Emotional intelligence and drama-based intervention open up an innovative field in education. The current study describes the effectiveness of an innovative project based on the development of emotional intelligence through dramatization in Early Childhood Education. A total of 82 children range from 4 to 5 years old were divided into two groups:…

Happiness is one of the most important parenting goals in today's modern society. To promote a happy childhood, we need to understand what happiness means to children. Contrary to the view that young children may equate happiness with satisfying material desires and experiencing simple pleasures, in this article, I review recent developmental…

Interoception refers to the processing of internal bodily states and plays a critical role in motivational processes and behaviours. Instruments for assessing its subjective components (i.e., interoceptive sensibility) during childhood are crucially needed. Thus, in this study, we adapted and evaluated the psychometric properties of the…

The authors discuss loose parts -- pipe cleaners, acorns, fabric, stones, and so forth -- as versatile materials not originally intended for children's play that they can manipulate, modify, and use in their play activities. The authors review the historical foundations of loose parts play, focusing on influential individuals and theories, and…

During childhood, the ability to limit problem behaviors (i.e., externalizing) and the capacity for cognitive regulation (i.e., executive function) are often understood to develop in tandem, and together constitute two major components of self-regulation research. The current study examines bi-directional relations between behavioral problems and…

Social exclusion, a pervasive and impactful phenomenon particularly prominent during preadolescence, has traditionally been construed through a moral deficiency lens. This study departs from prevailing research trends, casting a novel light on the phenomenon in the context of normative moral development. It elucidates the role of social exclusion…

Some parents experience concerns relating to their child's development and seek clinical assessments for their child's behaviour. We sought to understand the concerns that led parents to seek a general clinical assessment where some children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. We conducted a systematic review to identify the types of…

Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful. Although these relations have been observed concurrently in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, few studies leverage longitudinal data to examine long-term…

Are young children just random explorers who learn serendipitously? Or are even young children guided by uncertainty-directed sampling, seeking to explore in a systematic fashion? We study how children between the ages of 4 and 9 search in an explore-exploit task with spatially correlated rewards, where exhaustive exploration is infeasible and not…

During childhood, the ability to limit problem behaviors (i.e., externalizing) and the capacity for cognitive regulation (i.e., executive function) are often understood to develop in tandem, and together constitute two major components of self-regulation research. The current study examines bi-directional relations between behavioral problems and…

Over the past 20+ years, researchers have worked toward identifying early behavioral predictors of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developing observation-based screeners to supplement existing parent-report methods. This study is a follow-up, 3 to 8 years later, with parents/caregivers of 57 children previously enrolled in a U.S.…

Self-regulation is thought to show heterotypic continuity--its individual differences endure but its behavioral manifestations change across development. Thus, different measures across time may be necessary to account for heterotypic continuity of self-regulation. This longitudinal study examined children's (N = 108) self-regulation development…

Prior evidence shows that early childhood education (ECE) can serve as a protective factor that boosts maltreated children's school readiness outcomes. Yet, less is known about ECE's relationship to other developmental domains critical to their wellbeing including their adaptive behaviors and cognitive development. Focusing on a broader range of…

This study is a secondary data analysis that extends knowledge about the effects of the early childhood Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention to trajectories of general psychopathology problems (p factor) across early and middle childhood, and effects on adolescent psychopathology and polydrug use. The Early Steps Multisite study (ClinicalTrials.gov…

The current study investigated the effects of metacognitive and executive function (EF) training on childhood EF (inhibition, working memory [WM], cognitive flexibility, and proactive/reactive control) and academic skills (reading, reasoning, and math) among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Children (N = 134, M[subscript age] = 8.70 years)…