In the Fall of 2018, the author embarked on her dissertation research, focusing on the critical issue of enhancing early childhood programs through the lens of early literacy development facilitated by play. At that time, many districts' early childhood curricula were heavily skewed towards academics, such as English/Language Arts (ELA) and Math,…

This study adapts the "Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS-2)" into Turkish for use from preschool onward, specifically during the candidate nomination stage. Conducted with 974 parents (675 mothers, 299 fathers) of children aged 5-10, it employs Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to evaluate the scale's structure and…

The study aimed to analyze, synthesize, and investigate the measurement properties of clinical tests that assess foot posture in children and adolescents. The study included research published in scientific journals that analyzed the measurement properties of clinical tests, focusing on the validity, reliability, responsiveness, or specificity of…

Reach-to-grasp behavior is a key developmental milestone in infants, involving coordinated actions such as arm transport, hand pre-shaping, and hand opening and closing. Vision guides the development of these skills, and delays in visual input can impact infants with early visual impairments. However, the effects of a congenital visual impairment…

There are individual differences in how people respond to emotionally ambiguous cues (i.e., valence bias), which have important consequences for mental health, development, and social functioning, yet how these differences develop in childhood and adolescence is unknown. Extensive literature shows that children's cognitive biases, including…

The human capacity for rational decisions hinges on modal judgment: the discernment of what could, has to, or cannot happen. This ability was proposed to be a late outcome of human cognitive development, contingent on the mastery of linguistic structures. Here, we show that preschool-age children are capable of sophisticated forms of modal…

Adjusting practice to different goals and characteristics is key to learning, but its development remains unclear. Across 2 preregistered experiments, 190 4-to-8-year-olds (106 female; mostly White; data collection: December 2021-September 2022) and 31 adults played an easy and a difficult game, then chose one to practice before a test on either…

This study explores the integration of indigenous stories into thematic teaching in Ghanaian kindergartens to enhance foundational learning. Guided by Rogoff's sociocultural theory and participatory action research, data were collected from four schools in the Awutu-Senya East Municipality through observations and interviews. The findings show…

Using content analysis and a framework of hope, this study examines how children's picturebooks explain the impact of climate change and ways to work toward climate justice. Four recurring themes across the books that address the guiding conceptualizations of hope are found: (1) interdependence; (2) collective action; (3) care and kindship across…

This study investigated the structural exploration of creativity in Chinese preschoolers using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural (TTCT-Figural). The participants were 256 children aged 4-6 from a public kindergarten in Shanghai, with an average age of 4.79 years (SD = 0.63). Building upon prior research and integrating Kirton's…

This study examines the impact of participatory pedagogy and child participation training on early childhood education (ECE) teachers' perspectives on children's participation. The research employed a case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, and involved eight teachers working at an independent kindergarten under the Directorate…

Differentiated instruction (DI) is a teaching philosophy which addresses the learning needs of individual children. This multiple case study aimed to investigate the extent preschool teachers differentiated content, process, assessment, and learning environment within multicultural classrooms. Four early childhood teachers' experiences were…

"Research Methods for Studying Young Children" is a volume developed to bring together in one source research techniques that researchers can use to collect data in early childhood education. These studies can then contribute to the knowledge in early childhood education. To conduct valid and reliable studies, researchers need to be…

Purpose: The challenges of language assessment in bilinguals include a lack of assessment tools and bilingual speech-language pathology services. Additionally, the weighting of subtests in standardized tests has not been empirically explored to maximize sensitivity and specificity. Language exposure might also inform the decision to diagnose…

Purpose: This study considered the impact of spectral and temporal smearing on vowel and consonant discrimination in school-age children and adults with normal hearing (NH). The overall purpose of this work was to test the hypothesis that degraded spectral cues preferentially impact vowel discrimination, while reduced access to temporal cues…