This paper argues that play should be central to children's lives throughout early childhood, including their time in school. First, it charts the history of early childhood education in Scotland through four stages: (1) pioneer of kindergarten; (2) early adopter of formal education; (3) promise of a recalibration through Curriculum for…

Resilience, the capacity to cope with stress and adversity, is universally regarded as a positive and valued trait (LeBuffe & Naglieri, 2012). The purpose of this study was to explore the potential for nature preschools to support the development of initiative, self-regulation, and attachment, which are key protective factors that can offset…

Promoting cooperative social behavior is a major task of preschool teachers. Children are taught to be nice, be fair, and share. This mandate, however, runs up against the fact that young children are naturally egotistical and unable to appreciate the perspective of others. This leaves teachers with questions about how strongly they should push…

Social working memory (WM) has distinct neural substrates from canonical cognitive WM (e.g., color). However, no study, to the best of our knowledge, has yet explored how social WM develops. The current study explored the development of social WM capacity and its relation to theory of mind (ToM). Experiment 1 had sixty-four 3- to 6-year-olds…

Effective parenting experiences of individuals during the childhood years within micro-ecological environments are pivotal to cultivating good parenting practices in later adulthood. This study explored the parenting practices based on upbringing and the connections these practices had on children's proclivity to wayward and wandering behaviours.…

This study aims to compare the views of parents living in their own country or abroad on raising bilingual children. At the end of the study, we found that parents from both groups gave similar answers to the questions regarding the definition of bilingualism and the age for starting bilingual education; however, they gave similar but also…

Early individual differences in self-control are predictive of numerous developmental outcomes, such as physical health and risk-taking behaviours. Therefore, it is important to improve our understanding of how young children manage to exert self-control. This study investigates two- and three-year-old children's behaviours during two self-control…

Research in educational and developmental psychology offers evidence that children are developing basic capacities (i.e., executive functions) for self-regulating long before they receive formal instruction in school. Importantly, the evidence indicates self-regulation is a strong predictor of outcomes in early childhood and across the lifespan.…

Social amenities in primary schools play an important role in the provision of quality education. Social amenities include play materials and sanitation facilities. This study aimed at examining the impact of social amenities on academic performance in primary schools in Gichugu Constituency, Kenya. The objectives of this study were to assess the…

Despite research showing that high-quality early education can be extremely beneficial, a large percentage of American children do not attend preschool. In addition, children from low-income families are less likely to enroll in preschool and more likely to attend low-quality early education programs. One reason for this outcome involves low…

A good deal of scholarship on social justice in early childhood education explores antibias curriculum and pedagogy at the classroom level. Antibias education refers to a specific approach to social justice teaching that was first developed by a group of educators in California in the 1980s (DermanSparks & A.B.C. Task Force, 1989). Since then,…

For most children, early childhood education and care (ECEC) provides the first experience of life in a group away from their families. This experience plays a crucial role in children's learning, development and well-being. The benefits of high-quality ECEC are not restricted to children's first years of life. However, little is known about this…

Text-message based parenting programs have proven successful in improving parental engagement and preschoolers' literacy development. The tested programs have provided a combination of (a) general information about important literacy skills, (b) actionable advice (i.e., specific examples of such activities), and (c) encouragement. The regularity…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF), which may be linked because one domain (EF) affects the other (ToM). Group differences (ASD vs. typical development) were examined in both cognitive domains, as well as EF's associations and regressions with ToM. Participants…

Measuring and understanding fetal neurodevelopment provides insight regarding the developing brain. Maternal nutrient intake and psychological stress during pregnancy each impact fetal neurodevelopment and influence childhood outcomes and are thus important factors to consider when studying fetal neurobehavioral development. The authors provide an…