The importance of social-emotional competence, executive functioning, and behavioural recognition of patterns by young children is receiving increased attention from researchers, schools, parents, and teachers due to the beneficial outcomes of children who have skills in each. This paper presents studies of the correlations between these variables…

To examine what kinds of parent-child interactions are elicited by different literacy-related activities, an exploratory study was conducted with 19 mother-child dyads. Although prompting boards are widely incorporated in pre- and primary school curricula, and in various family literacy programmes, scientific knowledge supporting their use is…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of one parent's presence on the quality of the interaction between the other parent and their three-month-old infant. Family interactions were observed in a sample of 69 two-parent families. Parental sensitivity was assessed during two sessions, first in a "dyadic" context (D) and then…

This study examined seasonal differences in children's segmented-day physical activity (PA) and time engaged in sedentary activities. Seventy-three children wore a pedometer during winter and spring and completed a diary relating to their after-school sedentary activities and time playing outside. Children recorded higher steps in spring compared…

The first aim of this study is to examine the validity and reliability of the Children's Playfulness Scale (CPS), which was developed to determine pre-school children's disposition towards play. The second aim is to test the effects of some variables on playfulness and whether such variables affect playfulness levels of children. About 196…

The objective of the present study is to capture children's voices to compare traditional half-day and play-based full-day kindergarten children's perspectives on two research questions: What is important about kindergarten, and what is your favourite thing about school? Children's responses were compared for emerging academic and social themes.…

Although a quality preschool supports young children's health and safety, "quality" has been defined diversely enough that its delivery has been varied among kindergarten teachers. The current study was the first to examine and compare perceptions of school safety between urban and rural kindergarten teachers. Sixty-seven Hong Kong…

Pre-schoolers are in a window period for motor skill development. Visual-motor integration (VMI) is the foundation for academic and sport skills. Therefore, it must develop before formal schooling. This study attempted to improve VMI skills. VMI skills were measured with the "Beery-Buktenica developmental test of visual-motor integration 6th…

Play is essential for growth and learning during early childhood. However, the current focus on academics in preschool education has resulted in less emphasis placed on play as a learning tool. In the current study, parents' value of play was investigated. Parent gender, child gender, and child age were examined as potential influences on parents'…

Interactive writing is a research-based early literacy strategy that has been found effective at increasing young children's oral language skills, alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, concepts of print, and early writing skills. This paper reports on a case study which explored the feasibility and fidelity of implementing interactive writing in…

The results of previous research on the "Language for Learning" programme suggest that it produces positive effects on the intellectual, language, and social skills of young children with and without disabilities [Benner, G. J., Trout, A., Nordness, P. N., Nelson, J. R., Knobel, M. L., Epstein, A.,…Epstein, M. H. (2002). "The…

Nonacademic and academic pedagogues working in childhood education are involved in multiple occupational activities. Theoretical frameworks focussing on career development and processes of professionalisation may provide hints about differences in the occupational activities of nonacademic and academic pedagogues as well as with regard to how…

Early childhood development (ECD) has been recognised to be the most important contributor to long-term social and emotional development. Therefore, positive parenting is paramount to foster quality parent-child interaction. Previous research shows that for parents to adopt a positive parenting style, some degree of parental knowledge is required.…

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a mood disorder which can adaptively alter maternal socialisation strategies. Our objective was to investigate differences in ethnotheories and childrearing practices of mothers with low (N = 46) and high (N = 45) intensity of PPD. The Brazilian version of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale was applied at 3, 8 and…

Parents play a critical role in the development of children's emotional competence; however, little research examines parents' emotion socialisation practices among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we compared the emotion socialisation practices of parents of children with ASD and to those of parents of children that…