The aim of the current study was to investigate how children in Ireland adapted to the change in schooling, and particularly their use of screen devices to support their learning at home, during a period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020. This research draws on data from 506 parents of children aged 1-10 years in Ireland who…

According to Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), the highest levels of abstract thinking and self-regulation in preschool development are established in "pretend play using object substitutions." An extensive research literature supports Vygotsky's empirical model of the internalization of self-guiding speech (social speech > private speech…

Children are spending less time in nature, leading to a multitude of ramifications in all areas of development. Research has indicated that teachers play a key role in increasing time children spend in nature. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand elementary teachers' perceptions of skills, benefits, and challenges of…

Two studies are presented to examine whether and why 3-5-year-olds in Pakistan display limited social understanding. Study 1 tested 71 preschoolers on Lillard and Flavell's (1992) test of desires, pretence and beliefs, plus two false belief tasks, and showed very limited understanding across these measures even though almost half were over 5 years…

This study examined associations between caregiver talk and language skills in full term (FT) and preterm (PT) children (n = 97). All-day recordings of caregiver-child interactions revealed striking similarities in amount of caregiver talk heard by FT and PT children. Children who heard more caregiver talk at 16 months demonstrated better…

Older interlocutors are more likely than younger ones to make pragmatic inferences, that is, inferences that go beyond the linguistically encoded meaning of a sentence. Here we ask whether pragmatic development is associated with increased activity in brain structures associated with inference-making or in those associated with Theory of Mind. We…

Among the many models of school reform that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, one has endured for more than 50 years: the School Development Program (SDP). Established in 1968 by renowned child psychiatrist James P. Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, the SDP is grounded in the belief that successful…

The current study reports the results of a study examining the relationship between classroom climate and the development of the student-teacher relationship for young children at-risk. Participants were 267 children and 93 early educators. All children were from low income backgrounds and were experiencing developmental concerns in the area of…

This study aimed to investigate the influence of Outdoor Education (OE) on different areas of development in 1-3-year-old children attending Italian nursery schools. The sample was composed of 160 children (1-3-year-old) divided into a first group (Traditional), with 76 children attending nursery schools with traditional educational activities;…

The manner in which mothers engage in emotional discussion, or reminisce, with their young children about past emotional experiences poses important ramifications for child socioemotional and cognitive development. Maltreating mothers may have difficulty engaging in emotionally supportive reminiscing. The current study examined the role of…

Remembering to carry out intended actions in the future, known as prospective memory (PM), is an important cognitive ability. In daily life, individuals remember to perform future tasks that might rely on effortful processes (monitoring) but also habitual tasks that might rely on more automatic processes. The development of PM across childhood in…

This article examines the political socialization of young children who live under conditions of intractable conflict. We present four premises: First, we argue that, within the context of intractable conflict, political socialization begins earlier and faster than previously suspected, and is evident among young children. Second, we propose that…

Mediated learning experience (MLE) stresses that the quality of interaction between the child and the environment via a human mediator plays a pivotal role in the cognitive development of the individual. Feuerstein's theory of structural cognitive modifiability posited that humans have the propensity to change the structure of their cognitive…

The Vygotskian preschool education program (VPEP) is built around mediation in the context of preschool age-specific activities such as sociodramatic play, constructive play, listening and retelling fairy tales, playing with dollhouses, motor activities, and some others. We used the VPEP as part of the daily curriculum in two pre-K classes at PS…

There is little evidence regarding the benefits of early center-based care attendance (before three years old) for child development and most studies have focused on developed countries. Addressing this gap, this study examines the relationship between center-based care attendance during toddler years and children's cognitive outcomes. Research…