When students work independently, monitor task performance, and recognise difficulties they cannot overcome on their own, requesting assistance from a more knowledgeable individual can be an adaptive learning strategy. In this chapter, the academic help-seeking literature is briefly reviewed then contrasted with several types of nonadaptive actions in which students often engage when they encounter academic difficulty. Further, practical concerns of teachers are addressed, particularly on how to support student efforts at adaptive help seeking.

Author: Richard S. Newman

Source: Newman, R.S. (2008). The motivational role of adaptive help seeking in self-regulated learning. Chapter 13 in the book Motivation and self-regulated learning. Theory, research, and applications edited by Dale E. Schunk & Barry J. Zimmerman (Routledge, Taylor, & Francis Group).

An important aspect of the learning process is asking questions about material one does not understand. When students work independently, monitor task performance, and recognise difficulties they cannot overcome on their own, requesting assistance from a more knowledgeable individual can be considered an adaptive learning strategy. In this chapter, academic help-seeking literature is briefly reviewed then contrasted with several types of nonadaptive actions in which students often engage when they encounter academic difficulty. Any practical concerns of teachers, particularly how to support students’ efforts at adaptive help seeking, are also addressed.

• Adaptive help seeking is a strategy of self-regulated learning.
• Adaptive help seeking is a goal-directed and intentional action that mediates the relationship between academic difficulty and successful task completion.
• Adaptive help seeking is social—it involves other people.
• According to Vygotsky (1978), a child’s cognitive development is necessarily linked to social influences. The young child is an active participant in social interactions with adults, who provide needed assistance and gradually wean the child off unneeded assistance. In time, the child adopts the adult’s regulating role.
• This developmental process has been described as a transition from other-regulation to self-regulation.
• Faced with difficult tasks, learners may require assistance from someone more knowledgeable than themselves.
• An important aspect of self-regulation is knowing when it is necessary to fall back to other-regulation.
• Individuals can alternate between depending on others, gradually developing independence, pushing oneself toward self-sufficiency, asking an expert for further assistance, and pushing oneself to new limits when necessary.
• Willingness to depend on others over a lifespan is a marker of cognitive, social, and emotional maturity.

Adaptive help seekers possess the following intrapersonal, affective-motivational, and self-system resources:

1. Goals (such as desire to learn)

2. Self-beliefs (such as self-efficacy and perceived competence)

3. Emotions (such as self-esteem that allows one to admit to others his or her limitations)

Operationalising adaptive help seeking

• Adaptive help seeking is restricted to occasions when assistance is actually required.
• With age and knowledge, students become increasingly aware of when their knowledge is lacking, comprehension is incomplete, or they are confused.
• Help seeking following initial failure can be interpreted as appropriate (or necessary), whereas help seeking following an initial solution that is correct is inappropriate (or unnecessary).
• Some studies about Grade 3 and 5 students found that Grade 3 students tended to make more unnecessary requests for help than Grade 5 students. Further, Grade 5 students with relatively poor vocabulary asked significantly more unnecessary questions compared to classmates with good vocabulary.
• Asking for a hint is indicative or ‘instrumental’ help seeking (indicating a desire to clarify or refine current knowledge), whereas asking for a direct answer is indicative of ‘executive’ help seeking (indicating either a lack of knowledge or desire for expedient task completion).
• Among more experienced learners, there is evidence of adaptiveness being operationalised according to matching specific types of request to perceived needs.
• Older children take more time before requesting help compared to younger children, suggesting more perseverance in the face of difficulty.
• Students with learning goals are more interested in obtaining feedback about the correctness of their work. In contrast, students with performance goals are more likely to seek help in seemingly nonadaptive ways, such as by immediately asking for help when it may not be necessary or failing to ask help when it is necessary.

This chapter focuses on motivation as a consequence of learning to self-regulate, arguing that a facility for learning is a motivator in itself. By engaging in academic pursuits productively, an individual can enjoy being a student and develop confidence about schoolwork. Further, students with good work habits are recognised and given status as full participants in their school community.

Author: Lyn Corno

Source: Corno, L. (2008). Work habits and self-regulated learning: Helping students to find a ‘will’ from a ‘way’. Chapter 8 in a book Motivation and self-regulated learning. Theory, research, and applications edited by Dale E. Schunk & Barry J. Zimmerman (Routledge, Taylor, & Francis Group).

This chapter focuses on motivation as a consequence of learning to self-regulate, arguing that a facility for learning is, in itself, a motivator. Individuals who engage in academic pursuits productively can enjoy being a student and develop confidence about schoolwork. Moreover, students with good work habits are recognised and are considered full participants in their school community. Students tend to carry this sort of recognition throughout their school years.

• Consciously using self-regulation as a tool for undertaking learning tasks increases control and results in other favourable consequences.
• Ongoing use of self-regulation in academic settings increases the likelihood that these processes will be tapped ‘automatically’ as conditions dictate.
• When routinely applying self-regulation to control action on school-related tasks, students begin to develop academic work habits.
• Students can improve in school if they learn to process information more effectively when they confront academic work and develop a strategic approach to learning as second nature.
• Internalising what it means to ‘learn how to learn’ might be used to promote effective academic work habits.
• According to Bandura (1977), strong beliefs in personal capabilities influence motivated behaviour, which includes effort and engagement in school.
• Students who can develop into confident and consistent self-regulated learners should be able to tackle almost any task using that adaptive mindset, even if their personal capabilities are average relative to their peer group.
• Multiple strands of research show that low achievers can learn the strategies of self-regulation and apply them under the demands of school tasks.
• Although motivational processes set the stage for goal pursuits, completing a performance often requires persistent striving and navigation of obstacles that define volition.

What is volition?

• Volition reflects an intention to implement or carry out action.
• Volition includes the post-decisional self-regulation activities of setting and prioritising an action plan and activities concerned with implementation (such as bypassing barriers, checking work, managing resources, and budgeting time).
• If work habits and work styles (such as those reflected in self-discipline) are volition based, then it makes sense for students to hone their volitional competency.
• One way for students to strengthen volitional competency is through repeated experience with monitoring volitional states.

A framework for thinking about work habits

• Good working habits comprise the strategies and tactics for completing academic tasks that become honed through experience.
• Good work habits are cultivated tendencies that contribute to readiness and success in school.
• Students with good work habits receive positive feedback throughout the age ranges.
• Teachers provide ‘hard workers’ with a variety of opportunities to develop and display leadership.
• It is also recommended that self-disciplined students should qualify for other honours available in the school.
• Teachers confer power and status on students, establishing an upward performance trajectory that extends beyond any particular classroom.
• Improved time management allows opportunities for personal pursuits during free time.
• Students who adopt either the teacher or student role in group assignments provide models of work habits to be perceived and emulated by other members of the group.
• Students who find utility in the positive consequences of good group habits (and set goals accordingly) should increase their likelihood of school success in the long term.
• Work habits develop over the two scales of time and experience.
• Accumulated experiences organise and stabilise, reshaping a student’s repertoire of propensities (some of which are work habits).
• Beyond the classroom, academic work habits develop through homework, peer helping, and in other socio-cultural experiences that share properties with school (events that collectively educate and individual’s attention).

