A Quasi-Universal Nonword Repetition Task as a Diagnostic Tool for Bilingual Children Learning Dutch as a Second Language.

PURPOSE: This study evaluated a newly developed quasi-universal nonword repetition task (Q-U NWRT) as a diagnostic tool for bilingual children with language impairment (LI) who have Dutch as a 2nd language. The Q-U NWRT was designed to be minimally influenced by knowledge of 1 specific language in contrast to a language-specific NWRT with which it was compared. METHOD: One hundred twenty monolingual and bilingual children with and without LI participated (30 per group). A mixed-design analysis of variance was used to investigate the effects of LI and bilingualism on the NWRTs. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to evaluate the instruments' diagnostic value. RESULTS: Large negative effects of LI were found on both NWRTs, whereas negative effects of bilingualism only occurred on the language-specific NWRT. Both instruments had high clinical accuracy in the monolingual group, but only the Q-U NWRT had high clinical accuracy in the bilingual group. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the Q-U NWRT is a promising diagnostic tool to help identify LI in bilingual children learning Dutch as a 2nd language. The instrument was clinically accurate in both a monolingual and bilingual group of children and seems better able to disentangle LI from language disadvantage than more language-specific measures

Lagere toeslag leidt tot lagere kwaliteit kinderopvang

Hervorming Sociale Regelgevin

Influence of local ECEC policy on the quality of ECEC centers in the Netherlands

This study investigated the influence of local governance at the level of municipalities on the process quality of ECEC centers for 2-to 4-year-olds in the context of a privatized, marketized and decentralized ECEC system with both for-profit and not-for-profit providers. We studied the relation between local policy and ECEC-quality in a sample of 157 ECEC centers nested in 36 municipalities, with a total of 299 observations of process quality at two measurement waves. The results showed significant differences between municipalities in the observed emotional and behavioral support and engaged support for learning of the ECEC centers: 23% of the variance in emotional and behavioral support and 14% of the variance in engaged support for learning could be attributed to the municipal level. Contrary to our expectations, differences between municipalities in ECEC quality were not related to formal indicators of compliance with national legal requirements nor with formal indicators of coordination and quality assurance. However, exploratory analyses revealed that 'soft' horizontal governance of local networks of collaborating services was significantly associated with the engaged support for learning provided at ECEC centers. The local network governance measure included indicators of a mission-driven focus on reaching out to children and families with less financial resources, low educated parents or a migration background, collaboration of ECEC with other local social services to provide support for children and families with additional needs, and coordination of professional development and quality monitoring. Therefore, a more pronounced focus in ECEC policy on encouraging and monitoring local network governance is recommendable in hybrid, decentralized systems

Modelling children's Gear task strategy use with the Dynamic Overlapping Waves Model

The Dynamic Overlapping Waves Model (DOWM) can model strategy use in problem-solving tasks for strategies that can be construed as developmentally and hierarchically ordered (Boom, 2015). We observed children's (M age = 11 years, SD = 6 months) strategy use during a task in which they had to find the rotation direction of the last gear in a series of connected gear chains, given the rotation direction of the first gear. Using DOWM, we found that strategy use was ordered as expected, from unskilled sensorimotor strategies to abstract strategies, and from less to more efficient in terms of speed and accuracy. This order aligns with the idea that perceptual learning is central to the emergence of abstract conceptual knowledge. Moreover, the current study shows that the DOWM does not preclude forward and backward transitions and even occasional transitions that skip certain strategies in the ordering. The DOWM seems a promising tool to developmentally capture the breadth of behavioral repertoire children display when they adopt new strategies for various problem-solving tasks

Backgrounds of language delays of young children in East Groningen

Oost-Groningen is een gebied met traditioneel veel leerlingen met taalachterstanden. Recent reviewonderzoek heeft dat nog eens bevestigd. Inmiddels is veel bekend over de achtergronden van taalachterstanden. Desondanks stagneert de achterstandsbestrijding in deze regio. In deze bijdrage wordt getracht na te gaan op welke manier achtergrondkenmerken van ouders uit Oost-Groningen, hun verwachtingen van hun kinderen, hun opvattingen ten aanzien van onderwijs en aspecten van informele educatie een verklaring vormen voor de taalontwikkeling van 4-jarige kinderen in groep 1. Uit toetsing van het gepresenteerde theoretische model met LISREL blijkt dat opvattingen en verwachtingen van ouders in Oost-Groningen substantieel mediëren tussen achtergrondkenmerken van ouders en de taalontwikkeling, ook als gecontroleerd wordt intelligentie en verbaal geheugen van de kinderen. Ook mediëren opvattingen en verwachtingen tussen de achtergrondkenmerken en aspecten van informele educatie. Informele educatie medieert echter niet tussen de achtergrondkenmerken en taalontwikkeling. Het belang van informatieve geletterdheid van ouders en van opvattingen en verwachtingen wordt besproken. Het feit dat opvattingen en verwachtingen als leefstijlkenmerk doorwerken in de proximale processen, maar tevens verankerd zijn in de culturele leefstijl van ouders weerspiegelt de complexiteit van het vraagstuk