Children's Academic Development Research Articles

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Goals

The concept of a teacher-parent app designed to advance foundational literacy and numeracy goals represents a pivotal advancement in supporting early childhood education. This abstract delves into the importance of such an application in fostering collaboration between educators and families to bolster children's learning experiences. By harnessing technology to facilitate communication, share educational materials, and monitor progress, the app acts as a conduit between the school and home settings. Through tailored learning plans, engaging activities, and timely feedback, it enables parents to actively participate in their child's academic development. Ultimately, the teacher-parent app not only enhances academic achievements but also cultivates a strong partnership between teachers and families, establishing a robust basis for continuous learning and success.

Memorizing the Quran: Exploring Academic Hardiness, Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Social Support in Islamic Schools

Religion-based schools that have a curriculum focused on Quran memorization face challenges in integrating general education with religious education, which emphasizes reasoning and memorization. Students must possess academic resilience to actively participate in the learning process and develop self-efficacy in memorizing the Quran. Additionally, students require social support to reinforce the impact of academic resilience on self-efficacy. The objective of this research is to explore the educational and psychological factors that can enhance students' ability to memorize the Quran. The study involved 113 participants, and data were collected using convenience sampling for ease of access. The data were analyzed using moderation analysis with SPSS version 22 and the add-on Macro Process by Hayes. The findings of this research indicate that academic resilience influences self-efficacy in Quran memorization, with social support playing a moderating role. Specifically, the results reveal that only parental support moderates the influence of academic resilience on self-efficacy (t (113) = 2.88, p0.01). This research serves as a valuable reference for family studies, highlighting the significant role parents play in their children's academic development. The novelty of this study lies in the identification of psychological factors that contribute to Quran memorization in children.

The Role of Mobile Technology in Improving Accessibility and Quality of Learning

The development of information technology, especially in the form of mobile technology, has sbrought revolutionary changes in various fields of life, including education. The widespread use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has opened up new opportunities for learning and significantly increased the accessibility and quality of learning. The purpose of this summary is to describe the important role mobile technologies play in improving the accessibility and quality of learning. With the help of descriptive methods and literary analysis, the positive effects of mobile technologies on learning are examined. First, mobile technology has broken down geographical and physical barriers to access learning. The ability to access learning materials and educational resources via mobile devices has opened the door to distance learning and self-study. Students can now study anywhere, anytime, increasing the flexibility of the learning process. Second, mobile technology enables the use of interactive and engaging learning applications and platforms. Many educational apps available online offer innovative learning methods such as educational videos, educational games and interactive quizzes. This helps increase student engagement and interest in the learning process, which has a positive impact on their motivation and academic performance. In addition, mobile technology enables more effective collaboration and communication between students, teachers and parents. With the help of communication apps and online learning platforms, teachers can provide real-time feedback, strengthen teacher-student relationships, and facilitate parental involvement in their children's academic development. However, this summary also highlights some of the challenges and concerns that need to be addressed when learning to use mobile technology. Issues such as unequal access to technology, the potential for distracting concentration due to distracting devices, and the importance of student data security and privacy need to be carefully considered. As we recognize the increasingly important role of mobile technology in education, we can take advantage of the opportunities and opportunities offered by this technological revolution to increase the accessibility and quality of learning. With the integration of smart technology and the right support, mobile technology-based learning can become one of the main pillars of a more inclusive and innovative education in the future.

Kesulitan yang Dihadapi Anak Usia Dini dalam Memahami Teks dan Strategi Mengatasinya

The ability to read is one of the most crucial skills in everyday life. Through reading, a person can acquire knowledge, information, and develop an understanding of the world around them. Good reading skills also form a vital foundation in the learning process at school. This research aims to identify and analyze effective methods for improving early childhood reading abilities, as well as to explore potential challenges faced by young children in understanding text and the factors influencing their reading development. This study is a qualitative case study. The research reveals a significant positive influence of these methods on letter and word recognition, as well as reading comprehension. Therefore, educators and parents can utilize these methods to support and enhance reading abilities, as strong reading skills have long-term benefits for a child's academic development.

