Environmental Input and Cognitive Growth: A Study Using Time‐Period Comparisons

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relation of input to cognitive growth in a single population of children. We studied 4 domains: Language, Spatial Operations, Concepts, and Associative Memory. Four groups of children drawn from the same population were tested in October of kindergarten, April of kindergarten, October of first grade, and April of first grade. These time points are 6 months apart, but they span periods that differ in amount of school input children receive. Much greater growth was found over time periods with greater amounts of school input (October to April) than over time periods with less school input (April to October) for Language, Spatial Operations, and Concepts, but not for Associative Memory. These findings suggest that amount of input is causally related to cognitive growth in particular domains.

Child Development and the PITS: Simple Questions, Complex Answers, and Developmental Theory

“…Huttenlocher and her colleagues (Huttenlocher, Levine, & Vevea, 1998) have shown the sensitivity of cognitive growth involving language, spatial operations, and concept development to the experience reßected in the simple measure of amount of time spent in school. Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, and Duncan (1996) have provided impressive evidence of the powerful impact of impoverished family resources on IQ such that when they controlled for the constellation of the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of poverty, the oft-reported black Ð white differences in IQ all but disappeared.…”

Early puzzle play: A predictor of preschoolers' spatial transformation skill.

“…These variations are of considerable interest because of their reported relation to mathematics achievement (e.g., Casey, Nutall, & Pezaris, 1997) and to entry into science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) disciplines (e.g., Benbow, Lubinski, Shea, & Eflekhari-Sanjani, 2000; Hedges & Chung, in preparation; Shea, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2001; Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). Although spatial skills have been shown to be sensitive to input variations (Baenninger & Newcombe, 1989, 1995; Casey & Braebeck, 1990; Huttenlocher, Levine, & Vevea, 1998; Terlecki, Newcombe, & Little, 2008), little is known about the kinds of naturally occurring early experiences that are related to the development of these skills. This paucity of information stands in marked contrast to the detailed studies of naturalistic parent-child interactions that have illuminated our understanding of the kinds of early experiences that are related to the development of language and literacy skills.…”

Literacy Growth in the Academic Year Versus Summer From Preschool Through Second Grade: Differential Effects of Schooling Across Four Skills

“…Existing research suggests that schooling affects academic skill sets differentially (Bisanz, Morrison, & Dunn, 1995; Connor, Morrison, & Slominski, 2006; Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse, 1996; Huttenlocher, Levine, & Vevea, 1998; Morrison, Smith, & Dow-Ehrensberger, 1995). Children’s developing decoding skills (Skibbe, Connor, Morrison & Jewkes, in press) show improvement consistent with schooling effects (i.e., additional growth that is observed after accounting for normal non-school development) whereas schooling effects associated with phonological awareness have been found less consistently (Morrison et al, 1995).…”

“…Preschool programs positively influence children’s cognitive and social skills, even if the programs vary in quality (Karoly et al, 2001; Wong et al, 2008). Understanding how children’s early development and experiences relate to the success of their transition into formal schooling is an important line of inquiry (e.g., Justice, Bowles, Pence Turnbull, & Skibbe, 2009), however, the vast majority of studies (Bisanz et al, 1995; Cooper et al 1996; Huttenlocher et al, 1998; Morrison et al, 1995) begin to study children only after they have matriculated into kindergarten, and, to our knowledge, no research has examined schooling effects for preschool as well as the early grade school years within the same study.…”