Early experiences in STEM education can contribute to positive cognitive development in young children. When students have the opportunities to play, inquire, follow their interests/curiosities, develop STEM identities, be creative, and operate within concrete/contextualized STEM explorations, they will experience expansive cognitive growth.…

The present pilot study outlines findings from a study that evaluated the efficacy of educational robots in enhancing children's cognitive skills and historical knowledge. Applying LEGO® Wedo 2.0, the study focused on typically developing nine-year-old students in a K-12 public school setting. The hypothesis posited that students using robotics…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the associations of phonological, lexical, and grammatical skills within and between languages in Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers. Method: Sixty-three Singaporean Mandarin-English bilingual children aged 3-5 years were assessed for articulation, receptive vocabulary, and receptive grammar using…

Aim/Purpose: This study explores the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) application designed to teach Theory of Mind (ToM) skills to children aged 5-6, addressing the gap in research on the use of VR for typically developing children. Background: ToM is a critical skill for social interaction and understanding others' perspectives. Despite…

This paper studies the association between caregiver--child interactions and early childhood development in literacy and numeracy in West and Central Africa. Data comes from Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) conducted in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Togo…

A subset of extant data (N = 423) from the Family Life Project, a population-based study of Black and White families with low incomes from rural communities, were used to test for associations between teacher depressive symptoms and children's cognitive outcomes at 36 months. A second aim tested whether early care and education (ECE) quality…

Several decades of research has found that early education and care can have a positive effect on children's cognitive, behavioural and social outcomes, particularly if it is of high quality, and particularly for disadvantaged children. However, less is known about the optimum number of hours, including whether this differs by socio-economic…

Prior research has clearly established the substantial expected payoffs to investments in early childhood education. However, the ability to deliver early childhood programs differs across communities with access to high quality programing especially hard to establish in rural communities. We study one program, Early Steps to School Success, to…

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of kindergarten teachers concerning the skills that demonstrate the five components of readiness as organized by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) and to identify which skills kindergarten teachers believe are most important for students to be successful. In November 2023, 136…

This study aims to bridge a gap between Vygotsky's seminal framework on the importance of make-believe play and adult scaffolding in children's cognitive development (e.g. executive function [EFs]) and research in cognitive neuroscience. Kindergarten children (N = 160) and teachers (N = 12) took part in the study. EFs skills and make-believe play…

This is a conceptual paper based on existing literature aiming to provide practical information on designing and implementing activities to promote children's computational thinking. Computational thinking is a relatively new term in early childhood education that refers to a specific problem-solving thinking process involving various logical and…

Pretend play is often hypothesized in a global sense to be an effective context for young children's learning, but there is much still to learn about whether all types of information can be learned equally and whether all types of pretend play are equally beneficial. The present study tests whether preschoolers can learn a simple, novel causal…

The growing significance of coding in 21st-century early childhood education extends beyond technical proficiency, encompassing cognitive development, problem-solving, and creativity. Coding is being integrated globally into educational curricula to prepare students for the digital era. This research examines coding's potential impact on cognitive…

The present article aims to systematically summarize the effects of free-play (FP) on preschool-aged children's physical activity (PA) level, and motor (MC), cognitive (CC), and socioemotional competence evaluated through randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. A systematic review of relevant articles was carried out using two electronic…

Subtizing emerges at an early age, but it further develops when supported. In parallel, research has shown that it supports other cognitive skills along with early math skills. For this reason, it is important to identify studies in the literature to determine the subitizing levels of preschool children and provide example practices to help…