The study investigates whether Italian verbal inflectional morphology is associated with inhibitory control skills after controlling for receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory. A sample of Italian preschoolers aged 4;0 to 6;0 was assessed using a standardized inhibitory control task tapping two different inhibitory skills (response…

The goal of this study was to track the progress of Italian children at risk for school failure enrolled in preschools based on the Reggio-Emilia approach. Risk factors considered included family socioeconomic status (SES), child receptive language, and child gender. Participants were 211 children (Mage = 60.8 months, 116 girls) in Reggio-inspired…

Attendance at preschool represents an important transition, as it is often here that children have their first experience with unfamiliar adults. In this context, several factors can affect children's adjustment. Two important protective factors are the attachment relationship with the teacher and the level of executive functions. We investigate…

This study aims at investigating the relationship between working memory updating and working memory capacity in preschool children. A sample of 176 preschoolers (36-74 months) was administered a working memory updating task (Magic House) along with three working memory capacity tests that specifically measure their core attentional component (M…

The ontological turn in the humanities and social sciences has prompted some scholars of education to shift their focus of inquiry away from questions of epistemology (i.e., knowledge) to metaphysical matters related to being and the nature of existence. In this paper, I turn to ontology and make an argument for integrating and explicitly teaching…

This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Preschool Anxiety Scale--Revised (PAS-R), a parent-reported measure of their preschool child's anxiety symptoms. The participants were mothers of 279 Italian preschoolers (age 2-7 years, M = 4.5 years). According to information criteria derived from a confirmatory factor…

Most cooperative interactions involve interpersonal trust and the expectation of mutual reciprocation. Thus, understanding when and how humans acquire interpersonal trust can help unveil the origins and development of children's cooperative behavior. Here, we investigated whether prior sociomoral information about trading partners modulates the…

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of high-level cognitive processes that enable children to perform a goal-directed behaviour. During the preschool years, EFs undergo significant developmental changes. Therefore, it is crucial to have reliable measures that accurately evaluate preschoolers' EFs in preschool-aged children. The present study aimed…

The COVID-19 lockdown affected children, especially those with autism spectrum disorder, due to the disruption in rehabilitation and educational activities. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 315 preschool-aged children, 35 of which had autism, to investigate this impact. A questionnaire was administered to explore socio-demographic status,…

Research Findings: The goal of this study was to investigate the role of play behaviors in the links between child shyness and teacher-child relationship quality in preschool. Participants were 212 (102 girls) young children (M = 58.32 months, SD = 10.72) recruited from 10 classrooms in three preschools in central Italy. Parents evaluated…

According to the perspective of multiple attachments, children establish significant relationships with individuals outside their family, such as teachers and peers. The aim of this research was to observe which dimensions of attachment behaviors that preschoolers show toward their teachers are associated with greater social preference and social…

Children's arithmetic performance is dependent on the arithmetic task format, but little is known about how domain-specific and domain-general abilities contribute to solving diverse arithmetic problems. In this study, 145 Italian typically developing children between the ages of five and six, who have not yet received formal schooling, were…

Many studies have reported that early interventions on language and early literacy skills are important for preventing later reading difficulties at primary school. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of a 12-week intervention programme focused on enhancing pre-schoolers' language and early literacy skills. Two groups of children…

In kindergarten, children are usually engaged with both verbal activities and non-verbal activities, often requiring the manipulation of physical objects. During technical tasks (e.g., problem solving), children can use argumentation as one of the languages of science that mediates how they interact with the surrounding world. In this paper, we…

This study analyses the longitudinal relationship between early inhibitory control skills and subsequent emergent literacy. At Time 1, a sample of 50 typically monolingual Italian toddlers aged 28 to 36 months in their last year of day-care was assessed on expressive vocabulary and two inhibitory control measures, tapping specifically response…