Retrospective assessment of the impact of an education specialist on the care of children with hearing loss

ObjectiveTo assess the impact of an education specialist in a multidisciplinary pediatric hearing loss clinic. Study designRetrospective review and cross-sectional survey. SettingSingle tertiary care center. MethodsConsultations held between an education specialist and families of pediatric deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children within a two-year period were reviewed. Reasons for referral and services provided to each patient and family who subsequently worked with the educational specialist were assessed. Parents of patients who had previously worked with the education specialist were invited to complete a survey evaluating their experience. Results102 patients were referred to the educational specialist in a two-year period. Most common reasons for referral included need for special education plans to accommodate their hearing deficit (32) or family request to support for revisions to such plans (37). 14 patient families completed our survey. 76.9 % of respondents confirmed that the education specialist recommended resources they had not been introduced to before. Given a scale of 1 (“completely dissatisfied”) and 10 being “completely satisfied,” the average rating of the 14 respondents was 9.0. ConclusionThe role of an education specialist in a pediatric hearing loss clinic is to optimize patient and family access to resources that could benefit their DHH child's academic development over time. Future studies should prospectively investigate the impact of education specialist services on the educational progress of DHH patients compared to outcomes without these supports.

Responding to parental concern about children's reading.

This study explored if parents are accurate in their reading concerns, with implications for paediatric practice. Parents of school-aged children in 34 schools in Ontario, Canada responded to a questionnaire about their children's academic development (27% response), and their children participated in standardized, norm-referenced tests of word reading and an oral sentence recall task. Parental concern status was retrospectively cross-referenced with reading difficulty status (<25th percentile on the word reading tests) for grade 2 children with complete data (n = 294); diagnostic accuracy was evaluated. Demographic and reading-related characteristics of children whose parents' concern did not match their reading difficulty status were explored. Approximately 22% of parents endorsed concern, while 18.5% of children had word reading difficulty. Parental concern status accurately corresponded with reading difficulty status in 81% of cases (95% CI: 76% to 85%). Specificity was 85% (95% CI: 80% to 90%), while sensitivity was 59% (95% CI: 44% to 73%). Children of unconcerned parents rarely had word reading problems (NPV 91%; 95% CI: 88% to 94%), while children with concerned parents had word reading difficulty in 45% of cases (PPV; 95% CI: 36% to 54%). Apparent inaccuracy (i.e., mismatch between parental concern and reading difficulty status) was related to children's word reading, oral sentence recall skills, and English language learner (ELL) status, but not child age, sex, or parent education. Many parents of grade 2 children endorse reading concerns. Parental concern is an overall accurate screener for word reading difficulty, although some children will be missed. Evidence-informed recommendations for responding to parental concern are provided.

Peer experiences in the preschool classroom: Contribution to children's academic development

The present study examined the relations between two aspects of peer experiences in preschool classrooms and children's math and literacy development during kindergarten transition. Based on the theoretical framework of classroom ecology model, peer experiences were represented by classroom social network and teachers' grouping preferences. The outcomes included standardized math and literacy assessments collected from three time-points, fall of preschool, spring of preschool and fall of kindergarten. The analytical sample included 367 children recruited from 47 preschool classrooms located in two large school districts. Children completed peer-nomination tasks to characterize the classroom social network and teachers completed questionnaires to describe their grouping preferences. We conducted a multilevel longitudinal model to estimate the effects of classroom-level predictors on the trajectories of skill growth. We found that indices of classroom social network – density and centralization – were significantly associated with math and literacy development: more dense classrooms positively predicted math and literacy development whereas more centralized classrooms negatively predicted math and literacy development. Teachers' attention to children's skill levels in creating grouping structure was positively associated with math and literacy development. These findings indicate that young children's peer experiences are potentially important indicators of classroom quality, as they are associated with children's academic development over the course of preschool year into kindergarten transition.

The mediating effect of geospatial thinking on the relationship between family capital and academic achievement in geography.

Family environment has the major impact on children's academic development. The aim of this study was to research the relationship between family capital and academic achievement in geography. Further, geospatial thinking, as a form of spatial thinking focusing on the scale of the geographical environment, is closely related to family environment and academic achievement in geography. Thus, the study was more specifically to apply a mediation model to explore the potential mediating role of geospatial thinking. A total of 1,037 upper-secondary-school students in Western China were surveyed using t the Family Capital Questionnaire and the Geospatial Thinking Test Questionnaire. SPSS (version 26.0) was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis. The PROCESS plug-in (version 4.0) was used to test the mediating effect of geospatial thinking. (1) The correlation analysis showed that family capital has a positive effect on academic achievement in geography and is related to geospatial thinking. Moreover, geospatial thinking exerts a positive effect on academic achievement in geography. (2) The results of mediation analysis indicated that geospatial thinking plays mediating and buffering roles in the relationship between family capital and academic achievement in geography after controlling for family residence and gender. The direct and indirect effects accounted for 75.32% and 24.68% of the total effect, respectively. The results indicated that family capital not only affected academic achievement in geography directly but also indirectly through geospatial thinking. This finding provides some ideas for the development of geography education, which suggests that geography educators need to pay more attention to the influence of the family environment on students' geography learning in curriculum design and teaching processes. Also, the mediating role of geospatial thinking further uncovers the mechanisms underlying the academic achievement in geography. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on both students' family capital and geospatial thinking in the process of geography learning, and carry out more geospatial thinking training to improve academic achievement in geography.

