Earlier findings in Switzerland suggested that greater exposure to non-family childcare was linked to more problem behaviors when children entered first grade in 2004. Since then, major efforts were made to strengthen the quality of early education and care, and research attention has shifted from risks to resources. This study investigates associations between the amount of childcare before kindergarten and children’s social-emotional skills, considering a possible moderation by childcare quality. Participants are two cohorts of 1,481 children entering kindergarten in 2024 and 2025. Children’s cooperative skills, assertiveness, sociability, self-control, persistence and emotion-regulation were assessed in direct assessments using BASES, where children’s skills are evaluated based on their performance in standardized tasks in small groups of classmates. Parents reported hours and days per week in daycare, playgroup and family daycare across early age periods (months 3-18; 19-36; 37 to kindergarten entry). We observed the quality of caregiver-child interactions in 134 childcare- and playgroups using CLASS to examine its moderating role in a subsample of participants. Assessments in kindergartens are completed; ratings of children’s social-emotional skills and the parent survey are currently conducted. Data will be available by the time of the conference. The results will shed light on the contribution of non-family childcare in fostering children’s social-emotional skills and the importance of quality development in Swiss childcare provision. Beyond the field of education, the study provides insights for economics, policy, and public health, where childcare is central to labor participation, equity, and long-term well-being.

Early mathematical competencies are strong predictors of later academic achievement (Nguyen et al., 2016). In addition to the well-established predictive value of symbolic numerical competencies, the contribution of spontaneous mathematical focusing tendencies, particularly Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON), is of growing interest. Previous research suggests that SFON performance predicts later mathematical skills (Batchelor et al., 2015; Hannula & Lehtinen, 2005).

SFON is typically assessed through action-based tasks (imitate an action Hannula & Lehtinen, 2005) or picture-based tasks (describe a picture; Batchelor et al., 2015). Studies indicate weak correlations between these task types, suggesting that they are measuring different cognitive aspects. To shed new light on the relationship between SFON tasks and students' cognitive characteristics, this study addresses the following research questions:

(1) Which SFON profiles can be identified among children in their first year of kindergarten?

(2) How are these profiles associated with numerical competencies?

Sample: 598 children (48% female; M = 5 years) from 135 kindergarten classes.

Measures:

• SFON: Picture-based task (α = .86); action-based task (α = .63).

• Numerical competencies (21 items): number decomposition, addition, symbolic magnitude comparison (α = .87).

• Controls: Gender, age, family language, verbal counting, object counting.

Preliminary results: Latent Profile Analysis revealed five profiles (Low-SFON, High-SFON, Action-Oriented SFON, Verbal-Oriented SFON, Extreme low Action-Oriented SFON). Pairwise comparisons controlling for covariates showed that children in the High-SFON and Action-Oriented SFON groups scored significantly higher in numerical competencies than those in the Low-SFON group (p < .01).

Further findings and implications will be presented in the symposium.

References:

Batchelor, S., Inglis, M., & Gilmore, C. (2015). Spontaneous focusing on numerosity and the arithmetic advantage. Learning and Instruction, 40, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.09.005

Hannula, M., & Lehtinen, E. (2005). Spontaneous focusing on numerosity and mathematical skills of young children. Learning and Instruction, 15(3), 237–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2005.04.005

Nguyen, T., Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., Clements, D. H., Sarama, J. S., Wolfe, C., & Spitler, M. E. (2016). Which preschool mathematics competencies are most predictive of fifth grade achievement? Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 550–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.02.003

Language and literacy skills are critical for later academic success. Early identification of children at risk for language or reading difficulties is crucial to provide timely and effective support. Standardized pre-literacy tests, however, are often based on a specific language and may disadvantage second language (L2) learners. This raises the question of whether such tests assess true literacy potential or whether they are confounded by proficiency levels in the tested language. We investigate whether language-neutral tasks are better at capturing literacy potential in L2 children, and how the number of languages spoken at home might influence pre-literacy skills. We compared performance of native German (L1) speakers to L2 learners on a) standard German-language assessments, and b) language-neutral adaptations in 400-600 children attending year two of kindergarten. We focus on early literacy precursors such as phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and rapid automatized naming (RAN), with language-neutral versions constituted of pseudowords and cognate words to reduce lexical knowledge demands. Preliminary analyses showed that L1 children scored significantly higher on the German RAN than L2 children (p = .019), whereas no significant difference was found (p = .262) in the language-neutral version. Planned clustering analyses incorporate language background, socioeconomic status, early childcare factors, and executive functions. Further analyses will also consider a more fine-grained characterization of children’s language background based on the number of languages spoken by the children. Ultimately, this work aims to contribute to fairer and more accurate pre-literacy assessments that better reflect the abilities of children from diverse language backgrounds.