The COVID-19 pandemic had far-reaching effects on school-going children. With the indefinite closure of schools in many parts of the world, many children found themselves with limited avenues for play and interaction. The current qualitative study, anchored on social capital theory, aimed at investigating the informal learning that took place as…

This meta-analysis aims to clarify the relationship between teacher-child interaction and children's outcomes in language, mathematics, literacy, social development, and self-regulation based on the perspective of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). A total of 24 studies with 139 independent effect sizes and 67,919 participants were…

The current study investigated infants' spontaneous object interactions during naturalistic observation in a daycare centre in Japan. The researcher visited the class for 49 days, once a week, for one year (in the morning for about 1.5 h). Infants' and caregivers' interactions during free play time were videotaped. Of particular interest in this…

Infants and toddlers spend a substantial amount of their time in out-of-home care, and are thus being tended to not only by their mothers but also by their caregivers. It is therefore of considerable importance to study the effects of caregiver-infant compared to mother-infant interactions. To address this issue, first, various variables of…

This study captures the possibilities of infants' interactions in a Brazilian Early Childhood Education Centre. It contributes to an increasing number of educational research that is capturing the specificities of how young children use their understandings of context through gestures and verbal forms of language to create meanings as they develop…

Research has shown that young children's socio-emotional development may benefit from participating in a music programme. In this study, we explored the association between participation in a general music programme and the development of socio-emotional skills in relation to the duration of the programme. Children aged 4 and 5 (N=50), from a low…

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes can strengthen the social, emotional and cognitive skills that are crucial for future learning and wellbeing. Teacher-child interactions are the most vital component of ECEC service quality in terms of children's social-emotional functioning. However, many children are not…

This research addresses caregivers and infants in the infant class in the day-care centre. It focuses on an intervention programme with the goal of getting to know the attitudes of caregivers and examining their influence on infants. In the programme, the caregivers will be given the possibility of sharing with peers and of learning contemporary…

International findings indicate only moderate childcare quality and results revealed significant differences between regions. So far, this difference cannot be explained by structural characteristics. Based on the National Study on Education, Learning and Upbringing in Early Childhood (NUBBEK) sample of 215 lead teachers, the influence of…

This study aims to investigate the developmental status of rural Chinese children, the extent of interactive parenting they receive, and the relation between the two. A sample of 448 six to eighteen-month-old children and their caregivers were randomly selected from two rural counties in Hebei and Yunnan provinces. According the third edition of…

Children's play contributes to their overall development. Yet, not all types of play have the same effects. On the contrary, nonsocial play has been found to be correlated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The present study had a twofold aim. On the one hand it aimed at assessing Greek preschool children's social and nonsocial…

This study aimed to investigate whether: (1) the development of "theory of mind" (ToM) is associated with social competence; and (2) social peer play is also associated with social competence in young children. Associations between ToM task performance, frequencies of observed social and solitary free-play and parent-rated social…

Preschool teachers' beliefs relating to the importance of social-emotional competence and teacher practices that support children's competence were investigated through surveys and focus groups. Survey results indicated that Head Start and public school pre-K teachers placed higher importance on social-emotional behaviours and skills than on early…

A stratified sample of 34 three-year-old to five-year-old boys and their parents (30 mothers) was observed in their homes during free-play and problem-solving interactions. Observer-ratings of behaviors of parents in each interaction were examined in relation to teachers' ratings of the boys' problem behaviors in a childcare setting. Parent…

Offers caregivers in day care centers broad guidelines for promoting early infant-infant and infant-toddler social interactions. Argues against the common belief that a child is developmentally unsociable before three years of age and advocates engaging him/her in meaningful daily care activities. (DT)