Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds

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School Readiness and Later Achievement

Cognitive control skills important for success in school and life are amenable to improvement in at-risk preschoolers without costly interventions.

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Preschool Program Improves Cognitive Control

This study investigated predictive relations between preschoolers’ (N 310) behavioral regulation and emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Behavioral regulation was assessed using a direct measure called the Head-to-Toes Task, which taps inhibitory control, attention, and working memory, and requires children to perform the opposite of what is instructed verbally. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized because children were nested in 54 classrooms at 2 geographical sites. Results revealed that behavioral regulation significantly and positively predicted fall and spring emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills on the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement (all ps .05). Moreover, growth in behavioral regulation predicted growth in emergent literacy, vocabulary, and math skills over the prekindergarten year (all ps .05), after controlling for site, child gender, and other background variables. Discussion focuses on the role of behavioral regulation in early academic achievement and preparedness for kindergarten.

Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills.

The field of children's testimony is in turmoil, but a resolution to seemingly intractable debates now appears attainable. In this review, we place the current disagreement in historical context and describe psychological and legal views of child witnesses held by scholars since the turn of the 20th century. Although there has been consistent interest in children's suggestibility over the past century, the past 15 years have been the most active in terms of the number of published studies and novel theorizing about the causal mechanisms that underpin the observed findings. A synthesis of this research posits three "families" of factors--cognitive, social, and biological--that must be considered if one is to understand seemingly contradictory interpretations of the findings. We conclude that there are reliable age differences in suggestibility but that even very young children are capable of recalling much that is forensically relevant. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of expert witnesses.

Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis.

Clinics in Developmental Medicine

Children at risk for early academic problems: the role of learning-related social skills

This study examined children's capabilities in an eyewitness task. Subjects aged five to twenty-two years viewed a confederate interacting with the experimenter and later were asked to tell what had happened, to answer objective questions (including a leading question), and to identify the confederate from 6 photos. The results indicated that although young children were unable to freely narrate what they had observed as thoroughly as adults, they were as accurate as adults in answering objective questions and in identifying the confederate from 6 photos. Additionally, there were no age differences in susceptibility to leading questions.

The potential of children as eyewitnesses

An attempt was made to examine the development of the ability to identify stimuli presented to peripheral vision in several different tasks. Five- and 8-year-old children and college adults saw, for 20 msec, either a single figure at 1°, 2°, 4°, or 6° of visual angle from the fovea (singleform condition) or an off-foveal figure with an additional figure at the fovea (double-form condition). In the double-form conditions, the subjects were required to identify either the peripheral figure only (double-form presentation) or both figures (double-form report). The main effects of Age, Distance, and Form Condition were significant. Accuracy improved with increasing age and with decreasing distance. The Form Condition effect reflected lower accuracy in the two double-form conditions than in the single-form condition. Interestingly, there was no difference between the two double-form conditions, suggesting that the mere presence of a foveal stimulus, with instructions to ignore it, produces as much decrement in peripheral performance as when subjects are told to fully process and report the foveal stimulus. Also, there was no interaction between Form Condition and Distance, suggesting that the label “tunnel vision” may be misleading, since the presence of the foveal stimulus seems to have an equal effect on all peripheral locations and does not really “restrict” the size of the effective visual field.

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Peripheral Visual Processing.

It has been argued that human infants (with their relatively large foreheads and eyes) evoke nurturant behaviors from adults. This study empirically tests whether or not conceptional age affects these facial features and adult perceptions of the infants. Pictures (full frontal views of the face) were taken of 29 newborns: 10 born at term, 10 born 1 month early, and 9 born 2 months before term. All facial features were measured proportionally, and three composite drawings (one for each gestational age) were made. Using a 7-point Likert-style scale, college-aged subjects rated the composite drawings on the basis of overall impressions, perceived functional evaluations, and judged behavioral inclinations. Results indicated that full-term infants possessed proportionally wider eyes and rounder heads than did preterm infants. Composite drawings depicting the fullterm characteristics evoked much more favorable responses for all items than did the two composite drawings depicting preterm infants' characteristics. Moreover, the composite drawing depicting an infant born 1 month early elicited more favorable responses than did the composite drawing depicting an infant born 2 months prematurely.

The perceived attractiveness of preterm infants

This study examined whether significant differences could be observed in types of errors made by normal versus retarded readers (fifth graders) on the WRAT spelling test. Although researchers have reported high numbers of certain types of errors, such as reversals, this study revealed that the proportion of errors attributed to any particular error type is virtually identical for both normal and retarded readers. Retarded readers were thus shown to be unlike normal readers in the number of errors committed but like normal readers in the types of errors committed.

Deborah L. Holmes

Papers

Children at risk for early academic problems: the role of learning-related social skills

The potential of children as eyewitnesses

Peripheral Visual Processing.

The perceived attractiveness of preterm infants

An Evaluation of the Use of Spelling Error Analysis in the Diagnosis of Reading Disabilities.