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. 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. 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.

中文翻译：

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一项随机对照试验，旨在检验两种教学方法对学龄前儿童的语言和沟通、执行功能、社会情感理解和早期数学技能的影响

在学龄前阶段，儿童的语言和沟通、执行功能和社会情感理解等技能的发展经历了巨大的发展。尽管如此，我们对如何增强这些技能的了解仍然有限。学前教育环境是研究这些技能的一个非常合适的场所，并有可能为孩子们提供平等的机会，为未来的学年做准备。本研究比较了瑞典学前教育背景下的两种教学方法对语言和沟通、执行功能、社会情感理解和早期数学的影响。该研究针对年龄跨度为四到六岁的儿童，并额外关注这些儿童的社会经济地位、年龄、性别、语言数量、学前教育时间和学前教育开始等方面的背景。该研究的另一个目标是通过理清所调查变量之间的关系来补充先前的研究。该研究是一项随机对照试验，包括 18 所幼儿园和 29 个幼儿园单位，共有 431 名儿童和 98 名教师。干预持续了六周，之前对儿童进行了预测试，随后进行了后测试。在学前班水平上进行随机化，分为两种干预措施或对照。干预措施包括社会情感和材料学习范式（SEMLA）以及数字化实施的注意力和数学训练范式（DIL）。使用 ECERS-3 对学前班进行了进一步评估。主要分析是一系列单变量混合回归模型，其中使用随机变量对个人、学前班和学前班的嵌套结构进行建模。干预结果表明，两种干预范式对目标技能都没有可测量的影响。然而，后续问题得到了结果，例如预测所有其他变量（语言和沟通、社会情感理解和数学）的执行功能。背景变量以与早期发现一致的模式相互关联，例如社会经济地位全面预测结果测量。研究结果涉及干预保真度、干预时长、学前教育质量以及背景变量对儿童发展轨迹和生活前景的影响等方面进行了讨论。