Children's strategic memory development: The delayed role of kindergarten teachers' instructional language

During elementary school, children demonstrate significant growth in an array of cognitive skills, including their ability to use deliberate strategies for remembering. Despite a rich literature documenting age-related changes in these skills (Schneider & Ornstein, 2019), much remains to be learned about contextual factors that support the development of strategic memory. Data from a longitudinal investigation were used to examine the role of kindergarten teachers' instructional language in the growth of children's abilities related to the use of meaning-based sorting in the service of memory goals. A sample of 76 kindergarteners from 10 classrooms was followed across 2 school years. Kindergarten teachers were observed for their use of cognitive processing language (CPL; Ornstein & Coffman, 2020) while they taught mathematics and language arts lessons. CPL is thought to help children process information deeply, reflect on their own cognition, and acquire strategies for remembering. The participating teachers were characterized as being higher or lower in the use of CPL, and multilevel models were used to examine children's growth in sorting across kindergarten and first grade. Despite similar baseline performance, children exposed to higher levels of CPL engaged in more strategic sorting at the end of first grade than peers exposed to less CPL in kindergarten. Moreover, children in high-CPL classrooms demonstrated faster rates of change in sorting than children in low-CPL classrooms, controlling for working memory skills and parental education. These findings highlight links between the instructional language to which children are exposed in kindergarten and their growth in organizational sorting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).