged behind MC Ss in distributive justice development, even when vocabulary was controlled. In Exp II, 32 MC and 32 LC Black Ss from kindergarten and Grade 3 were given the same measures plus sociometric peer ratings. Results replicated those of Exp I. Peer ratings indicate that LC Ss were chosen most often for negative sociometric questions. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher–child interactions and children’s achievement trajectories across kindergarten and first grade.

This study examined the extent to which the quality of teacher–child interactions and children’s achievement levels at kindergarten entry were associated with children’s achievement trajectories. Rural students (n = 147) were enrolled in a longitudinal study from kindergarten through first grade. Growth trajectories (initial level and slope) were modeled with hierarchical linear modeling for 3 areas of achievement: word reading, phonological awareness, and mathematics. Cross-classified analyses examined the extent to which quality of teacher–child interactions and children’s starting level predicted achievement growth rates over 2 years, and they also accounted for the changing nesting structure of the data. Results indicated that achievement at kindergarten entry predicted children’s growth for all 3 outcomes. Further, first-grade teachers’ strong emotional support related to greater growth in students’ phonological awareness. Emotional and instructional support in first grade moderated the relationship between initial achievement and growth in word reading. Kindergarten classroom organization moderated the relationship between initial achievement and growth in mathematics. The implications of schooling for early growth trajectories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kindergarten competencies as predictors of third-grade classroom behavior and achievement.

To investigate the relationships between preschool competencies and later academic functioning, multiple regression analyses were conducted using kindergarten intellectual, academic, and social variables (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Wide Range Achievement Test, teacher ratings of academic readiness, and the Sells Teacher Rating Scale of Peer Relations) to predict 3rd-grade classroom behavior and achievement. A random sample (n?=?50) of 184 3rd-grade children evaluated during the 1973–1974 kindergarten year and a 2nd sample (n?=?49) with additional Time 1 social and background variables were included. Ss were observed in classrooms and administered achievement tests during the 1976–1977 school year. Results indicate that kindergarten social and academic competencies typically entered as optimal predictors of later achievement-related behaviors and achievement. A social competence measure of initiative was a particularly successful predictor of achievement. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When a scale measures more than its name denotes: the case of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children

Administered a revision of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) on which there were separate comparative Self-Evaluation and Anxiety scales to 133 females and 131 males in Form 1 (equivalent to Grade 6). Ss also responded to self-report measures (self-concept of attainment, causal attribution, independent reading, and friendship choices), and teachers rated Ss on their classroom behavior. Findings indicate that correlations between Ss' TASC scores and variables that had been found to be related to the original scale and assumed to be affected by anxiety were generally higher for the Self-Evaluation scale than the Anxiety scales. It is suggested that many results with the TASC may be better interpreted in terms of self-evaluation than anxiety effects. Results with measures of causal attributions suggest that self-evaluation measures are more effective predictors of achievement behavior than anxiety measures because anxiety is but one of a number of possible consequences of poor self-evaluation that could mediate relatively unproductive achievement behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language.

Patterns of reading development were examined in native English-speaking (L1) children and children who spoke English as a second language (ESL). Participants were 978 (790 L1 speakers and 188 ESL speakers) Grade 2 children involved in a longitudinal study that began in kindergarten. In kindergarten and Grade 2, participants completed standardized and experimental measures including reading, spelling, phonological processing, and memory. All children received phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten and phonics instruction in Grade 1. By the end of Grade 2, the ESL speakers' reading skills were comparable to those of L1 speakers, and ESL speakers even outperformed L1 speakers on several measures. The findings demonstrate that a model of early identification and intervention for children at risk is beneficial for ESL speakers and also suggest that the effects of bilingualism on the acquisition of early reading skills are not negative and may be positive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental study of learned helplessness.

Examined susceptibility to learned helplessness among 20 children from each of kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 3, and Grade 5 classes by exposing groups of Ss to either repeated failure or repeated success on hidden figures problems. Helplessness was measured by Ss' persistence in looking for hidden figures and their capacity to find them following repeated success or failure. It was hypothesized that younger Ss would be less susceptible to helplessness than older ones, due to age-related differences in causal attributions for success and failure. Results confirm the hypothesis in that failure, relative to success, had significantly less influence on the level of helplessness in younger Ss' behavior. It is suggested that the development of attributional capabilities during the preschool and early elementary school years has important ramifications for cognitive theories of motivation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of retarded readers on the WISC and educational tests.

Compared the WISC results of 54 retarded readers of average intelligence from the 6 primary school grades with those of a matched group of 54 adequate achievers (controls). The Ss had greater verbal (V)-performance (P) differences than the controls in both directions. This way due mainly to their significantly poorer performances on Information, Arithmetic, and Coding subtests, and to their significantly better performances on Comprehension, Picture Arrangement, and Block Design subtests after adjustments had been made by covariance analyses for Full Scale IQ differences. The Ss also performed significantly less well than controls on untimed tests of Spelling and Arithmetical Calculation. No tendency was found for the differences between groups on the WISC or educational tests to increase with age, as was the case with their reading achievement. Hence there was no support for D. A. Neville's (see 35:5) hypothesis that certain of the differences are effects of reading retardation rather than correlated symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive profiles of reading disability: Comparisons of discrepancy and low achievement definitions.

Examined the validity of distinguishing children with reading disabilities according to discrepancy and low-achievement definitions by obtaining 4 assessments of expected reading achievement and 2 assessments of actual reading achievement for 199 children (aged 7.5–9.5 yrs). These assessments were used to subdivide the sample into discrepancy and low-achievement definitional groups who were compared on 9 cognitive variables related to reading proficiency. Results did not support the validity of discrepancy vs low achievement definitions. Although differences between Ss with impaired reading and Ss without impaired reading were large, differences between Ss with impaired reading who met IQ-based discrepancy definitions and those who met low reading achievement definitions were small or not significant. Measures of phonological awareness were robust indicators of differences between Ss with impaired reading and Ss without impaired reading regardless of how reading disability was defined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's early approaches to learning and academic trajectories through fifth grade.

Children's early approaches to learning (ATL) enhance their adaptation to the demands they experience with the start of formal schooling. The current study uses individual growth modeling to investigate whether children's early ATL, which includes persistence, emotion regulation, and attentiveness, explain individual differences in their academic trajectories during elementary school. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), the present investigation examined the association between ATL at kindergarten entry and trajectories of reading and math achievement across 6 waves of data from kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade (n = 10,666). The current study found a positive link between early ATL and individual trajectories of reading and math performance. Overall, children's early ATL was equally beneficial for children regardless of their race/ethnicity and dimensions of their socioeconomic background. However, links between early ATL and academic trajectories differed by their gender and initial levels of math and reading achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)