Physical activity--including outdoor motor play--has been associated with learning and brain-related functions and abilities in elementary school children and adolescence. Few studies have been conducted on the relationships between active play and these cognitive processes in preschool aged children. Several investigations have revealed that…

Pointing has long been considered influential in language acquisition. Certain pre-linguistic vocal expressions may hold even greater value in addressing the transition to language. The goal of the present study is longitudinal evaluation of early communicative development, addressing the influence of pre-linguistic gestures and vocal expressions.…

Higher education faculty strive to adopt pedagogical approaches that generate student engagement, motivation, and quality learning experiences. The literature on play has much to offer higher education. However, playful pedagogy remains an uncommon approach in education and is often represented in the literature as a practice utilized for a…

The study investigated the effects of school environment and methods of teaching on language skills achievement of pre-primary school pupils in Edo State. It also investigated the interaction effects of Montessori and played methods and urban and rural environments on pupils' achievement in listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Three…

This article investigates the variety of factors that hinder the implementation of play (as defined by western scholars) in Asian preschools. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of policy borrowing, enactment and glocalisation, we analyse three jurisdictions that illustrate distinctive problematics: India, Mainland China and Hong Kong. The…

This article examines how the environment and routines within preschools can support second language use and development. It suggests that certain imitable aspects common to Swedish preschools make the environment suitable for L2 use and development. Data build on a qualitative synthesis of two studies from which typical routine activities where…

Background: Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterised by several typical somatic characteristics and by developmental disabilities with various degrees of severity. Focusing on children with RSTS, the aim of this study was to describe their psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental…

Background: Researchers interested in more playful literacy practices often abandon school-related contexts to instead follow young people to after-school settings, community spaces, social spaces, home environments, and online hangouts. However, play also makes itself visible, even (and sometimes especially) in more formalized learning spaces.…

In early childhood education, playing with friends has long been considered developmentally appropriate and an indicator of a child's growing social competency. 'We are all friends' is a familiar mantra heard in classrooms and playgrounds. For children with a diagnosed disability and their families, inclusive settings offer the promise of play…

This article is based on video observations of three-year-old children's empathic expressions in the context of playful interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions in Norway. The data were analysed within a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, searching for a system of the children's self-initiated empathic expressions…

The present study examined features of sibling and friend dyads' connectedness (e.g., length and emotional tone of connected sequences) and the quality of the dyads' interactions during play from early to middle childhood. Forty-four families with a 4-year-old focal child were observed at Time 1 (T1) and again at Time 2 (T2) at age 7 in two…

Personal and social development is an important area which influences children's learning journey in all levels of education. Examining the impact of the arts on children's development, there are several studies that adopt this focus. However, the majority of them focus on either primary or secondary education or on specific personal and social…

Symbolic play skills are important in language acquisition and child development. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties demonstrating such play behaviors. Imaginary objects symbolic play refers to play behavior in which children perform play actions without actual objects. Three boys with ASD (3-7 years) participated…

Success in an increasingly globalized world sets requirements for versatile communication skills and understanding about other cultures. One of the keys to success is versatile language skills, on which the European Commission spoke out as early as in 1995, recommending that every European citizen should learn two foreign languages in addition to…

This article focuses on the development of a theoretical framework for jazz dance in which researchers hypothesized how motif notation concepts from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Language of Dance® (LOD) could be used to help learners understand how the roots and branches of jazz dance styles are related. We began by investigating the…