This longitudinal study investigates metacognitive development in children aged four to six (N = 148; 74 girls; 106 White, 21 multiracial, 17 Black, 3 Asian, 1 Latino; collected in 2017-2019) compared to adults (N = 26, 13 women; collected in 2022). We assessed metacognitive monitoring and control using experimenter-elicited and self-generated…

Direct assessments of early childhood development (ECD) are a cornerstone of research in developmental psychology and are increasingly used to evaluate programs and policies in lower- and middle-income countries. Despite strong psychometric properties, these assessments are too expensive and time consuming for use in large-scale monitoring or…

Can at-scale, government-implemented parent training programs improve parenting practices and child development outcomes? This article presents evidence on the effects of a low-cost, group-based early childhood education program that provided parent training and direct child stimulation in rural communities, evaluated in six Mexican states.…

Nearly half of children in China were affected by migration, and more than one-third of rural children had been left at home, classified as rural left-behind children (LBC). Despite numerous studies on migration and LBC, little research has investigated the issues of LBC by connecting their development with family features. This study aimed to…

This paper discusses the importance of incorporating personal assistance into interventions aimed at improving long-term education and labor market success. While existing research demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of low-touch behavioral nudges, this paper argues that the dynamic nature of human capital accumulation requires sustained habits…

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…

Childhood adversity can lead to cognitive deficits or enhancements, depending on many factors. Though progress has been made, two challenges prevent us from integrating and better understanding these patterns. First, studies commonly use and interpret raw performance differences, such as response times, which conflate different stages of cognitive…

This paper follows an earlier report of young children's object play activities investigated in a cross-sectional sample of 289 typically developing children. Thirty-minute videotaped observations were taken of children at 8, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, and 60 months of age in their homes. Forty-nine percent were boys. Children were identified…

Coaching is proven to be an effective strategy of professional development; however, rare research has documented the nuances of coaching effects and the enablers in early childhood education. This study presents a systematic review of 33 randomised controlled trials or (quasi-)experiments to investigate the effects of coaching as a professional…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which typically developing (TD) siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could implement the model-lead-test (MLT) strategy through the self-monitoring checklist and telehealth-based coaching, as well as the impact of the sibling-mediated intervention on the acquisition of…

Recently, several studies have suggested that metacognition emerges early in infancy and toddlerhood. However, to date, the developmental trajectory of these early metacognitive monitoring and control processes and their influence on children's later memory functioning remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to longitudinally document…

Shy-withdrawn behaviours place preschoolers at increased risk of experiencing adverse developmental outcomes. Positive teacher-child relationships play a protective role against these negative socioemotional outcomes. This study aimed to understand, in-depth, the beliefs, practices and support needs of preschool teachers toward shy-withdrawn…

The standard view on Theory of Mind (ToM) is that the mastery of the false belief (FB) task around age 4 marks the ontogenetic emergence of full-fledged meta-representational ToM. Recently, a puzzling finding has emerged: Once children master the FB task, they begin to fail true belief (TB) control tasks. This finding threatens the validity of FB…

Coaching has received attention in early childhood education, early intervention, and family science. In the home visiting field, coaching is a distinct professional development tool to improve home visitor effectiveness in meeting the complex needs of families, improve child development outcomes, and meet home visiting field priorities (e.g.,…

There is a great demand for quality early intervention services for autistic children and their families. Caregiver-mediated interventions are critical components of evidence-based early intervention. However, their implementation in publicly funded systems is often done with poor fidelity. Qualitative evidence suggests that family characteristics…