The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in neuroscientific evidence being used to characterize how contextual, structural, and societal factors shape cognition and school readiness. Measures of functional brain activity are increasingly viewed as markers of child development and biomarkers that could be employed to track the impact of…

The call to transform education must begin with the youngest children. The world is not on track in meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.2 committing countries to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education by 2030. There is solid scientific evidence that early…

We investigated whether child temperament (negative emotionality, 5 months) moderated the association between maternal stimulation (5 months--2½ years) and academic readiness and achievement (vocabulary, mathematics, and reading). We applied structural equation modeling to the data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (N =…

This case study explores effective practices within a district's early care and education model. Interviews were conducted with eight parents of high-performing students and seven district ECE partners from Promise City. The results of this case study lead to the development of a model that comprises best practices within the (a) informal ECE…

In this report, we perform a descriptive analysis of kindergarten readiness in Illinois. We use data on the population of Illinois kindergarteners between the 2017-18 and 2021-22 school years provided by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). In our analysis, we build on the existing literature and examine readiness over time, by domain,…

Current approaches to supporting students in the transition to elementary school fail to meet the needs of Latinx immigrant children and their families in the United States. Typical approaches place the responsibility on families to help their children adapt to the expectations of their teacher, classroom, and school without recognizing the…

Background: Early childhood is a formative period during which distinguishable development has projections of bearing desirable outcomes within an individual. Hence, physical, language, cognitive, emotional and social independence are healthy components of a typical child's development that early childhood development (ECD) educators deem…

The transition from early childhood education to primary education is, in many countries, the beginning of compulsory education. This has meant that much of the research on this transition has focused on academic aspects such as literacy or logical-mathematical competence. The lines of research have changed, and in recent years, very diverse…

There are five developmental areas: gross motor, fine motor, communication, adaptive behavior, and social-emotional. If social-emotional skills are delayed, all other developmental areas are negatively impacted. Preschool-aged students are incapable of kindergarten readiness if they have a delay in social-emotional development as it impacts their…

The need for valid and reliable ways to assess developmental outcomes of preschool children becomes continually more acute as public investments in preschool education grow, with corresponding pressure for programs to demonstrate their ability to influence child outcomes. The authors conducted studies of one assessment widely used in Head Start…

This paper analyzes the risks to child development and school readiness among children under age 6 in Pakistan. Drawing on a nationally representative telephone survey conducted in the midst of a global pandemic, between December 2021 and February 2022, we present the first nationally representative estimates of child development for children…

Going down a slide, dancing to music, and pushing someone on a tire swing are more than simply "play activities" or a means to staying physically fit. Engagement in motor play provides important opportunities for preschoolers to develop a variety of skills, including gross motor, social, communication, and cognitive skills. However,…

Across geographically diverse samples, engagement in stimulating activities with young children is considered an important element of parenting that promotes cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development. Indicators of stimulation activities are often summed, based on the assumption that more stimulation is better and that different…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings faced significant disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, compromising the continuity, stability and quality of provision. Three years on from the first UK lockdown as pandemic-era preschoolers enter formal schooling, stakeholders are concerned about the impact of the disruption on children's…

Early intervention (EI) services--including but not limited to speech, physical, occupational, and mental health therapies--have been proven to significantly benefit young children's development, shaping their readiness for school and offering pivotal support for caregivers. However, racial disparities persist in identification for and access to…