TY - JOUR
T1 - Mother-child conversations at 36 months and at pre-kindergarten
T2 - Relations to children's school readiness
AU - Cristofaro, Tonia N.
AU - Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The findings reported in this study are based on research from the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, funded by the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. We wish to acknowledge our colleagues in the Early Head Start Research Consortium, including the late Barbara A. Pan of Harvard University. We are extremely grateful to the staff and families at the local agencies that participated in this study. We also express our appreciation to students who assisted with home visits and coding. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation for New York University's Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - The contributions of mothers' and children's oral language to children's school readiness were longitudinally examined among 75 low-income mothers and children. When children were 36 months, mothers' and children's lexical diversity, mothers' wh-questions, and children's PPVT-III scores were assessed from play interactions. At pre-kindergarten, mothers and children shared a personal narrative, and various aspects of mothers' and children's narratives were coded. Children were assessed on their knowledge about print, letter-word identification, mathematical skills and sustained attention, and scores were combined into a single factor of school readiness. Structural equation analyses yielded two pathways to school readiness. Mothers' wh-questions and lexical diversity predicted children's PPVT-III scores at 36 months, which in turn predicted children's school readiness. Mothers' 36-month lexical diversity predicted mothers' narrative prompts, which related to children's narrative contributions. Children's narrative contributions in turn predicted school readiness. Mother-child conversations support the school readiness of children from low-income backgrounds.
AB - The contributions of mothers' and children's oral language to children's school readiness were longitudinally examined among 75 low-income mothers and children. When children were 36 months, mothers' and children's lexical diversity, mothers' wh-questions, and children's PPVT-III scores were assessed from play interactions. At pre-kindergarten, mothers and children shared a personal narrative, and various aspects of mothers' and children's narratives were coded. Children were assessed on their knowledge about print, letter-word identification, mathematical skills and sustained attention, and scores were combined into a single factor of school readiness. Structural equation analyses yielded two pathways to school readiness. Mothers' wh-questions and lexical diversity predicted children's PPVT-III scores at 36 months, which in turn predicted children's school readiness. Mothers' 36-month lexical diversity predicted mothers' narrative prompts, which related to children's narrative contributions. Children's narrative contributions in turn predicted school readiness. Mother-child conversations support the school readiness of children from low-income backgrounds.
KW - mother-child interactions
KW - mother-child language
KW - mother-child narratives
KW - narrative development
KW - school readiness
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U2 - 10.1177/1468798411416879
DO - 10.1177/1468798411416879
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857678977
VL - 12
SP - 68
EP - 97
JO - Journal of Early Childhood Literacy
JF - Journal of Early Childhood Literacy
SN - 1468-7984
IS - 1
ER -