A longitudinal study of the social and academic competence of economically disadvantaged bilingual preschool children.

Abstract

This longitudinal study was conducted to gain understanding of the social-emotional and academic development of economically disadvantaged bilingual preschool children. In Study 1, the authors combined cognitive, psychosocial, and cultural-linguistic factors to determine profiles of social competence as measured by peer play. A person-centered analysis of 207 Hispanic American preschoolers (ages 4 and 5 years) yielded 6 distinct profiles, 2 of which were socially competent and 1 of which was vulnerable. Findings revealed profile differences in social competence and a significant relationship between bilingualism and social-emotional development. In Study 2, the authors determined which profiles were associated with later academic achievement and growth of English proficiency. Findings indicated a significant relationship of early social-emotional development to later academic success and English acquisition, highlighting the role of bilingualism.

The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review

“…Two more studies can be included in the school readiness and academic achievement category: one that looked at academic achievement as a function of socio-emotional development (Oades-Sese, Esquivel, Kaliski, & Maniatis, 2011) and one that examined counting abilities in bilingual children (Rasmussen, Ho, Nicoladis, Leung, & Bisanz, 2006). Oades-Sese and colleagues (2011) used a longitudinal design and found that low socio-economic Spanish-English bilingual children who were identified as socially competent at age 4 had significantly better academic outcomes than bilingual children who were identified as socially vulnerable.…”

Developing preschoolers' social skills through cross-cultural physical education intervention

“…The enhancement of children's social skills is one of the most important outcomes of early childhood education (Gregoriadis, Grammatikopoulos, & Zachopoulou, 2013;Serpell & Mashburn, 2012) because preschoolers' social skills are related to school readiness and adjustment (Denham, 2006;Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000), in order to later succeed in academic achievement (McWayne, Cheung, Green Wright, & Hahs-Vaughn, 2012;Oades-Sese, Esquivel, Kaliski, & Maniatis, 2011) and to peer acceptance (Lindsey, 2002).…”

Bilingualism and Development of Social Competence of English Language Learners: A Review

“…According to Tables 3 and 4, it appears that English skills are especially beneficial for communications at school and promote social interactions with peers and teachers whereas heritage language skills are particularly helpful for communications at home and develop family relation quality (Chen & Tse, 2010;Howes et al, 2011;Oades-Sese et al, 2011;Tannenbaum & Howie, 2002). Such divergent results indicate that it is important for future research to consider contexts when investigating relationships between language skills and social competence.…”

“…ELLs with lower/the lowest levels of English skills had 1. fewer socio-emotional protective factors in second generation than in first generation (De-Feyter & Winsler, 2009); 2. the lowest level of teacher-rated interpersonal and self-control skills through kindergarten to grade five when compared with peers whose English was native-like and fluent (Han, 2010); 3. lower levels of social interactions and less pretend play at preschools (Howes et al, 2011;Oades-Sese et al, 2011); 4. lower level of teacher-reported assertiveness, interpersonal skills and parent-rated engagement with mothers (Spomer & Cowen, 2001;Winsler et al, 2014); and 5. lower levels of self-worth, peer-rated social interactions (e.g., sociability and cooperation), and teacher and parent reported social competence at schools when they also used less English media use and had fewer associations with native English-speaking friends (Chen et al, 2014;Chen & Tse, 2010).…”

“…Among the 13 studies, five used (standardised) language tests (Chang et al, 2007;Dawson & Williams, 2008;De-Feyter & Winsler, 2009;Howes et al, 2011;Oades-Sese, Esquivel, Kaliski, & Maniatis, 2011), two used Likert scale questionnaires (Chen et al, 2014;Chen & Tse, 2010), and the rest used language status (i.e., ELLs and non-ELLs) or teacher-or parent-report of classroom or home language use (i.e., English or heritage languages). Using language status or home or classroom language use may be inadequate because it only provided a rough assessment of English.…”