Narrative comprehension abilities of children from low-income families : role of temperament, attention skills, and cognitive engagement.

The current study investigated narrative comprehension ability in children from low-income families by examining the contributions of temperament, attention skills, and cognitive engagement. Research has identified narrative comprehension skills as significant for successful literacy outcomes, but few studies have examined the effect of individual level characteristics on comprehension ability. As reading and pre-reading skills in children from disadvantaged homes has been shown to be lower than that of children from more privileged backgrounds, it is critical to examine the factors that contribute to comprehension skills in this population. The current study focuses on the relationships among temperament, attention network skills, cognitive engagement, and comprehension abilities of children from low-income families. A television viewing methodology was employed to assess children\u27s factual and causal comprehension as well as visual attention to the television in two conditions, one with distracter and one with no distracters. The goal of experiment one was to establish the role of temperament and attention network skills in children\u27s factual and causal comprehension performance both in the presence and absence of competing distracters. Rothbart\u27s temperament dimensions of effortful control and extraversion were used in separate analyses, along with attention network skills identified by Posner, to predict narrative comprehension performance. Findings partially supported the hypotheses, signifying the importance of effortful control for both factual and causal comprehension in the presence of distracters. Extraversion and attention skills were not significantly related to either type of comprehension in either condition. Experiment two hypothesized that cognitive engagement would significantly predict comprehension in the distracter condition after controlling for effortful control, and that cognitive engagement would be more important for causal comprehension than factual. Unexpectedly, the results showed that cognitive engagement was significantly related to factual comprehension but not causal comprehension. However, additional analyses showed that total time looking at the television was significantly related to causal comprehension in the distracter condition. The findings are discussed in terms of both theoretical and applied implications and future directions in research are explored

Persistence and Fadeout of Preschool Participation Effects on Early Reading Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 marked a new milestone for early childhood education, care, and development. For the first time in the framework of global goals, preschool education was described as integral to children’s school readiness. Yet with few exceptions, much of the research on the impact of preschool has stemmed from high-income countries. Even fewer studies have examined preschool participation and later learning across multiple countries. This article helps fill this gap by connecting preschool participation to early primary reading outcomes, as measured by the Early Grade Reading Assessment. Drawing on a unique data set using student-level learning assessments from 16 countries, we use preprimary participation to explain primary school reading skills, including letter knowledge and oral reading fluency. We also model the influence of key demographic variables on these outcomes, including home language and classroom language of instruction (LOI). For a subset of six countries with exceptionally rich data, we examine national-level policy and practice to better understand what might explain the persistence or fadeout of the effect of preschool. Policy makers and practitioners alike will find these results useful in making cases for improving preschool experiences for children in low- and middle-income countries in the next decade of SDG-related efforts

Persistence and Fadeout of Preschool Participation Effects on Early Reading Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 marked a new milestone for early childhood education, care, and development. For the first time in the framework of global goals, preschool education was described as integral to children’s school readiness. Yet with few exceptions, much of the research on the impact of preschool has stemmed from high-income countries. Even fewer studies have examined preschool participation and later learning across multiple countries. This article helps fill this gap by connecting preschool participation to early primary reading outcomes, as measured by the Early Grade Reading Assessment. Drawing on a unique data set using student-level learning assessments from 16 countries, we use preprimary participation to explain primary school reading skills, including letter knowledge and oral reading fluency. We also model the influence of key demographic variables on these outcomes, including home language and classroom language of instruction (LOI). For a subset of six countries with exceptionally rich data, we examine national-level policy and practice to better understand what might explain the persistence or fadeout of the effect of preschool. Policy makers and practitioners alike will find these results useful in making cases for improving preschool experiences for children in low- and middle-income countries in the next decade of SDG-related efforts

An Eye-tracking Analysis of the Effect of Prior Comparison on Analogical Mapping

The present research examined the effect of prior experience on the distribution of attention during judgments of analogical similarity. Identifying analogical similarity requires mapping a set of relations in one situation onto a matching set of relations in an analogous situation. Analogical mapping is difficult when the common relational structure is embedded in contexts with dissimilar surface features and irrelevant surface similarities. Prior comparison of analogs may help subjects find future relational correspondences and ignore surface similarity (Markman and Gentner 1993). In the present study, attention was measured with eye tracking, which was monitored while subjects rated the similarity of analogous scenes. Experimental but not control subjects had previously compared scenes with the same structure. Eye fixation data indicated that prior comparison did not affect attention to structure-relevant objects, but significantly reduced attention to irrelevant surface-similar objects. Scanning data showing that both groups scanned within scenes more than between scenes were consistent with structure-mapping models of analogy