Developmental cascades and educational attainment.

Developmental cascades describe how systems of development interact and influence one another to shape human development across the lifespan. Despite its popularity, developmental cascades are commonly used to understand the developmental course of psychopathology, typically in the context of risk and resilience. Whether this framework can be useful for studying children's educational outcomes remains underexplored. Therefore, in this chapter, we provide an overview of how developmental cascades can be used to study children's academic development, with a particular focus on the biological, cognitive, and contextual pathways to educational attainment. We also provide a summary of contemporary statistical methods and highlight existing data sets that can be used to test developmental cascade models of educational attainment from birth through adulthood. We conclude the chapter by discussing the challenges of this research and explore important future directions of using developmental cascades to understand educational attainment.

The Effectiveness of the School-Age Hearing Screening Program in Turkey and the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the hearing screening program in school-age children in Turkey, and to discuss alternative methods for children who cannot be screened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the scope of the school-age hearing screening program, children who fail the screening are referred to reference centers. The effectiveness of the screening program was investigated by recording the ear examinations and definitive audiometric examination results of the children who were referred to a tertiery-level center. Evaluations were made of a total of 87 children, comprising 49 boys (56.3%) and 38 girls (43.7%) with a mean age of 6.97 years, and no risk factors for hearing loss. The physical examination results showed that 53 children were normal, 15 had cerumen impaction, 3 otitis externa, 13 otitis media with effusion and 3 acute otitis media. The audiometric examination results were recorded as 72 normal, 13 conductive hearing loss, and 2 sensorineural hearing loss. Thus, the false positive rate of screening audiometry performed at school was 82.7%. School-age hearing screening is an important test to ensure the cognitive and academic development of children. Pure tone audiometry is indispensable in the evaluation of children who fail the test. For the evaluation of children who could not be tested for 1.5 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative methods such as tele-audiometry may be utilized.

Mechanistic insights from animal models of neurofibromatosis type 1 cognitive impairment.

ABSTRACTNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal-dominant neurogenetic disorder caused by mutations in the gene neurofibromin 1 (NF1). NF1 predisposes individuals to a variety of symptoms, including peripheral nerve tumors, brain tumors and cognitive dysfunction. Cognitive deficits can negatively impact patient quality of life, especially the social and academic development of children. The neurofibromin protein influences neural circuits via diverse cellular signaling pathways, including through RAS, cAMP and dopamine signaling. Although animal models have been useful in identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate NF1-dependent behaviors, translating these discoveries into effective treatments has proven difficult. Clinical trials measuring cognitive outcomes in patients with NF1 have mainly targeted RAS signaling but, unfortunately, resulted in limited success. In this Review, we provide an overview of the structure and function of neurofibromin, and evaluate several cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurofibromin-dependent cognitive function, which have recently been delineated in animal models. A better understanding of neurofibromin roles in the development and function of the nervous system will be crucial for identifying new therapeutic targets for the various cognitive domains affected by NF1.

Study of Parent-Teacher Interactions of Improving Student Achievement

Nowadays, more and more families focus on the development of children. A very important measure of this is the child's academic development, so parents look for ways to improve their child's academic performance. Research and practice show that effective home-school cooperation plays an important role in children's development, and home-school cooperation has been carried out and implemented in some developed countries. The purpose of my research is to find out the impact of home-school cooperation on parents, teachers and student, factors that affecting home-school cooperation and how to carry out effective home-school cooperation. I have found that home-school cooperation has a positive effect on student development, and parental involvement affects teachers' work. In addition, the quality of home-school cooperation is affected by many factors.

Differences between pre-k and kindergarten contexts and achievement across the kindergarten transition

Experiencing large differences between pre-k and kindergarten classroom contexts may affect children's academic development as they start school. This study examined differences between classroom contexts in pre-k and kindergarten (teacher-child interactions, time on academic content, and academic rigor) and associations with literacy, language, and math achievement in kindergarten fall and spring. 1498 children were followed from public pre-k through kindergarten (mean age = 52.8 months old at the start of pre-k, SD = 3.5). Children were ethnically and linguistically diverse (White = 7%, Black = 20%, Hispanic = 61%, Other = 12%; English at home = 21%, Spanish at home = 55%; other language at home = 24%). Piecewise growth modeling showed that experiencing a decrease in the quality of interactions or an increase in time on content or academic rigor was associated with lower than expected achievement in the fall of kindergarten but greater gains across the kindergarten year.

