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Children’s Attendance Rates and Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions in At-Risk Preschool Classrooms: Contribution to Children’s Expressive Language Growth

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Abstract

The present research examines whether children’s daily attendance rates would be predictive of gains in expressive language within the context of high-quality preschool classrooms. The quality of preschool classrooms was assessed by measuring the quality of the teacher’s interactions with the children in his or her classroom. Hierarchical linear models, nesting children within classroom, were used to examine children’s growth in expressive language in two independent samples (n = 129 children in 14 classrooms; n = 160 children in 46 classrooms). Results showed positive relations between daily attendance and language gains for children enrolled in higher quality preschool classrooms. Findings suggest that at-risk children who are rarely absent from high-quality preschool classrooms show accelerated expressive language growth, thus indicating that preschool attendance is an important factor to consider in future research and policy decisions.

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Acknowledgments

One of the authors (J. Logan) received pre-doctoral training support during the conduct of this research through grant R305B04074 from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to Florida State University and was supported in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant HD038075 to Ohio State University. The findings reported here were supported by funding from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) through Grants R305J030084, R305F050124, and R305G050057. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IES, and mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the United States government. We would like to thank project director Alice Wiggins and the many research assistants who assisted with data collection for this project, and the participating school administrators, teachers, parents, and children.

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Correspondence to Jessica A. R. Logan.

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Logan, J.A.R., Piasta, S.B., Justice, L.M. et al. Children’s Attendance Rates and Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions in At-Risk Preschool Classrooms: Contribution to Children’s Expressive Language Growth. Child Youth Care Forum 40, 457–477 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-011-9142-x

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