Young Children's Comprehension Research Articles

Cognitive Flexibility Moderates the Predictive Effect of Phonological Awareness on Focus Structures in Chinese Preschool Children.

Focus structures, a complex aspect of information structure in language, have garnered significant attention in psycholinguistics. The question of whether Chinese preschoolers aged 4-6 years possess the ability to process focus structures in oral communication, and how cognitive factors influence this ability, remains a research focal point. To address this, we recruited 100 Chinese preschoolers aged 4-6 years as participants in our study. This study manipulated the positions of focus particles in sentences to investigate the impact of phonological awareness on young children's comprehension of focus structures. Additionally, we examined the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Our findings indicate the following: (1) phonological awareness positively predicted the accuracy of focus structural processing; (2) inhibitory control did not significantly predict the accuracy of focus structural processing; and (3) cognitive flexibility partially mediated the relationship between phonological awareness and focus structural comprehension. These results confirmed the predictive effect of cognitive flexibility on children's comprehension of focus structures. Moreover, they demonstrate that young children's phonological awareness can predict their focus structure comprehension ability through the mediating role of cognitive flexibility. This suggests that children's cognitive flexibility can aid in understanding sentences with focus structures.

Kindergarten Teachers’ Vocabulary Knowledge, Practices, and Influential Factors: A Multiple Case Study

ABSTRACT This study examined the reported vocabulary knowledge, reported vocabulary practices, and reported influential factors on vocabulary instruction of seven kindergarten teachers in public school settings in the United States. Findings showed that participants reported little knowledge of and wide variation in reported pedagogies to effectively support Multilingual Learners’ (MLLs) or students with reading difficulties’ oral vocabulary development. Participants frequently reported using explicit instruction to teach Tier 2 vocabulary words before and during literacy read aloud lessons. However, participants did not often report teaching taxonomically or thematically connected words using informational texts; these pedagogies have proven to be particularly effective for increasing word knowledge and comprehension in young children. Additionally, participants reported that they received very little professional development in how to effectively teach vocabulary, despite knowing that vocabulary instruction is important for young learners.

Strategies for Enhancing Early Childhood Science Literacy Through STEAM Education

The primary objective of this study is to enhance young children's comprehension of scientific concepts by implementing the STEAM approach within the context of Early Childhood Education (PAUD). The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) pedagogy for preschoolers emphasizes dynamic learning, stimulates cognitive engagement, facilitates problem-solving, nurtures structured and methodical reasoning, and enhances critical thinking skills. Conducted using the Classroom Action Research method guided by the Kemmis cycle model, this study involves a cohort of 15 participants from group B, aged 5-6 years, and spans across preliminary cycles, Cycle I, and Cycle II, comprising phases of planning, execution, observation, and reflection. The comprehensive deliberation's outcome establishes the potential for enhancing scientific literacy among young children through the implementation of STEAM education. This advancement in scientific understanding is facilitated through captivating balloon experiments, utilizing colors that resonate with children's preferences. The attainment of scientific knowledge, as evident through the STEAM approach, manifests at a rate of 10% during the Pre-Cycle, 26% during Cycle I, and an impressive 72% during Cycle II. The cumulative findings unequivocally underscore the profoundly positive role of STEAM pedagogy in augmenting scientific cognizance during the formative years of early childhood.

Using the Question-Answer Relationship Strategy to Improve Listening Comprehension in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Our purpose in this study was to examine the effects of an intervention package consisting of shared book reading and an adapted question-answer relationship (QAR) strategy comprised of visual supports and think-aloud scripts on listening comprehension in four preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We used a single-subject concurrent multiple-baseline design across participants with continuous acquisition probes to evaluate the effects of the intervention package on producing acquisition and maintenance of listening comprehension across four types of comprehension questions. Visual analysis and Tau-U effect size indicated that the intervention package was effective in producing acquisition and maintenance of listening comprehension in preschool children with ASD. Directions for future research and clinical implications for early education practice are discussed.

Does talking about emotions impact young Turkish children's emotion recognition, word learning, and story comprehension?

