In recent years, scholars have increasingly advocated the importance of cultivating non-cognitive skills (social and emotional skills) in early childhood, and play is useful in acquiring the skills. Simultaneously, young children also need to acquire mathematical cognitive skills as a learning foundation. However, many researchers have indicated…

Students who return from an immersion experience often report that it was "life-changing," but how do we know that students' lives have changed, especially when change is best measured several months or years after the immersion? Each year, 1.6 million Americans participate in short-term immersion experiences or missions outside the…

The aim of the current study was to investigate how children in Ireland adapted to the change in schooling, and particularly their use of screen devices to support their learning at home, during a period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020. This research draws on data from 506 parents of children aged 1-10 years in Ireland who…

Pretend play may be beneficial for young children's social development. However, empirical results to date are inconsistent and limited, which is partly due to a lack of psychometrically sound measures for children's social pretend play competence. The current study aimed to compare and validate different assessment methods for children's social…

Among the many models of school reform that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, one has endured for more than 50 years: the School Development Program (SDP). Established in 1968 by renowned child psychiatrist James P. Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, the SDP is grounded in the belief that successful…

Ready for Kindergarten! Survey (R4K!S) is a readiness assessment of children entering kindergarten about students' knowledge and skills within the first six to ten weeks of school. There are many interpretations of what constitutes "readiness." Vermont's concept of children's readiness is multidimensional; it includes social and…

Most schools around the world are configured as a single-age structure, according to their chronological age. Based on a case study of one Israeli school, this article seeks to present the value and contributions of a multi-age structuring relation to significant learning experiences. The findings of this article show that the multi-age structure…

Decades of research and practice in social and emotional development have left us with a body of knowledge that tells us that (1) social, emotional, and cognitive development are intertwined in the brain and in behavior and influence school and life outcomes; (2) social, emotional, and cognitive skills and competencies grow in supportive…

The current study reports the results of a study examining the relationship between classroom climate and the development of the student-teacher relationship for young children at-risk. Participants were 267 children and 93 early educators. All children were from low income backgrounds and were experiencing developmental concerns in the area of…

This study aimed to investigate the influence of Outdoor Education (OE) on different areas of development in 1-3-year-old children attending Italian nursery schools. The sample was composed of 160 children (1-3-year-old) divided into a first group (Traditional), with 76 children attending nursery schools with traditional educational activities;…

In this study, it is aimed to determine the opinions of preschool teachers and classroom teachers about school readiness. As in the current situation, since this research is aimed to be a qualitative approach, the research is a case study of qualitative research type. In the study, interviews were conducted with a total of 25 teachers including 15…

Background/context: Exposure to community-level violence in childhood is a strong predictor of developmental and cognitive outcomes. Several systematic reviews, as well as meta-analysis have documented how being exposed to violent crimes in developed and developing countries predicts externalizing and internalizing symptoms (Löfving-Gupta, et al.,…

Research demonstrates a wide range of positive outcomes for children who are physically active, including higher academic achievement, higher likelihood to attend college, increased success in the workplace, lower heath care costs, and decreased risk for obesity and other health problems (Aspen Institute Sport for All Play for Life; Menestrel…

Associations between grandparental investment and child outcomes were investigated using three waves of a longitudinal British Millennium Cohort Study that included children between the ages of 9 months and 5 years (n = 24,614 person-observations from 13,744 children). Grandparental investment was measured by parent--grandparent contact frequency…

Interdisciplinary efforts to foster the development and education of children living in poverty require a comprehensive concept of multiple dimensions, within a systemic approach involving ecological and transactional perspectives. Constructing a common interdisciplinary language dealing with child development in ecological terms is a necessary…