Play, while complex, is essential for children's learning and development. It is well established in the literature that there is a strong link between children's pretend play abilities and their language skills, particularly in relation to the use of language in social contexts. For many children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), pretend…

Play is an essential component of childhood, but parents and educators sometimes view it as an optional add-on, which gets in the way of learning. This view persists in spite of evidence that play is helpful and sometimes critical to learning in multiple domains, perhaps because precise mechanisms whereby play occasions learning are not well…

The aim of this study is to examine whether the emotional intelligence of 5-6 years preschool children differs significantly according to the frequency of outdoor play. The sample consists of 208 children and their parents. The data were collected through Sullivan's Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children (EISC) and the Personal Information…

Previous research about children's digital play has predominantly focused on parental perspectives and parental mediation strategies. Although research on the effects of digital play on young children's development is plentiful, there is little evidence on young children's digital play addiction tendency. Herein, preschool children's digital play…

This study investigated the direct relationship between home play opportunity and prospective school readiness, and the indirect relationships as mediated through object and social mastery motivation among Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children. Participants were 106 local children (44.4% girls, mean age = 60.0 months) and their parents and…

In this paper we combine a philosophical theoretical analysis with human movement science empirical studies, in order to provide a better understanding of the possible links between free play and creativity. We deal in particular with some dialectical dynamics inherent to free play: the relation between rules and freedom, spontaneity which often…

Adults' behaviour in interactions with children is assumed to influence children's playfulness. However, little is known about how the quality of teacher-child interaction in early childhood education and care affects the development of children's playfulness, although the interaction quality has been identified as a strong predictor of children's…

Real-time attention coordination in parent-toddler dyads is often studied in tightly controlled laboratory settings. These studies have demonstrated the importance of joint attention in scaffolding the development of attention and the types of dyadic behaviors that support early language learning. Little is known about how often these behaviors…

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…

The present study examined individual differences in the development of sustained attention across toddlerhood, as well as how these individual differences related to the development of language and sleep. Toddlers (N = 314; 54% male) were assessed at 30, 36, and 42 months using multiple measures of attention, a standardized language assessment,…

Play, and especially free play, offers a unique opportunity for children to act with agency. Yet the regulated and routinized structure of early childhood education and care settings, impedes children's agentic action which is limited by adult-imposed rules. The present cross-cultural study aims to explore the extent to which Early Childhood…

Aim: There is a lack of evidence-based tools for measuring problem-solving in young children with motor delays. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and responsiveness of the Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play. Methods: 125 young children (10.72, SD 2.62 months) with mild, moderate, and severe motor delays were…

This study investigated whether parents and kindergarten children show concurrent and time-lagged physiological synchrony during dyadic interaction. Further, we tested whether parent-child behavioral co-regulation was associated with concurrent and time-lagged synchrony, and whether synchrony varied by the type of interaction task. Participants…

Spatial play in early childhood is associated with a variety of spatial and cognitive skills. However, these associations are often derived from studies in which different tasks are used across different age ranges, leaving open the question of how children's natural behaviors during spatial play develop from infancy into the early preschool…

This study examined whether associations exist between PA intensity, self-regulation, and indicators of school readiness, a proxy for academic achievement, in young children. Thirty young children completed assessments of physical activity, school readiness indicators, and self-regulation. Physical activity intensity was classified as light,…