3-072 - Social, Cognitive, Communicative, and Motivational Predictors of School Readiness and Achievement: Infancy to Childhood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium examines predictors of school readiness and academic achievement across multiple domains, including social (Denham, 2006), cognitive (Welsh et al., 2010), communicative (Hoff, 2003), and motivational factors (Ursache et al., 2012). The individual presentations identify early environmental and sociodemographic predictors of school readiness, explore mediating processes, and examine how child, parental, and contextual factors contribute to academic development.

The presentations: (1) Document the emergence of educational disparities in relation to two indicators of school readiness, vocabulary knowledge and sustained attention. (2) Examine relations between vocabulary knowledge and early numeracy, testing oral counting as a mediating mechanism. (3) Test a longitudinal model in which social competence and executive functions mediate the relations between early environmental factors (parenting and neighborhood safety) and later executive functions. (4) Test executive functions and challenge preference as unique predictors of longitudinal change in achievement in elementary school. Our findings (a) describe continuity and change in a broad range of skills that each uniquely impact school readiness and achievement; (b) highlight the need for researchers to adopt an integrative perspective that considers how multiple areas of development contribute to academic competence; and (c) point toward factors that promote resilience that leads to better academic achievement in the face of socioeconomic adversity.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Patricia J. Brooks, College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center CUNY

Individual Presentations

• Charting the Emergence of Educational Disparities in Toddlers from Low-Income Families - Presenting Author: Teresa Ober, The Graduate Center CUNY; Non-Presenting Author: Patricia J. Brooks, College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center CUNY; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel M Flynn, Northwestern University

• Socioeconomic Risk and School Readiness: Social Competence Mediates Effects of Neighborhood Safety on Executive Functions - Presenting Author: Stephen H. Braren, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Rosemarie E. Perry, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Clancy Blair, New York University

• Challenge Preference and Executive Functions: Predictors of Academic Achievement in Elementary School - Presenting Author: Michael Sulik, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Jenna E. Finch, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Jelena Obradovic, Stanford University

• Oral Counting Mediates Relations between Early Language Comprehension and Symbolic Numeral Knowledge for School Readiness - Presenting Author: Kalina Gjicali, The Graduate Center CUNY; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Astuto, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Anastasiya A. Lipnevich, Queens College and The Graduate Center CUNY