Scientists have long employed puppets in research with young children; this essay explores the validity of this practice. After considering what puppets are, their main types and history, I note the different ways puppets have been employed in research. One of these uses raises the issue of whether and when children apply their theory of mind to…

Researchers have demonstrated the important contribution of mothers' sensitive parenting to children's developing cognition over the first 5 years of life, yet studies examining sensitivity beyond the early years, controlling for earlier effects, are limited. In this exploratory study, we examined the developmental pathways through which mothers'…

Purpose: With climate change education becoming more prevalent in schools around the globe, it is increasingly important that we understand parental perspectives on this topic. Children cross the boundaries between home and school culture every day, and their parents' attitudes, beliefs, and practices can influence their academic engagement in all…

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions target developmentally appropriate skills in young children with autism spectrum disorders using behavioral techniques in naturalistic interactions. Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions demonstrate strong empirical support and frequently utilize caregiver training of intervention…

Direct assessments of early childhood development (ECD) are a cornerstone of research in developmental psychology and are increasingly used to evaluate programs and policies in lower- and middle-income countries. Despite strong psychometric properties, these assessments are too expensive and time consuming for use in large-scale monitoring or…

In recent years, and within the scope of moving towards more inclusive and democratic classrooms, some scholars have proposed developing approaches to Music Education that depart from sound and sounding phenomena as larger categories that might incorporate the diverse trajectories and life experiences of children. In accordance with this initial…

Before they even talk, infants become sensitive to the speech sounds of their native language and recognize the auditory form of an increasing number of words. Traditionally, these early perceptual changes are attributed to an emerging knowledge of linguistic categories such as phonemes or words. However, there is growing skepticism surrounding…

As young as 3 years old, children rely on a mutual intentionality framework to confer group membership--that is, agreement between a joiner ("I want to be in your group") and group ("We want you to be in our group"). Here, we tested whether children apply this cognitive framework in the context of identity-based groups,…

The place of Church school headteachers as spiritual leaders of the school community is rarely highlighted. This article investigates how 13 Church primary school headteachers (Catholic Church of England, and Methodist) interpret this role. It draws on the Faith in the Nexus research which investigated how church primary schools nurtured pupils'…

This study constructs an Experiential Learning Management Model (ELMM) for early childhood education, rooted in social cognitive theory (SCT) and constructivist theory. ELMM integrates six key modules: Experiential Learning, Metacognitive Monitoring, Dynamic Assessment, Contextualized Learning, Social Interaction, and Double-Loop Learning Paths.…

Qualitative interviews and focus groups are commonly used methods to elicit participants' voices in program evaluations. However, the use of these data-gathering methods can fall short of the goal; even with open-ended questions, the protocols guiding and shaping interviews and focus groups heavily reflect the evaluators' understanding and…

In the context of kindergarten, the daily routine includes various activities aimed at the holistic development of children. Carrying out musical activities in the daily routine plays an important role in encouraging social and emotional learning. For the present research, which included preschool children, we developed a plan for implementing…

The Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children, 3rd Edition (AEPS-3), is a curriculum-based criterion-referenced assessment that is effectively used in early childhood programs because it links assessment, intervention, and evaluation. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the AEPS-3 in Kosovo, a…

Purpose: Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children's language development and delays are well documented, yet less is known about their delays in theory of mind (ToM) development. Importantly, conversational-communicative experiences, language competence, and teacher/parent influences loom large. The present study examined ToM development and the…

If one walks into an elementary classroom full of children, and it is quiet, most likely it is storytime. The teacher sits at the front of the carpet with a large book, elaborate illustrations on each page, and a variety of characters displaying the story. The children sit crisscross, eyes glued to the book or their teacher as they act out each…