Evidence suggests that parental mind-mindedness is important for children's social-emotional development; however, almost all research exploring mind-mindedness has been conducted with families from Western backgrounds. The current study explored cross-cultural differences in mind-mindedness based on observed real-time interactions between urban…

Purpose: Infants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produce fewer play actions and gestures than neurotypical infants (e.g., Mastrogiuseppe et al., 2015; Veness et al., 2012; Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different "types" of actions and gestures are more or less likely to develop…

Overcoming challenges to quality early education in developing nations, TEACH Rwanda, one high-performing education system, offers a model of childhood learning through sensitive teacher dispositions, child-centred play, and culturally relevant materials. This manuscript provides a unique window into the practices of a quality early childhood…

Gross motor and physical activity opportunities in early childhood are important for promoting health and development. We conducted two studies with the following aims: (1) to describe the quality of gross motor/physical activity early learning environments in Washington (WA) state, USA and (2) to study the relationship between the quality of…

Research Findings: Community-based playgroups in low-and-middle-income countries increase access to early learning at lower cost than centers. However, evidence of effectiveness is limited. The effects of one, two, or three playgroup sessions per week on children's performance on the Early Learning Outcome Measure (ELOM) (n = 112; baseline M…

Discussions on the educational potential of school football range from its social acceptance to the pedagogically desirable lessons that can be drawn from it. The aim is to understand the process of institutionalisation in school football and the main formative challenges it entails. An ethnographic multiple case study is presented. The sample…

Using a holistic support framework, this study investigated teachers' conceptions of effective play-based learning development and how their perceptions of its effectiveness related to whole-child development. Data were collected from a mixed method study. A total of 286 questionnaires from 50 Hong Kong kindergartens were collected and then 29…

In this longitudinal study, we explored children's reasoning about social inclusion/exclusion at Year 1 and Year 3 (n = 169 Year 1, n = 129 Year 3) of early primary education in Australia and how this reasoning related to changes in children's epistemic cognition. The data collection involved 30-minute interviews in which children were asked to…

With the help of digital media and networking technologies, today's learners are increasingly participating in the consuming, producing, and disseminating of new meanings in various modes such as text, image, sound, video, or all together--particularly in online communities--forming new identities as knowledge producers. By using online…

OPAL -- Outdoor Play and Learning, in collaboration with Earth Day Canada, is a national program that encourages outdoor play in public schools across Canada. This paper focuses on the implementation of OPAL in an elementary school in Toronto. The initial implementation strategies of the program are discussed, which include efforts to create a…

While humour and laughter create conditions that are conducive for learning, different forms of children's humour have been given little attention in research on digital media, literacy learning, and multimodal design. Applying a Bakhtinian lens, we analyse carnivalesque videos created by elementary students as part of the formal curriculum. We…

This study examined the perceptions of upper elementary school students toward physical education (PE). High and moderate/low attitude students (N = 16) participated. Two themes emerged: (a) it is important to have fun in PE (students are excited to go to PE, PE is their favorite class, the teacher influences perceptions of fun) and (b) class…

Naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention is an emerging class of interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder. The present article is a meta-analysis of outcomes of group-design studies (n = 27) testing interventions using naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention strategies. Small, significant positive effects…

Taking place within the Science Through Technology-Enhanced Play (STEP) design-based research project, this paper describes how first- and second-grade students use their bodies to imaginatively become microscopic particles inside of a collaborative simulation of state change (e.g., liquid to gas) and within two distinct play spaces: a…

Although most early-childhood educators agree on the value of play in child development, they find it increasingly harder to advocate for play given today's pressure for academic achievement. Using the theoretical work of Lev Vygotsky, the authors discuss how make-believe play among children helps them develop skills critical for success in school…