Home Is Where Learning Begins: Motivations for Early Intervention Programs That Target School Readiness

• In Event: 75.024 - The Jumpstart Intervention Program: Effects of Rich Early Learning Experiences on Learning Behaviors and Cognitive Skills

Abstract

During the preschool years children begin to ask questions to learn about the world around them. Indeed, by the age of 3 children ask an average of 76 information seeking questions per hour; often requiring extensive explanations (Chouinard, 2007). Yet, it is not always the case that they are exposed to high-quality explanations. In fact, mid-SES preschoolers show a preference for more complex explanations, whereas low-SES preschoolers prefer less complex explanations (Authors, 2013), suggesting that children from mid-SES families may be exposed to more high-quality explanations. Given that complex explanatory structures are found in the ‘academic language’ (Snow & Uccelli, 2009) used in formal schooling, by implication, children from lower SES families may be at a significant disadvantage by the time they enter kindergarten. Yet, no study to date has examined how differences in SES contribute to the types of questions children ask, the quality of the explanations they receive and their reactions to explanations.

To explore this question we conducted a secondary data analysis on 39 transcripts of caregiver-child (4-year-olds) conversations taken from the CHILDES database (20 high-SES; 19 low-SES) (Hall, 1987). We are also currently exploring this experimentally by looking at parent-child interactions across 40 parent-child dyads in Jumpstart and comparison classrooms.

Of the 39 transcripts, 37 were coded (2 were omitted because they were incomplete). The coding scheme consisted of three steps of an exchange: the initial question, the caregiver’s response, and the child’s reaction to the caregiver. Children’s questions were coded as information seeking (what/ where/ who), action seeking (e.g. “can you open this jar”) or causal (why/how). Caregiver’s responses were coded as adequate (answered the child’s question), inadequate (provided an unrelated responses), no response (did not respond to the question), or extended (answered the question with an explanation). Follow- up was coded as agrees with caregiver, asks a follow-up question, provides own explanation, or re-asks the original question. Finally, the outcome of the exchange was coded as child persists, child agrees or child drops topic.

Inter-rater reliability was established using a randomly selected sample of 20% of the transcripts. Overall there was a 90% agreement with a Kappa of .90. Analyses revealed that children from high-SES families asked a total of 740 questions whereas children from low-SES families asked only 375 questions. Children from high-SES families asked significantly more causal questions 2 (1, N= 4385) = 5.71, p<.05. We examined children’s reactions to caregiver’s responses to their causal questions and found that in high-SES families when given an inadequate response, children persisted 87% of the time. In contrast, children from low-SES families only persisted 40% of the time.

These findings provide compelling evidence that children from high-SES families ask more causal questions and are therefore exposed to more high-quality explanations. These early experiences have important implications for intervention programs such as Jumpstart, where one aspect of instruction is focused on defining new vocabulary and providing explanations for new concepts.

Authors

• Katelyn E. Kurkul, Merrimack College

• Kathleen H. Corriveau, Boston University