Browsing by Subject "taaperoikäinen"

Objectives. In this study I aimed to investigate toddlers cognitive and language development and to find out the changes in these areas during a child's first first year in kindergarden. Previous studies are showing that children's development benefits from a high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC). The strongest effect of the high quality ECEC seems to be on children that come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The results also show that poor quality ECEC can sometimes lead to negative effects in a child's development. This research aimes to find out if boys and girls differ in their cognitive and language development during the first year in kindergarden and what kind of changes happen in cognitive and language development at this time? Methods. This research is a part of the Helsinki University study ("Lasso-projekti"), which concerns children's stress regulation, learning and the quality of ECEC. The first measurements were done in autumn when children enter kindergarden before two years of age. The measurements were repeated the following spring. This study participants were 202 children. The sex was known of 182 children. Cognitive and language abilities were assessed using Bayley III and statistical analyses were made using SPSS IMB 22 software. Results and conclusions. When entering the kindergarden boys and girls seem to differ in cognitive and language abilities favouring the girls. During the spring however the development evens. Only in understanding language girls seem to overcome the boys.The main result from the study suggest that during the first year in kindergarden the performances of the poor ones get better but the excellent drop.