ABSTRACT In this study, we tested the effect of emotion-supported dialogic reading on word learning, story comprehension, and emotion recognition skills of 3–4 years old children. We conducted a within-subject design with a group where the children participated only in dialogic reading sessions (control) and a group where children participated emotion-supported dialogic reading sessions (experimental). 20 Turkish children (11 girls and 9 boys) from low socioeconomic status families participated in the study. Before the intervention, we measured children's basic emotion recognition skills. Eight storybook readings carried out the intervention. Next, we tested children's retelling, word learning, and emotion recognition. The results showed that children did significantly better recognising basic emotions. In addition, children in Emotion-Supported Dialogic Reading understand the stories better than Only Dialogic Reading. However, children's receptive and expressive vocabulary learning did not differ significantly.

Watching Videos and Television Is Related to a Lower Development of Complex Language Comprehension in Young Children with Autism.

The effect of passive video and television watching duration on 2- to 5-year-old children with autism was investigated in the largest and the longest observational study to date. Parents assessed the development of 3227 children quarterly for three years. Longer video and television watching were associated with better development of expressive language but significantly impeded development of complex language comprehension. On an annualized basis, low TV users (low quartile: 40 min or less of videos and television per day) improved their language comprehension 1.4 times faster than high TV users (high quartile: 2 h or more of videos and television per day). This difference was statistically significant. At the same time, high TV users improved their expressive language 1.3 times faster than low TV users. This difference was not statistically significant. No effect of video and television watching duration on sociability, cognition, or health was detected.

Predicting reading comprehension in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Relationships between early literacy measures (i.e., curriculum-based measurement) and advanced literacy measures (i.e., reading comprehension) were examined in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Participants in this study were 167 children between the ages of 4 and 7 years (M = 5 years 8 months), who were assessed at 2 time points during 1 school year. Results indicated that, compared to other measures of early literacy skills, curriculum-based measurements (CBMs) accurately assessed skills in students with ASD. Furthermore, early literacy skills predicted reading comprehension approximately six months later in this sample. The reading development of children with ASD compared to typically developing children appears to be similar in the predictive capacity of decoding skills on later reading skills and dissimilar in the variability and range of skills. CBM tools can provide educators with information about the early reading skills of children with ASD to help address reading and language difficulties seen in this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A profile of the language and cognitive skills contributing to oral inferential comprehension in young children with developmental language disorder.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate poor oral inferential comprehension. Research investigating the skills that underpin oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD is necessary in order to better understand and improve inferential comprehension in this population. To profile the language and cognitive skills that contribute to oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD. Seventy-six children aged 5-6 years with a diagnosis of DLD were assessed on a wide range of language and cognitive measures. Oral inferential comprehension of narrative was the primary outcome measure. Narrative macrostructure and microstructure, literal comprehension, vocabulary, phonological loop, and theory of mind were significant predictors of inferential comprehension in bivariate analyses. However, multivariate regression analysis indicated that only narrative retell macrostructure and theory of mind contributed a significant amount of unique variance to inferential comprehension. This study profiled the skills contributing to oral inferential comprehension in young children with DLD, to support the clinical and theoretical understanding of the ability in this population. The findings have implications for future intervention studies.

Real-time lexical comprehension in young children learning American Sign Language.

When children interpret spoken language in real time, linguistic information drives rapid shifts in visual attention to objects in the visual world. This language-vision interaction can provide insights into children's developing efficiency in language comprehension. But how does language influence visual attention when the linguistic signal and the visual world are both processed via the visual channel? Here, we measured eye movements during real-time comprehension of a visual-manual language, American Sign Language (ASL), by 29 native ASL-learning children (16-53 mos, 16 deaf, 13 hearing) and 16 fluent deaf adult signers. All signers showed evidence of rapid, incremental language comprehension, tending to initiate an eye movement before sign offset. Deaf and hearing ASL-learners showed similar gaze patterns, suggesting that the in-the-moment dynamics of eye movements during ASL processing are shaped by the constraints of processing a visual language in real time and not by differential access to auditory information in day-to-day life. Finally, variation in children's ASL processing was positively correlated with age and vocabulary size. Thus, despite competition for attention within a single modality, the timing and accuracy of visual fixations during ASL comprehension reflect information processing skills that are important for language acquisition regardless of language modality.

