Computer programming for young children has grown in popularity among both educators and product developers, but still relatively little is known about what skills children are developing when they code. This study investigated N = 57 Kindergarten through second grade children's performance on a programming assessment after engaging in a 6-week…

Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children participating in a kindergarten robotics summer workshop to determine the effect of teaching using a…

Growth mixture models (GMMs; B. O. Muthen & Muthen, 2000; B. O. Muthen & Shedden, 1999) are a combination of latent curve models (LCMs) and finite mixture models to examine the existence of latent classes that follow distinct developmental patterns. GMMs are often fit with linear, latent basis, multiphase, or polynomial change models…

This study investigates young children's perspectives in explaining a self-regulating mobile robot, as they learn to program its behaviors from rules. We explore their descriptions of a robot in action to determine the nature of their explanatory frameworks: psychological or technological. We have also studied the role of an adult's intervention…

This paper provides a preliminary report of a small-scale research examining the effectiveness of a series of Music Appreciation segments of "Pre-school: Learn to Fly"--a locally designed and produced early childhood TV program in Hong Kong. Four aspects of young children's musical development were studied: 1) musical exposure; 2)…