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…

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…

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…

This study aimed to examine the unique and joint contributions of behavioral and emotional self-regulation to key but understudied emergent literacy and early social skills, disentangling sex-differentiated paths. The participants were 231 Portuguese preschoolers (50% boys; M[subscript age] = 59.5 months; SD = 8.5) enrolled in 47 classrooms. In…

Sociodramatic play is considered a critical context within which child leaders and followers may naturally emerge, while their cognitive abilities (e.g., theory of mind) and social competence are developed and applied. This study investigated child leadership and followership during sociodramatic play among 20 racial/ethnic minority 3- and…

This study examined Head Start's impact on fathers' school-based involvement and associations with Black children's cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional skills. With a sample of 1,354 Black children, fathers' involvement was measured as attendance at school meetings, teacher conferences, school events, and/or volunteering at school events.…

Research Findings: Traditional peer sociometric nominations, even at early ages, are not replaceable by teachers' classifications of children's sociometric popularity. The association between reports from the two sources, although not independent, was weak, with teachers perceiving more children as popular and fewer children as rejected. Teacher…

Young children are often enrolled in either AM (morning) or PM (afternoon) sessions in early childhood programs. However, little research is available on this routine practice. We used multilevel analysis to investigate if there are differences in the literacy, math, and social outcomes for children who participate in AM or PM sessions beyond…

Pretend play may be beneficial for young children's social development. However, empirical results to date are inconsistent and limited, which is partly due to a lack of psychometrically sound measures for children's social pretend play competence. The current study aimed to compare and validate different assessment methods for children's social…

Early care and education (ECE) experiences shape children's developmental trajectories, particularly for children who have or may have disabilities. However, caregivers of children with disabilities have faced considerable challenges finding care for their children, which have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey data from nearly…

This study examined the relationship between four common types of language play and their correlations with the verbal and social abilities of 3- to 5-year-old children. While observation has shown that children this age produce a range of play, research has not yet examined whether play is a measurable skill connected to preschoolers' language…

As the pressure to succeed academically is imposed on children earlier than ever before, it is essential to understand what characteristics are most important to parents and teachers in order to be school ready. While formally readiness is typically measured using chronological age and mastery of cognitive skills, it also involves physical,…

Peer interaction can be challenging in autism spectrum disorder, but naturalistic peer-observation scales for preschoolers are scarce. This study examined psychometric qualities of the newly developed Autism Peer Interaction Observation Scale. We tested the Autism Peer Interaction Observation Scale to (a) characterize peer interactions of…

This article compares regression modeling and propensity score analysis as different types of statistical techniques used in addressing selection bias when estimating the impact of two-year versus one-year Head Start on children's school readiness. The analyses were based on the national Head Start secondary dataset. After controlling for…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (n = 15,070), this study used propensity scores to examine the short- and long-term academic and psychosocial benefits of preschool education for a diverse sample of middle-class children. Compared with children who attended informal care at age 4, preschool…