Reading Development among Swedish Children: The Importance of Contextual Resources and Language Ability

Herkner, Birgitta; Westling, Mara Allodi; Wreder, Laura Ferrer; Eninger, Lilianne

doi:10.1080/2331186x.2021.1940631

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…For example, a Swedish cross-sectional study with children four to six years old (a subset of children in the present study) showed that those children attending preschools in economically advantaged areas had elevated letter recognition and more rapid naming of objects (i.e., indicators of linguistic and reading development), in comparison to children attending preschool in disadvantaged areas (Herkner et al, 2021). In addition, a recent Swedish report suggests that the proportion of children who are eligible for high school at 16 years of age, as well as those who complete a high school education with a degree are higher among children who live in economically advantaged neighborhoods relative to children living in economically disadvantaged areas (Delegationen mot segregation, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Does attending preschool in an economically advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhood moderate the effects of the preschool edition of promoting alternative thinking strategies®?

et al. 2022

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Early interventions that foster the participation, engagement, and development of children attending preschools, including those in economically disadvantaged (low-income) neighborhoods, are of high priority. One such intervention is a universal socioemotional learning (SEL) program called Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS®) which aims to promote social emotional competence and positive adjustment in children, in general, and may have unique benefits for children attending preschool in low incomes areas. In the SEL field, areas in need of exploration include the possible role that neighborhood income level (i.e., all residents’ income in a postal code that a preschool is located in) could have for children’s social emotional competence and positive adjustment and how neighborhood income level may relate to benefits of an intervention such as PATHS. The study aims were to investigate 1) the baseline group differences in social emotional competence and adjustment depending on the neighborhood income level and 2) to determine if neighborhood income level moderated the effects of PATHS on children’s social emotional competence and adjustment from pre to posttest. Participants were 275 children aged four to five years old, from the preschools randomized into an immediate intervention (n = 145 children) or a wait-list control group (n = 130 children). Overall, 42.9% (n = 118) of the children attended preschools in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and 57.1% (n = 157) of the children attended preschools in economically advantaged neighborhoods. Children’s social emotional competence and adjustment were assessed through child tasks, child observations and teacher reports. The moderation of intervention effects by the preschools’ neighborhood income was tested in a series of just-identified structural equation models (SEM) that explored interaction effects (income*PATHS interactions). At baseline, relative to children attending preschool in economically advantaged preschools, children attending preschool in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods showed lower levels of inhibitory control, working memory, task orientation and higher levels of inattention. Children attending preschools in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods participating in PATHS also showed reductions in inattention, social withdrawal and anxiety compared to control group children also attending preschool in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Additionally, PATHS children from advantaged neighborhoods improved their prosocial behavior, but not their social independence, relative to control group children who also attended preschool in advantaged neighborhoods. Offering PATHS as an SEL intervention in early childhood education and care settings could help to reduce disparities among children in a number of key outcomes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 51%

Does attending preschool in an economically advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhood moderate the effects of the preschool edition of promoting alternative thinking strategies®?

et al. 2022

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“…Although they increase with age (Bouchière et al, 2010), naming scores for lowercase letters were expected to be lower than for uppercase letters (Evans et al, 2006;Helal, 2012;Treiman & Kessler, 2004). Despite the consistent superiority of girls' naming scores over boys', the gender effect failed to reach significance in Study 1, demonstrating its fragility (Ecalle et al, 2020;Herkner et al, 2021;Sigmundsson et al, 2020;Treiman et al, 2007). In this context, it remains an open question whether gender affects lowercase letter naming scores.…”

Section: Study 2: Knowledge Of Lowercase Printed and Cursive Letter N...mentioning

confidence: 95%

“…However, conflicting findings have been reported. Some experiments indicated that girls outperformed boys (Ecalle et al, 2020;Evans et al, 2006;Sigmundsson et al, 2020;Treiman et al, 2007), while others reported no significant difference between girls and boys (Herkner et al, 2021;Worden & Boettcher, 1990). Further research therefore seems warranted.…”