How to plan to work?

• Prepare to learn
• Set contingency plans
• Make a schedule
• Consider ways to proceed
• Apply related knowledge
• Set manageable goals

Two ‘bags of tricks’ for doing well in school

In the case of making ideas orderly, the tricks include the following:

• Goal setting
• Marking important points
• Summarising
• Reviewing

In the case of sharing your ideas, the tricks include the following:

• Asking questions
• Talking to learn
• Answering when called on
• Volunteering

The idea is that teacher responds favourably when students offer help in class without being asked. For example

• Offering to help the teacher with a class project
• Asking to be a group leader
• Raising one’s hand to answer questions
• Volunteering to read aloud or offering to work on a problem publicly

In the curriculum, teachers are asked to work together with students and their parents to design targeted home-based learning skills exercises.

Both quantitative and qualitative evidence from a series of studies supported the value of introducing children to class participation and memory support skills.

Students who completed all the exercises in the programme achieved significantly higher reading and vocabulary scores.

The treatment effect exceeded 0.75 standard deviations of adjusted class means.

Collaborating with teachers to study work habits

• When we define a term such as self-regulated learning and provide attendant examples from the research literature, we ask teachers to illustrate the same concept using instances from their own teaching experience.
• We provide assistance to teachers who wish to use our curriculum or adapt it for their purposes.
• We communicate with teachers about how to personalise the curriculum and the quest-related strategies it offers for students to polish their work.
• The experiences teachers devise for their particular students have a common goal: to teach self-regulation strategies and encourage students to apply them naturally when planning for their own challenging quests or events.
• The teachers understand that work habits can develop into a productive work style, meaning a way of doing things that contributes to success across the curriculum.
• We address helping students to find the motivation (or will) to perform in school.
• Teachers indicate that a student’s sense of efficacy can be fragile. Moreover, even confident learners can falter when faced with a disappointing performance.
• We share new theories with teachers about the concept of aptitude, which is no longer perceived as innate and unchanging.
• Aptitude is now understood to be a ‘fit’ between demands and preparation.
• The cultivation of aptitude for schooling can be perceived as the cultivation of attention to contextual cues.
• The processes of motivation and volition rise and fall away in a context of increasing demands and decreasing support.
• Although it is the putative role of the teacher to promote student learning in educational situations, students mediate all the instruction they receive.
• Mediation (including self-regulation) is powerful; it builds self-confidence, leading to other attainments.

Example curriculum to exercise and develop budding work habits

• Students maintain records of time spent preparing for tests or quizzes outside school, numbers of assignments tackled for extra credit, and any ways they sought assistance when completing homework assignments and projects (such as self-management charts).
• Students share with each other and the teacher information on the following: how they manage their work, descriptions of their work space at home, habitual work tactics, any strategies used for action control, and work styles.
• Students write about the ways they plan and prepare for tests and what they do to stay on task both in and outside the class (such as making lists, colour-coding notes, drawing up tables, or self-monitoring).
• Using good examples from materials they provide, stronger students are asked to share their strategies as peer helpers.
• Students are asked to reflect on their work habits as course activities progress.
• Teachers can present students with problems to solve and other scenarios that prompt evidence of more- and less-productive ways of tackling tasks and investing effort.
• Teachers can take notes on work habits they observe to be developing in individual students throughout the year, which can be shared with students and parents to increase productivity.
• It can be profitable if parents take notes about any salient points.
• In an experiment following an assignment, a partner asks the student to envision a game plan for completing the task, with the aim of the student thinking through when and where they could work. This request was sufficient to induce an action plan for completing the task in the majority of student participants.

Herein, evidence from 15 Early Grade Reading (EGR) interventions are summarised. It was found that EGR interventions are not a guaranteed means of improving reading and rarely lead to fluency in the short term. However, they are a predominantly reliable method of making substantial improvements in reading skills over a short period of time across a variety of contexts. The average effects equate to approximately three years of schooling.

Authors: Jimmy Graham & Sean Kelly

Source: Graham, J. & Kelly, S. (2019). How effective are early grade reading interventions? A review of the evidence. Education Research Review, 27, 155-175, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.03.006

Early Grade Reading interventions are programmes that aim to strengthen core reading skills in Grades 1–4. This is achieved by training teachers to teach reading using simplified instruction and evidence-based curricula and by employing a combination of complementary approaches. Herein, evidence from 15 EGR interventions are summarised. It was found that EGR interventions are not a guaranteed means to improve reading and they rarely lead to fluency in the short term. However, they are a mainly reliable means of making substantial improvements in reading skills over a short period of time across a variety of contexts, with average effects equating to approximately three years of schooling.

• Despite increasing enrolment rates, early grade illiteracy is widespread in the developing world.
• UNESCO estimates that 250 million primary school-aged children (out of a total of 650 million) are failing to acquire basic reading skills.
• Illiteracy has wide-ranging costs.
• Illiteracy prevents millions of children from taking advantage of the extensive benefits of education.
• Societal shortcomings in literacy may constrain economic growth and lead to higher societal costs in terms of employment, education, crime, and health.
• Early Grade Reading interventions are a specific type of programme intended to strengthen core reading skills in Grades 1–4 and are emerging as a potential solution to address the crisis of illiteracy.

Teacher training

• Training must move beyond large, conference-style, one-off, professional development workshops to personal extensive training focused on practical skills.
• Training should focus specifically on reading.
• Training should have a basis in reading curricula that follows evidence from education and cognitive research, be appropriate to student ability levels, and cater to the local language and level of resources available.

