"Joint productive activity" (JPA) is a research-based strategy for effective teaching and learning. JPA fosters social and cognitive development among young learners. In this article, the authors describe JPA, connect the research to practice, and discuss how they use JPA at their early childhood center.

Adolescence is a time of significant physical, social, and emotional developments, accompanied by changes in cognitive and language skills. Underlying these are significant developments in brain structures and functions including changes in cortical and subcortical gray matter and white matter tracts. Among the brain regions that develop during…

Classic theories of self-development suggest people define themselves in part through internalized perceptions of other people's beliefs about them, known as reflected self-appraisals. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in adolescence (N = 12, ages 11-14…

To test the hypothesis that biological motion perception is developmentally integrated with important social cognitive abilities, 12-month-olds (N = 36) were shown a display of a human point-light figure turning to observe a target. Infants spontaneously and reliably followed the figure's "gaze" despite the absence of familiar and socially…

At a brisk pace, research findings focused on children's play are finally reaching the light of day in popular media. No longer left sitting in archives of academic journals, the benefits of play to lifelong success have been touted in radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. It gives early childhood professionals a powerful, credible…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of Jumpstart, a supplemental early literacy intervention, on preschool-age children from low-income backgrounds. Participants consisted of 74 low-income children from three preschools and child-care programs. Thirty-three children were randomly assigned by Jumpstart to the treatment group and 33…

School-ready children are children who are prepared to learn successfully in school. These children show growth over time in their physical, social and emotional, language, and cognitive development. They also show increasing interests in new experiences and in mastering new skills. Getting "school-ready" starts long before the weeks or…

Ecological systems theory assumes that child development is the consequence of ongoing reciprocal and spiraling interactions between the child and his/her microsystem (immediate home, school, and community environments). The increasing presence of digital technologies in children's immediate environments suggests the need for the proposed…

Over the course of the past decade, the state of Louisiana has developed several documents to articulate expectations for children's learning and development and provide guidance for early childhood educators. The experiences and skills that children develop during the early years are critically important to their success later in school. What…

A primary purpose of early childhood education and interventions is to promote children's acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to later social competence and academic success. In this report, special attention is given to summarizing what has been learned about early childhood classrooms as contexts for development and learning, the kinds of…

News reports calling attention to the steady increase in the number of overweight adults have become an accepted part of our media landscape. Worse still, warnings continue that more and more young children, like the adults who care for them, are carrying too much weight. Unfortunately, this bad news about our growing obesity problem isn't just…

Children around the world are being exposed to traumatic events at a troubling rate. In large, nationally representative studies of children in the United States, researchers have reported that 71% of children have been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event in the past year, and almost 70% of children have experienced multiple…

This article reports data from a 2-year longitudinal study on cooperative learning in school science. The study reported the effects of cooperative learning in science on science attainment, effective development and social connectedness, and interactions during transition from elementary to high school in rural and urban school settings. The…

Education and business leaders as well as the public at large have grown increasingly concerned about the achievement disparities that children from at-risk backgrounds manifest at a young age. Early childhood initiatives that take into account the entire preschool period of 0 to 5 years need a better understanding of the disparities which may be…

Purpose: This paper aims to determine educators' perceptions about the benefits of contact with nature for children's mental, emotional and social health. Design/methodology/approach: The approach was exploratory using qualitative methods. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with school principals and teachers as well as professionals from the…