This paper reports on the findings of a natural experiment based on a sample of 1123 children aged 4-8 from the provinces of Punjab in Pakistan, and Gujarat in India. It looks at the impact of attendance (or not) in early schooling on the cognitive and social-emotional development of young children. The role of school attendance was assessed over…

Within educational research, there is a growing interest in using neuroscience methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) to probe neural mechanisms underlying students' learning and development, in natural, school-based settings. The results of these studies are beginning to appear in educational,…

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states and feelings to others, and to understand that those mental states and feelings affect their behaviour. It is one of three core developmental tasks for children in preschool years, along with emotion self-regulation and relationships with parents and family members. Given there are…

Interpersonal synchronization between infants and parents emerges early in life and serves as a critical foundation for the development of cognitive, social, and communicative abilities. Traditionally, researchers have assessed this synchrony using composite scores that capture the overall degree of reciprocal, coordinated interaction within a…

Aperiodic electroencephalography (EEG) activity is hypothesized to index biological mechanisms that underpin brain functioning. This longitudinal study characterized the developmental trajectories of the aperiodic slope (i.e., aperiodic exponent) and offset from infancy to 7 years of age in a US community sample (N = 391, 46.5% female,…

Fine motor skills (FMS) have been intensely studied in developmental contexts, with little attention to their empirical structure and developmental changes. We tested the factor structure of FMS on 5- to 10 year old children in two cohorts from 2020 to 2023, beginning in kindergarten and grade 2 and followed up 1 year later (n = 240 and 310, 49.7%…

The study of giftedness and evolution toward talent development models have been approached mostly from an educational perspective. Talent potential development cannot be understood without comprehensively looking at all individuals' facets. This work proposes a theory by which talent potential, considered by the conjunction of cognitive and non…

The learning and developmental losses from preprimary program closures due to COVID-19 may be unprecedented. These disruptions early in life can be long-lasting. Although there is evidence about the effects of school closures on older children, there is scarce evidence on such losses for children in their early years. This article is among the…

Educational neuroscience was born out of the promise that brain imaging would generate discoveries that change how we educate our children. Many neuroscientists and educators alike feel that this promise has not been fulfilled and have begun to question the utility of this nascent field that is arising at the intersection of two well-established…

Does knowledge of other people's minds grow from concrete experience to abstract concepts? Cognitive scientists have hypothesized that infants' first-person experience, acting on their own goals, leads them to understand others' actions and goals. Indeed, classic developmental research suggests that before infants reach for objects, they do not…

This study aimed to make and introduce a curriculum in Taiwan for fifth-grade students, merging Scratch animation with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The curriculum combined the Scratch Reflective AI digital learning platform with conventional teaching methods to assess its effect on students' empathy, self-efficacy, and scriptwriting…

The study evaluated the effects of board games on children in a range of cognitive areas, considering both inclusion (i.e. pre- and post-comparisons, playing style [board games], participants belonging to PreKinder and Kindergarten, and experimental approach) and exclusion criteria (i.e. video games). Nineteen articles were selected using both…

Mental rotation, a crucial aspect of spatial cognition, can be improved through repeated practice. However, the long-term effects of combining training with non-invasive brain stimulation and its neurophysiological correlates are not well understood. This study examined the lasting effects of a 10-day mental rotation training with high-definition…

This study aims to underline the importance of school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) by exploring the relationship between self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and science achievement with a moderator of students' emotional skills. In previous studies, SEL scholars have paid attention to explaining the complicated relationships among…

Sensorimotor difficulties are common in children with autism spectrum disorder, and it has been suggested that motor planning problems underlie their atypical movements. At early school-age, motor planning development typically involves changes in visuomotor integration, a function known to be affected in autism spectrum disorder. However, there…