In-service training

• In-service training should emphasise and explain to participants the five main reading skills central to EGR interventions: phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension.
• Initial in-service training at the start of the EGR intervention lasts from five to ten days. This is followed by refresher training of three to five days taken during school breaks in the middle of project implementation.
• In-service training should use cascade models that train master trainers or coaches who then deliver the training to teachers.
• Teachers should learn how to use instructional guidelines and how to integrate new reading materials into their lessons. They should also learn and practice instructional techniques and activities that develop reading skills (such as the ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’ approach).
• Guidelines enable teachers to develop simple reading instruction routines. Ideally, they should provide step-by-step instructions without too many words or complex procedures.
• The length of lessons in instructional guidelines should range between 30 and 90 min.
• Evidence suggests that scripting lessons tends to enhance the effectiveness of reading instruction in low- and middle-income countries.
• Coaching and continual feedback have been found to be beneficial.
• During visits, coaches observe teachers as they deliver reading lessons to their students. After the lesson, the coach provides individualised feedback with the aim of reinforcing concepts from in-service teacher training, improving lesson content, or helping the teacher apply instructional techniques more effectively.
• Reading materials appropriate for the local context are fundamental for instruction (once teachers have been trained how to use them).
• The supplementary instructional materials of EGR interventions permit students to practice letter sounds, hear teachers or other students read aloud, learn new vocabulary, and read stories.
• Assessments are a critical part of effective reading instruction. Accordingly, effective EGR interventions often include the furnishing tools and training for student assessment as another component.
• Assessments evaluate student reading skills such as letter sounds, familiar words, listening comprehension, or passages of connected text with reading comprehension questions.
• Student assessments can indicate to teachers those students who need additional instruction in specific reading skills.

The study

This paper adds to the literature by presenting a clear definition of EGR interventions and a rationale for why they should enhance reading skills. Further, evidence from 15 impact evaluations occurring across a large variety of contexts are summarised.

The data

Data consisted of 15 evaluations of EGR interventions. When examining these evaluations, the focus was on their effect on reading fluency, letter-sound knowledge, and comprehension.

Implications

• EGR interventions have emerged as a possible solution to the widespread problem of illiteracy among early primary school students in developing countries.
• The findings reveal that EGR interventions are mostly consistent in improving outcomes for letter-sound knowledge, fluency, and comprehension (as measured by LNR/LSR, ORF, and RC).
• While practical gains represented substantial improvements over the status quo, they were rarely large enough to bring students close to fluency.
• Generally, the interventions were slightly more effective at improving outcomes in practical terms for LSR/LNR compared to ORF/RC, although several interventions had very large gains in practical terms for all three subtasks.
• Overall, grade level, intervention length, programme size, and language of assessment did not appear to influence the outcomes substantially.
• EGR interventions are a mostly reliable method (regardless of context) of making substantial improvements in reading skills and accelerating learning in many contexts.
• Rigorously training teachers to teach reading using evidence-based simplified curricula is probably a powerful element for making progress in reading skills.

This meta-analysis summarises 74 studies (N = 80,145) that simultaneously examined the predictive power of intelligence and motivation for school achievement. In a path model, 24% of variance in school achievement was explained overall, 66.6% was uniquely explained by intelligence, and 16.6% uniquely by motivation. Both intelligence and motivation contribute substantial and unique shares to the prediction of school achievement and an additional share of commonly explained variance.

Authors: Katharina Kriegbaum, Nicolas Becker & Birgit Spinath

Source: Kriegbaum, K., Becker, N. & Spinath, B. (2018). The relative importance of intelligence and motivation as predictors of school achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 25, 120-148, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.10.001

This meta-analysis summarises 74 studies (N = 80,145) that simultaneously examined the predictive power of intelligence and motivation for school achievement. The average correlations were moderate between intelligence (r = 0.44) and motivation (r = 0.27) with school achievement and between intelligence and motivation (r = 0.17). Correlation between motivation and school achievement was higher for expectancies than for values. In a path model, 24% of variance in school achievement was explained overall, 66.6% was uniquely explained by intelligence, and 16.6% uniquely by motivation. Both intelligence and motivation contribute substantial and unique shares to the prediction of school achievement and an additional share of commonly explained variance.

• School achievement is strongly influenced by individual student prerequisities, such as cognitive and motivational factors.
• The term school achievement summarises performance outcomes in all domains taught at school.
• School achievement functions as a selection criterion for subsequent education and jobs and is typically operationalised via school grades or standardised tests.
• Standardised test achievements are a purer measure of student achievement compared to grades. However, school grades can be perceived as a highly ecologically valid measure of school achievement because they are good predictors of future academic success and are used as allocation and selection criteria for higher education and jobs.
• Verbal and mixed intelligence tests are more strongly associated with school achievement than nonverbal intelligence.
• Intelligence is more strongly related to standardised test achievements than to school grades.
• Achievement motivation can be divided into expectancies (academic self-concept and self-efficacy), and values (intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, task values, achievement motive, achievement goals and interest).
• Intelligence and motivation have been shown to predict school achievement, with intelligence typically being the stronger predictor.

What is motivation?

Expectancies

• Academic self-concept is an individual’s perception of their competence in a specific domain.
• Self-efficacy is individual expectancy about future performance and is typically measured as a conviction about how well one will be able to solve a certain task in the future.

Values

• The value attributed to a certain task comprises different components: intrinsic value (enjoyment of task or interest), importance values (importance of doing well on a certain task), utility value (usefulness of a certain task for one’s future), and cost.
• Interest can be defined as a personality-specific trait (such as a relatively stable preference for a specific learning topic) and a situation-specific state related to attraction of a specific learning condition.
• Whereas intrinsic motivation is defined as engaging in something for its own sake and for enjoyment, extrinsic motivation is defined as doing something for its consequences.
• Achievement goals can be divided in four different types: mastery-approach goals focus on the positive development of one’s own competence; mastery-avoidance goals tap the fear of losing competence; performance-approach goals focus on demonstrating one’s own competence and performing better than others; and performance-avoidance goals focus on hiding supposed incompetence and striving not to perform worse than others.
• Achievement motives include hope for success (a positive attitude towards performance), the belief that one can succeed, positive emotions in achievement situations, and fear of failure (such as a negative, fearful attitude towards performance and negative emotions in corresponding situations).

The study

The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to summarise findings from the literature to investigate the relative importance of motivation and intelligence in predicting school achievement. Another purpose was to identify relevant moderator variables, including the type of achievement measure, motivational construct, intelligence measure, subject domain, study design, grade level, school form, gender, country, and year of publication.

Data

Data for the meta-analysis consisted of 74 published or unpublished studies.

Implications

• A central finding of the meta-analysis is that intelligence and motivation are only weakly positively associated.
• Results indicate that intelligence is a strong predictor of school achievement.
• The average correlation between motivation and school achievement is moderate and positive.
• Expectancies such as academic self-concept and self-efficacy are more accurate predictors of school achievement compared to values such as intrinsic motivation, interest, achievement motive, and achievement goals.
• Since motivation is easier to influence and foster through instructional characteristics, feedback, learning contexts and situational factors, teachers should be aware of their power to motivate students toward higher achievement.
• Students should develop positive expectancies for success in their future assignments and exams and a realistic (yet positive) self-concept regarding ability.
• Teachers should support their students in developing a realistic academic self-concept. For example, this can be achieved by varying the difficulty of tasks, setting short-term goals, and providing clear, specific, and informative feedback.

