To address the need for interventions targeting social emotional development and mental health of young children in South Africa, the "Mazi Umntanakho" ('know your child') digital tool was co-designed, and piloted with caregivers and 3-5-year-old children involved in home visiting programmes promoting early childhood development. The aim…

This content analysis explored children's fictional storybooks and informational science books to determine their differences in high-quality text features that support oral language (OL) development. We also explored the opportunities for OL development in curricular books compared to trade books. Using systematic coding procedures, we evaluated…

Background: Children with speech sound difficulties often require educational psychology services, yet systematic reviews examining the association between these difficulties and language or reading problems are lacking. This meta-analysis examines whether these children are at higher risk of language and reading difficulties compared to their…

Parenting styles act as a risk or a protective factor for the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Moreover, children with deficits in emotion regulation often show increased aggressive behaviors. Previous studies confirm that parenting style also contributes to the development of emotion dysregulation. The present longitudinal…

The article explored the impact of topic background knowledge (TBK) on children's language ability development and reading-related emotional factors. TBK refers to the foundational knowledge that children possess concerning a specific subject or topic. The content schemata theory suggests that a high level of TBK facilitates information processing…

There is a growing body of research arguing that, alongside education in climate science literacy, our education systems need a deeper, broader, and more interdisciplinary education in climate literacy. Specifically, the push is to reframe climate literacy from a narrow competence taught in science classes to a broad socioscientific and cultural…

The current research examines the possibilities of music education in supporting the well-being of families living in demanding life situations. The context for the study is "Family Sound Hammock," a 3-year research and development project that took place in the metropolitan area of Finland from 2020 to 2023. The project aimed at…

This qualitative study contributes theorised and empirically enriched insights from local practices into children's agency. The authors trace a converging interest in multimodal literacies, postcolonial philosophies and early childhood pedagogy to document and critically engage with children's agency in stories experienced by Malawian children in…

Increasingly early years education recognises the value of engaging in natural play environments for young children's health and wellbeing. Whilst the focus of nature play usually centres around children's engagement in bush settings, this paper examines the connections between children's health and wellbeing, when beach settings become the play…

The aim of this study is to examine whether the emotional intelligence of 5-6 years preschool children differs significantly according to the frequency of outdoor play. The sample consists of 208 children and their parents. The data were collected through Sullivan's Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children (EISC) and the Personal Information…

Parents may be well placed to deliver therapeutic support to their own autistic preschool children. Parent-implemented Early Start Denver Model (P-ESDM) is one well-researched program for coaching parents to use strategies in daily routines to support child development. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of parents of autistic…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals had to spend much of their time working in hospitals, which may have caused psychological distress to their children. This study was in the form of a case study pattern, one of the qualitative research methods aimed to identify the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the primary…

This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children…

Early childhood education (ECE) is vital for children's development, especially from birth to age five. Yet, there remains significant variation in teachers' qualifications across different settings and countries. While previous research suggests that teachers' qualifications may influence children's development outcomes in early childhood…

Purpose: Despite known motor and spoken language impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the motor skills underlying speech production and their relationship with language skills have rarely been directly investigated in this population. Method: Thirty-nine autistic children (14 minimally verbal [MV], 25 verbal [V]) and 11 non-autistic…