Working adults' future occupational plans: the contribution of role characteristics, social support, and occupational self-efficacy.

School counselors' occupational plans were investigated in terms of the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy including three antecedents (role clarity, role autonomy, social support) on three outcomes (life satisfaction, job satisfaction, occupational plans) among 483 female Israeli school counselors, aged 26-69. High levels of the three antecedents were associated with high levels of occupational self-efficacy, which in turn was associated with high levels of life and job satisfaction and with counselors' plans to remain in their profession. The antecedents also demonstrated direct effects with job satisfaction. This emphasizes the importance of occupational self-efficacy in counselor retention and its antecedents.

Projets professionnels futurs des conseillères scolaires: La contribution des caractéristiques du rôle, du soutien social et de l'auto-efficacité professionnelle Les projets professionnels des conseillères scolaires ont été étudiés en termes de rôle médiateur de l'auto-efficacité professionnelle, comprenant trois antécédents (clarté du rôle, autonomie de rôle, soutien social) sur trois résultats (satisfaction de vie, satisfaction professionnelle, projets professionnels) parmi 483 conseillères scolaires israéliennes âgées de 26 à 69 ans. Des niveaux élevés des trois antécédents ont été associés à des niveaux élevés d'auto-efficacité professionnelle, qui à leur tour ont été associés à des niveaux élevés de satisfaction dans la vie et au travail et aux projets des conseillères de rester dans leur profession. Les antécédents ont également montré des effets directs sur la satisfaction au travail. Cela souligne l'importance de l'auto-efficacité professionnelle dans la rétention des conseillères et de ses antécédents.

Planes ocupacionales de futuro en las orientadoras escolares: la contribución de las características del rol, del apoyo social y de la autoeficacia ocupacional Los planes ocupacionales de las orientadoras escolares fueron investigados en términos del rol de mediador de la autoeficacia ocupacional, incluyendo tres antecedentes (transparencia de roles, autonomía de roles, apoyo social) sobre tres consecuencias (satisfacción en la vida, satisfacción en el trabajo, planes ocupacionales) entre 483 orientadoras escolares israelíes, de 26 a 69 años. Los altos niveles de los tres antecedentes se asociaron con altos niveles de autoeficacia ocupacional, lo que a su vez se asoció con altos niveles de satisfacción en la vida y en el trabajo y con los planes de las orientadoras para permanecer en su profesión. Los antecedentes también demostraron efectos directos con la satisfacción laboral. Esto enfatiza la importancia de la autoeficacia ocupacional en la permanencia de las orientadoras y sus antecedentes.

Parental Writing Support and Preschoolers' Early Literacy, Language, and Fine Motor Skills.

The current study examines the nature and variability of parents' aid to preschoolers in the context of a shared writing task, as well as the relations between this support and children's literacy, vocabulary, and fine motor skills. In total, 135 preschool children (72 girls) and their parents (primarily mothers) in an ethnically diverse, middle-income community were observed while writing a semi-structured invitation for a pretend birthday party together. Children's phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, word decoding, vocabulary, and fine motor skills were also assessed. Results revealed that parents provided variable, but generally low-level, support for children's approximation of sound-symbol correspondence in their writing (i.e., graphophonemic support), as well as for their production of letter forms (i.e., print support). Parents frequently accepted errors rather than asking for corrections (i.e., demand for precision). Further analysis of the parent-child dyads (n = 103) who wrote the child's name on the invitation showed that parents provided higher graphophonemic, but not print, support when writing the child's name than other words. Overall parental graphophonemic support was positively linked to children's decoding and fine motor skills, whereas print support and demand for precision were not related to any of the child outcomes. In sum, this study indicates that while parental support for preschoolers' writing may be minimal, it is uniquely linked to key literacy-related outcomes in preschool.

Longitudinal Relations Between Parental Writing Support and Preschoolers' Language and Literacy Skills.

Parental writing support was examined over time and in relation to children's language and literacy skills. Seventy-seven parents and their preschoolers were videotaped writing an invitation together twice during one year. Parental writing support was coded at the level of the letter to document parents' graphophonemic support (letter-sound correspondence), print support (letter formation), and demand for precision (expectation for correcting writing errors). Parents primarily relied on only a couple print (i.e., parent writing the letter alone) and graphophonemic (i.e., saying the word as a whole, dictating letters as children write) strategies. Graphophonemic and print support in preschool predicted children's decoding skills, and graphophonemic support also predicted children's future phonological awareness. Neither type of support predicted children's vocabulary scores. Demand for precision occurred infrequently and was unrelated to children's outcomes. Findings demonstrate the importance of parental writing support for augmenting children's literacy skills.

Visual spatial skill: a consequence of learning to read?

Does learning to read influence one's visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers scored significantly higher on the visual task than did less good readers. In Study 2, we followed 215 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners across 1year, with word reading and visual skills tested twice. In this study, word reading at Time 1 by itself predicted 13% of unique variance in visual skill at Time 2. Together, these results underscore the potential importance of the process of learning to read for shaping one's visual spatial skill development.

Small wins big: analytic pinyin skills promote Chinese word reading.

The present study examined invented spelling of pinyin (a phonological coding system for teaching and learning Chinese words) in relation to subsequent Chinese reading development. Among 296 Chinese kindergartners in Beijing, independent invented pinyin spelling was found to be uniquely predictive of Chinese word reading 12 months later, even with Time 1 syllable deletion, phoneme deletion, and letter knowledge, in addition to the autoregressive effects of Time 1 Chinese word reading, statistically controlled. These results underscore the importance of children's early pinyin representations for Chinese reading acquisition, both theoretically and practically. The findings further support the idea of a universal phonological principle and indicate that pinyin is potentially an ideal measure of phonological awareness in Chinese.

Contributions of mother-child storybook telling and joint writing to literacy development in kindergartners with hearing loss.

PURPOSE: This study investigated mother-child storybook telling and joint writing as predictors of early literacy among kindergartners with hearing loss. METHOD: Participants were 30 Israeli kindergartners with hearing loss and their mothers. Early literacy assessments tapped children's alphabetic skills (e.g., word writing, word recognition, and letter knowledge) and linguistic skills (e.g., phonological awareness, general knowledge, and receptive vocabulary). Each mother told her child the story of a wordless book and helped her child write words. Both interactions were videotaped and analyzed. RESULTS: Our major findings showed that maternal storybook telling correlated with linguistic skills, and maternal writing mediation correlated with basic alphabetic skills. A series of 3-step hierarchical regression analyses revealed that beyond children's age, children's degree of hearing loss, and joint writing, storybook telling predicted children's phonological awareness (22%), general knowledge (28%), and receptive vocabulary (18%). Beyond children's age, children's degree of hearing loss, and storybook telling, joint writing predicted word writing (15%), word recognition (31%), and letter knowledge (36%). IMPLICATIONS: Recommendations focused on encouraging parent and teacher awareness about the differential contributions of storybook telling and writing mediation to early literacy. We also advocated enhancing parents' skills for promoting children's literacy.