A language and literacy intervention was implemented in 10 Head Start classrooms. Teachers were trained in specific book reading and conversation strategies. The focus of the intervention was to train teachers how to increase opportunities for language and vocabulary development in young children. At the end of the year, children in the intervention classrooms performed significantly better than children in the control classrooms on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III and the Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). In addition, teachers in the intervention classrooms used strategies that promoted language development during book reading and other classroom activities. Head Start teachers can be trained to implement strategies that have positive effects on children's language and literacy development.

The effects of a book reading technique called interactive book reading on the language and literacy development of 4-year-olds from low-income families were evaluated. Teachers read books to children and reinforced the vocabulary in the books by presenting concrete objects that represented the words and by providing children with multiple opportunities to use the book-related words. The teachers also were trained to ask open-ended questions and to engage children in conversations about the book and activities. This provided children with opportunities to use language and learn vocabulary in a meaningful context. Children who were in the interactive book reading intervention group scored significantly better than children in the comparison group on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III and other measures of receptive and expressive language. Book reading and related activities can promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children. 243

Two experiments were conducted to explore the relation between conceptual and procedural knowledge in the domain of mathematics. The simultaneous activation view, which argues that computational errors arise from impoverished concepts and that errors can be eliminated by giving concrete referents to symbols, was compared with the dynamic interaction view, which argues for distinct systems that interact diachronically and for a progressive independence of procedural knowledge with expertise. Experiment 1 revealed that many 4th-and 6th-grade children possess significant conceptual knowledge but made computational errors nevertheless. In Experiment 2, a Longitudinal Guttman Simplex analysis revealed that 5th graders mastered conceptual knowledge before they mastered procedural knowledge. Results across studies support the dynamic interaction view.Recently, a number of cognitive theorists have argued for a distinction between conceptual and procedural knowledge. This distinction has been applied broadly to various aspects of cognition, such as memory (

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In a randomized control study, Head Start teachers were assigned to either an intervention group that received intensive, ongoing professional development (PD) or to a comparison group that received the "business as usual" PD provided by Head Start. The PD intervention provided teachers with conceptual knowledge and instructional strategies that support young children's development of vocabulary, alphabet knowledge, and phonological sensitivity. Results indicated that, after 1 academic year, teachers in the intervention group created higher quality classroom environments, as measured by the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (M. W. Smith, D. K. Dickinson, A. Sangeorge, & L. Anastasopoulos, 2002) and Classroom Assessment Scoring System (R. C. Pianta, K. M. La Paro, & B. K. Hamre, 2007), and by videotapes of their classroom book readings. Further, children in the intervention group performed significantly better than comparison-group peers on measures of receptive vocabulary and phonological sensitivity but showed equivalent alphabet learning. Moreover, variation in classroom quality and fidelity to the intervention were linked to child outcomes, illuminating which particular aspects of teachers' improved practices were linked to children's gains. Findings provide new details about the mechanisms through which intensive and intentional PD can enhance Head Start teachers' classroom practices and, by extension, improve Head Start children's language and preliteracy outcomes.