Play is central to children's learning and development in the early years, including the learning of mathematics. The aim of the present study was to explore how play skills are related to mathematical skills in toddlers by examining the correlations between different kinds of play skills and mathematical skills, and how level of play skills is…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of children's social competence, aggression, and anxiety to their play behaviours with peers. A total of 149 preschoolers aged 36-73 months (M = 54.6 months, SD = 0.99; 50.3% girls) and their 46 teachers in Turkey recruited for the current study. Teachers reported on children's social…

Preterm birth is associated with reduced social attention in infancy. Are these early social attention differences linked to later interactive ability? This study draws on a well-characterized preterm cohort in whom we have previously demonstrated a reduced attentional preference for social information in infancy, using eye-tracking. States of…

Parents provide motivational and cognitive support within the same interaction, yet researchers have investigated these separately. We examined two key aspects of parental support, praise (motivational support) and spatial language (cognitive support), from fathers and mothers during three tasks with their first-grade children (6-7-year-olds; N =…

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the main components of role play, according to Vygotsky (object substitution, idea of play, play interaction), and executive functions (working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, planning) in preschool age. The study involved 56 children, 5 to 6 years old (29 boys and 27…

Several researchers have found that media exposure through books or electronic media contribute to preschoolers' development. However, research with behavioral measures and during the first years of life have not been carried out in Latin American contexts. The aim of the following research was to evaluate the relations between media exposure…

Emotion regulation--as a vital part of children's development, school readiness, and academic success--begins to develop in infancy and toddler time. Much of the research on toddler emotion regulation are correlational studies in laboratory settings. Little attention has been directed to toddlers' emotion regulation in everyday naturalistic…

Early temperament predicts various aspects of development. In large-scale studies, temperament is often assessed via parental report because naturalistic and structured observations are costly and bear the risk of subject loss. However, the validity of such parental reports has been disputed repeatedly. This article compared parental reports on…

Cross-lagged panel analysis was used to examine associations between two joint engagement variables; higher order supported joint engagement and higher order supported joint engagement that co-occurs with caregiver's follow-in talk (higher order supported joint engagement + follow-in), and expressive and receptive vocabulary in a group of young…

Research Findings: Preschool is a critical period during which children's development and learning exert a long-lasting impact on their school adjustment and academic outcomes. Although research on monolingual English-speaking children has identified elements of high-quality preschool experiences that can serve as the foundation for teaching all…

This study examined the relationship between four common types of language play and their correlations with the verbal and social abilities of 3- to 5-year-old children. While observation has shown that children this age produce a range of play, research has not yet examined whether play is a measurable skill connected to preschoolers' language…

Social interactions at the playground have been represented as a rich learning opportunity to hone and master social skills at preschool years. Specifically, all forms of social play (fantasy, role, exercise or rough-and-tumble) have been related to children's social competence. The main goal of this study was to examine whether it is a certain…

Variability in children's early-learning home environments points to the need to better understand specific mechanisms of early mathematical development. We used a sample of 66 parent-preschool child dyads to describe parent-reported mathematical activities in the home and observed parent-child mathematical activities in a semi-structured play…

Play and playfulness have a key role in children's development. Not enough is known about the playfulness of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its relationship to children's behavioural problems, as well as the role of caregiver behaviours during play in this relationship. The present study examines the moderating role of teachers'…

The present study investigated the relationship between complexity of pretend play, initiation of pretense activities, and mental state utterances used during play. Children 3 to 4 years of age were videotaped while engaging in pretend play with a parent. The videotapes were coded according to mental state utterances (i.e. desire, emotion,…