During imaginative play, children may learn foundational skills important for academic success. Indeed, imaginative children, high in fantasy orientation (FO), may have advantages in skills that support positive classroom and social behavior. Yet findings are mixed regarding the classroom behavior of children high in fantasy orientation. The…

Multiple regression data from a teacher-completed one-minute rating scale (i.e., the Brief Behavior, Academic, and Social Screener; B-BASS) predicted academic risk of 198 third- through fifth-grade rural elementary students; teacher ratings across 16 B-BASS items within cognitive, social/emotional, socioeconomic/family, and executive functions…

We propose the results of a research that combines the educational and psychological media approach, to verify the pedagogical potential of coding and robotics in the learning processes of 4-year-old children at the cognitive and socio-relational level. The study investigated the impact of unplugged and plugged coding on the skills of spatiality,…

Research suggests that kindergarten attenders benefit from the time spent learning basic academic and social skills. Skills students learn in kindergarten lead to skills taught in first grade and school readiness; however, many children do not attend kindergarten. The problem under study was that records indicate that many students do not attend…

This study examines associations between enrollment in high-quality PreK and growth in children's (N = 422; M[subscript age] = 5.63 years; 47% female; 15% Asian, 19% Black, 30% White, 31% Hispanic; 5% other or mixed race) academic, executive functioning, and social-emotional skills across kindergarten (2017-2018) and first grade (2018-2019).…

With intentional adult guidance, all children have opportunities to learn new skills across developmental domains during motor play. We collected and analyzed 501 written responses from 16 preschool teachers regarding their perceptions of intervention outcomes across domains, based on their observations during the CHildren in Action: Motor Program…

Our study examined young children's pre-academic and social skills in relation to parental locus of control and children's behaviours of ADHD. The participants were parents of 1,502 children from four Chinese kindergartens (M[subscript age] = 4.59, SD = 0.93; Girls: 51.40%). Data on six domains of children's pre-academic and social skills,…

The changed sentence: The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Emotion Matching Task (EMT) in a sample of Croatian preschool children. The Croatian version of the EMT was applied to 198 children (52% female), together with measures of verbal ability and social competence. The internal structure of the test, as…

The importance of early childhood narrative skills in social relationships and children's internal capacity is of utmost interest to be studied. This aim of this study is to examine how the social group functioning, narrative skills, school success and non-verbal intelligence are interconnected. This is a mixed design study with a sample of 109…

A considerable body of research has shown that preschoolers who have a better understanding of emotions also have better social competence. In the present study, we focused on the potential roles that verbal ability and working memory may play in the relationship. A total of 187 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers completed: (i) the Test of Emotion…

This article describes a project-based social studies activity that gave young children the autonomy to photograph what they wanted within the classroom environment while interacting with peers. Social studies learning in the early years has great potential to offer active, playful, and meaningful experiences for children and can prepare young…

Historically, Finnish early childhood education has been largely based on Friedrich Froebel's pedagogy. However, Froebelian pedagogy is no longer as well known in Finland as it once was. We at the Kindergarten Museum in Helsinki wanted to increase awareness of the Froebelian tradition. Together with artist Alexander Reichstein, we came up with the…

Despite widespread interest in the construct of executive functioning (EF), we currently lack definitive evidence regarding the best measurement model for representing the construct in substantive analyses. The most common practice is to represent EF ability as a reflective latent variable, with child performance on individual EF tasks as observed…

This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between enjoyment of learning in Chinese and mathematics, two major subjects in Chinese schools, and indexes of school performance. The participants included 1041 students (501 boys) initially in third, fifth, and seventh grades (mean age = 10.49 years) in China. Data on enjoyment of Chinese and…

This study explores the influence of kindergarten care on the social and cognitive development of Saudi Arabian and international students in early childhood education in Saudi Arabia. A mixed-methods approach assessed the development of 302 children, aged between 5 years and 11 months to 7 years, and their mothers in Saudi Arabia's Eastern…