This study presents a systematic review of available empirical research on primary school students’ first language listening skills. At the classroom level, students’ listening skills and teaching practices (such as listening strategy instruction) in addition to classroom features (such as classroom noise) were related. At the student level, students’ listening skills and their cognitive skills (such as working memory) and background characteristics (such as socioeconomic status) were related.

Authors: Heleen Bourdeaud’hui, Koen Aesaert, Hilde Ven Keer, & Johan van Braak

Source: Bourdeaud’hui, H; Aesaert, K.; Van Keer, H.; van Braak, J. (2018). Identifying student and classroom characteristics related to primary school students’ listening skills: A systematic review. Educational Research Review, 25, 86-99, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.09.005

This study presents a systematic review of available empirical research on primary school students’ first language listening skills. In total, 27 studies were selected and reviewed. First, the outcome variables of listening skills were labelled, with the results indicating that most studies evaluated listening skills as the ability to remember, understand, or interpret an auditory message. Second, important correlates related to primary school students’ listening skills were identified. At the classroom level, students’ listening skills and teaching practices (such as listening strategy instruction) in addition to classroom features (such as classroom noise) were related. At the student level, students’ listening skills and their cognitive skills (such as working memory) and background characteristics (such as socioeconomic status) were related.

• Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are the four language skills.
• In an educational context, research indicates that primary school students spend approximately 50%–75% of each school day listening to teachers, classmates, or audio-supported media.
• Listening skills remain rather challenging for many students, especially for non-native speakers and students with language impairments, learning disabilities, or hyperactivity disorders.
• Classroom noise and poor acoustics could have an effect on listening skills.
• There is a shortage of listening instruction.

Why are listening skills important?

• Listening skills and academic success (or knowledge) are closely connected, since listening is an important medium for students to process and acquire information.
• Listening skills play a key role in literacy success and the development of numerous other language skills, such as reading comprehension and writing.
• Students need listening skills to understand practical oral instructions from the teacher, such as homework assignments.
• Good listening skills are fundamental for the development of social and relational skills in the school context.

The study

The intent of this study is to analyse existing listening literature and provide a systematic overview of the correlates of primary school students’ listening skills.

Research questions:

1. How are student listening skills defined and described in different studies according to the HURIER model?
2. According to the model of Palardy and Rumberger (2008), which input and process characteristics are related to primary school students’ listening skills?

The data consisted of 27 articles reviewed in this study.

Implications

• Listening skills are a prerequisite for further educational success.
• The relationship between correlates and listening skills was primarily investigated towards the ‘lower levels’ of listening skills (remembering, understanding, and interpreting).
• Different student level characteristics (such as academic background, demographics, and family background) are correlated to student listening skills.
• Working memory and vocabulary are especially significant predictors of listening skills.
• A student’s socioeconomic status is related to their listening skills.
• Students will remember more facts from auditory texts when they receive instruction in the specific structure of the text type (such as a narrative or expository strategy instruction).
• Student listening skills can be improved through applying visual techniques during listening training, such as telling stories supported by illustration or asking students to paint a picture of the main features in their mind.
• Listening strategy instruction affects listening skills positively. For example, teaching students different listening strategies (such as listening for a purpose or predicting what could happen) will improve their listening skills.
• Listening skills can be improved through integrating listening activities into the entire curriculum and by combining listening activities with speaking, reading, or writing activities.
• Poor interior acoustics and background noise cause attention loss and exacerbate listening difficulties, while sound system improvements positively influence student listening skills.
• Reducing class sizes and/or investing in sound systems by improving the sound environment in the classroom will positively influence student listening performance.

The evidence on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in the first three years for disadvantaged children indicates that high-quality ECEC can produce benefits for cognitive, language, and social development. With regard to provision for subsequent years, disadvantaged children benefit particularly from high-quality preschool provision. Further, children benefit more in socially mixed groups.

Authors: Edward Melhulsh, Katharina Ereky-Stevens, Konstantinos Petroglannis, Anamaria Ariescu, Efthymia Penderi, Konstantina Rentzou, Alice Tawell, Pauline Slot, Martine Broekhuizen, & Paul Leseman

Source: Melhulsh, E., Ereky-Stevens, K., Petroglannis, K., Ariescu, A., Penderi, E., Rentzou, K., Tawell, A., Slot, P., Broekhuizen, M. & Leseman, P. (2015). CARE – Curriculum quality analysis and impact review of European Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). https://ecec-care.org/fileadmin/careproject/Publications/reports/new_version_CARE_WP4_D4_1_Review_on_the_effects_of_ECEC.pdf

High-quality childcare has been associated with benefits for children’s development, with the strongest effects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, negative effects can sometimes occur. Discrepant results may relate to age of starting and differences in the quality of childcare. The evidence on ECEC in the first three years for disadvantaged children indicates that high-quality ECEC can produce benefits for cognitive, language, and social development. With regard to provision for subsequent years, disadvantaged children benefit particularly from high-quality preschool provision. Further, children benefit more in socially mixed groups. This educational success is followed by increased success in employment, social integration, and reduced criminality in adulthood.

• The terms day care, child care, and ECEC have all been used to refer to various forms of non-parental childcare and early education occurring before school.
• ECEC has become a salient developmental context for most children in high-income countries and increasingly so in low- and middle-income countries.
• Quantity of care issues are concerned with whether child development is related to the following: a) the use of non-parental day care versus parental care (or the use of different types of care); b) the age at which children enter ECEC; and c) the amount of time children spend in ECEC.
• The structural quality of ECEC refers to the organisational and physical features of ECEC, and is generally considered higher when the following conditions are met: child group sizes and child-adult ratios are small, teachers are trained, and curriculum/ programme type, toys and learning materials, and physical space are age-appropriate and adequate.
• The process quality of ECEC refers to the quality of children’s daily experiences (including adult–child interactions) that foster children’s development.

Studies in USA

Early Head Start (EHS)

• EHS is a two-generation intervention programme serving parents and children from birth to age three.
• Centre-based programmes had the strongest effects on child outcomes, whereas home-based programmes had the strongest effects on parenting outcomes. Further, a mixed model combining both centre-based provision with home visiting had the most wide-ranging and strongest positive impact.
• Effect sizes were modest, generally in the range of 10% to 20%.

The positive effects for children

• Better cognitive and language development
• Better immunisation records and less hospitalisation
• Lower levels of aggressive behaviour
• More sustained play
• Greater engagement and less negativity with parents

The positive effects for parents

• Greater warmth and supportiveness toward children and less detachment
• More time playing with children
• More stimulating home environments
• More language learning and reading support for children
• Less corporal punishment and a wider range of discipline strategies
• A higher likeliness to be employed or in training
• Delayed subsequent child bearing compared to controls

Infant Health and Development Programme (IHDP)

• IHDP was an intervention aimed at improving the health and development of premature, low birth weight (LBW) (<2.5 kg) infants through a combination of education and support for parents plus enriched educational day care and health services for children.
• For children in the range 2.0–2.5 kg, there were large and significant benefits from the enriched educational day care intervention.
• For very LBW (<2 kg) infants, the results were more equivocal.
• There were modest short- and long-term improvements for cognitive outcomes for the heavier LBW participants.
• For non-cognitive outcomes, both short- and long-term effects on heavier LBW children were reported.

