The present study examined the longitudinal associations among birth weight status, maternal warmth, and children's cognitive competence within an at-risk sample (N = 1809) drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. Of particular interest was whether birth weight moderated the associations between maternal warmth and indicators of…

Parental engagement in home-based learning activities is linked to children's academic skills. Yet, interventions that try to enhance parental engagement--sometimes targeted to families with low levels of education--have small effects. This study aimed to inform supports for families by examining how different types of home-based learning…

Oral language and word reading skills have important effects on reading comprehension. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT-III) measures both skill sets, but little is known about their specific effects on reading comprehension within this battery. Path analysis was used to evaluate the collective effects of reading and…

Understanding differences in oral language abilities is vital, particularly for children from low-income homes and minority children who are at an increased risk for academic failure because of differences or deficits in language use or exposure before they enter school. The purpose of this study was to investigate oral language performance,…

The association between monolingual children's early language abilities and their later reading performance is well established. However, for English language learners, the pattern of associations between early language skills and later literacy is much less well understood for English language learners. This study examined language predictors of…

It is unknown if the developmental path of antonym knowledge in deaf children increases continuously with age and correlates with reading comprehension, as it does in hearing children. In the current study we tested 564 students aged 4-18 on a receptive multiple-choice American Sign Language (ASL) antonym test. A subgroup of 138 students aged 7-18…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlational and predictive relationships between parents with low literacy skills (n = 96) and their 3-5 year old children's emergent literacy skills (n = 96). In the study parents were assessed on measures of reading comprehension, decoding, fluency, oral vocabulary, and word identification,…

This cohort-sequential study explored the components of working memory (WM) that underlie second language (L2) reading growth in 450 children at risk and not at risk for reading disabilities (RD) whose first language is Spanish. English language learners designated as balanced and nonbalanced bilinguals with and without risk for RD in Grades 1, 2,…

This study used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2009 4-year-old cohort to examine associations among family characteristics, home and classroom environments, and the emergent literacy skills of Head Start children. Results from hierarchical linear models suggest that both family and classroom contexts play a…

Research examined construct meaning and validity for two new measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary for Spanish-speaking kindergarteners learning English. Substantive validity and generalizability of score meaning was assessed by examining correlations between an established measure (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-PPVT) and new measures…