Teachers have the ability to influence a child's sense of belonging and peer relationships in the classroom which are important for a child's social development. Currently, little is known about the ways in which they do this. Vygotsky's concept of the social situation of development and Hedegaard's model for learning and development were used to…

Introduction: Children's social and emotional wellbeing is associated with subsequent academic achievement and behavioural outcomes, as well as functioning in later life. Nurturing approaches are one way of developing such wellbeing. Whole-school approaches to nurturing have been discussed in the literature, but no studies of any quality have…

Research Findings: We assessed socio-emotional behavior, nonverbal reasoning, German receptive language, and motor skills of refugee children attending early childhood development [ECD] programs and of those who did not (N = 207, mean age = 69.4 months). Young refugee children overall demonstrated lower levels of development and more…

This paper reports the results of a randomized controlled trial evaluating "We Have Skills," a brief curriculum designed to teach early elementary students academic and social skills as well as improve teacher efficacy in classroom management. Intervention efficacy was tested with 127 teachers, randomly assigned to condition, and 2,817…

Social-behavioral functioning during early childhood is associated with children's academic and social success concurrently and over time. This study explored how concurrent, year-to-year, and sustained parent--teacher and student--teacher relationships predicted children's social skills and problem behaviors across the preschool to Grade 1…

The article presents a new adaptation programme entitled 'With a smile to school' for pupils of the first year at primary schools. The adaptation programme comprises several methods and measures which are focused on the regulation of pupils' adaptation process. The efficiency and effectiveness of the adaptation programme were verified through an…

A primary motivation for people to behave as they do is the need to belong socially to a group and to have relevance. A positive learning environment for young students is created when students are recognized and accepted by their peers and their teachers, and studies reveal that in such environments, students perform better academically and tend…

A person-oriented approach examined the extent to which patterns of school readiness across social and cognitive domains in 944 typically-developing 54-month-old children forecast academic achievement, social-emotional development, risk taking, and executive functioning at age 15. Prior work identified six distinct profiles of school readiness at…

This study examined the impact of a commonly adopted elementary universal social-emotional learning program, Second Step, on student social-emotional and academic outcomes following 2 years of implementation. The cluster-randomized wait-list control trial included 61 schools, 321 teachers, and 8,941 early elementary students across 2 states, with…

Based on a Response to Intervention framework, this study examines whether a clinical significance methodology is useful for placing children in Tier 2 interventions for school-based social-emotional learning. Data from INSIGHTS Into Children's Temperament, a Tier-1 intervention, was analyzed to assess practical considerations and limitations…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a universal social skills program, the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007), for students in first grade. Classrooms from 6 elementary schools were randomly assigned to treatment or business-as-usual control conditions.…

A wide and rich body of literature has identified the family as the key context influencing children's development. In response, school districts and policymakers have sought to engage parents in children's learning, particularly low-income families. Meta-analyses conclude that efforts to engage low-income parents do improve students' academic…

We investigate the classwide efficacy of INSIGHTS, a universal social-emotional learning intervention for early elementary grades, on observed teacher practices and student behaviors. Twenty-two elementary schools (87% free/reduced lunch) were randomly assigned to INSIGHTS or an attention-control condition. Kindergarten and first-grade classrooms…

Research Findings: This study explored the relationship between play and child development at the Grade 1 level. As previous research has noted a sudden curtailment of classroom play during this period, the relationship between play at home and children's school grades, behavior, and creativity scores was examined using correlational and…

Recent federal, state, and district policies that have mainstreamed English language learner (ELL) students into general, English-only elementary school classrooms have raised questions among educational stakeholders about the widespread effects of these policies. Most research has focused on the outcomes of ELL students; almost nothing is known…