Specificity in the Nature and Timing of Cognitive Growth in Kindergarten and First Grade

Abstract

The nature and sources of growth across 8 cognitive skills was examined in kindergarten and 1st grade using the school cutoff method. After controlling for child IQ and maternal education, unique influences of schooling were observed for children's reading recognition, mathematics, letter recognition, general information, and phonemic segmentation skills. In contrast, schooling did not appear to shape children's growth in receptive vocabulary and subsyllabic segmentation, and no growth was observed in syllabic segmentation. Furthermore, the timing of schooling effects differed across skills. Overall, the pattern of findings revealed a strong degree of specificity in the nature and timing of cognitive change across the first 2 elementary grades. Discussion focused on the role of instructional time in shaping whether and when schooling influences cognitive growth.