During a five-week research study, a kindergarten class of 14 five- and six-year-old children learned to sing and play soprano ukuleles. The study had a dual purpose: to teach the children foundational music skills, and to teach them to read lyrics at the emergent reader level. Csikszentmihalyi (2009) cites one of the pitfalls of traditional music…

The present study aimed to investigate early interrelationships between temperament, short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), while also relating them to incipient anxious traits in a sample of 4-7-year-olds. Preschoolers were evaluated using verbal and visuospatial STM and WM tasks, while parental reports were used to assess children's…

The significance of learning to think critically from a young age is well documented. Early childhood educators play an essential role in children's critical skills development. Therefore, it is crucial to understand their perceptions of this concept. This qualitative study explored Norwegian early childhood educators' perceptions of critical…

From the standpoint of mental health and perhaps even from the standpoint of human culture, the complete realization of the educational possibilities of the preschool child is of foundational significance. Normative and comparative studies performed at a psychological clinic at Yale examining norms of development in children from one month to five…

Research Findings: Exuberant temperament, characterized by high approach and positive affect, is linked to socioemotional outcomes including risk of externalizing symptoms across development. Externalizing problems interfere with children's school readiness and lead to disruptive behavior in the classroom. While some moderating factors help…

In this longitudinal multiinformant study negative emotionality and sensory processing sensitivity were compared as susceptibility markers among kindergartners. Participating children (N = 264, 52.9% boys) were Dutch kindergartners (M[subscript age] = 4.77, SD = 0.60), followed across three waves, spaced seven months apart. Results show that…

Research Findings: Exuberant temperament, characterized by high approach and positive affect, is linked to socioemotional outcomes including risk for externalizing symptoms across development. Externalizing problems interfere with children's school readiness and lead to disruptive behavior in the classroom. While some moderating factors help…

While there is a growing interest in children's risk-taking behaviours and their safety when at play, there is also a focus on the need to balance the hazards of risks with the benefits of risk. This is also a growing concern among researchers of early childhood education and care (ECEC). The research conducted thus far on ECEC practitioners'…

Little is known about slow-to-warm-up temperament in infancy. This study examined the trajectory of shyness in children who were slow-to-warm-up in infancy in comparison to children with other temperament profiles in infancy. Participants were 996 mothers and children in the NICHD SECC studied from 6 months to first grade. Latent growth curve…

This study investigated the efficacy of the INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament intervention in supporting the academic development of shy kindergarten and first-grade children. INSIGHTS is a temperament-based intervention with teacher, parent, and classroom programs. The participants included 345 children from 22 low-income, urban elementary…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2020, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.), that this year had to be transformed into a fully Virtual Conference as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Modern…

Research Findings: This study examined whether children's executive functions before kindergarten would predict variance in executive functions after kindergarten. We obtained behavioral (working memory task performance), parent-reported (temperament-based inhibitory control), and psychophysiological (working memory-related changes in heart rate…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergartners' (N = 291; M age = 5 years) effortful control (EC), impulsivity, anger, or shyness predict their classroom participation, school liking, and student-teacher relationship. Parents and teachers reported on children's temperament. Children's EC and impulsivity were also assessed with…

In this article, we investigate the effectiveness of INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament (INSIGHTS), a temperament-based preventive intervention, in reducing the disruptive behavior problems of young children from low-income, urban families. Results indicate that children enrolled in INSIGHTS evidenced a decrease in disruptive behavior problems…

The goals of the current study were to examine whether children's social problem solving (SPS) skills are a mechanism through which temperament influences later academic achievement and whether sex moderates these associations. The participants included 1117 children enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of…