Understanding the Nature and Role of Executive Functions in Children's Academic Development

Understanding the Nature and Role of Executive Functions in Children's Academic Development

Development of Cognitive Functions and Academic Skills in 9- to 10-year-old Children with Borderline Intellectual Functioning

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study examined whether the cognitive and academic development of children (Mage = 10.52 years) with Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF), is characterized by developmental delay or atypical development. Cognitive tasks, arithmetic tasks, and reading tasks were administrated during three succeeding years to the BIF group and a Chronological Age-Matched Comparison (CAMC) group. The BIF children displayed weaknesses in relation to all tasks, and slower developmental rates on four arithmetic tasks and word reading. The results provide evidence in support of the developmental delay model as the BIF children overall displayed similar developmental growth and trends as the CAMC group.

How Does Parental Involvement Affect Children's Academic Development from A Core Literacy Perspective?

How Does Parental Involvement Affect Children's Academic Development from A Core Literacy Perspective?

Later is better: mobile phone ownership and child academic development, evidence from a longitudinal study

ABSTRACTDigital technologies have become an increasingly prominent feature of children’s lives both within and outside educational environments (McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2012. Influences on 9-Year-Olds’ Learning: Home, School and Community. Dublin: Department of Children and Youth Affairs). Despite considerable media debate, we have little robust evidence on the impact of technology use on children’s development, both academically and socially. Much of the literature in this area relies on small-scale cross-sectional studies. Using longitudinal data on 8500 9-year-old children in Ireland, we examine the influence of early mobile phone ownership on children’s performance in reading and maths between 9 and 13 years of age. Across both reading and maths domains, children who already report owning a phone by the age of nine fare less well in terms of their academic development as they move into adolescence. The measured effects are sizeable, implying about 4 percentile lower ranking on standardised tests for an average student. Our results are consistent with the idea that there may be significant educational costs arising from early mobile phone use by children. Parents and policymakers should consider whether the benefits of phone availability for children are sufficiently large to justify such costs. We suggest a range of direct and indirect cognitive effects that could help explain these results.

Gender Differences in How Family Income and Parental Education Relate to Reading Achievement in China: The Mediating Role of Parental Expectation and Parental Involvement.

The impact of social economic status (SES) on children's academic outcomes has been well documented. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. Furthermore, the process by which SES relates to academic achievement needs to be studied separately for boys and girls. Using a sample of 598 Chinese children (299 boys, 299 girls) in grades 4 to 6 and their parents, this study examined the process of how family SES, specifically family income and parental education, indirectly relates to children's reading achievement through parental expectation and parental involvement and whether this process differs between boys and girls. The results revealed that parental expectation and specific parental involvement behaviors played critical mediating roles between family SES and reading achievement. Moreover, the exact nature of these links differed by the gender of children. For boys, both the effect of parental education and the effect of family income were partially mediated by parental expectation and parent-child communication orderly. For girls, the effect of parental education was partially mediated by three separate pathways: (1) home monitoring; (2) parent-child communication; and (3) parental expectation followed by parent-child communication, while the effect of family income was fully mediated by parent-child communication. These findings suggest a process through which SES factors are related to children's academic development and identify a context under which these associations may differ. The practical implications of these findings are discussed, along with possible future research directions.

Postscript: The New School in the Heights

ABSTRACTThe history of a psychoanalytic school to support the emotional, social and academic development of children in grades K-8 is given. The technique of “catching children doing the right thing” and other interventions are described. After ten years of helping hundreds of families, a decision was made to close the school following the retirement of the founders. Special care was given to transitioning teachers and families.

Improving the Numerical Knowledge of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Benefits of Linear Board Games

A lack of numerical knowledge early on can impede a child's academic development. In past research, playing linear board games improved children's understanding of numerical relations, which the authors theorised could extend to children with autism spectrum disorder. For this pilot study, 10 children played a board game where they moved tokens across coloured tiles displaying the numbers 1–10. During gameplay, students in the experimental group focused on the numbers on the tiles, while the control group focused on the colours. The assessment consisted of a number line estimation task, where students placed numbers ranging from 1 to 9 on a blank number line. Results showed children in the experimental group experienced statistically significant improvement in their understanding of numerical relationships of numbers on the number line estimation task. Findings indicate extended experiences with linear board games can support the numerical development of children with autism spectrum disorder.