The M5-PS-35: a five-factor personality questionnaire for preschool children

The Five-factor theory of personality (FFT) has pervaded personality research in recent years. Although many reliable and valid measurement instruments exist for use with adults, adolescents, and even elementary-age children, there is a lack of available 5-factor measurement tools for use with preschool children. This article expands on previous work developing the M5-PS, a rating form for preschool children designed to be completed by classroom teachers or caregivers. A total of 621 children were rated by their teachers on the 90-item working form of the M5-PS. Through a combination of empirical and rational scale refinement methods, the number of items has been reduced to 35, yielding a revised instrument, the M5-PS-35, with substantially improved construct validity and scale internal consistency. Potential changes in external validity were evaluated by comparative reanalysis of an existing data set.     

Children’s scale errors and object processing: Early evidence for cross-cultural differences

Scale errors are observed when young children make mistakes by attempting to put their bodies into miniature versions of everyday objects. Such errors have been argued to arise from children’s insufficient integration of size into their object representations. The current study investigated whether Japanese and UK children’s (18–24 months old, N = 80) visual exploration in a categorization task related to their scale error production. UK children who showed greater local processing made more scale errors, whereas Japanese children, who overall showed greater global processing, showed no such relationship. These results raise the possibility that children’s suppression of scale errors emerges not from attention to size per se, but from a critical integration of global (i.e., size) and local (i.e., object features) information during object processing, and provide evidence that this mechanism differs cross-culturally.     

The Impact of Spatial Cues on Preschoolers' Selective Attention

The effects of spatial arrangement on preschool children's ability to selectively attend were investigated. Three- and 4-year old children were shown a multicolored dollhouse room intended to serve as a special place containing miniature chairs and models of animals. One category of objects was designated as relevant and 1 as irrelevant. Relevant items were placed in each of the apparatus's corners or in the middle of its walls. Children in the corners condition correctly relocated more relevant items than children in the wall or control conditions. The findings suggest that for both age groups, the ability to recall relevant items may be independent of their ability to demonstrate a selective attention strategy.     

Decreased attention to object size information in scale errors performers

Young children sometimes make serious attempts to perform impossible actions on miniature objects as if they were full-size objects. The existing explanations of these curious action errors assume (but never explicitly tested) children's decreased attention to object size information. This study investigated the attention to object size information in scale errors performers. Two groups of children aged 18–25 months (N = 52) and 48–60 months (N = 23) were tested in two consecutive tasks: an action task that replicated the original scale errors elicitation situation, and a looking task that involved watching on a computer screen actions performed with adequate to inadequate size object. Our key finding – that children performing scale errors in the action task subsequently pay less attention to size changes than non-scale errors performers in the looking task – suggests that the origins of scale errors in childhood operate already at the perceptual level, and not at the action level.     

A descriptive analysis of potential reinforcement contingencies in the preschool classroom

In recent years, functional analysis methods have been extended to classroom settings; however, research has not evaluated the extent to which consequences presented during functional analysis are associated with problem behavior under naturalistic classroom conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the social consequences commonly manipulated in functional analyses occur in typical preschool classrooms. A total of 14 children attending preschool programs participated in the study. Data were collected on the occurrence of antecedent events (e.g., presentation of tasks), child behaviors (e.g., aggression), and teacher responses (e.g., delivery of attention). The probability of various teacher responses given child behavior was then calculated and compared to the response-independent probabilities of teacher responses. Attention was found to be the most common classroom consequence (100% of children), followed by material presentation (79% of children), and escape from instructional tasks (33% of children). Comparisons of conditional and response-independent probabilities showed that the probability of teacher attention increased given the occurrence of problem behavior for all children, suggesting that a contingency existed between these two events. Results suggest that functional analyses that test the effects of attention, escape, and access to materials on problem behavior may be appropriate for preschool settings.     