Milwaukee project

• The Milwaukee Project was an intervention programme designed to facilitate the intellectual development of very young disadvantaged children.
• The intervention technique employed an intensive educational programme for very young high-risk children, starting before the age of six months.
• The very small-scale intervention included a full-time, child-oriented, centre-based programme from infancy to six years of age with increasing educational input as age increased. Vocational training, childcare, and household guidance was also provided for mothers.
• By the age of six years, all the children from the experimental group had higher IQs compared to children from the control group.
• After leaving the programme, IQs started to decline and the scholastic achievement scores of the experimental group were the same as those of the control group.

Abecedarian Project

• The Abecedarian Project involved a poor African-American population in North Carolina.
• One group was placed in a programme involving centre-based care and home visits from the age of three months, which continued until the children entered school.
• The control group received family support, social services, low-cost (or free) pediatric care, and child nutritional supplements. However, there was no additional childcare beyond that provided by the parents and local services.
• Overall, there is a consistent positive message on the long-term impact of Abecedarian on cognitive and educational outcomes.
• Long-term effects for non-cognitive outcomes were found, such as reduced depression and delinquency and better employment.

Project CARE

• In this project, the effects of a centre-based programme, home visits, and control conditions were compared, with interventions starting shortly after birth. The target group was low-income African-American families.
• The day care plus home visit intervention group scored significantly higher on developmental assessments compared to the control and home visit only groups.
• Children in treatment groups that included childcare were rated as more task-oriented in infancy and tended to exhibit higher and more stable cognitive scores. This started during late infancy and continued through to early childhood.

Perry Preschool Project (PPP)

• This half-day, five days a week, centre-based programme started interventions at three years of age and was supplemented by weekly home visits lasting 90 min.
• African-American children with IQs <90 were randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups.
• The intervention involved a high-quality educationally-oriented curriculum with well-trained staff.
• The programme was demonstrated to have long-term effects.
• The intervention group exhibited higher levels of educational achievement.
• By the age of 27 years, the long-term benefits of the intervention included the following: reduced school drop-out, reduced drug use, reduced teenage pregnancies, enhanced employment, reduced welfare-dependence, and reduced crime.
• The long-term effect sizes were in the range 0.30–0.50 SD.

Early Training Project (ETP)

• Three to four year-old children were randomly assigned to treatment (44) and control (21) groups.
• Children were selected if they lived in poor or deteriorating housing or public housing, had a low family income, and had parents with a lower than high school education who were in an unskilled or semi-skilled occupation.
• The intervention consisted of a 10-week summer preschool programme for the 2–3 summers prior to the first grade, plus weekly home visits during the remainder of the year.
• There were positive modest effects, such as on high school completion.

Head Start

• Head Start is a broad-based federally funded (but locally administered) early intervention programme with the aim of improving outcomes for children in disadvantaged families.
• Typically, a Head Start programme would include centre-based early childcare and education from three years of age on at least a half-time basis.
• While Head Start had a substantial and immediate effect on participants, the long-term effects were less evident.

Child-Parent Centre (CPC)

• CPCs provide centre-based educational support and family support to disadvantaged children and their parents. This includes education, family, and health services and half-day preschool and school-age services up to the age of nine years.
• Children participated in the preschool intervention for one or two years. They achieved a higher rate of high school completion, more years of completed education, and lower rates of juvenile arrest, violent arrests, and school dropout.
• Children with two years of preschool experience had higher cognitive readiness and higher achievements in reading and mathematics at the age of five years compared to those with only one year of preschool.
• The short-term effects included moderate to high effect sizes, while long-term effects (both cognitive and behavioural) were small to moderate.

Great Start Readiness Programme

• This is a state-funded preschool initiative.
• To qualify for the programme, a child must be four years of age and have at least 2 of 25 risk factors (such as living in a low-income or single parent family).
• Children receive a child developmental preschool programme that provides age-appropriate activities to promote their intellectual and social growth and school readiness.
• Children’s families receive parenting support, guidance, and referrals to community services as required.
• Children who attended the programme were more advanced in six areas of child development compared to the control group: initiative, social relations, creative representation, music and movement, language and literacy, and logic and mathematics.
• In grade four, students who had attended the programme had a significantly higher percentage of satisfactory scores on academic performance.
• Students who participated in the programme demonstrated improved levels of on-time school graduation, lower retention in grade, higher performance in mathematics and in mathematics and language arts combined in high-school.

Texas Targeted Pre-Kindergarten Programme

• The purpose of state-sponsored Pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) in Texas is to bolster the academic performance of at-risk children.
• The Texas programme ranks low in quality in terms of class size, staff to pupil ratios, and spending per capita.
• For the 3^rd grade reading test there were statistically significant effects for public pre-K attendance.
• Attendance to public pre-K significantly reduced the probability of retention in grade.
• The likelihood of being assigned to special education in the third grade was lower for pre-K children.

Syracuse Family Development Research Programme

• This was a comprehensive childcare, education, health and family support programme from pregnancy to the start of school designed to improve child and family functioning through home visitations, parental training, and individualised day care.
• The programme targeted young, African-American, single-parent, low-income families.
• Child Development Trainers visited each family weekly where they focused on increasing family interaction, cohesiveness, and nurturing.
• In the Children’s Centre (for day care), infants were assigned to a caregiver for attention, cognitive and social games, sensorimotor activities, and language stimulation.
• Compared with a control group, the intervention produced better educational attainment and school attendance for girls, but not for boys.
• In adolescence, there were improvements in social adjustment and reduced criminality of the intervention group.

European studies

UK

• The Hackney Day Care Study proposed to assess the effects of providing day care to children aged six months to three-and-a-half years from socially disadvantaged families.
• While there was an increase in the likelihood of mothers in the intervention group being in paid employment, there was no increase in family income.
• Children in the intervention group were more likely to be infected with ‘glue ear’ (otitis media with effusion)
• No child development effects or positive cost benefits were found.

Denmark

• The Action Competencies in Social Pedagogical Work with Socially Endangered Child and Youth (ASP-program) aims to improve the wellbeing and cognitive functioning of all children.
• The intervention appears to have had a positive and growing effect on emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and hyperactivity inattention. However, there was no effect on peer relationships and pro-social behaviour.

