Papers by Susan Sonnenschein
Early Child Development and Care, 2016
The association between monolingual children's early language abilities and their later reading p... more The association between monolingual children's early language abilities and their later reading performance is well established. However, for English language learners, the pattern of associations between early language skills and later literacy is much less well understood for English language learners. This study examined language predictors of preschool, low-income Latino English language learners' (N = 112) spring vocabulary and literacy skills. Only children's English language skills at the start of preschool, not Spanish or conceptual vocabulary (child received credit for knowledge of word in either English or Spanish), were significant predictors of subsequent vocabulary and literacy scores. In addition, vocabulary and language comprehension together accounted for more variance in spring performance than vocabulary alone. Finally, data from a small subset of parents (N = 21) suggested that the children's Spanish skills were being maintained through activities at home. Discussion focuses on the application of findings to assessment and practice in the preschool classrooms.
Becoming Literate in the City
Research in Human Development, 2016
Children from low-income and Black and Latino families are often at risk for reading and math dif... more Children from low-income and Black and Latino families are often at risk for reading and math difficulties. We examined whether there were differences in Black and Latino Head Start parents' beliefs about reading and math socialization, frequency of children's engagement in reading and math, and children's reading and math skills. There were differences in parents' socialization beliefs, children's reading and math activities, and associations with children's reading and math outcomes. Although reading/math engagement was more limited than what is reported among middle-income families, findings show the importance of parental beliefs and practices for children's reading and math outcomes.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2020
Research in Human Development, 2016
Family contexts of academic socialization have received growing attention as a way to facilitate ... more Family contexts of academic socialization have received growing attention as a way to facilitate the educational development of children and adolescents. The goal of this special issue is to present comparative and complex perspectives about the roles of culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) in multifaceted academic socialization processes from preschool to college. This introduction discusses the roles of culture, ethnicity, and SES in family academic socialization processes, summarizes various themes across the five articles in this issue, presents brief overviews of each article, and addresses future directions of these lines of research. Family contexts of academic socialization have received growing attention as a way to facilitate the educational development of children and youth. Parental academic socialization includes parents' education-related beliefs, expectations, and behaviors through which they navigate or influence their children's academic and school-related development (
Children and Libraries, 2018
Of the 76,510 babies born during an average week in the United States, 7,361—or about 10 percent—... more Of the 76,510 babies born during an average week in the United States, 7,361—or about 10 percent—are born prematurely.1 Preterm babies, born before the thirty-seventh week of gestation, can be born with underdeveloped organ systems and other health problems that impact their ability to survive on their own outside of the womb.
Academic Socialization of Young Black and Latino Children, 2018
There continue to be large and significant group-related differences in the percentage of childre... more There continue to be large and significant group-related differences in the percentage of children earning age-appropriate reading and math scores as they go through elementary school (Reardon & Portilla, 2016). For example, on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 59% of Asian and 47% of White fourth graders (the youngest grade tested) received proficient or higher reading scores compared to 20% of Black and 23% of Latino fourth graders (NCES, 2018a). Only 22% of fourth graders eligible for free or reduced lunch, an index of low-socioeconomic status (SES; a composite based on parents' occupation prestige, education, and income), received proficient or higher scores in reading compared to 52% of those not eligible for free or reduced lunch. With math, 67% of Asians and 51% of White fourth graders received proficient or higher scores compared to 19% of Black and 26% of Latino children (NCES, 2018b). And only 25% of fourth graders eligible for free or reduced lunch received proficient or higher scores in math compared to 57% of those not eligible for lunch subsidies. Such demographic group-related differences in children's academic achievement are present at the start of school and generally continue or increase over time (
The preschool years are a critical time for math development. Unfortunately, children from low-in... more The preschool years are a critical time for math development. Unfortunately, children from low-income backgrounds often enter kindergarten with lower math skills than middle-income peers, perhaps due to less math exposure at home. Few home-based math interventions are available for preschool age children; those that do exist are costly and difficult to implement. Interventions conducted in children's schools using linear numeric board games developed by researchers have been particularly successful with low-income preschool children. Researchers have suggested they may be adapted for home-use by using commercially available board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, and teaching parents how to play. The two studies described in this paper explored the effectiveness of using Chutes and Ladders with a specialized counting procedure with Head Start families. Implementation proved to be challenging and children did not improve as much as in previous classroom-based interventions.
