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The study purpose was to determine associations between proximity to grocery stores and Early Care and Education programs' (i.e., ECEs) classroom nutrition practices and barriers, by ECE context (Head Start, community-based childcare [CBC], and family child care homes [FCCHs]). A statewide cross-sectional survey was implemented in Oklahoma ECEs. Directors reported classroom nutrition practices with the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment tool, and barriers to implementation. Locations of 457 grocery stores statewide were determined by in-person audit. Geocoded ECEs were considered within a "low proximity" area if no grocery stores were available within a 0.25-mile radius for urban, or 10-mile radius for rural, ECEs. From November 2019 to February 2020, 54 Head Starts, 159 CBCs, and 160 FCCHs participated. 31.0 % were considered as low proximity. Head Starts demonstrated the highest classroom nutrition scores for mealtime practices, and nutrition education and policy. While proximity to grocery stores was not related to classroom nutrition practices for any ECE context (p 0.05), FCCHs located within a low proximity area reported barriers to implementing those practices more often compared to FCCHs in an area within accessible proximity of grocery store. Thus, proximity to grocery stores was related to barriers in FCCHs only; those provider's experiences and perceptions may be most susceptible to influence of the community nutrition environment, compared to other ECE contexts. Contrary to studies in residential areas and schools, nutrition environments were not related to nutrition practices in ECEs. ECEs may serve as protective micro-environments supporting health for children residing in nearby low-access communities.

OBJECTIVES: Poor child diet is influenced by nutrition environments surrounding schools and homes; influence of these environments on Early Care and Education (ECE) settings is not understood. The purpose of this study was to determine associations between community nutrition environments and ECE classroom nutrition practices, by ECE context [Head Starts, community-based childcare (CBCs), and family child care homes (FCCHs)]. METHODS: Cross-sectional study including licensed Oklahoma ECEs. Locations of 457 grocery stores were determined in-person. Locations of participating ECEs and grocery stores were geocoded and analyzed in ArcMap 10.6. ECEs were considered located within a “Food Desert” if no grocery stores were available within a 0.25-mile radius for urban ECEs, or 10-mile radius for rural ECEs. ECE directors completed the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment tool (i.e., NAP SACC); items were reported on a Likert-type scale and subscores were calculated for nutrition practices. Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was performed to compare practice scores among those located within a Food Desert versus Non-Desert. Benjamini Hochberg calculations for False Discovery Rate were applied (α< 0.004). RESULTS: 54 Head Starts, 159 CBCs, and 160 FCCHs participated with 24%, 27% and 37%- respectively- being located within a Food Desert. ECE descriptive characteristics including food purchasing and meal planning strategies varied by ECE context. Head Starts demonstrated the highest classroom nutrition scores for mealtime practices, and nutrition education and policy. Food Desert status was not related to classroom nutrition practice scores for any ECE context (P > 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to studies in residential areas and schools, nutrition environments were not related to nutrition practices in ECEs. This suggests that ECEs may serve as protective micro-environments supporting health for children more vulnerable to the health environments of their nearby residing communities. Supporting health practices for ECEs may be achieved most effectively through within-center intervention and policy. FUNDING SOURCES: This study was funded by the Early Care and Research Scholars: Head Start Graduate Student Research Grant (HHS2017-ACF-OPRE-YR-1219), OUHSC College of Allied Health Student Research and Creativity Grant, and Department of Nutritional Sciences.

The influence of community-built environments on physical activity (PA) support in Early Childhood Education settings (ECEs) is unknown. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine associations between community PA environments and ECE classroom PA practices. We included licensed Oklahoma ECE directors serving 3-to-5-year-old children. Parks and playground locations were exported from Google Earth. National Walkability Index was derived from 2010 US Census data. ArcMap 10.6 was used to geocode ECE locations, which were within an Activity Desert if no parks/playgrounds were located within a 1-mile radius or if Walkability Index was 10.5 or below. Classroom PA practices were determined by using the Nutrition and PA Self-Assessment tool (NAP SACC). Barriers to implementing practices were reported. Most Head Starts (n = 41, 80.3%), center-based childcare settings (CBC, n = 135, 87.0%), and family childcare homes (FCCHs, n = 153, 96.4%) were in an Activity Desert. Parks/playgrounds within a 10-mile buffer were correlated with classroom PA practices in FCCHs only (p &lt, 0.001). Activity Desert status was not related to classroom PA practices for any ECE context (p &gt, 0.029). While FCCHs may be the most vulnerable to lack of park and playground access, overall findings suggest ECEs provide a healthful micro-environment protective of the typical influence of community-built environments.

