This study examined the interrelationships among playfulness, prosocial skills, and school readiness of Hong Kong kindergarten children across time. Participants were 106 local children (55.6% boys, mean age = 60.0 months) and their parents and teachers. At time 1, parents reported their child's age, gender, and playfulness. Six months later at…

Given the benefits of critical consciousness (CC), it is important to consider what environmental levers may promote it. Higher-quality education experiences have served as key contextual supports for marginalized youth. Notably, investment in the quality of education for preschoolers has one of the highest rates of return for society compared…

Interventions are common tools used by school psychologists for the benefit of students and teachers. Tootling is an intervention that combines the idea of tattling and "tooting your own horn," and promotes peer-monitoring of prosocial behaviors instead of antisocial or disruptive behaviors (Skinner, Cashwell, & Skinner, 2000). This…

We explored how teachers perceived challenging behavior in contrast to behaviors that exemplify social-emotional competence, and how descriptions of behavior varied based on child demographics such as gender, race/ethnicity, and disability status. Using a DisCrit lens, we conducted this study under the assumption that perceptions of behavior may…

We examined the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) compared to a social-emotional empathy-based intervention (EBI), and a passive control group in promoting compassion among Jewish-Israeli kindergartners. Three middle-class public kindergartens were randomly assigned to the MBI (n = 26;M[subscript age] = 5.03), EBI (n =…

Quality dialogue and interactions in the classroom are crucial for creating effective learning environments and reducing inequalities from an early age. Dialogic reading interventions are known to be beneficial in early childhood education, but there is still much to learn about creating the most conducive interactions in the classroom. This…

A randomized controlled parallel-group trial was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of two 10-week early childhood education and care (ECEC) interventions "SAGA" and "Pikkuli" for supporting social-emotional and verbal development. All children above the age of 4 were invited from 15 Finnish volunteer ECEC groups (n…

Peer collaboration is a foundational skill that emerges in early childhood. Children spend significant time in early educational settings, making it an important setting where young children can learn how to collaborate with peers. However, research on how to support children's collaboration effectively is limited and findings in this area have…

Early childhood education builds the foundation for students' academic careers, but perhaps more importantly emphasizes developmentally appropriate practices that encourage social and emotional learning and prosocial behaviors. Similarly, humane education addresses students' capacity for empathy, compassion, and perspective-taking through…

Early childhood aggression is a ubiquitous and developmentally normal behavior; however, different report sources (e.g., child self-report vs. teacher) often yield markedly different interpretations. The current study examined how typical demographic and cognitive factors that have been previously found to explain child behavior (e.g., SES,…

Prosocial behaviours such as sharing are essential for young children's collaborative learning experiences and social development. When learnt during the early years, these behaviours enable positive peer interactions and relationship building in social settings, laying the foundation for young children's social and emotional competencies with…

While social skills training allows students to acquire social skills, often it does not enhance their performance of those skills outside the social skills training context. A withdrawal design was used to determine if a modified Tootling intervention could enhance at-risk, first-grade students' performance of two recently trained social skills…

This phenomenological and exploratory-based qualitative case study seeks to understand the lived experience of transitional kindergarteners in a mindfulness-based classroom. The purpose of this inquiry is to explore a possible connection between mindfulness and relational styles of leadership in a transitional kindergarten class. Children are not…

This study aimed to develop the "Social Skills Assessment Scale--Teacher Form" (SOSAS--TF) for preschool children. Data were collected from three distinct groups of participants. The first dataset, obtained from 254 preschool children, was collected during a "preliminary trial." The second dataset, gathered from 896 preschool…

We extended research on social skills training to determine if the activities first-grade students were engaged in while Tootling would influence their performance of two recently trained social skills: complimenting and encouraging peers. After receiving social skills training, students engaged in two experimental small-group activities, a…