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A randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of two teaching methods on preschool children’s language and communication, executive functions, socioemotional comprehension, and early math skills
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Linguistics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7095-0525
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Linguistics.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8372-9507
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Linguistics.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2531-368X
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Child and Youth Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7183-246X
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2019 (English)In: BMC Psychology, E-ISSN 2050-7283, Vol. 7, article id 59Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background

During the preschool years, children’s development of skills like language and communication, executive functions, and socioemotional comprehension undergo dramatic development. Still, our knowledge of how these skills are enhanced is limited. The preschool contexts constitute a well-suited arena for investigating these skills and hold the potential for giving children an equal opportunity preparing for the school years to come. The present study compared two pedagogical methods in the Swedish preschool context as to their effect on language and communication, executive functions, socioemotional comprehension, and early math. The study targeted children in the age span four-to-six-year-old, with an additional focus on these children’s backgrounds in terms of socioeconomic status, age, gender, number of languages, time spent at preschool, and preschool start. An additional goal of the study was to add to prior research by aiming at disentangling the relationship between the investigated variables.

Method

The study constitutes a randomized controlled trial including 18 preschools and 29 preschool units, with a total of 431 children, and 98 teachers. The interventions lasted for 6 weeks, preceded by pre-testing and followed by post-testing of the children. Randomization was conducted on the level of preschool unit, to either of the two interventions or to control. The interventions consisted of a socioemotional and material learning paradigm (SEMLA) and a digitally implemented attention and math training paradigm (DIL). The preschools were further evaluated with ECERS-3. The main analysis was a series of univariate mixed regression models, where the nested structure of individuals, preschool units and preschools were modeled using random variables.

Results

The result of the intervention shows that neither of the two intervention paradigms had measurable effects on the targeted skills. However, there were results as to the follow-up questions, such as executive functions predicting all other variables (language and communication, socioemotional comprehension, and math). Background variables were related to each other in patterns congruent with earlier findings, such as socioeconomic status predicting outcome measures across the board. The results are discussed in relation to intervention fidelity, length of intervention, preschool quality, and the impact of background variables on children’s developmental trajectories and life prospects.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 7, article id 59
Keywords [en]
Intervention, Preschool, Language skills, Communication skills, Executive functions, Auditory selective attention, Socioemotional comprehension, Early math skills, Group-based learning, Digital learning
National Category
Languages and Literature Educational Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-172862DOI: 10.1186/s40359-019-0325-9OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-172862DiVA, id: diva2:1350387
Projects
Enhancing preschool children´s attention, language and communication skills
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 721–2014-1786Available from: 2019-09-11 Created: 2019-09-11 Last updated: 2022-02-26Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Language and executive functions in Swedish preschoolers
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Language and executive functions in Swedish preschoolers
2021 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The main goals of this dissertation are to investigate the associations between language and executive functions, including selective auditory attention, in Swedish children aged 4–6, to examine possible links to factors relating to the child and his/her social environment, and to evaluate preschool interventions with regard to potential improvements in language and/or executive functions. Measures were obtained by combining results from behavioral tests, language samples in the form of narratives, parent and teacher ratings and a measure of selective auditory attention as brain activity. Additionally, previous work regarding the nature and direction of the association between language and executive functions is reviewed and discussed. Progress during preschool years in language and executive functioning development seem to go hand in hand, and a body of work has indicated that language and executive functions are closely associated, although directions of potential casual relationships are still unclear. For Swedish, preschool-aged children, little is known of the language–executive functions relationship and the extent to which these skills can be improved via pedagogical working methods or interventions. The first paper investigates the language–executive functions relationship and potential associations to background factors, and the second paper examines the same research questions in larger sample, adding a selective auditory attention measure. The third paper constitutes one of the first randomized controlled trials in the Swedish preschool context and investigates effects of two contrasting pedagogical interventions compared to business-as-usual. The fourth paper explores links between children’s spontaneous explanations of a fictional misunderstanding, their language skills and their executive functions. In line with previous work from other contexts, results confirm an association between children’s grammar skills and inhibition, including selective auditory attention. Children’s socioeconomic background is significantly related to language skills, executive functions and selective attention. The current results also suggest a female advantage for receptive vocabulary and morphosyntax and indicate that bi- and multilingual children perform lower than monolingual peers with regard to receptive vocabulary in the majority language, also when controlling for socioeconomic status. The preschool interventions did not lead to any gains in language, executive functions or selective attention compared to the control group. Further work is clearly needed to provide a solid evidence-base for Swedish preschool practices. Future studies should focus on identifying relevant mechanisms in order to enable early intervention targeting children at risk for lagging behind their peers already in preschool. Previous empirical work as well as theoretical suggestions regarding the nature and direction of the links between language and executive functions are divergent, which is related to a lack of consensus with regard to underlying theories and to problems with definitions and assessment. In this thesis, it is suggested that the association is intertwined and reciprocal, congruent with a view on development as dynamic and complex and in line with a theory of mutualism. Future work is needed to refine theories and to formulate testable hypotheses regarding the language–executive functions relationship.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of linguistics, Stockholm University, 2021. p. 128
Keywords
language development, narrative, executive functions, theory of mind, preschool, event-related potentials, selective attention, Swedish, early childhood
National Category
General Language Studies and Linguistics
Research subject
Linguistics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-192110 (URN)978-91-7911-414-5 (ISBN)978-91-7911-415-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2021-06-04, Nordenskiöldsalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 12 and online via Zoom, public link is available at the department website, Stockholm, 13:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2021-05-11 Created: 2021-04-15 Last updated: 2022-09-12Bibliographically approved

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Gerholm, ToveKallioinen, PetterTonér, SigneFrankenberg, SofiaKjällander, SusannePalmer, AnnaLenz-Taguchi, Hillevi

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