Professional Educator, 1998
EJ605863 - A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Ethnotheories.
Translational Issues in Psychological Science
To be successful in school, children must pay attention, ignore distractions, persist on tasks, b... more To be successful in school, children must pay attention, ignore distractions, persist on tasks, be organized, and plan their work. However, these processes are not typically taught in school and research has not yet examined whether children understand them. Given that children's understanding (metacognitive knowledge) of learning processes is associated with their performance, we investigated whether first through sixth grade children could explain what it meant to execute these five processes. We evaluated how many specific process components children mentioned in their definitions and whether the number of components they mentioned predicted scores on a picture memory task. Although almost all children were able to provide valid definitions of the learning processes, they only mentioned some of the components for each process. Children most frequently mentioned process components that were observable. For example, when asked to define organization, most mentioned organizing papers and other materials, but few mentioned managing time, thoughts, or actions. This indicates that children may be unaware of the actions needed to execute critical learning processes. We found that older children were more aware of the components of organization and planning than younger children. In addition, the number of components children mentioned when defining organization and their combined knowledge of all processes predicted their performance on a picture memory task. Given children's limited metacognitive knowledge of these learning processes and the association of such knowledge with task performance, explicit instruction on these learning processes and related strategies may be beneficial.
The Baltimore Early Childhood Project, 1958
Preterm babies, born before the thirty-seventh week of gestation, can be born with underdeveloped... more Preterm babies, born before the thirty-seventh week of gestation, can be born with underdeveloped organ systems and other health problems. The new NICU trend of private rooms increases likelihoods of speech delays. A new early literacy program, Mother Goose on the Loose: Goslings, developed through a Baltimore community collaboration, teaches parents medically appropriate early literacy activities to use with their NICU babies.
This report considers preschool children's early literacy-related competencies. The data are from... more This report considers preschool children's early literacy-related competencies. The data are from the first 2 years of the Early Childhood Project, a longitudinal investigation following preschool children from different sociocultural groups in Baltimore, Maryland, through their transition irto the early years of elementary school. Children were tested in 14 early literacy-reIated competencies during the spring of both their pre-kindergarten and kindergarten years. The tasks measured aspects of an Orientation towards Print, Phonological Awareness, or Narrative Competence. Some of the tasks used were standard reading readiness measures. A second series of analyses considered the relation between home practices/experiences and emergent literacy development. Children wero tested to see whether being brought up in a home predominantly oriented toward the view that literacy is a source of entertainment is more or less likely to develop an Orientation towards Print, Phonological Awareness, of Narrative Competence than a child being brought up in a home where literacy is more typically viewed as a set of skills to be acquired. These different approaches to literacy were derived from parents' answers to questions about how to help foster reading as well as a review of the children's home activities. Taking an approach that literacy is a source of entertainment was positively related to an orientation toward print as well as aspects of narrative competence and phonological awareness. In general, taking the approach that literacy is a set of skills to be learned was either negatively related or not significantly related to the three strands. (Contains 51 references and 15 tables of data.)
Online Submission, May 1, 2010
The purpose of this study was to integrate domain-learning theory and goal theory to investigate ... more The purpose of this study was to integrate domain-learning theory and goal theory to investigate the learning processes, achievement goals, social goals, and achievement of 141 college students. Cluster-analytic procedures were used to categorize participants at different levels of expertise based on their responses on knowledge, interest, and strategic processing measures specific to psychology. Results revealed two distinct levels of expertise: Acclimated and Competent. Three sets of findings enhance our understanding of college learning. First, results indicated students at different levels of expertise adopt different goals. Whereas, the Acclimated group adopted performance-avoidance goals, the Competent group adopted mastery, performance-approach, and social concern goals, indicating students at different levels of expertise have different reasons for achieving. Second, the results provide support for multiple goal theory: (a) interest, strategic processing, and psychology GPA were each positively correlated with mastery and performance-approach goals; and (b) mastery and performanceapproach goals were each unique predictors of psychology GPA. Third, social goals were positively related to some academic outcomes and negatively related to others. Findings suggest that college students' goals relate to the development of expertise within a domain. Educators need to consider students' knowledge, interest, strategy use, and goal orientations when developing instructional environments to improve student learning.
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Papers by Susan Sonnenschein