Early childhood education effect on children’s vocabulary^♦

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of an Early Childhood Education program on children’s vocabulary. Using 2016 data from Petrolina, we compare children attending school to children not enrolled at the time of data collection. To account for selection bias, information from a parents’ assessment is used to create control variables associated with characteristics usually not observed by the researcher that are potentially correlated with children’s enrollment status and child development. Results show positive and statistically significant impacts on expressive vocabulary. There is also evidence that the program is more effective for children with lower reading exposure at home.

Keywords:
Early childhood education; Expressive vocabulary; Receptive vocabulary; Child development

Variables	Intervention		Control		p-value
	Mean	s.d.	Mean	s.d.
Age (in months)	48.6	2.9	48.4	3.4	0.664
Boys (proportion)	0.470		0.518		0.537
Rural area (proportion)	0.229		0.229		1.000
Person assessed: mother (proportion)	0.783		0.855		0.229
Socioeconomic status	0.116	0.737	-0.118	0.736	0.042
Read ... to the child (proportion)
Neither books nor comics	0.193		0.241		0.454
Books or comics	0.373		0.422		0.529
Books and comics	0.434		0.337		0.204
Physical punishment
Never	0.398		0.361		0.634
Rarely or sometimes	0.325		0.217		0.117
Often, almost always, always	0.277		0.422		0.051
Parents’ involvement	-0.081	0.754	0.110	0.904	0.140
Parents’ responsiveness	-0.112	0.768	0.153	0.829	0.034
Parents’ efficacy	0.117	0.882	-0.131	0.872	0.071
Mother’s depression	0.140	0.852	-0.081	0.831	0.092
Household environment	0.271	0.855	-0.231	0.902	0.000
Receptive vocabulary (raw score)	11.07	5.83	8.27	7.06	0.006
Expressive vocabulary (raw score)	13.32	7.34	13.24	9.15	0.951
Observations	166		166

	Expressive Vocabulary		Receptive Vocabulary
	Full sample	Waiting list	Full sample	Waiting list
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
OLS no controls	0.432***	0.318	0.010	-0.094
	(0.155)	(0.252)	(0.158)	(0.243)
OLS with controls	0.379***	0.202	-0.070	-0.323
	(0.146)	(0.242)	(0.171)	(0.232)
IPW	0.407***	0.203	-0.112	-0.358*
	(0.142)	(0.216)	(0.166)	(0.200)
PS Matching	0.202*	0.113	-0.067	-0.339
	(0.119)	(0.301)	(0.171)	(0.269)
NN Matching	0.402***	0.241	-0.131	-0.219
	(0.148)	(0.282)	(0.184)	(0.238)
Observations	166	60	164	59

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
	10^th	25^th	Median	75^th	90^th

Expressive Voc.	0.471***	0.658***	0.535**	0.478**	0.314
	(0.123)	(0.119)	(0.206)	(0.224)	(0.303)
Observations	166	166	166	166	166

Receptive Voc.	-0.014	-0.016	0.043	0.003	-0.222
	(0.100)	(0.112)	(0.144)	(0.291)	(0.530)
Observations	164	164	164	164	164

	Coef. (s.e.)		Coef. (s.e.)

Age	0.023	Read books or comics	-0.826**
	(0.040)		(0.343)
Boy	0.165	Read book and comics	-0.718*
	(0.291)		(0.390)
SES	-0.213	Parental involvement	0.242
	(0.190)		(0.157)
Rural	-0.304	Parental responsiveness	-0.160
	(0.343)		(0.177)
Household environment	0.053	Punishment: sometimes	-0.221
	(0.183)		(0.369)
Parental efficacy	0.038	Punishment: often	0.077
	(0.189)		(0.330)

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
	Full sample				Waiting list
	Expressive		Receptive		Expressive		Receptive

Treated	0.432***	0.397***	0.010	-0.047	0.318	0.265	-0.094	-0.229
	(0.155)	(0.144)	(0.158)	(0.170)	(0.252)	(0.247)	(0.243)	(0.235)
Age		0.101***		0.084***		0.107**		0.086**
		(0.022)		(0.019)		(0.040)		(0.032)
Male		0.093		0.073		-0.031		-0.264
		(0.144)		(0.158)		(0.309)		(0.244)
SES		0.309***		0.244**		0.108		0.108
		(0.087)		(0.108)		(0.148)		(0.184)
Rural		-0.152		-0.032		-0.289		-0.282
		(0.189)		(0.173)		(0.282)		(0.306)
Mother assessed		0.128		0.110		0.434		0.555*
		(0.162)		(0.175)		(0.372)		(0.323)
Parent involvement		-0.120		-0.125		-0.161		0.004
		(0.092)		(0.092)		(0.215)		(0.167)
Parent responsiveness		-0.093		-0.070		0.124		-0.063
		(0.094)		(0.102)		(0.226)		(0.175)
Home environment		-0.080		-0.163		-0.243		-0.298
		(0.112)		(0.099)		(0.186)		(0.183)
Parent efficacy		-0.352***		-0.145		-0.064		-0.065
		(0.114)		(0.101)		(0.227)		(0.179)
Mother depression		0.025		0.096		0.160		0.254*
		(0.096)		(0.080)		(0.151)		(0.135)
Read books or comics		0.044		-0.067		0.093		0.034
		(0.186)		(0.242)		(0.603)		(0.448)
Read books and comics		-0.014		-0.064		-0.370		-0.491
		(0.205)		(0.239)		(0.626)		(0.448)
Punishment: sometimes		-0.074		0.050		0.040		0.176
		(0.181)		(0.220)		(0.308)		(0.312)
Punishment: often		-0.402**		-0.430***		-0.353		-0.152
		(0.162)		(0.154)		(0.311)		(0.249)
Constant	-0.212*	-4.881***	-0.007	-3.817***	-0.089	-4.975***	0.159	-3.665**
	(0.119)	(1.046)	(0.122)	(0.937)	(0.176)	(1.736)	(0.168)	(1.504)

Observations	166	166	164	164	60	60	59	59
R-squared	0.045	0.351	0.000	0.207	0.027	0.418	0.003	0.387

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Departamento de Economia; Faculdade de Economia, Administração, Contabilidade e Atuária da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA-USP) Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 908 - FEA 01 - Cid. Universitária, CEP: 05508-010, Tel.: (55 11) 3091-5803/5947 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: estudoseconomicos@usp.br

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[TFN1] Standard errors in parentheses. *** 1% significant. ** 5% significant. * 10% significant. Full sample includes all children with complete information. Waiting list sample includes children from waiting lists in the control groups and children enrolled in schools with waiting lists in the intervention group.

Early childhood education effect on children’s vocabulary♦

Abstract

Early childhood education effect on children’s vocabulary^♦