The effects of spatial configuration on preschoolers' attention strategies,selective attention,and incidental learning

This study investigated the effects of spatial arrangement on preschool children's selective attention and incidental learning. Three‐ and four‐year old children were shown a multi‐coloured box designated as a ‘special place’ containing miniature chairs and models of animals. One category of objects were designated as relevant and one as irrelevant. Relevant items were placed in each of the apparatus' corners, in the middle of its walls, or in two corners and in the middle of two walls. Findings revealed that children shown relevant items in corners demonstrated the greatest number of correct relocations for relevant items while those shown relevant items in the middle of the walls showed the greatest number of correct relocations for irrelevant items. Findings also suggest that for both age groups, the ability to recall relevant items may have been independent of their ability to demonstrate a selective attention strategy. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of spatial cues on preschoolers' selective attention

The effects of spatial arrangement on preschool children's ability to selectively attend were investigated. Three- and 4-year old children were shown a multicolor dollhouse room intended to serve as a special place containing miniature chairs and models of animals. One category of objects was designated as relevant and 1 as irrelevant. Relevant items were placed in each of the apparatus's corners or in the middle of its walls. Children in the corners condition correctly relocated more relevant items than children in the wall or control conditions. The findings suggest that for both age groups, the ability to recall relevant items may be independent of their ability to demonstrate a selective attention strategy.     

Motivational‐emotional vulnerability and difficulties in learning to read and spell

Background: Although the relationship between motivation and learning problems has been studied in older children, little is known about how these factors interact during the first years of schooling or even earlier. Aims: To compare the development of motivational‐emotional profiles from preschool to grade 2 between groups classified as poor readers, good decoders and good readers in grade 2. To study the possibility that diverging motivational‐emotional paths occur concomitantly with school experience. Sample: A total of 127 children were followed longitudinally from preschool up to the second grade. In preschool, their mean age was 6 years 8 months. Method: Two different methods tapping motivational‐emotional vulnerability were used. Firstly, researchers at preschool age and classroom teachers in grades 1 and 2 rated children's task, ego‐defensive and social dependence orientations. Secondly, an experimental situation was arranged each year where children's play behaviour with LEGO® bricks was observed in free play vs. in induced pressure situations, and their motivational orientations were scored. Results: In preschool, the motivational‐emotional profiles were almost the same among the three prospective reading‐level groups, but in grades 1 and 2, classroom teachers rated poor readers as less task‐oriented and more ego‐defensive and socially dependent compared to good decoders and good readers. The ratings were corroborated by observational data on play behaviour in induced pressure situations. Conclusions: Early problems in learning to read and spell are related to motivational‐emotional vulnerability in learning situations in the school context.     

Young children make scale errors when playing with dolls

Prior research (DeLoache, Uttal & Rosengren, 2004) has documented that 18- to 30-month-olds occasionally make scale errors: they attempt to fit their bodies into or onto miniature objects (e.g. a chair) that are far too small for them. The current study explores whether scale errors are limited to actions that directly involve the child's body. We investigated whether children would also make scale errors with a doll and objects that were much too small for the doll (e.g. a chair, a bed). Many participants did try to fit the doll into or onto the miniature objects. Thus, the previously documented phenomenon of scale errors extends to situations in which the relevant size difference is between two objects. This finding supports the view that scale errors occur when visual information about object size fails to influence the decision to act on an object. The results are discussed in terms of the use of visual information for the planning and control of actions.     

SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL TRAINING TO INCREASE INDEPENDENT WORK PERFORMANCE IN PRESCHOOLERS

The generalized effects of self-instructional training on the classroom performance of three “impulsive” preschool children were investigated using a multiple-baseline design across subjects. Measures of child and teacher behavior in the classroom were obtained through direct observations during a daily independent work period. Self-instructional training followed Meichenbaum and Goodman's (1971) approach, except that training materials consisted of naturalistic task worksheets rather than psychometric test items and training sessions were of shorter duration. For all three children, self-instructional training resulted in increased levels of accuracy on worksheets in the classroom that were similar to those used in training. Results related to several supplementary measures were less clear; however, they suggested that rates of on-task behavior may also have improved, and that a mild classroom intervention further strengthened on-task rates and effected consistent work completion for all three children. The findings suggested that generalized increases in accuracy on classroom worksheets were related to the naturalistic format of the self-instructional training sessions. The level of teacher attention was controlled to rule out its effect on changes in child behavior.     

Very long-term memories of a salient preschool event

Children who attended either a younger (mean age = 3frac12;years) or an older (mean age = 4frac12; years)preschool classroom were interviewed twice about an emergency school evacuation in response to a fire alarm. All children were able to answer some memory questions 2 weeks after the evacuation occurred, but the memory narratives produced by older preschool children showed a more refined knowledge of the temporal and causal sequence of events. Seven years later, memory of the fire alarm was reassessed. Only those preadolescents who had been in the older preschool group at the time of the alarm showed convincing evidence of long-term memory. The offset of childhood amnesia appears to be influenced by developmental changes in cognitive processing.     

