Moral justifications work, when they do, by invoking values that are shared in the common ground of the interlocutors. We asked 3- and 5-year-old peer dyads (N = 144) to identify and punish norm transgressors. In the moral condition, the transgressor violated a moral norm (e.g., by stealing); in the social rules condition, she/he violated a…

Research Findings: Digital play is now commonplace in many young children's lives, but not in preschool settings. This situation is likely due to the fact that the existent literature seldom highlights what digital play looks like, the various ways it can be situated, and what young children do when they play together with digital devices in the…

Healthy development necessitates that adolescents maintain connections with others while developing an autonomous identity. In the extant literature, however, autonomy and relatedness are often placed at odds, particularly in discussions of girls. We explore how autonomy and relatedness co-occur in girls' interactions with peers and mentors in the…

The current study aimed to examine the associations between teacher presence and social scaffolding and preschool children's peer interactions. Using a time sampling method, peer interactions of 22 four- and five-year-old preschoolers (12 girls; M[subscript age] = 52.95 months) and teacher behavior were observed on two different days during…

Block play has been included in early childhood classrooms for over a century, yet few studies have examined its effects on learning. Several previous investigations indicate that the complexity of block building is associated with math ability, but these studies were often conducted in adult-guided, laboratory settings. In the present…

Momentary time sampling, partial-interval recording, and event coding are observational coding methods commonly used to examine the social and challenging behaviors of children at risk for or with developmental delays or disabilities. Yet there is limited research comparing the accuracy of and relationship between these three coding methods. By…

The overall goal of this dissertation was to examine teacher characteristics, teachers' beliefs, and contextual factors that may motivate teachers' decisions to engage in high quality teacher-child interactions. I use two complementary studies to meet this goal. These two studies provide insight into several aspects of early childhood teachers'…

Difficulty with social competence is a core deficit of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to examine the link between adult talk and the socially competent behavior displayed by preschoolers with ASD concurrently and over time. A modified version of Kontos's Teacher Talk classification was used to code videos of 73 children…

The goals of this study were to investigate whether young children attending Head Start (N = 292; M[subscript age] = 4.3 years) selected peers based on their preschool competency and whether children's levels of preschool competency were influenced by their peers' levels of preschool competency. Children's peer interaction partners were…

The goal of this study was to determine whether peer social competence (SC), defined as the capacity to use behavioral, cognitive, and emotional resources in the service of achieving personal goals within preschool peer groups, was related to the type of affiliative subgroups to which children belonged. Two hundred forty Portuguese preschool…

This qualitative study investigated the professional identities of four mainstream teachers of English learners (ELs). Four teachers in two school contexts (urban and suburban) were interviewed five times and observed during formal instruction four times. Adopting a sociocultural perspective on identity, the study employed discourse analysis to…

The development of prosocial behaviors during the preschool years is essential for children's positive interactions with peers in school and other social situations. Although there is some evidence of genetic influences on prosocial behaviors, very little is known about how genes and environment, independently and in concert, affect prosocial…

The purpose of this study was to observe, analyze, and document the range of young children's interactions with sound-producing objects in order to better understand the nature of such interactions. Of particular interest was whether theories of cognitive play, social play, object play, and existing research on musical play could guide…

One of the challenges in supporting young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in inclusive classrooms is the generalization of improved social behaviors. Using a multiple-baseline design across participants, this study examined the generalized effects of social script training alone and combined with peer buddies on the interactive play…

The current study evaluated the play behaviors of children with disabilities (e.g., developmental delays, specific language impairment) who participated in a social communication intervention targeting skills such as initiations, responses, name use, proximity, and turn-taking. Three children who were enrolled in an inclusive classroom met the…