Germany

• The Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) is a longitudinal survey of private households in a wide-ranging representative study with annual follow-ups.
• Children from advantaged families derived lower returns to childcare attendance than children from a less advantaged family backgrounds.
• Children who would benefit the most—younger children and children from disadvantaged backgrounds—are least likely to be sent to childcare.
• Children who are the least likely to enter childcare gained more from attending childcare in terms of social, language, daily, and motor skills than children who face lower unobserved entry barriers.

Netherlands

• Several early education and care programmes were researched in the Dutch Cohort Study of Primary Education (PRIMA).
• The common aim of these programmes was to stimulate socio-emotional and cognitive development.
• Their curriculum is predominantly developmental. Most preschools work with mixed-age groups and most time is spent in free-play activities and work lessons with small groups of children.
• Whole group activities are regularly provided as starter, break, or closing activities during the day and include book reading, play, talking, and singing.
• In the second year of preschool, existing activities are complemented by literacy and mathematics activities (such as exploring letters and words, counting, and measuring)
• Using retrospective analysis, no statistically significant effects of targeted preschool education were found on language and cognitive outcomes and school achievement.
• Using a cohort-sequential augmented latent growth analysis, a study showed positive effects of teacher-initiated language, literacy, and mathematics activities on children’s growth in these skills over time.

France

• The French kindergarten (ecole maternelle) is available to all children aged from three to six years and has an explicit educational mission, although this does not necessarily focus on the promotion of pre-academic skills.
• A study reported a stronger effect of an earlier start in ecole maternelle (age two compared to age three) on early school skills and grade retention in primary school, especially for children of low-income and immigrant ethnic minority families.

Summary of evidence for disadvantaged children

• The evidence on childcare in the first three years for disadvantaged children indicates that high-quality ECEC can benefit cognitive, language, and social development.
• With regard to provision for three years onwards, disadvantaged children benefit particularly from high-quality preschool provision.
• Children benefit more in socially mixed groups.

ECEC for children up to three years of age in the general population

Socio-emotional development

• Two meta-analyses conducted in the 1980s summarised many US studies and concluded that non-maternal care in the first years of life could increase the likelihood of insecure attachment with the mother.
• Daycare may compromise attachment security, but only in instances of poor quality infant care either at home and/or in daycare.
• A study found that children who started childcare aged 6–12 months and 18–23 months were more prone to frustration and had difficulty reuniting with their mothers. In contrast, children who started when aged 12–17 months displayed lower levels of relational distress.
• Infants and toddlers who are securely attached to their primary caregivers may find experiencing and settling into day care less stressful. Importantly, attachment security to the parent was related to the time spent by children adapting to daycare—if more time was spent, attachment remained or became secure.
• Caregivers showing high levels of sensitive responsiveness were more likely to have children securely attached to them.
• Quantity of group care, particularly where there is an early age of entry and high hourly amounts, have been associated with somewhat elevated levels of externalising behaviour problems.
• High-quality childcare can partially compensate for the negative behavioural effects of high quantity childcare, and the effects on externalising behaviour seem to disappear during elementary school.
• Some studies have reported mixed findings related to externalising behaviours.

Cognitive, language, and educational development

• Overall, the studies in this review suggest positive effects of ECEC attendance under the age of three years with regard to children’s cognitive and language development and academic achievement.
• The positive effect of ECEC seems particularly true for attendance in centre-based care and for children starting to attend ECEC settings between the ages of two to three years.
• In the Brookline Early Education Project (BEEP), children receiving intervention scored higher and demonstrated fewer difficulties in social development and learning skills compared to children from the same classrooms and similar family backgrounds in the control group (without intervention). This was true for children in both kindergarten and third grade. As young adults, the intervention group reported higher incomes, less depression, better employment, better health, and less risk-taking behaviour compared to the control group.
• In some other studies, longitudinal benefits were not identified.

ECEC for children aged over three years in the general population

Socio-emotional development

• The effect of ECEC on socio-emotional development has been small.

Cognitive, language, and educational development

• Findings on the relationships between attendance or amount of ECEC and children’s cognitive, language, and academic outcomes are more conclusive for over-threes in ECEC.
• ECEC participation boosts cognitive development, school readiness skills, and school achievement.
• Findings overall suggest that investing in universally available good quality ECEC can bring benefits to governments, children, families, and communities.

Implications

• While the research on preschool education (over three years) is fairly consistent, research evidence on the effects of childcare (zero to three years) upon development has been equivocal, with some studies finding negative effects, some no effects, and some positive effects.
• Discrepant results may relate to the age of starting and possibly to differences in the quality of childcare received by children.
• Research indicates that high-quality ECEC can produce benefits for cognitive, language, and social development for disadvantaged children.
• Research indicates that the following quality characteristics of Early Years provision are important for enhancing children’s development:
  • Adult-child interaction that is responsive, affectionate, and readily available
  • Well-trained staff who are committed to their work with children
  • A developmentally appropriate curriculum with educational content
  • Ratios and group sizes that allow staff to interact appropriately with children
  • Supervision that maintains consistency in the quality of care
  • Staff development that ensures continuity, stability, and improving quality
  • Facilities that are safe, sanitary, and accessible to parents

The Executive Functions (EFs) of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility enable us to think before we act, resist temptations or impulsive reactions, remain focused, reason, problem-solve, flexibly adjust to changed demands or priorities, and see things from new and different perspectives. Further, it is now clear that they can be improved at any age through training and practice. We predict that in addition to training EFs directly, the most successful approaches for improving EFs will also address emotional, social, and physical needs.

Authors: Adele Diamond & Daphne S. Ling

Source: Diamond, A. & Ling, D.S. (2016). Conclusions about interventions, programs, and approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite much hype, do not. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 34-48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.11.005

The Executive Functions (EFs) of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility enable us to think before we act, resist temptations or impulsive reactions, remain focused, reason, problem-solve, flexibly adjust to changed demands or priorities, and see things from new and different perspectives. Moreover, it is now clear that they can be improved at any age through training and practice. However, despite claims to the contrary, wide transfer does not seem to occur and ‘mindless’ aerobic exercise does little to improve Efs. Since stress, sadness, loneliness, or poor health impair Efs (and the reverse enhances EFs), we predict in addition to training EFs directly, the most successful approaches for improving EFs will also address emotional, social, and physical needs.

• There has been great interest in improving EFs, accelerating their development, stopping or slowing their decline, and/or remediating deficits.
• Many different methods have been tried to improve EFs, including diverse types of computerised cognitive training, diverse physical activities as well as other things such as certain school curricula.
• EFs are predictive of achievement, health, wealth, and quality of life throughout life, often more so than IQ or socioeconomic status.

Interventions, programmes, and approaches for improving EFs

• 84 studies met the inclusion criteria.
• Many different activities have at least one peer-reviewed published report on their efficacy in improving executive functions. These include computerised training, games, aerobics, resistance training, martial arts, yoga, mindfulness, theatre, and certain school curricula.