Predicting school performance of preschool children from parent reports

Parents of 391 preschool children ages 49 to 64 months completed a brief developmental inventory as part of a preschool screening program operated by an urban school district. The 28-item developmental inventory assessed adaptive behavior and language development. In addition, preschool children were administered the Minneapolis Preschool Screening Instrument. Teacher ratings of kindergarten performance the following year provided criterion data to validate the screening measures. Correlations with the overall teacher rating [the mean of nine ratings] were .40 for the adaptive behavior scale and .57 for the language scale. Validity figures for the developmental inventory were significantly higher for low SES than for high SES children, for older children [57 to 64 months] than for younger children [49 to 56 months], and for firstborn children than for younger siblings. No effects were found by sex. While a positive relationship between parent reports of developmental functioning and early school performance was clearly established, validity levels did not justify use of parent information as a sole source of preschool screening information.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.     

Classroom Interactions,Dyadic Teacher–Child Relationships,and Self–Regulation in Socially Disadvantaged Young Children

This study examined the quality of the classroom climate and dyadic teacher–child relationships as predictors of self–regulation in a sample of socially disadvantaged preschool children (N?=?206; 52 % boys). Children’s self–regulation was observed in preschool at the beginning and at the end of the school year. At the middle of the preschool year, classroom observations of interactions were conducted by trained observers and teachers rated the quality of dyadic teacher–child relationships. Results from multilevel analyses revealed that teacher–child closeness predicted improvements in observed self–regulation skills. Children showed larger gains in self–regulation when they experienced closer teacher–child relationships. Moreover, a moderating effect between classroom instructional quality and observed self–regulation was found such that children with low initial self–regulation skills benefit the most from classrooms with higher classroom quality. Findings have implications for understanding the role of classroom social processes on the development of self–regulation.     

Children's scale errors: A by‐product of lexical development?

Scale errors occur when young children seriously attempt to perform an action on an object which is impossible due to its size. Children vary substantially in the incidence of scale errors with many factors potentially contributing to these differences, such as age and the type of scale errors. In particular, the evidence for an inverted U‐shaped curve of scale errors involving the child's body (i.e., body scale errors), which would point to a developmental stage, is mixed. Here we re‐examine how body scale errors vary with age and explore the possibility that these errors would be related to the size and properties of children's lexicon. A large sample of children aged 18–30 months (N = 125) was tested in a scale error elicitation situation. Additionally, parental questionnaires were collected to assess children's receptive and expressive lexicon. Our key findings are that scale errors linearly decrease with age in childhood, and are more likely to be found in early talkers rather than in less advanced ones. This suggests that scale errors do not correspond to a developmental stage, and that one determinant of these errors is the speed of development of the linguistic and conceptual system, as a potential explanation for the individual variability in prevalence.     

Parent Prediction of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Infants at Risk: A Follow-up Study

Later-born siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder are considered at biological risk for autism spectrum disorder and the broader phenotype. Early screening may detect first signs of autism spectrum disorder and expedite diagnosis and early intervention. In this follow-up study, we re-examine a validated second-degree autism spectrum disorder screener for children at biological risk of autism spectrum disorder, the parent observation of early markers scale. Using available follow-up information up to age 13 years, 110 children (the original 108 infants plus 2 infants recruited after the completion of the original study) were divided into three groups: diagnosed group (n?=?13), lost diagnosis group (n?=?5), and undiagnosed group (n?=?92). The parent observation of early markers scale continued to show acceptable predictive validity. The parent observation of early markers scale total scores and mean number of elevated items were significantly higher in the diagnosed group than the undiagnosed group. The lost-diagnosis group did not differ from the undiagnosed group on parent observation of early markers scale total scores and elevated items at any age, but the lost-diagnosis group had significantly lower total scores, and number of elevated items than the diagnosed group starting at 18 months. Both autism spectrum disorder core and subsidiary behaviors differentiated the diagnosed and undiagnosed groups from 9 to 36 months of age. We hereby provide further evidence that the parent observation of early markers scale may serve as a low-cost early screener for autism spectrum disorder in at-risk children and pinpoint specific developmental ,and behavioral problems that may be amenable to very early intervention.     

