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The First Steps Define educate. We all recognize good education, we know when children score high or low, when there is a good teacher or bad teacher, and if children [...]

Purpose: This study examined past tense marking by African American English (AAE)-speaking children from low- and middle-income backgrounds to determine if poverty affects children's marking of past tense in ways that mirror the clinical condition of specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Participants were 15 AAE-speaking 6-year-olds from low-income backgrounds, 15 AAE-speaking 6-year-olds from middle-income backgrounds who served as age-matched controls, and 15 AAE-speaking 5-year-olds from middle-income backgrounds who served as language-matched controls. Data were drawn from language samples and probes. Results: Results revealed high rates of regular marking, variable rates of irregular marking, high rates of over-regularizations, and absence of dialect-inappropriate errors of commission. For some analyses, marking was affected by the phonological characteristics of the items and the children's ages, but none of the analyses revealed effects for the children's socioeconomic level. Conclusions: Within AAE, poverty status as a variable affects past tense marking in ways that are different from the clinical condition of SLI. KEY WORDS: African American English, low-income, past tense, grammatical morphology, specific language impairment (SLI), Children reared in poverty and children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate language abilities that are often lower than what is expected for their age and grade level. However, [...]

This study examined predictions from preschool parenting measures to middle childhood cognitive and socioemotional child outcomes to explore whether parenting assessment methodologies that require more time, training, and expense yield better predictions of child outcomes than less intensive methodologies. Mother-child dyads (N = 278) in low-income African American families were assessed when the child was in preschool, using maternal report, the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment--Short Form (P. Baker & F. Mott, 1989; R. Bradley & B. Caldwell, 1984), and structured observational measures of parenting. Child outcomes reported by children, mothers, teachers, and direct assessment were collected 4 years later. All parenting methodologies showed some predictive value; however, observational parenting measures showed the strongest and most consistent predictions of child outcomes. Keywords: measurement, parenting, low income

We explored the perspectives and experiences of low-income, predominantly African American families regarding children's school-readiness. Our research, which involved qualitative interviews, ethnographic case studies, and 'photovoice' methods, focused on families participating in the national evaluation of Early Head Start. While valuing academic skills, study parents emphasized the importance of social and emotional health in regard to both children's and parents' readiness to begin school. These developments are especially critical given the challenges parents perceive in local school environments. On the basis of a social ecology framework, we argue that psychological and environmental dimensions of school readiness are public health matters and that understanding the perspectives of low income and minority parents on such issues is a critical aspect of health communication dedicated to eliminating health disparities.

An attempt made to increase the generalizability of findings from previous research on the theoretical concept verve to academic settings by examining the effects of task variability on academic task performance and task motivation is presented. Home contextual factors that may inform students' preferences, motivation, and achievement outcomes were also examined.

The effects on performance of incorporating cultural factors into the presentation and content of task materials are examined. The prediction that African American children would perform better when either the content or context afforded movement expressiveness factors is also discussed.

The evolving conceptual and programmatic efforts to promote African American children's social and emotional competencies are described. Moral competence and use of proposed cultural psychology framework are focused in order to highlight the cultural theme of communalism and a morality of care.