Background Early Childhood Education (ECEs) directors and teachers experience substantial barriers to implementing childhood nutrition recommendations. Diet in older children is influenced by nutrition environments surrounding homes and schools; influence of the community environment on ECEs is not understood. Objective Determine associations between community nutrition environments and ECE barriers to classroom nutrition practices, by ECE context [Head Starts, community-based childcare (CBCs), and family child care homes (FCCHs)]. Study Design, Setting, Participants Cross-sectional study including licensed Oklahoma ECEs. Locations of 457 grocery stores were determined in-person. Locations of participating ECEs and grocery stores were geocoded and analyzed using ArcMap 10.6. Measurable Outcome/Analysis ECEs were considered located within a “Food Desert” if no grocery stores were available within a 0.25-mile radius for urban ECEs, or 10-mile radius for rural ECEs. Presence of barriers to serving healthier foods and beverages were reported. Fisher's exact test was used to compare differences in barriers among those within Food Deserts versus Non-Deserts. Benjamini Hochberg calculations for False Discovery Rate were applied (α Results Fifty-four Head Starts, 159 CBCs, and 160 FCCHs participated with 24%, 27% and 37%- respectively- being located within a Food Desert. ECE descriptive characteristics including food purchasing and meal planning strategies varied by ECE context. Among Head Starts and CBCs, barriers were not different by Food Desert status (P > 0.0004). In FCCHs only, those located within Food Deserts reported a 20% higher prevalence of concern for food waste compared to those within Non-Deserts (P Conclusion Food Desert status was related to reported barriers in FCCHs only; therefore, those provider's experiences and perceptions may be most susceptible to influence of the community nutrition environment, compared to other ECE contexts. Findings suggest a need for future research and policy implementation to support FCCHs residing in low-access areas and experiencing difficulty implementing classroom health practices. Funding Early Care and Research Scholars: Head Start Graduate Student Research Grant (HHS2017-ACF-OPRE-YR-1219), OUHSC College of Allied Health Student Research and Creativity Grant, and Department of Nutritional Sciences.

The Nonword Repetition Task (NRT) is considered to be a less-biased language measure for children from cultural minority groups. In the current study, we examined NRT performance of 50 at-risk, preschool-age children who spoke African American English (AAE). In addition to the NRT, measures included AAE dialect density and several standardised language tests. The primary aim was to determine significant contributors to NRT performance. We hypothesised that the language measures would significantly contribute to NRT performance while dialect density would be an insignificant contributor. Contrary to our predictions, dialect density was a unique and significant predictor of NRT performance (in addition to phonological awareness), while the language measures were not significant predictors. The current findings cast doubt on categorising the NRT as a less-biased language assessment for AAE-speaking preschoolers; however, the NRT may have potential as a screener for identifying preschoolers at risk for delays in literacy acquisition.

Purpose To examine the role of linguistic input in how young, typically developing children use the 3rd person singular – s (3S) inflection. Method Novel verbs were presented to 16 young children in either 3S contexts (e.g., “The tiger heens”) or nonfinite (NF) contexts (e.g., “Will the tiger heen?”). The input was further manipulated for length such that half of the presentations in each context had adjectives modifying the subject. Children were then prompted to use the novel verbs in contexts requiring 3S and in contexts requiring an infinitive form. The children’s use of 3S with familiar verbs was also examined. Results Novel verbs heard only in 3S contexts were more likely to be produced with 3S in obligatory contexts and were more likely to be inappropriately applied to infinitive contexts than novel verbs heard only in NF contexts. Degree of 3S use in obligatory contexts was lower for familiar verbs than for novel verbs heard only in 3S contexts but higher than for novel verbs heard only in NF contexts. Length was not a significant factor. Conclusion Linguistic input appears to have a strong effect on how young children use the 3S inflection in newly encountered verbs.

Purpose Information-processing limitations have been associated with language problems in children with specific language impairment (SLI). These processing limitations may be associated with limitations in attentional capacity, even in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits. In this study, the authors examined the performance of 4- to 6-year-old children with SLI and their typically developing (TD) peers on a visual sustained attention task. It was predicted that the children with SLI would demonstrate lower levels of performance in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits. Method A visual continuous performance task (CPT) was used to assess sustained attention in 13 children with SLI ( M = 62.07 months) and 13 TD age-matched controls ( M = 62.92 months). All children were screened for normal vision, hearing, and attention. Accuracy ( d' ) and response time were analyzed to see if this sustained attention task could differentiate between the 2 groups. Results The children with SLI were significantly less accurate but not significantly slower than the TD children on this test of visual sustained attention. Conclusion Children with SLI may have reduced capacity for sustained attention in the absence of clinically significant attention deficits that, over time, could contribute to language learning difficulties.

Sixteen-year-olds with specific language impairment (SLI), nonspecific language impairment (NLI), and those showing typical language development (TD) responded to target words in sentences that were either grammatical or contained a grammatical error immediately before the target word. The TD participants showed the expected slower response times (RTs) when errors preceded the target word, regardless of error type. The SLI and NLI groups also showed the expected slowing, except when the error type involved the omission of a tense/agreement inflection. This response pattern mirrored an early developmental period of alternating between using and omitting tense/agreement inflections that is characteristic of SLI and NLI. The findings could not be readily attributed to factors such as insensitivity to omissions in general or insensitivity to the particular phonetic forms used to mark tense/agreement. The observed response pattern may represent continued difficulty with tense/agreement morphology that persists in subtle form into adolescence.