I Remember When You Taught Me That! Preschool Children's Memories of Realistic Learning Episodes

This study examined whether preschool children are able to identify the source of new knowledge that they acquired in a stimulating, interactive learning context. Sixty 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children participated in two staged learning events. Several days later, children were asked questions that assessed their knowledge of factual information presented during the events. Children indicated whether they knew the answer to each question and whether they remembered the moment they learned it (i.e. had an episodic memory of the learning event), and then recalled event details. A majority of preschoolers were able to accurately identify how they had learned at least some factual information, but this ability was not consistent across children and test items. Recall of event‐specific details was positively correlated with correct answers to factual questions. The results indicate that when preschool children are asked to reflect on past learning experiences that occurred in complex and realistic contexts, their source monitoring abilities are evident but not yet fully developed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disfluency data of German preschool children who stutter and comparison children

This study compared the disfluencies of German-speaking preschool children who stutter (CWS, N = 24) with those produced by age- and sex-matched comparison children who do not stutter (CWNS, N = 24). In accordance with Yairi and Ambrose's [Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N. (1992). A longitudinal study of stuttering in children: A preliminary report. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 755-760] guidelines the CWS group had a narrow age range (2-5 years) and were seen close to the reported time of their stuttering onset (average of 8 months). Furthermore, over 95% of the CWS group had not received any type of speech therapy intervention. Consistent with previous findings for English-speaking preschool children, 'stuttering-like' disfluencies (prolongations, blocks, part- and one-syllable word repetitions) were significantly more frequent in CWS (mean = 9.2%) than in CWNS (mean = 1.2%), whereas no significant group differences occurred with respect to 'normal' disfluencies. The number of iterations in stuttering-like disfluencies was also significantly higher in CWS (mean = 1.28 iterations) than in CWNS (mean = 1.09 iterations). In contrast to previous findings, a sub-group of children who have been stuttering for a shorter time (1-5 months) did not differ from a sub-group who had stuttered for a longer period (8-22 months). EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) describe how German-speaking preschool children who stutter and who do not stutter display stuttering-like and normal disfluencies including number of iterations; (2) explain how powerful classification measures for the diagnosis of stuttering are for German-speaking preschool children; (3) discuss how disfluency patterns of native English- and German-speaking children close to onset of stuttering differ.     

Predictors of preschool language environments and their relations to children's vocabulary

Despite support for the importance of early language environments, little is known about the naturally occurring experiences children have in preschool settings. The current study sample included 91 children (M_age = 4.72 years; 56% male; 67% White) from 23 preschool classrooms and nearly 1500 h of language environment data from three waves throughout the preschool year. Of the sociodemographic characteristics, family income is most closely related to children's preschool language environments. A standard deviation increase in family income was related to children hearing approximately one million more adult words in their preschool classroom. However, conversational turns were the more robust predictor of vocabulary skills with effect sizes around 0.20, depending on model specification. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Phonemic-analysis training helps children benefit from spelling-sound rules

It has been frequently suggested that the ability to analyze spoken words into phonemes facilitates children’s learning of spelling-sound rules. This research attempts to demonstrate that link by showing that phonemic-analysis training helps children take advantage of spelling sound rules in learning to read. In two experiments, preschool and kindergarten prereaders participated in an analysis condition and a control condition on each of 4 test days. In the analysis condition, children learned to segment (and in Experiment 2, also to blend) selected spoken syllables. In the control condition, they merely repeated syllables. Children were then introduced to printed items that corresponded to the spoken syllables with which they had worked. The pronunciation of the “related” item could be deduced from those of other printed items in the set; the pronunciation of the “unrelated” item could not be so deduced. Both experiments revealed a significant interaction between condition (analysis vs. control) and item type (related vs. unrelated). In the control condition, children tended to make more errors on the related item than on the unrelated item; in the analysis condition, they tended to make fewer errors on the related item than on the unrelated item. These results suggest a causal link between the ability to analyze spoken syllables and the ability to benefit from spelling-sound relations in reading.     

Preschool classroom conversations as long-term resources for second language and literacy acquisition

This study investigated relations between preschool talk exposure and immigrant first graders' second language literacy and oral skills outcomes. Participants in the study were 25 children with Turkish as their first language and Norwegian as their second, attending various multilingual and ethnically diverse preschool classrooms in Norway and videotaped during preschool group conversations. Group conversations were coded for vocabulary richness, discourse complexity and emergent phonics talk. Relations between the qualities of the preschool group conversations that the children participated in and their second language vocabulary, listening comprehension and code related skills outcomes 1 year later in first grade were examined. Preschool classroom vocabulary richness and discourse complexity predicted first grade vocabulary (receptive vocabulary and word definition skills), but not listening comprehension. No associations were found between preschool classroom emergent phonics talk and first grade code-related skills. The findings have implications for early interventions addressing reading comprehension.