Louis Manfra

Associations between Low-Income Children's Fine Motor Skills in Preschool and Academic Performance in Second Grade.

Research Findings: Given the growing literature pertaining to the importance of fine motor skills for later academic achievement (D. W. Grissmer, K. J. Grimm, S. M. Aiyer, W. M. Murrah, & J. S. Steele, 2010), the current study examines whether the fine motor skills of economically disadvantaged preschool students predict later academic performance in 2nd grade. More specifically, we expand on the current literature and evaluate whether 2 types of fine motor skills—fine motor object manipulation and fine motor writing—predict academic achievement above and beyond the effects of demographic characteristics and early language and cognition skills. Results indicate that performance on both fine motor writing and object manipulation tasks had significant effects on 2nd-grade reading and math achievement, as measured by grades and standardized test scores. Stronger effects were yielded for writing tasks compared to object manipulation tasks. Practice or Policy: Implications for researchers and early childhood practitioners are discussed.

Child, family, and childcare predictors of delayed school entry and kindergarten retention among linguistically and ethnically diverse children.

Concern about kindergarten retention is on the rise within the current climate of high-stakes testing and escalating kindergarten expectations. Kindergarten retention has been linked in previous research to various risk factors such as poverty, low maternal education, single parent status, minority status, English language learner (ELL) status, and male gender. However, these factors are also associated with poor school readiness and low kindergarten performance--the very reasons children are retained in the 1st place. This study teases apart unique and combined predictors of delayed entry into kindergarten and kindergarten retention with a large (n = 13,191) ethnically diverse, at-risk sample of children. Delayed kindergarten entry was rare for this sample but more likely among boys, native English speakers, those with poorer school readiness, less maternal education, and greater resources, and those who attended childcare rather than public school prekindergarten (pre-K) at age 4 years. Boys were more likely to be retained in kindergarten, but only because of their poorer school readiness. After strong effects for age 4 school readiness were controlled, only poverty, ELL status, and preschool program attendance predicted retention. ELL students were less likely to be retained than were native speakers, and those who attended public school pre-K programs were less likely to be retained, compared with those in childcare at age 4 years. After controlling for childrens actual performance in kindergarten their 1st time, Caucasian children and children with lower language and social skills at age 4 years were more likely to repeat kindergarten.

Preschool children's awareness of private speech:

The present study explored: (a) preschool childrens awareness of their own talking and private speech (speech directed to the self); (b) differences in age, speech use, language ability, and mentalizing abilities between children with awareness and those without; and (c) childrens beliefs and attitudes about private speech. Fifty-one children between the ages of 3 and 5 completed a selective attention task from which a sample of private speech was video-recorded for use during a subsequent experimenter–child interview. Children also completed a standardized language assessment and a battery of mentalizing tasks. Roughly half of the children (54%) showed awareness of talking during the task, and 52% of the children who talked during the task stated that their speech was self-directed. Children who were aware of their private speech were significantly older, had greater expressive language skills, used more private speech, and had higher deceptive-box scores than children who were not aware of their private speech. Participants believed that private speech was positive and helpful. Implications of this work for researchers and early childhood educators are discussed.

Associations Between Counting Ability in Preschool and Mathematic Performance in First Grade Among a Sample of Ethnically Diverse, Low-Income Children

This study explores the effects of counting objects and reciting numbers in preschool on 1st-grade math performance. Data on 3,125 low-income preschoolers’ (4- to 5-year-olds) counting abilities (orally reciting numerals in chronological order and counting blocks) were collected during a fall session (between September 15 and December 15) and were associated with 1st-grade math performance 2 years later. Childrens counting abilities were organized into five ordinal categories (from lowest to highest): (1) cannot recite or count to 10, (2) can only recite to 10, (3) can count and recite to 10, (4) can recite (but not count) to 20, and (5) can count and recite to 20. Results of hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for sex, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and days absent in 1st grade, yielded a significant linear relation across the five counting ability categories. Children who were able to count and recite to 20 during the first half of preschool had the highest math performance in 1st grade. Implications for the importance of these findings for early curricula math standards are discussed.

Preschool writing and premathematics predict Grade 3 achievement for low-income, ethnically diverse children

ABSTRACT The present study was designed to explore the association between preschool academic skills and Grade 3 achievement among a sample of ethnically diverse children from low-income families. Data were collected from a sample of 1,442 low-income, ethnically diverse children in preschool and associated with Grade 3 achievement in reading and mathematics 4 years later. Mixed-effects modeling indicated that preschool skills significantly predicted Grade 3 achievement measures while controlling for various child-level factors and random school effects. While several preschool factors were predictive of Grade 3 achievement, writing/copying and counting/premathematics skills were consistently strong predictors of Grade 3 achievement across all measures and domains suggesting these are important foundational skills for academic success in midelementary school among low-income, ethnically diverse children. Findings also replicate studies demonstrating that writing plays an important role in learning and achievement. Findings have implications for early education policy and practice intended to support academic development among low-income, ethnically diverse children.

