The Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and English Proficiency at School Entry for Bilingual Children in Australia<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\nMeredith O\u2019Connor1,2<\/sup>, Elodie J. O\u2019Connor1<\/sup>, Amanda Kvalsvig1<\/sup> and Sharon Goldfeld1,2<\/sup>1<\/sup>. Royal Children\u2019s Hospital, Victoria, Australia2<\/sup>. University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia NZ Research in ECE Journal, Special Issue: Early Childhood Policy,<\/em>Vol. 17, 2014, pp. 161 – 181.<\/p>\n\n\n\nKey words:<\/strong> Transition to school; bilingual; Australian Early Development Index (AEDI); school entry, ECE participation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nAbstract:<\/strong> Children from diverse language backgrounds who enter school with limited proficiency in English may face additional challenges in negotiating this new context. Hence, it is important to consider what antecedent factors might promote English proficiency at school entry. Engagement with early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes may be one such factor. Drawing on population-level data from the teacher-rated Australian Early Development Index (n=261,147), this study aims to explore the relationship between ECEC (including pre-school, day-care, and other informal non-parental care) and English proficiency at school entry for Australian children from bilingual backgrounds. The findings reveal that attendance at pre-school (OR=1.53, 95% CI=1.37-1.70) was associated with increased odds of being proficient in English at school entry for bilingual children, whereas attending day-care without a pre-school programme (OR=0.78, 95% CI=0.68-0.89), more informal non-parental care (OR=0.72, 95% CI=0.65-0.80), or parental care only (OR=0.59, 95% CI=0.52-0.67) was associated with decreased odds of proficiency in English at school entry. These findings suggest that engagement with pre-school programmes prior to school entry may well present a plausible and modifiable approach to improving English proficiency at school entry for bilingual children, with important implications for policy and programmes that aim to reduce inequality in skills at school entry.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n <\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The titles, authors and abstracts for\u00a0papers published in the\u00a0NZRECE Journal, Special Issue: Early Childhood Policy,\u00a0Volume 17, 2014, are shown below.\u00a0\u00a0To read any article a member login is needed – join us if you are not already a member.\u00a0 Many libraries subscribe to the journal so you may be able to view articles through your library’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Contents - NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2014, Vol 17 - The Office of ECE<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n