Existing evidence suggests that young children with specific language impairment have unusual difficulty in detecting omissions of obligatory tense-marking morphemes, but little is known about adolescents' sensitivity to such violations.The study investigated whether limitations in receptive morphosyntax (as measured by grammaticality judgements) were present at age 16 years, and, if so, whether participants' profiles showed less sensitivity to omissions of tense and agreement morphemes than to (1) inappropriate uses (intrusions) of these same morphemes, and (2) omissions of morphemes that do not encode tense and agreement. The study also compared adolescents with language impairment and non-verbal IQ more than 1 standard deviation (SD) below the mean (nonspecific language impairment) to adolescents with specific language impairment.Adolescents with specific language impairment (n = 48), adolescents with non-specific language impairment (n = 25), and adolescents with normal language development (n = 108) performed speeded grammaticality judgements of sentences presented over headphones. Half the sentences were ungrammatical. They included omissions of non-tense morphemes (-ing and possessive -s), omissions of tense morphemes (-ed and third-person singular present -s), and intrusions of the same tense morphemes. The A' statistic was used as the dependent variable for comparisons across groups and item types.Overall, the normal language development group was more sensitive to grammatical violations than the specific language impairment and non-specific language impairment groups, and there was no significant interaction of group and item type. Post-hoc analyses showed that the specific language impairment group was less sensitive to violations than the normal language development group on each item type, and the specific language impairment and non-specific language impairment groups did not differ. Across groups, performance on omission of past tense -ed was lowest, and properties of the items that may have contributed to this difference were explored.The adolescents with language impairment in this study showed evidence of reduced sensitivity to morphological errors, including both tense-marking and non-tense-marking morphemes, but no evidence of any extraordinary difficulty in detecting the omission of tense-marking morphemes, in contrast to results from other research on younger children with specific language impairment. Participants whose non-verbal IQ score was too low to meet the criteria for specific language impairment performed similarly to their peers with specific language impairment. Grammatical competence is compromised in these adolescents with specific language impairment and non-specific language impairment. Neither researchers nor clinicians can assume that adolescents with language impairment have fully mastered grammatical morphology.

Purpose Many typically developing children first use inflections such as – ed with verb predicates whose meanings are compatible with the functions of the inflection (e.g., using – ed when describing events of brief duration with clear end points, such as dropped ). This tendency is assumed to be beneficial for development. In this study, the authors examine whether preschool-aged children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a similar tendency. Method Sixteen children in each of three groups participated—children with SLI, typically developing children matched for age (TD–A), and younger typically developing children matched for mean length of utterance (TD–MLU). The children described actions in contexts that promoted either past tense – ed or progressive aspect – ing in past contexts. Half of the verb predicates referred to events of brief duration with distinct endpoints (e.g., drop ), and half referred to events of considerable duration with less distinct points of termination (e.g., play ). Results Both the TD–A children and the TD–MLU children used – ed with verb predicates of the first type more consistently than they did with verb predicates of the second type. They showed the reverse pattern for – ing . The children with SLI did not show any effects according to the verb predicate type. However, although the children with SLI made less overall use of – ed than did both groups of TD children, they differed only from the TD–A children in their overall use of – ing . Conclusion Difficulties with tense-related morphology may be compounded in children with SLI if they fail to make use of associations between the lexical aspect of verb predicates and the grammatical function of the accompanying inflections. The authors argue that the advantages of using these associations as a starting point in acquisition may be especially important in the case of – ed . Additional studies of children with SLI are clearly needed, including those that employ longitudinal, naturalistic data.

Many school-age children with specific language impairment produce sentences that appear to conform to the adult grammar. It may be premature to conclude from this, however, that their language formulation ability is age appropriate.To determine whether a more subtle measure of language use, speech disruptions during sentence formulation, might serve to distinguish children with specific language impairment from their typically developing peers at an age when grammatical accuracy was high. We analysed the rate of speech disruptions in simple sentence production in school-age children with specific language impairment and typically developing age-matched peers. We predicted that: (1) the specific language impairment group would exhibit more speech disruptions than the typically developing group as a result of reduced language proficiency even when grammatical accuracy was high; and (2) the specific language impairment group would demonstrate greater reductions in disruption frequency as compared with the typically developing group when given sentences that model the target syntactic structures.Twenty-eight children (17 specific language impairment, 11 typically developing, mean = 8;10 years) with no history of stuttering were presented with a series of picture pairs. The examiner described the first picture using a simple sentence and asked the child to repeat the sentence; the child then described the second picture. There were two priming conditions: Matching Syntax condition (paired pictures requiring different syntactic structures) and Different Syntax condition (paired pictures requiring different syntax structures). All testing was audio-recorded and speech disruptions (repetitions, revisions, fillers, long silent pauses) were transcribed and tabulated for each target response. The data were analysed by analysis of variance (ANOVA).The specific language impairment group demonstrated a significantly greater number of speech disruptions when compared with the typically developing group. There was no effect for priming.School-age children with specific language impairment appear to have difficulty with sentence formulation when compared with typically developing peers even when grammatical accuracy is high. We concluded that school-age children with specific language impairment may demonstrate subtle but persistent language formulation difficulties.