Pretend play is one of the most beneficial and complex forms of play that promotes a myriad of children's development. Children's engagement in pretend play can be influenced by their genders, age, material or toys available, and adults' support. Pretend play has been long studied globally, however, there is still a dearth of available information…

Teachers' perceptions of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) profoundly influence how children experience ICT-supported activities in kindergartens. In China, given that the adoption of ICT in educational settings has been part of national development goals, kindergarten teachers' perceptions of it deserve more in-depth…

Striking weight biases emerge early in development, yet cognitive-developmental research has largely ignored weight as a social characteristic of interest. How do children conceive of weight? In particular, do children hold essentialist views of weight (i.e. do they view weight as natural, stable, inductively meaningful, and reflective of people's…

A unique component of early childhood involves understanding how caregivers and educators promote children's developmental outcomes, with play opportunities being a key avenue for enhancing these skills. Targeted coaching is one type of support that can tap into active family engagement during playful learning. This collective case study examined…

This study contributes to our understanding of children's development of map-reading skills through a systematic 'step-by-step approach'. Utilising an ecological research design, we investigated how children perceive and utilise maps in a large-scale outdoor environment. A total of 156 children, aged 5-11 (both boys and girls), participated in the…

Research Findings: This study explored the relationship between family-work conflict and autonomy support among Chinese kindergarten teachers. Autonomous motivation and ego depletion were considered as the mediator and moderator, respectively. A total of 859 kindergarten teachers were recruited and surveyed online. The results showed that (1)…

This phenomenological study aimed to develop a framework integrating play into preschool curriculum based on educators' lived experiences using play-based methods. Fifteen educators from 12 centers were interviewed using theoretical sampling. Data analysis revealed nine pathways linking play types, educator roles, and learning objectives. Results…

This paper presents causal evidence on the impact of parenting practices on early child development. We exploit exogenous changes in nurturing care induced by a parent training intervention to estimate the impact of nurturing parenting practices on child outcomes. We find a large and significant impact measured at age two; in contrast, at age four…

Music contributes to the expansion of the outlook, memory training, and the development of children's creative abilities. The main objective of the work is to determine the effectiveness of music education for preschool children through the use of modern technologies aimed at the development of the memory of students, taking into account the…

Once a hallmark of the elementary experience, recess time is now being exchanged for increased classroom time as standardized test results drive decision-making. This scoping review examined the impact of recess on school-age students, providing decision-makers valuable evidence to help determine the role recess should play in the academic day.…

We examined relationships between measures of adaptive behavior, cognitive ability, and autism symptom severity in 1458 preschool-aged children with autism from the Study to Explore Early Development. While publications commonly describe autistic children as "low-" or "high-functioning" based on cognitive ability, relying…

By the end of primary school, children are expected to acquire a range of mathematical skills that progressively develop. This study aimed to gain insight into how a large number of numerical and geometrical measures are grouped and whether the structures shift or remain invariant along child's development based on the data obtained from a sample…

The responsive feeding style has been researched to date using indirect techniques, mainly in family contexts. This style supports children's capacity for self-regulation, which is why the present study aims to directly and systematically observe the method in a school context, focusing specifically on the behaviour of two educators working at the…

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of early childhood education and development research in Malaysia, focusing on articles published in Scopus. Publications included in this study consisted of journal articles, books and book chapters, and conference papers, all of which sampled children between four to seven years old. The…

For a century, America's early childhood policy has been premised on a myth. This falsehood--which dictates that child care and education are somehow separate and distinct--not only suboptimizes the most important window into all human development, but costs American taxpayers an untold fortune. It's time to think differently. Written in plain yet…