The effect of directive words on integrated comprehension of speech and iconic gestures for actions in young children

AbstractWe investigated the effect of age and directive words on children's ability to semantically integrate speech and iconic gesture. The participants were 132 children aged 4 to 6 years old. In the experiment, we presented messages of actions in 3 conditions (Verbal‐only, Gesture‐only, and Verbal‐Gesture) in a serial manner to assess multimodal gain as the ability and had participants select 1 answer corresponding to each message from among 4 options. Participants were divided according to whether the messages of various speech and gestures used directive words or not (e.g., “one is throwing like this” vs. “one is throwing”). The results showed that participants in the directive‐word‐present condition were more likely to select the correct answer than the participants in the directive‐word‐absent condition were. Our results suggest that directive words promote young children's ability to semantically integrate speech and gesture, and therefore are useful for promoting communication.Highlights We examined whether the presence or absence of directive words influence young children's comprehension of speech and iconic gestures to communicate actions. One hundred thirty‐two 4 to 6‐year‐old children were presented with eight messages using speech and gesture either with or without including directive words. The results showed that participants in the directive‐word‐present condition were more likely to select the correct answer than the participants in the directive‐word‐absent condition were. We concluded directive words promote young children's ability to semantically integrate speech and gesture, and therefore are useful for promoting communication.

Developmental Changes in Early Comprehension and Production of Drawings: Evidence From Two Socioeconomic Backgrounds

ABSTRACTTwo studies examined young children's comprehension and production of representational drawings across and within 2 socioeconomic strata (SES). Participants were 130 middle-SES (MSES) and low-SES (LSES) Argentine children, from 30 to 60 months old, given a task with 2 phases, production and comprehension. The production phase assessed free drawing and drawings from simple 3-dimensional objects (model drawing); the comprehension phase assessed children's understanding of an adult's line drawings of the objects. MSES children solved the comprehension phase of the task within the studied age range; representational production emerged first in model drawing (42 months) and later in free drawing (48 months). The same developmental pathway was observed in LSES children but with a clear asynchrony in the age of onset of comprehension and production: Children understood the symbolic nature of drawings at 42 months old and the first representational drawings were found at 60 months old. These results provide empirical evidence that support the crucial influence of social experiences by organizing and constraining graphic development.

Children's Early Awareness of Comprehension as Evident in Their Spontaneous Corrections of Speech Errors.

A crucial human cognitive goal is to understand and to be understood. But understanding often takes active management. Two studies investigated early developmental processes of understanding management by focusing on young children's comprehension monitoring. We ask: When and how do young children actively monitor their comprehension of social-communicative interchanges and so seek to clarify and correct their own potential miscomprehension? Study 1 examined the parent-child conversations of 13 children studied longitudinally in everyday situations from the time the children were approximately 2years through 3years. Study 2 used a seminaturalistic situation in the laboratory to address these questions with more precision and control with 36 children aged 2-3years.

The Effect of Directive Words on Semantic Integration of Speech and Gesture in Comprehension in Young Children

The Effect of Directive Words on Semantic Integration of Speech and Gesture in Comprehension in Young Children

포스트모던 그림책을 활용한 유아문학활동 프로그램의 효과

포스트모던 그림책을 활용한 유아문학활동 프로그램의 효과

Comprehension of Inferences in a Narrative in 3- to 6-Year-Old Children.

This study aimed to describe the development of inferential abilities of children age 3 to 6 years in a narrative using a dialogic reading task on an iPad. Participants were 121 typically developing children, divided into 3 groups according to age range (3-4 years old, 4-5 years old, 5-6 years old). Total score of inferential comprehension, subscores by causal inference type targeting elements of the story grammar, and quality of response were examined across groups. Inferential comprehension emerged early, from 3 to 4 years old, with considerable interindividual variability. Inferential comprehension scores increased significantly in relation to age, leading to developmental steps with regards to the type of causal inferences. The ability to infer the problem of the story, the internal response of a character, and predictions were easier starting at age 4 years. Then, the 5- to 6-year-olds were better able to infer the goal, the attempt to solve the problem, and the resolution. Last, between the ages of 3 and 6 years, children improved in terms of the quality of response they provided. This study addresses important gaps in our knowledge of inferential comprehension in young children and has implications for planning of early education in this realm.