A different perspective based on the neurobiology of EFs and prefrontal cortex

• EFs depend on the prefrontal cortex and other neural regions with which it is interconnected.
• The prefrontal cortex is the newest and most vulnerable area of the brain.
• Since stress, sadness, loneliness, and poor health impair EFs. Accordingly, we predict the most successful approaches for improving EFs will directly train and challenge EFs while indirectly supporting EFs by working to reduce things that impair them and enhance things that support them.
• The main reason stress impairs EFs is because even mild stress overwhelms the prefrontal cortex with excess dopamine.
• The adrenal cortex releases cortisol in response to stress, which can disrupt functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions.
• People exhibit improved cognitive flexibility and creativity when they are happy.
• Our EFs suffer when we are lonely, whereas we exhibit improved EFs when we feel socially supported. Accordingly, feeling excluded or not belonging impairs prefrontal cortex functioning, selective attention, and reasoning.
• Lack of sleep impairs EFs.
• When people are infected, their prefrontal cortex does not function as well and executive functioning is of poorer quality.
• Feeling confident in your ability to succeed, believing that through effort you can improve, treating errors and failed attempts as learning opportunities (or what happens when you push past your comfort zone), and venturing beyond what you already know are important attributes for succeeding at many things. It is predicted this may also apply for improving EFs.

This study reintroduces a wide-angled view of reading comprehension and the Reading Systems Framework, which places word knowledge in the centre of the picture. Within this framework, word-to-text integration processes can serve as a model for the study of local comprehension processes. Studies of these processes allows the influence of one sentence on the reading of a single word in a second sentence to be examined, which enables the integration of the word meaning into the reader’s mental model of the text.

Authors: Charles Perfetti & Joseph Stafura

Source: Perfetti, C. & Stafura, J. (2014). Word knowledge in a theory of reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 22-37, DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.827687

This study reintroduces a wide-angle view of reading comprehension and the Reading Systems Framework, which places word knowledge in the centre of the picture. Within this framework, word-to-text integration processes can serve as a model for the study of local comprehension processes. These processes require a linkage between the word identification system and the comprehension system, with lexicon performing the linking role. Studies of these processes allows examining the influence of one sentence on the reading of a single word in a second sentence, which enables the integration of the word meaning into the reader’s mental model of the text. Skilled comprehenders show immediate use of word meanings in the integration process.

• This modern study of reading comprehension was propelled by two complementary ideas: an enriched level of comprehension beyond the literal meaning of a text (the reader’s situation model) and the cognitive dynamics of text comprehension (the construction-integration (C-I) model).
• An important benefit of the C-I model was demonstrating that text comprehension could be explained by an interactive combination of top-down (knowledge-driven) and bottom-up (word-based) processes.

A neurobiological model of language processing

• Hagoort (2005) asserted that memory, unification, and control operations are the functional core of a processing system that emerges from a distributed network of subsystems.
• When a reader encounters a word, input from the visual orthographic system drives operations in the temporal lobes to retrieve associated linguistic and general knowledge from long-term memory.
• Unification computation in the left inferior frontal gyrus integrates the word-level syntactic and semantic knowledge into the ongoing context.
• Limitations in cognitive resources are managed through the application of control operations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate.

Knowledge of word meanings is instrumental in reading comprehension

• The Lexical Quality Hypothesis assumes that word knowledge (both form and meaning) is central to reading skill.
• High-quality form knowledge includes phonological specificity and orthographic precision.
• The semantic constituent of lexical quality is closely connected to comprehension, as established by correlations between vocabulary and reading comprehension.
• Accounting for word meaning knowledge as part of reading challenges the assumption that decoding a word unlocks all the knowledge associated with the spoken word.
• The Simple View of Reading would need to accommodate the direct effects of vocabulary on reading comprehension by allowing vocabulary knowledge to influence decoding.
• Word meaning would contribute to reading as a component of language comprehension and through word reading.
• A second aspect of the word knowledge-comprehension connection concerns learning new words.
• During reading, readers implicitly infer meanings from imperfectly understood text, allowing the establishment of a new (or refinement of an existing) lexical entry.

In this experimental study, 16 sixth-grade classes (N = 236) were randomly assigned to either experimental or control conditions. In the experimental condition, student contributions to ‘gap-filling’ inferences with expository texts were made explicit by means of graphic models and inference-demanding questions. After 8 sessions of 30 min each, a large training effect was found on student inference-making skills with a substantial and sustained transfer effect to a standard measure of reading comprehension.

Authors: Carsten Elbro & Ida Buch-Iversen

Source: Elbro, C. & Buch-Iversen, I. (2013). Activation of background knowledge for inference making: Effects on reading comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17(6), 435-452. DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.774005

Failure to activate relevant, existing, background knowledge may be a cause of poor reading comprehension. This failure can result in particular problems with inferences that depend heavily on prior knowledge. In this experimental study, 16 sixth-grade classes (N = 236) were randomly assigned to either experimental or control conditions. In the experimental condition, student contributions to ‘gap-filling’ inferences with expository texts were made explicit through graphic models and inference-demanding questions. After 8 sessions of 30 min each, a large training effect was found on student inference-making skills with a substantial and sustained transfer effect to a standard measure of reading comprehension.

• Texts cannot be understood without contributions from readers.
• Texts provide instructions to readers about how to use relevant knowledge and experience to build an understanding of the text.
• Building an understanding depends heavily on the reader’s ability to draw inferences.
• In some cases, the reader does not have the knowledge necessary to form the inferences required to comprehend a text.
• Ability to make inferences can contribute to reading comprehension, even when other abilities and knowledge are controlled (such as decoding, vocabulary, awareness of text structure, comprehension monitoring, and verbal IQ).
• Most experimental studies have aimed broadly to encourage students to reflect about texts. Further, inference making has not been taught or studied exclusively, but only as a part of a broader training programme.
• The present study focused exclusively on inferences during reading that require integration of background knowledge with information from the text to form a coherent representation of the meaning.
• The current study focused specifically on inferences that are both dependent on prior knowledge and crucial for maintaining global coherence in text comprehension.
• Identified inferences are termed ‘gap-filling’ inferences.
• To elucidate the contributions from reader knowledge, graphic models were employed in a questioning format.

The present study

In the present study, Grade 6 students (aged 11 years) were selected because they face an increasing number of expository texts from which they are expected to acquire new knowledge. The study focused exclusively on knowledge-demanding and gap-filling inferences for two reasons: they are necessary for building a coherent representation of texts and they may work as an ideal showcase for the use of background knowledge.

Research questions:

1. Does such focused training generalise across texts to similar inferences in untrained texts with no prompts to activate background knowledge?
2. Do primary training effects generalise to reading comprehension more broadly when measured with a standard test of reading comprehension and is the effect sustained?
3. Can the possible effects be mediated by student abilities prior to training?

