Associations of Language-based Bedtime Routines with Early Cognitive Skills and Academic Achievement: a Follow-Up from Kindergarten to Middle School

Hugo Câmara-Costa (1, 2) , Salomé Pulgar (3) , Françoise Cusin (3) , Florence Labrell (4, 5, 6) , Georges Dellatolas (2)

1 LIB - Laboratoire d'Imagerie Biomédicale [Paris]
2 GRC 24 - HaMCRe - Groupe de recherche clinique Handicap Moteur et Cognitif et Réadaptation
3 IA - Inspection académique de Saône-et-Loire
4 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
5 INSHEA - Institut national supérieur de formation et de recherche pour l'éducation des jeunes handicapés et les enseignements adaptés
6 Grhapes - Groupe de recherche sur le handicap, l’accessibilité, les pratiques éducatives et scolaires

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the extent to which language-based bedtime routines (LBR) reported by parents before kindergarten were associated with early cognitive skills at kindergarten and subsequent academic achievement in typically developing children. Method: We followed a community-based sample of 664 French-speaking adolescents from kindergarten (5-6 years) to the end of middle school (15 years). Kindergarten measures included a parental questionnaire aimed at assessing the presence or absence of any kind of LBR, such as storytelling, looking at children's books, reading a story, listening to songs, or singing nursery rhymes, as well as family contextual characteristics. Children also performed standardized assessments of oral language, pre-reading skills, and non-verbal reasoning. In middle school, children sat a national diploma typically used as an indicator of general academic achievement in Grade 9. Results: After adjusting for family characteristics, the presence of language-based bedtime routines (57%) predicted cognitive-academic skills in kindergarten, and was positively associated with academic achievement at Grade 9, related to the beneficial effect on children's vocabulary in kindergarten. Conclusion: The presence of language-based bedtime routines may provide an indicator of positive parental behaviour including exposure to literacy activities, contributing to children's early cognitive development and subsequent academic achievement.

Mots clés: academic achievement; cognitive-academic skills; family characteristics; follow-up study; language-based bedtime routines

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Psychologie

Hugo Câmara-Costa, Salomé Pulgar, Françoise Cusin, Florence Labrell, Georges Dellatolas. Associations of Language-based Bedtime Routines with Early Cognitive Skills and Academic Achievement: a Follow-Up from Kindergarten to Middle School. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 2021, 39 (4), pp.521-539. ⟨10.1111/bjdp.12378⟩. ⟨hal-03222572⟩