Jennifer Beswick

Letter Knowledge, Phonological Processing, and Print Knowledge Skill Development in Nonreading Preschool Children

Development of reading skills was examined in 4-year-old children from low-income homes attending a prekindergarten program. Fall to spring gains in letter identification were examined and compared with skills in phonological processing, rhyme detection, and environmental print, and with performance on a screening tool (Get Ready to Read). It was anticipated that participants might show slow skill development. However, the identification of a large group of children ( n = 30) who made little or no gains in letter identification compared to their classmates (n = 27), whose gains averaged 7 letters, was not anticipated. Fall to spring gains in letter identification correlated with phonological processing, rhyme detection, environmental print, and Get Ready to Read! scores. Age and general cognitive skills influenced performance on some tasks. More knowledge of the characteristics of children who show the most variations in skill development may lead to insights on using classroom curriculum to focus on skill development.

Alphabetic Skills in Preschool: A Preliminary Study of Letter Naming and Letter Writing

Development of letter naming and writing (skills in writing first name, dictated and copied letters, and dictated and copied numbers) was examined in 79 preschool children (M age = 56 months). Skills were assessed in the fall to determine the status of these procedural skills that are components of alphabetic knowledge at the start of the school year. Children with high letter-naming scores also had high scores on letter writing, including dictated or copied letters and writing some or all of the letters of their names. Letter-naming skills were related to number-writing skills whether the numbers were dictated or copied. The highest writing scores were found for first name writing compared to writing or copying letters and numbers. A focus on the development of procedural knowledge in the preschool period may yield the hopep for impacts on later reading skills that has not been found in curricula emphasizing conceptual knowledge (e.g., knowledge of print concepts, book conventions).

Infant Temperament, Maternal Personality, and Parenting Stress as Contributors to Infant Developmental Outcomes

This study examined contributions of maternal personality and infant temperament to infant vocabulary and cognitive development both directly and indirectly through parental stress. Participants were recruited at birth and included 63 infant twin pairs and their mothers. Assessments were completed at 6, 9, 12, and 18 months of age and included Dimensions of Temperament–Revised (maternal personality), Parenting Stress Index (parental stress), Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised (infant temperament), Bayley Scales of Infant Development II: Mental Development Index, and MacArthur-Bates Total Vocabulary. Structural equation modeling with a jackknife approach was used to analyze data separately for each twin in the pair. At 12 months, maternal personality and infant temperament contributed indirectly to MacArthur-Bates Total Vocabulary and Bayley Mental Development Index scores through parental stress. In addition, infant temperament directly contributed to 12-month MacArthur-Bates Total Vocabulary. At 18 months, these relationships were no longer significant. The different findings at 12 months compared to 18 months may reflect important developmental and environmental shifts, as well as possible differences in the method and measurements used at each age.

Dynamic Links Between Emerging Cognitive Skills and Brain Processes

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether advanced cognitive skills in one domain impact the neural processing of unrelated skills in a different cognitive domain. This question is related to the broader issue of how cognitive-neurodevelopment proceeds as different skills are mastered. To address this goal, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to assess linkages between cognitive skills of preschool children as reflected in their performance on a pre-reading screening test (Get Ready To Read) and their neural responses while engaged in a geometric shape matching task. Sixteen children (10 males) participated in this study. The children ranged from 46 to 60 months (SD = 4.36 months). ERPs were recorded using a 128-electrode high-density array while children attended to presentations of matched and mismatched shapes (triangles, circles, or squares). ERPs indicated that children with more advanced pre-reading skills discriminated between matched and mismatched shapes earlier than children with poorer pre-readings skills. The earlier discrimination effect observed in the advanced group was localized over the occipital electrode sites whereas in the Low Group such effects were present over frontal, parietal, and occipital sites. Modeled magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the ERP component sources identified differences in neural generators between the two groups. Both sets of findings support the hypothesis that processing in a poorer-performing group is more distributed temporally and spatially across the scalp, and reflects the engagement of more distributed brain regions. These findings are seen as support for a theory of neural-cognitive development that is advanced in the present article.

Growth of Cognitive Skills in Preschoolers: Impact of Sleep Habits and Learning-Related Behaviors

Research Findings: The present study used a longitudinal design to identify how sleep habits and learning-related behaviors impact the development of cognitive skills in preschoolers (ages 3–5). Sixty- seven children with parental report and cognitive skill assessment data were included. Scores on the Differential Ability Scales (C. Elliott, 1990) were obtained at ages 3, 4, and 5. A Sleep Questionnaire (D. Gozal, 1998) with 12 items from the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2000) related to childrens attention and activity levels was administered at age 3. Growth curve changes in cognitive scores were estimated using hierarchical linear modeling. Parental reports of nighttime sleep duration predicted level of cognitive skills at 3 years. The effect of sleep duration on cognitive scores was constant across age. Practice or Policy: Sleep and learning-related behaviors distinguish the cognitive skills children bring to preschool programs and impact gains made in skills while in preschool.

Use of event-related potentials to identify language and reading skills

Research findings from studies using event-related potential measures of phonological processing support the importance of these measures as correlates and predictors of language and reading skills in school-aged children. A research study is reported focusing on preschool-aged children to understand how event-related potential measures of phonological processing relate to oral language and emergent literacy skills. In this study, 33 preschool-aged children (42–54 months) participated in assessments of receptive and expressive language skills from the Preschool Language Scale and assessment of letter identification from the Wide Range Achievement Test. On the basis of previous findings with older children, it was expected that event-related potential responses would discriminate differences in childrens skills. The results of both analysis of variance and discriminant function analyses showed that event-related potential responses identify differences in letter naming but not receptive language skills as measured in this study.

Developmental Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

Developmental dyslexia and developmental dysgraphia are learning disabilities of reading and writing arising during the normal course of development despite adequate learning, instructional opportunities, and intelligence. Research has yielded much information on the different ways in which differences in abilities are seen in childrens reading and writing behaviors. There are different theories of the causes and consequences of dyslexia and dysgraphia. Recent research in genetics, brain imaging and brain processing, and behavioral sciences supports a link between reading and writing skills and specific linguistic skills. This research is informing intervention and instructional treatments for children with and without disabilities.

Testing Children: A Practitioner's Guide to the Assessment of Mental Development in Infants and Young Children

In her book, Testing Children: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Assessment of Mental Development in Infants and Young Children, Phyllis Preston writes with the intent to 1) give assessors the knowledge of how to use individual tests in a holistic context and 2) maximize practitioners’ abilities to achieve accurate results and conclusions that best suit the child being evaluated. The book is organized into three sections and a more helpful set of Appendices. The sections cover important testing-related information such as the history of mental measurements, description of individual assessments, and such application issues as errors that occur during testing, ways to observe behaviors, and a description of how to write assessment reports. In addition, the appendices contribute by providing readers with an in-depth description of the types of measurements commonly used to assess infants and children from birth to 8 years of age. One strength of the book is that it gives the reader good basic information on psychological measurements and test scores. It is informative for beginning practitioners with no previous assessment training. The author describes ways to observe child behaviors and how to approach assessment reports. Another strength of the book is that the author provides a thorough description of the assessment setting and of what not to do in those situations. It also gives good examples of how to properly engage with the child, and good advice on caring for test materials. Two particular weaknesses were noted. First, the book describes assessments used in the United Kingdom; therefore, such information may not be directly applicable to students, clinicians, and researchers in the United States. Second, the chapters do not go into great detail. The examples lack depth when discussing ways to observe children’s behaviors during testing, and only a few assessments were mentioned that are geared toward assessors in the United States. DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 31(2), 241–242 Copyright