Early childhood is characterized by rapid increases in both motor skills and executive function skills. Rather than simply codeveloping, the development of motor and executive function skills may be linked causally. In this article, we introduce corticomuscular coherence as a paradigm for psychologists interested in testing mechanistic questions…

'The Sequence of Musical Development' by Swanwick and Tillman was published in the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) in 1986. This year marks its 35th anniversary and provides an occasion to look back on the article's content and legacy. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the antecedents for the article's underlying concepts, as well…

Numerous longstanding developmental theories have emphasized the important role that culture and context play in shaping young children's skill development. Nevertheless, the field lacks explicit models describing the extent to which early childhood development may be similar (universal) versus different (specific) across cultures. In this…

This developmental account of executive function (EF) argues that domain-general analogical processes build a functional hierarchy of skills, which vary on a continuum of abstraction, and become increasingly differentiated over time. The paper begins by showing how a functional hierarchy can capture important aspects of EF development, including…

Object play yields enormous benefits for infant development. However, little is known about natural play at home where most object interactions occur. We conducted frame-by-frame video analyses of spontaneous activity in two 2-h home visits with 13-month-old crawling infants and 13-, 18-, and 23-month-old walking infants (N = 40; 21 boys; 75%…

Sing Play Learn with MacPhail® Online Early Childhood Music Partnerships strives to increase access to high quality music education for early childhood students in greater Minnesota. The program is designed so that student participants benefit developmentally with gains in executive functioning, social-emotional skills, foundation in musical…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that are important for adaption to and successful performance in educational and workplace settings (Casillas et al., 2015). These skills are related to important outcomes such as academic achievement and job satisfaction (e.g., Judge et al., 2002;…

This article investigates how particular conceptions of physical development (PD) are enacted in early childhood studies in Toronto, Canada. Following critical childhood studies scholars who emphasize the urgency of re-formulating relationships with taken-for-granted concepts in the field, we argue for a practice of noticing, tracing, naming, and…

During the 2020-21 school year, remote instruction due to COVID-19 significantly limited children's access to school-based social interactions. As schools return to in-person instruction, we ask: Can poetry and metaphor be used to develop theory of mind (ToM)/reflective functioning and emotional literacy in the early elementary setting? This…

This document supports high-quality Child Outcomes Summary (COS) ratings by helping teams connect their observations of children's functional skills and behaviors with three child outcomes: (1) Positive Social-Emotional Skills; (2) Acquisition and Use of Knowledge and Skills; and (3) Use of Appropriate Behaviors to Meet Needs. Effectively aligning…

A meaningful curriculum is one that is individualized, inclusive of the individual's unique needs and interests, and focused on building independence in current and future environments. A meaningful curriculum addresses an individual's needs and prioritizes instructional programs based on what is, potentially, most important to their lives and not…

Play is a universal activity that is an integral part of childhood experiences and aids in the development of important skills. While most children naturally engage in play, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not follow the typical pattern of play development and often exhibit delays in play skills. One of the defining characteristics…

Self-regulation has been established as a key mechanism associated with a variety of outcomes, including school readiness (Blair & Razza, 2007; McClelland, Cameron, Connor, et al., 2007; Morrison, Ponitz, & McClelland, 2010), academic achievement (Cameron Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009; Duckworth, Tsukayama, & May,…

Teachers face a growing call for implementing inquiry-based teaching and learning in a current pedagogical environment that contradicts this through educational practices that silo content, disseminate knowledge, and produce classrooms of passive learners. We address a hot topic in the United States on how a push for more "academics" is…

Background: Street football can be understood as the most natural way to learn football and it can be a great starting point to develop perceptual, decisional, tactical and motor skills. Importantly, players involved in Street football may develop a strong emotional bond to the game through their experiences playing in an informal setting and…