ABSTRACT

It is well documented that early social skills and inattention are linked to the development of children’s emergent vocabulary skills; however, the existing literature primarily focuses on White, non-Latinx and/or African American children. Few studies have examined the relationships between these domains with Latinx dual language learners (DLLs) in preschool. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by examining the association between social skills, inattention, and emergent English vocabulary skills in this understudied population. A secondary analysis of an existing data set investigating the effects of a shared book reading intervention on 274 preschool Latinx DLLs was used. Multilevel analyses indicated that children with higher English receptive vocabulary skills at the beginning of preschool had higher overall social skills and fewer inattention problems midway through preschool. Results also showed that children with higher overall mid-year social skills had higher expressive vocabulary skills at the end of preschool, and children with fewer mid-year inattention problems had higher receptive and expressive vocabulary skills at the end of preschool. These findings suggest that targeting emergent English vocabulary, social skills, and inattentive behaviors is important for academic and social development among preschool Latinx DLLs.

摘要

有充分的证据表明，早期社交技能和注意力不集中与儿童新兴词汇技能的发展有关；然而，现有文献主要关注白人、非拉丁裔和/或非裔美国儿童。很少有研究检查这些领域与学龄前拉丁双语学习者 (DLL) 之间的关系。本研究的目的是通过检查这个未被充分研究的人群中社交技能、注意力不集中和新兴英语词汇技能之间的关系来填补这一空白。使用了对现有数据集的二次分析，该数据集调查了共享书籍阅读干预对 274 个学龄前拉丁裔 DLL 的影响。多层次分析表明，学龄前英语词汇接受能力较高的儿童在学前中期具有较高的整体社交技能和较少的注意力不集中问题。结果还表明，总体年中社交技能较高的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的表达词汇技能，而年中注意力不集中问题较少的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的接受和表达词汇技能。这些研究结果表明，针对新出现的英语词汇、社交技能和注意力不集中的行为对于学龄前拉丁裔 DLL 的学术和社会发展非常重要。结果还表明，总体年中社交技能较高的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的表达词汇技能，而年中注意力不集中问题较少的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的接受和表达词汇技能。这些研究结果表明，针对新出现的英语词汇、社交技能和注意力不集中的行为对于学龄前拉丁裔 DLL 的学术和社会发展非常重要。结果还表明，总体年中社交技能较高的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的表达词汇技能，而年中注意力不集中问题较少的儿童在学龄前结束时具有较高的接受和表达词汇技能。这些研究结果表明，针对新出现的英语词汇、社交技能和注意力不集中的行为对于学龄前拉丁裔 DLL 的学术和社会发展非常重要。