Anders Højen

Vowel bias in Danish word-learning: processing biases are language-specific.

The present study explored whether the phonological bias favoring consonants found in French-learning infants and children when learning new words (Havy & Nazzi, 2009; Nazzi, 2005) is language-general, as proposed by Nespor, Peña and Mehler (2003), or varies across languages, perhaps as a function of the phonological or lexical properties of the language in acquisition. To do so, we used the interactive word-learning task set up by Havy and Nazzi (2009), teaching Danish-learning 20-month-olds pairs of phonetically similar words that contrasted either on one of their consonants or one of their vowels, by either one or two phonological features. Danish was chosen because it has more vowels than consonants, and is characterized by extensive consonant lenition. Both phenomena could disfavor a consonant bias. Evidence of word-learning was found only for vocalic information, irrespective of whether one or two phonological features were changed. The implication of these findings is that the phonological biases found in early lexical processing are not language-general but develop during language acquisition, depending on the phonological or lexical properties of the native language.

Early productive vocabulary predicts academic achievement 10 years later

We use a longitudinal design to examine associations for a diverse sample of 2,120 Danish 16- to 30-month-old children between early expressive vocabulary and later reading and math outcomes in the sixth grade. Educational outcomes, in particular decoding and reading comprehension, can be predicted from an early vocabulary measure as early as 16 months with effect sizes (in proportion of variance accounted for) comparable to 1 years mean growth in reading scores. The findings confirm in a relatively large population-based study that late talkers are at risk for low educational attainment because the majority of children experiencing early language delay obtain scores below average in measures of reading in the sixth grade. Low scores have the greatest predictive power, indicating that children with early delays have elevated risk for later reading problems.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Large Scale Systematic and Explicit Language and Literacy Intervention in Danish Daycares: The SPELL Study

Background: Children’s early language and literacy skills are key predictors of later educational outcomes. Children from low socioeconomic status and immigrant

Does mixing age groups in early childhood education settings support children’s language development?

ABSTRACT As early childhood education programming expands across the globe, there is an increased need to understand how features of these programs influence children’s development. The composition of children’s age within a classroom is one such feature, although it is much less studied than other features. Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that children’s development may be influenced by the age range of their classmates. This study examines the relations between classroom age variability on children’s vocabulary development for 2,743 children between the ages of two years, nine months, and six years, 11 months enrolled in early childhood education settings in Denmark. Findings indicate a significant nonlinear relationship between the range of child age within a classroom and children’s vocabulary development, such that classrooms with a maximum age range of 24 months were associated with the greatest gains in vocabulary growth. Results give direction to policy efforts focused on expansion of early childhood education programming.

An educator-administered measure of language development in young children

An increasing number of infants and toddlers in many countries are enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs, and educators thus play a central role in stimulating language development in these young children. A valid, brief educator-completed measure of language development in young children has important uses both for the identification and monitoring of language development and for the guidance and evaluation of intentional instruction and targeted interventions for children who need it. We present such a measure here for Danish, the CDI: Educator (CDI-Edu) version, which is based on well-developed and validated parent report measures, adapted for the early childhood education setting. It requires approximately 10 min per child on the part of the educator. It includes a 70-item vocabulary checklist, as well as questions concerning the childs use of decontextualized language with respect to objects and actions distant from the here and now. The test has been standardized on a total of 5097 children aged 18-34 months. Test-retest and internal consistency measures demonstrate reliability. Validation is established through correlations with age, maternal education, the Danish One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Social Emotional Assessment Measure.

Structural and Process Quality of Danish Preschools: Direct and Indirect Associations With Children’s Growth in Language and Preliteracy Skills

ABSTRACT Structural quality in childcare centers is considered a precondition for process quality, which in turn is related to children’s outcomes. However, the evidence on relations between structural and process quality is mixed. Moreover, despite strong theoretical claims, empirical evidence supporting the indirect relation of structural features through process quality on child outcomes is scarce. The current study contributes to the knowledge by (a) investigating the direct relations of structural teacher and classroom features with growth in children’s language and preliteracy skills in a sample of more than 3,000 children, (b) studying the associations of process quality with children’s outcomes using the widely used Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K observational measure among more than 400 teachers, and (c) testing indirect effects of structural quality through process quality on growth in children’s skills. Process quality was generally directly positively associated with gains in children’s language and preliteracy skills, whereas structural quality showed few direct relations. In addition, the average level of children’s initial language and preliteracy skills were positively related to gains, as was classrooms’ proportion of non-Danish children (indirectly through process quality). The results illustrate the complexities of relations between structural and process quality and children’s outcomes and warrant further research.

Vocalic and consonantal processing biases in early word‐learning: Cross‐language differences?

Previous research showed that French‐learning 16‐ or 20‐month‐olds could learn pairs of words that differed by a single consonantal but not vocalic feature. Danish has a richer vowel inventory than French, allowing for 31 phonological vowel contrasts, including vowel length and presence/absence of stod (laryngealization). The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether Danish‐learning 20‐month‐olds, in spite of the importance of vowels in Danish phonology, showed a lack of sensitivity to one‐feature vocalic differences in lexical learning similar to that of French‐learning infants. The experiment made use of the same word‐learning task as that used for French 16‐month‐olds. As opposed to the French‐learning infants, the Danish‐learning infants successfully learned the vowel pairs indicating sensitivity to small vocalic differences in word‐learning. Experiment 2 tested the use of vowels in word‐learning in French‐learning 20‐month‐olds using the same task. They failed again. On the other hand, ongoing test...