A Randomized Control Trial of Working Memory Training With and Without Strategy Instruction

Researchers are increasingly interested in working memory (WM) training. However, it is unclear whether it strengthens comprehension in young children who are at risk for learning difficulties. We conducted a modest study of whether the training of verbal WM would improve verbal WM and passage listening comprehension and whether training effects differed between two approaches: training with and without strategy instruction. A total of 58 first-grade children were randomly assigned to three groups: WM training with a rehearsal strategy, WM training without strategy instruction, and controls. Each member of the two training groups received a one-to-one, 35-min session of verbal WM training on each of 10 consecutive school days, totaling 5.8 hr. Both training groups improved on trained verbal WM tasks, with the rehearsal group making greater gains. Without correction for multiple group comparisons, the rehearsal group made reliable improvements over controls on an untrained verbal WM task and on passage listening comprehension and listening retell measures. The no-strategy-instruction group outperformed controls on passage listening comprehension. When corrected for multiple contrasts, these group differences disappeared but were associated with moderate to large effect sizes. Findings suggest—however tentatively—that brief but intensive verbal WM training may strengthen the verbal WM and comprehension performance of young children at risk. Necessary caveats and possible implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Ten Steps to Conducting a Large, Multi-Site, Longitudinal Investigation of Language and Reading in Young Children.

Purpose: This paper describes methodological procedures involving execution of a large-scale, multi-site longitudinal study of language and reading comprehension in young children. Researchers in the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) developed and implemented these procedures to ensure data integrity across multiple sites, schools, and grades. Specifically, major features of our approach, as well as lessons learned, are summarized in 10 steps essential for successful completion of a large-scale longitudinal investigation in early grades.Method: Over 5 years, children in preschool through third grade were administered a battery of 35 higher- and lower-level language, listening, and reading comprehension measures (RCM). Data were collected from children, their teachers, and their parents/guardians at four sites across the United States. Substantial and rigorous effort was aimed toward maintaining consistency in processes and data management across sites for children, assessors, and staff.Conclusion: With appropriate planning, flexibility, and communication strategies in place, LARRC developed and executed a successful multi-site longitudinal research study that will meet its goal of investigating the contribution and role of language skills in the development of children's listening and reading comprehension. Through dissemination of our design strategies and lessons learned, research teams embarking on similar endeavors can be better equipped to anticipate the challenges.

Brief Report: Early Lexical Comprehension in Young Children with ASD: Comparing Eye-Gaze Methodology and Parent Report.

Lexical comprehension is commonly measured by parent report, but it may be difficult for parents of children with ASD to accurately judge their child's comprehension. We compared parent report to an eye-gaze measure of lexical comprehension in which participants observed pairs of images on a screen, along with accompanying speech that named one of the two images. Twenty-two toddlers with ASD participated. Trials were included if the target word was reported as unknown. Children spent significantly more time looking at the target after it was named than before (d=0.66). These results provide evidence that eye-gaze measures can reveal emerging lexical knowledge in young children with ASD that may otherwise be overlooked.

Young Children's Comprehension of Temporal Relations in Complex Sentences: The Influence of Memory on Performance.

The present study investigated 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds' (N = 91) comprehension of two‐clause sentences containing the temporal connectives before or after. The youngest children used an order of mention strategy to interpret the relation between clauses: They were more accurate when the presentation order matched the chronological order of events: “He ate his lunch, before he played in the garden” (chronological) versus “Before he played in the garden, he ate his lunch” (reverse). Between 4 and 6 years, performance was influenced by a combination of factors that influenced processing load: connective type and presentation order. An independent measure of working memory was predictive of performance. The study concludes that the memory demands of some sentence structures limits young children's comprehension of sentences containing temporal connectives.

Inferential comprehension of 3-6 year olds within the context of story grammar: a scoping review.

The ability to make inferences plays a crucial role in reading comprehension and the educational success of school-aged children. However, it starts to unfold much earlier than school entry and literacy. Given that it is likely to be targeted in speech language therapy, it would be useful for clinicians to have access to information about a developmental sequence of inferential comprehension. Yet, at this time, there is no clear proposition of the way in which this ability develops in young children prior to school entry. To reduce the knowledge gap with regards to inferential comprehension in young children by conducting a scoping review of the literature. The two objectives of this research are: (1) to describe typically developing children's comprehension of causal inferences targeting elements of story grammar, with the goal of proposing milestones in the development of this ability; and (2) to highlight key elements of the methodology used to gather this information in a paediatric population. A total of 16 studies from six databases that met the inclusion criteria were qualitatively analysed in the context of a scoping review. This methodological approach was used to identify common themes and gaps in the knowledge base to achieve the intended objectives. Results permit the description of key elements in the development of six types of causal inference targeting elements of story grammar in children between 3 and 6 years old. Results also demonstrate the various methods used to assess this ability in young children and highlight particularly interesting procedures for use with this younger population. These findings point to the need for additional studies to understand this ability better and to develop strategies to stimulate an evidence-based developmental sequence in children from an early age.