Behavior Concerns among Low-Income, Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse Children in Child Care: Importance for School Readiness and Kindergarten Achievement.

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Recent research and teacher reports have highlighted the importance of early behavior skills for children’s school readiness and academic success in elementary school. Significant gaps in school readiness and achievement exist between children in poverty and those more affluent. Low-income children are also more likely to exhibit behavior concerns than their more financially advantaged peers. The current study examined the importance of behavior skills at age 4 for school readiness and academic achievement in kindergarten among an ethnically diverse sample of 1,618 low-income children (63% Latino, 37% Black) in an urban setting. Children’s early behavior concerns at age 4 were significantly associated with children’s school readiness scores and end-of-year kindergarten grades above and beyond the contributions of family and child demographics and children’s early cognitive and language skills. In addition, behavior problems were more strongly related to school readiness and kindergarten performance within English-dominant Latino children as opposed to Spanish-dominant Latino children. Practice or Policy: The findings from the current study provide support for targeting behavior skills, and not just preliteracy and/or number skills, prior to school entry as a strategy to increase the likelihood of low-income diverse children’s school readiness and school success. Behavior interventions are discussed.

Change in child behaviour concerns associated with childcare quality features among a sample of low-income Latino children

ABSTRACT This study explored the relation between childcare quality (staff–child ratio and staff–child interactions) and behavioural development between the beginning and the end of the childcare year among a sample of 44 low-income Latino four-year-olds in 14 childcare programmes. Neither staff–child ratio nor staff–child interactions were related to childrens behaviour at the beginning of the childcare year. Further, staff–child ratio was not significantly related to changes between the beginning and the end of the childcare year in childrens behaviour skills. However, staff–child interactions characterised as warm and involving direct instruction related to the development of positive social skills (e.g. taking turns, solving peer conflicts) were significantly associated with decreases in childrens behaviour concerns from the beginning to the end of the childcare year. Staff–child interactions characterised negatively (e.g. overly controlling, strict scheduling) were also associated with decreases in childrens behaviour concerns. Implications for improving behaviour skills of low-income Latino children by adjusting non-familial childcare features and measurement of childcare features are discussed.

Preschoolers’ Motor and Verbal Self-Control Strategies During a Resistance-to-Temptation Task

ABSTRACT Although prior research has shown that young children exhibit enhanced self-control when they use verbal strategies provided through adult instructions, little work has examined the role of childrens spontaneous verbalizations or motor behavior as strategies for enhancing self-control. The present study examined the usefulness of spontaneous verbal and motor strategies for 39 3- and 4-year-old childrens ability to exercise self-control during a resistance-to-temptation task. After a 2-min play period, participants were asked by an experimenter not to touch an attractive train set while he was out of the room. Children were videotaped during the 3-min waiting period and videos were coded for frequency and duration of touches, motor movements, and verbalizations. Results indicated that self-control was improved by using both motor and verbal strategies. Children who were unable to resist touching the forbidden toy used limited motor or verbal strategies. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the positive role of verbalizations on cognitive control and draw attention to motor behaviors as additional strategies used by young children to exercise self-control.

Analyzing Teacher Narratives in Early Childhood Garden-Based Education.

ABSTRACT Learning gardens can provide dynamic learning and developmental experiences for young children. This case study of 12 early childhood teachers explores how teachers describe (1) learning across numerous school readiness domains and (2) how to support this learning by promoting opportunities for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Participants worked at a university-affiliated early education program with a learning garden in the midwestern United States. Data included 19 narrative, photo-elicitation interviews during two growing seasons. Iterative qualitative analyses informed the creation of a Gourd Tee-Pee Model that describes learning across multiple domains and integrates self-determination theory into early childhood garden education. This framework can inform the design and evaluation of early childhood garden education programs.

Word Learning during Reading: Effects of Language Ability in School-Age Children.

Most vocabulary growth during the school-age years occurs incidentally. However, little is understood about the influence of language skills on word knowledge growth during reading. Using a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design, we examined incidental word learning through reading, considering the presence/absence of supportive context and the role of language ability. Children with a range of language abilities (N = 32), aged 10 years, 6 months to 16 years, 5 months, were exposed three times to rare nouns and verbs within stories or in isolation. Small but significant knowledge gains were found for rare words encountered in context, but not for words in isolation. Language skill predicted overall word knowledge but not rate of word knowledge growth. Findings suggest children with low oral language ability are at a disadvantage in acquiring vocabulary through reading; however, the word learning process may be qualitatively similar for children with varying language skill levels.