This study tested the effectiveness of Promoting First Relationships® (PFR), a preventive intervention program aimed at fostering positive caregiver-child relationships in Native families living on a rural reservation. Participants were 162 primary caregivers (96% Native; 93% female) and their Native toddlers (10-31 months old; 50% female).…

There is ongoing interest in free-flowing routines in early childhood education and care settings (ECEC), however little is known about educators' perceptions of free-flowing routines. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of educators regarding free-flowing routines. A focus group and five semi-structured interviews were…

Joint attention, or shared attention to an object or event, is a pivotal skill for the development of social interactions and social communication. Joint attention typically develops in natural contexts within the first year of life. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related developmental disabilities often experience difficulty…

Supporting students' friendships across social boundaries is one powerful way in which colleges and universities can contribute to the civic mission of higher education. Using data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national, multi-institutional study, we examined how institutional conditions…

Ready for Kindergarten! Survey (R4K!S) is a readiness assessment of children entering kindergarten about students' knowledge and skills within the first six to ten weeks of school. There are many interpretations of what constitutes "readiness." Vermont's concept of children's readiness is multidimensional; it includes social and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for ongoing pedagogic changes in the higher education landscape, especially with the use of online modes of delivery. The digital shift triggered questions around student engagement and the need to ensure that, despite physical distancing, students did not feel alienated from online learning spaces. This…

In this explanatory sequential mixed methods study I aimed to understand elementary educators' social emotional competence and stress levels in a large suburban school district in the Midwest. A recent study that Kotowski et al. (2022) conducted revealed that over 70% educators report high daily stress. In 2020 the COVID-19 global pandemic brought…

This dissertation presents a qualitative research single case study to describe the state of social-emotional development of educationally-disadvantaged students at SM Elementary School (pseudonym) in the aftermath of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the students' state of social-emotional development, students from SM…

This meta-analysis aims to clarify the relationship between teacher-child interaction and children's outcomes in language, mathematics, literacy, social development, and self-regulation based on the perspective of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). A total of 24 studies with 139 independent effect sizes and 67,919 participants were…

Bilingualism exerts early and pervasive effects on cognition, observable in infancy. Thus far, investigations of infant bilingual cognition have focused on sensitivity to visual memory, executive function, and linguistic sensitivity. Much less research has focused on how bilingualism impacts processing of social cues. The present study sought to…

As a practice and empirical observations show, the educational activity of economic agents forms a whole set of prospects for their development. It is due to stable positive or, on the contrary, negative expectations of prospective counterparts that interact with the economic agents, of the possibilities of their development in both the…

Socioemotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing social and emotional competences through which the child learns to recognize and manage emotions, care for others, make good decisions, behave responsibly and ethically, develop positive relationships and avoid negative behaviours (Promoting social and emotional learning: Guidelines for…

Research has underscored the cognitive benefits of reading, but scholars have also begun to explore its implications in the socioemotional domain. The authors review research exploring the links between reading and social understanding skills such as empathy and perspective taking, examine the qualities of literature that are posited to foster…

The use of socially assistive robotics (SARs) is a promising method for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies conducted in this field in recent years show that the use of robots as collaborators may have positive effects on the development of social skills in children with ASD, especially in those…

Background: State-level child care quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) have been implemented in a majority of states in the U.S.A. One goal is to improve developmental outcomes for young children, especially from families with fewer resources. Research is needed to determine if QRIS can produce quality improvements that will support the…