The present data

In this study, 16 sixth-grade classes were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. The class teachers provided voluntary participation. The experimental condition consisted of 10 classes, while the control condition comprised 6 classes (from 2 schools). In the experimental condition, eight lessons in knowledge-based inference making replaced a similar amount of teaching of mother-tongue language and literature, whereas the control group received ordinary teaching.

The inference-training programme

• The materials for the eight training sessions consisted of short expository texts and questions that required students to make gap-filling inferences.
• In the first session, students were introduced to the programme using a mix of short narrative and expository passages (typically 2–4 sentences). After each passage, a comprehension question was asked that required students to supply background knowledge to draw simple inferences.
• In each of the subsequent 7 sessions, students read 2 or 3 short texts of 100–200 words and answered relevant inference-demanding questions.
• The training programme comprised 15 texts of expository prose written for the programme.
• Text topics were selected from biology, geography, technology, sociology, and history.
• In Sessions 2–6, all texts were supported by graphic organisers.
• The organisers had empty boxes into which the students were asked to place relevant pieces of information stated in the text or supplied from their background knowledge.
• In the final 2 sessions, students read the same kind of texts and answered knowledge-demanding inference questions about them but without the support of graphic organisers.
• All teaching in the experimental programme was provided by the ordinary class teachers during 8 sessions of approximately 30 min each.
• At the beginning of each session, teachers presented the students with an overview of the session and explained any difficult words in the texts.
• The control group did not see any of the experimental materials and were taught ordinary mother language lessons according to national guidelines.
• All participating teachers were given a brief introduction to the aims and plan of the study.
• After teachers and classes had been randomly assigned to the experimental or the control condition, teachers in the experimental condition received a 1 hr introduction to the experimental programme.
• During the introduction, teachers were provided with all the teaching materials. This included all the student worksheets and a written step-by-step teaching manual that explained the goals and procedures of each training session.

Summary

• It was possible to help 11-year-old students to improve their ability to make gap-filling inferences in a short programme of eight lessons that focused on the contribution of readers’ background knowledge to text comprehension. The training effect remained large when initial abilities in word decoding, receptive vocabulary, and verbal IQ were controlled.
• Training was also associated with a significant advance in general reading comprehension (fiction and nonfiction) and for both literal and nonliteral questions. The effect was sustained for five weeks after termination of the experimental teaching.
• The effects of the experimental training were found to be robust and independent of student characteristics and abilities assessed prior to participation in the experimental programme (gender, vocabulary, decoding fluency, and nonverbal IQ).

Data from 101 mother/father/child triads were used to consider the extent to which associations between home literacy and children’s reading fluency could be accounted for by parental reading fluency. Although home literacy correlated significantly with children’s reading, no variable predicted significant variance after allowing for parental reading, except the number of books in the home.

Authors: Elsje van Bergen, Titia van Zuijen, Dorothy Bishop & Peter F. de Jong

Source: Van Bergen, E., van Zuijen, T., Bishop, D. & de Jong, P.F. (2016). Why are home literacy environment and children’s reading skills associated? What parental skills reveal. Reading Research Quarterly, 52(2), 147–160, DOI: 10.1002/rrq.160

Associations between the home literacy environment and children’s reading ability are often assumed to reflect a direct influence. However, heritability could account for the association between parent and child literacy-related measures. Data from 101 mother/father/child triads were used to consider the extent to which associations between home literacy and children’s reading fluency could be accounted for by parental reading fluency. Although home literacy correlated significantly with children’s reading, no variable predicted significant variance after allowing for parental reading, except the number of books in the home.

• Children’s word-reading accuracy and fluency (i.e. decoding) is linked to aspects of the family environment that children grow up in, including parents’ educational attainment, how often parents read themselves and to their children and the availability of reading material.
• Individual differences in reading are due to both environmental and genetic influences, with a substantial heritability of about 70%.
• Therefore, the association between home literacy and children’s reading ability may well be explained (at least partly) by a third variable: genes shared by parents and offspring.
• The relationship between home literacy and child outcome might reflect a passive gene-environment correlation.
• According to the intergenerational multiple deficit model, the reading skills of the parents can be treated as an indicator of familial effect, which is a combination of the genetic and environmental influences transmitted from parent to child.
• It is reasoned that if an environmental measure is still significantly associated with children’s reading after controlling for parental reading, the environmental measure exerts an effect on children’s reading that is partly independent of the familial effect.
• Thus, an environmental measure exerts a true environmental effect (i.e. cultural transmission), rather than just a masked genetic effect (i.e. gene-environment correlation).
• It is important to identify variables that represent a true environmental effect as those are the variables that we can potentially manipulate to improve children’s achievement.

The study

The present study examines reading fluency in a sample of children and their parents. The focus was on decoding skills because they form the basis for reading comprehension skills, and a decoding deficit is the primary criterion for dyslexia. As measures of the family environment, parental education and home literacy were studied. As indicators of home literacy, parents’ print exposure and the availability of magazines, newspapers and books in the home were used.

Research question

1. Does the family environment predict children’s reading fluency after controlling for the reading fluency of both parents?

The data consisted of 101 Dutch mother/father/child families of which both (biological) parents and at least one child took part. The mean age of the children was 10.92 years old.

Implications

• Parental education and parental reading frequency did not predict children’s reading fluency over and above parental reading fluency. That is, the reason why these aspects of the home environment were connected with children’s reading seemed to be because parents with good reading skills tend to have children with good reading abilities, as well as high educational attainment and highly literate homes.
• The strongest correlate of child reading appeared to be the number of books in the home, which predicted child reading over and above parental reading fluency.
• Two qualifications should be noticed when considering the conclusion that parent-offspring resemblance only seems to reflect genetic transmission. First, this does not imply that parental behaviour makes no difference; it would only mean that growing up with caretakers of a certain reading level is not a risk or protective factor. Second, this conclusion pertains to parent-offspring resemblance, whether that is due to genetic or environmental transmission.
• It is possible that those with a family risk may benefit from a qualitatively different approach to reading instruction, rather than just increased quantity. For instance, it may be beneficial to control the timing of instruction and support to ensure that the child has underlying phonological skills firmly in place before introducing written language.
• The number of books in the home seems to have a genuine environmental effect.
• The key question here would be whether merely providing families with more books would enhance children’s reading. From an educational viewpoint, it makes more sense to try to boost reading by providing books and encouraging families to engage in family literacy practices, such as shared reading and/or the direct tutoring of decoding.
• Correlations between children’s reading fluency and other measures of home literacy could all be accounted for in terms of passive gene-environment correlations.
• It is possible that causal environmental effects might be observed with a larger sample and/or different methods.