2-178 - Understanding young children’s early development of academic and executive function skills in China and the United States

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Cultural comparison studies of American and Chinese children’s academic (i.e., literacy and math skills) and executive function (EF) consistently suggest that Chinese children perform significantly better than their American counterparts (e.g., Grabell, 2015). However, the developmental pattern of Chinese children’s academic and EF skills during preschool years, when such skills are emerging, have not been rigorously investigated. Furthermore, few studies examined the associations across domains among Chinese preschoolers’ early skills. It is also unclear whether young children from different cultural backgrounds follow a universal pattern in development of early academic and EF skills. This symposium includes three studies utilizing recent measures developed and validated in the U.S. and Hong Kong that examine young children’s academic and EF skills. Study one examined the associations between Chinese preschoolers’ early literacy, Math and EF skills. Study two investigated the difference between Chinese and American children’s early numeracy skill as a function of linguistic features. Study three explored the changes of early EF skill over preschool year in China and the U.S. Having considered the potential impact of family socioeconomic (SES) background to Chinese preschoolers’ academic skills (Li et al., 2016), all studies included child samples recruited from both urban (middle and higher-SES) and rural (low-income) areas in China. The discussant of this symposium is a distinguished researcher specialized in cross-cultural studies of early development of academic skills between Asian and American young children’s. The discussant will share her experience and insight of the existing challenges and future direction in cross-cultural studies with young children.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Chenyi Zhang, Georgia State University

Discussant

• Catherine McBride, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Individual Presentations

• The Interplay among Chinese young children’s early literacy, math and executive functioning - Presenting Author: Chenyi Zhang, Georgia State University; Gary Bingham, Georgia State University; Sara Schmitt, Purdue University; David J. Purpura, Purdue University; Fuyi Yang, East China Normal University

• Language-related DIF on US and Chinese preschool children’s number naming skills: A test of the number naming structure hypothesis - Presenting Author: David J. Purpura, Purdue University; Sara Schmitt, Purdue University; Chenyi Zhang, Georgia State University; Fuyi Yang, East China Normal University; Amy R. Napoli, Purdue University

• The cross-cultural variations in the development of executive function for preschoolers from low and high socioeconomic families - Presenting Author: Sara Schmitt, Purdue University; Irem Korucu, Purdue University; David J. Purpura, Purdue University; Chenyi Zhang, Georgia State University; Fuyi Yang, East China Normal University