The present study examines how attending the German model project "Kindergarten of the Future in Bavaria" (KiDZ), which provided 138 children (aged 3 to 6) with traditional preschool stimulation combined with cognitive and domain-specific stimulation, is associated with children's competencies in mathematics over time to age 12 compared…

Psychological science has much to contribute to enhancing teaching and learning in the classroom. Teaching and learning, in turn, are intricately linked to social and behavioral factors of human development, including cognition, motivation, social interaction, and communication. Psychological science also contributes to effective instruction;…

Background: Cattell's "Gf-Gc" distinction is quite generally recognized. However, the developmental part of the "Gf-Gc" theory of intelligence has not gained the same recognition. Results are inconsistent, but recent discussions emphasize the importance of homogeneity of samples with regard to education and language when…

The aim of the present study is to provide information and suggest ways to improve and evaluate metacognition in early childhood. Metacognition is important to learning and knowledge transfer and preparing students to become lifelong learners is a main aim of schooling. The engagement of young students in metacognitive thinking is considered…

"The Leading Edge of Early Childhood Education" aims to support the effort to simultaneously scale up and improve the quality of early childhood education by bringing together relevant insights from emerging research to provide guidance for this critical, fledgling field. It reflects the growing recognition that early childhood…

Nowadays, we are surrounded by artifacts that are capable of adaptive behavior, such as electric pots, boiler timers, automatic doors, and robots. The literature concerning human beings' conceptions of "traditional" artifacts is vast, however, little is known about our conceptions of behaving artifacts, nor of the influence of the…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field. The "2020 Summary of Advances in Autism Research" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles…

Universal screening of very early school-age children (age 4-7 years) is important for early identification of learning problems that may require enhanced learning opportunity. In this context, use of standardized instruments is critical to obtain valid, reliable, and comparable assessment outcomes. A wide variety of standardized instruments is…

Children from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds tend to be at-risk for executive function (EF) impairments by the time they are in preschool, placing them at an early disadvantage for academic success. The present study examined the potentially protective role of bilingual experience on the development of inhibitory control (IC) in 1146 Head…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to propose a framework for the types of practices and ideologies that the most successful clinical-based, early childhood teacher education programs use to prepare their preservice teachers for the profession. Grounded theory methods guided the collection and analysis of data. Participants included…

To date, the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) has been a major source of descriptive information on Head Start and preschool children ages 3 to 5 years old who attend the program. There are 12 regions for federal management of Head Start. FACES gathers data on Head Start programs, staff, children, and families from Regions I…

The aim of the present work was to examine cultural differences in the development of speed of information processing. Four samples of US children ("N" = 509) and four samples of East Asian children ("N" = 661) completed psychometric measures of processing speed on two occasions. Analyses of the longitudinal data indicated…

We greatly appreciate the astute comments on Lillard et al. (2013) and the opportunity to reply. Here we point out the importance of keeping conceptual distinctions clear regarding play, pretend play, and exploration. We also discuss methodological issues with play research. We end with speculation that if pretend play did not emerge because it…

The developmental status and social-emotional functioning of young children who are homeless has received inadequate attention in spite of high rates of homelessness among families with young children and the potentially negative impact of homelessness and associated stressors on children's well-being. The aim of this study was to gain…

This document is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focused on the question: "How could a philanthropist make the biggest improvement on social mobility with an investment of $1 billion?" In answering this question, the authors have sought to understand "what matters most" for improving social mobility outcomes.…