Date of Award

6-1988

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Educational Leadership

Abstract

The effects of daytime caretaking settings and the nature and number of activities in those settings on school readiness and receptive language levels of 4-year-old children were investigated. Daytime caretaking settings, defined as the setting experienced by the 4-year-old the year prior to entering kindergarten, were determined through interviews administered to the parent/guardian of each of the 185 4-year-old participants. School readiness and receptive language levels of the 4-year-old participants were determined by individual administration of the Gesell School Readiness Screening Test (GSRST) and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) respectively. The settings were categorized as group educational, such as preschool or nursery school; group non-educational, such as day care or neighborhood care; parent-based, such as care provided by a parent; and non-parent based, such as care provided by a non-relative in child's own home. Two levels of activities, to which the children were exposed in their caretaking settings were determined using a median split of parent/guardian responses in that portion of the interview. Through analysis of variance, results indicated that 4-year-olds placed in a group educational setting scored higher on the PPVT-R than did 4-year-olds who were placed in a non-parent based setting. These findings suggest that 4-year-olds whose daytime care setting consists of a nursery or preschool environment will demonstrate a higher level of receptive language than 4-year-olds placed into non-parent based settings. Such findings are congruent with literature stating that group educational settings promote language development in preschool children.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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