Prediction of School Outcomes Based on Early Language Production and Socioeconomic Factors

Abstract

Early differences in family SES, child language production, and IQ were related to outcomes in early elementary school in the present prospective, 10-year longitudinal study. In a prior study of family interactional variables associated with language learning, major differences in parenting (i.e., time, attention, and talking) were found to be associated with differences in child productive vocabulary between 7 to 36 months of age, and child IQ, favoring higher-SES parents. Lower-SES children were exposed less often than higher-SES children to diverse vocabulary through their parents' attention and talking, and they were prohibited from talking more often. In the current study, 32 children involved in the earlier study were repeatedly assessed between 5 to 10 years of age, while in kindergarten through third grade. Results indicated that SES-related differences in child language prior to school were predictive of subsequent verbal ability, receptive and spoken language, and academic achievement assessed on standardized tests in kindergarten through grade 3. However, none of the predictor variables were related to direct measures of elementary schooling. When combined with a composite SES indicator, early child language production significantly increased the variance accounted for in the prediction of elementary language and academic competencies in each subsequent year in elementary school. Implications are discussed in terms of the stability of performance on language and academic performance measures of children who entered school with different early language learning experiences, and the need to consider early home- and school-based intervention designed to prevent or ameliorate these trends.

Analysis of individualized education programs to quantify long-term educational needs following surgical intervention for single-suture craniosynostosis

“…This income is almost 150% of the median annual household income in 2011 of $50,054 as detailed by the United States Census Bureau statistics (27). However, it has been described previously that low socioeconomic status alone may be causal in speech/language and cognitive impairments (28). In the present study, socioeconomic status did not appear to confound the results because the sample population was relatively affluent and Caucasian.…”

Preschool language development among children of adolescent mothers

“…La Paro and Pianta (2000) found a moderate effect size (.49) across more than 60 studies predicting academic achievement from kindergarten through second grade from early cognitive skills including preschool language development. Similarly, others have found that early language performance is an important predictor of later reading, spelling and language, independent of socioeconomic status, and such predictions remain stable during early elementary school years (Walker, Greenwood, Hart, & Carta, 1994). Recently, in a large normative sample, the NICHD Early Child Research Network (2005) demonstrated that preschool oral language operated both directly and indirectly on first and third grade outcomes.…”

“…Recently, in a large normative sample, the NICHD Early Child Research Network (2005) demonstrated that preschool oral language operated both directly and indirectly on first and third grade outcomes. Specifically, scores on the 54 month Preschool Language Scale (PLS; Zimmerman, Steiner, & Booth, 1995;Thomasgard & Shonkoff, 1993;Walker et al, 1994). Much of the impact of young motherhood on the child is mediated by multiple factors associated with socioeconomic status (Kinard & Klerman, 1983), especially maternal education (Kinard & Reinherz, 1984) and mothers' cognitive achievement (Moore & Snyder, 1991).…”

Parent ratings of child cognition and language compared with Bayley-III in preterm 3-year-olds

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