Section: Lnk and Child-related Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This early literacy skill has been studied in children of different native languages, although most research has focused on English-speaking children. However, among the recently published studies, one looked at Swedish (Herkner et al, 2021), another at Norwegian (Sigmundsson et al, 2020), and another compared English, Hebrew, Portuguese and Korean (Kim et al, 2021). Each language has its own peculiarities, each country has its own cultural and educational traditions and curricula, and this is likely to influence the way the LNK is developed during early childhood.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Learning to Name Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Preschoolers and Kindergarteners: An Investigation of the Effects of Child- and Letter-Related Factors

Vinter,

Bard,

Lukowski-Duplessy

et al. 2023

Early Education and Development

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Research Findings: Letter name knowledge (LNK) is essential for a good start in learning to read. However, the literature shows conflicting results. Using an associative learning theory framework, the present study examined the influence of child and letter characteristics on LNK in French-speaking children. Children aged 3 to 5-6 years were asked to name the 26 letters of the alphabet printed in uppercase (Study 1) or printed or cursive lowercase (Study 2). Several effects on their naming scores were tested: gender, letters in the first name, letter frequency in print, letter rank in the alphabet, shape similarity between letter cases, and phonological effects related to letter name type. Learning to name uppercase letters relied primarily on knowledge of the personal name letters, whereas learning to name lowercase letters relied heavily on the similarity in shape of these letters to their uppercase counterparts (or for cursive letters, to their lowercase printed analogs). Practice or Policy: Some practical consequences are drawn from the associative learning perspective, such as pairing uppercase and lowercase letters with their name and sound at the same time. In addition, grouping letters according to their shape stability through their case may be an advantageous strategy for teaching letter names.

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“…Although the national reports aim to describe the quality of preschool and aspects to improve it, knowledge is limited concerning the actual performance of the children attending preschool in general, particularly those within the areas of disadvantage. Although the most recent years have provided new insights about literacy development in community samples (e.g., Herkner et al, 2021), there is a dearth of studies focusing on the early language skills of additional language learners in the early childhood setting in Sweden.…”

Section: Our Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language skills and well-being in early childhood education and care: a cross-sectional exploration in a Swedish context

et al. 2023

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Language skills play a vital role in academic achievement and support reading and writing acquisition. Language skills also enable children to interact with others and develop social abilities. Given the predictive value of early language skills for academic attainment and their connection to social interaction, they have been suggested to be an indicator of well-being as well. However, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds present lower scores than their peers with a majority language background on standardized language tests, such as vocabulary assessment. In the current study, we examined the relationship between language and self-reported well-being in the school context, based on data from a community sample of 85 five-year-old children attending eight preschools in three Swedish municipalities. Language skills were assessed through measures of vocabulary (receptive and expressive) and narrative skills (MAIN) and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Narrative ability and vocabulary skills were correlated, but they appear to be distinct constructs. Exposure at home to the majority language was positively associated with vocabulary skills, while narrative ability was not strongly associated with language background. Language skills and well-being were not significantly correlated in the total sample, but post hoc analysis revealed that language background may affect the association. A novel contribution of this study is empirical data on language performance from a community sample with a large proportion of children with diverse language backgrounds. The relationship between subjective well-being and language skills warrants further investigation.

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Reading Development among Swedish Children: The Importance of Contextual Resources and Language Ability

Cited by 3 publications

References 35 publications

Does attending preschool in an economically advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhood moderate the effects of the preschool edition of promoting alternative thinking strategies®?

Does attending preschool in an economically advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhood moderate the effects of the preschool edition of promoting alternative thinking strategies®?

Learning to Name Uppercase and Lowercase Letters in Preschoolers and Kindergarteners: An Investigation of the Effects of Child- and Letter-Related Factors

Language skills and well-being in early childhood education and care: a cross-sectional exploration in a Swedish context

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