The Vygotskian preschool education program (VPEP) is built around mediation in the context of preschool age-specific activities such as sociodramatic play, constructive play, listening and retelling fairy tales, playing with dollhouses, motor activities, and some others. We used the VPEP as part of the daily curriculum in two pre-K classes at PS…

Shared reading represents an established practice to foster preschool vocabulary development, particularly when coupled with explicit instruction in word meanings. However, a question remains as to whether explicit word definitions detract from story delivery and hence language learning. Accordingly, this study compared explicit versus…

This study aimed to extract the psychometric properties of a Jordanian version of the Parents Evaluation of Developmental Status: Developmental Milestones (PEDS:DM) to present a psycho-metrically reliable Arabic scale that benefits the Jordanian context as an effective childhood intervention scale. The validity of the scale was achieved in three…

Nowadays, we are surrounded by artifacts that are capable of adaptive behavior, such as electric pots, boiler timers, automatic doors, and robots. The literature concerning human beings' conceptions of "traditional" artifacts is vast, however, little is known about our conceptions of behaving artifacts, nor of the influence of the…

We report the effect of different sequences of high vs low levels of instructional guidance on children's immediate learning and long-term transfer of simple experimental design procedures and concepts, often called "CVS" (Control of Variables Strategy). Third-grade children (N = 57) received instruction in CVS via one of four possible orderings…

The purpose of this study was to examine how parental homework completion, session attendance, and treatment knowledge influenced parenting practices and confidence in using learned skills during behavioral parent training (BPT). Parents of 54 preschoolers (M[subscript age] = 5.07, 82% Hispanic/Latino) with externalizing behavior problems…

This study evaluated the ability for two rhythmic rhyming programs to raise phonological awareness in the early literacy classroom. Year 1 (5-6-year-olds) from low socioeconomic status schools in Bedfordshire, learned a program of sung or spoken rhythmic rhymes, or acted as controls. The project ran with two independent cohorts (Cohort 1 N = 98,…

This study tested whether individual executive function (EF) tasks were better characterized as formative or reflective indicators of the latent construct of EF. EF data that were collected as part of the Family Life Project (FLP), a prospective longitudinal study of families who were recruited at the birth of a new child (N = 1,292), when…

Background: Many states provide public funding to facilitate school readiness for community-based pre-K and preschool programs for 4 year old children and "at risk" 3 year old children. Little research exists on the school readiness gains of children participating in these "garden variety" community-based programs. Objective:…

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of The Play supported Program designed for 60-72 month-old disadvantaged children on their readiness levels. The sample of the research has consisted of an experimental group and a control group, each having twenty 60-72 months old children (10 girls and 10 boys) at Göztepe Semiha Sakir Children's…

Young children must develop basic concepts of numeracy--one being that numbers have magnitudes that increase linearly--before they are able to succeed in mathematics. Children from low-income families have been found to be at a greater disadvantage in the development of numeracy, but this disadvantage can be overcome through the use of a simple…

The aims of the studies were to assess the impact of the Little Champs programme for motor development on (1) the gross motor skills, and (2) cognitive function of children in the programme. In study 1, 118 children from one Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC) were tested using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2, and in study 2, 83…

Games Based Learning needs to be linked to good learning theory to become an important educational intervention. This study examines the effectiveness of a collection of computer games called Neurogames®. Neurogames are a group of computer games aimed at improving reading and basic maths and are designed using neuropsychological theory. The…

Despite the increasing use of the microgenetic methodology to examine change, the techniques employed to analyse microgenetic data remain fairly unsophisticated. This paper reviews the existing ways of analysing such data and describes their limitations. We use two recent studies to illustrate how modelling can avoid these problems and reveal…

Increasingly, young children are being exposed to computers at home and at school despite disagreement regarding the appropriateness and potential impact of technology on young children's development. Many views that predominant the debates lack empirical support and are too broad in their scope. This study examines the existing empirical studies…