Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care…

Purpose: Oncological diseases, especially if experienced in the first 3 years of life, expose young children to conditions of serious physical and emotional stress causing delays in their physical development, cognitive acquisitioning and issues related to their emotional and social functioning. This study examines the effects of the participation…

Research Findings: In the present study, we investigated the roles of children's social competence and immigrant background in the prediction of the quality of children's relationships with peers and teachers and school adjustment. Participants were N = 212 children (M[subscript age] = 58.32 months, SD = 10.72; n = 98 with an immigrant background)…

In an era of evolving literacy challenges, an Italian based project 'Leggere: Forte!' (Reading Strong) is promoting shared reading aloud to spark youth interest in reading and improve language skills. Now in its third year, the project team have analysed the impact of daily shared reading on 1829 children aged 3-10. The results show significant…

In this article, we present kindergarten children's ideas about thermal phenomena before any educational intervention took place. In order to capture and account for the heterogeneity of the kindergarten group in this study, first teachers observed children's exploration behavior, task orientation, science interest, and language comprehension in…

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European…

Research Findings: In order to investigate the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on preschooler's social-emotional learning skills, the present pre-post test pilot study assessed prosocial behavior, self-regulation and perspective taking in 21 preschool children, randomly assigned either to the experimental or the control group. Children…

Several models of working memory (WM) have been proposed in the literature. Most of the research on the architecture of WM is based on adults or older children, but less is known about younger children. In this study, we tested various models of WM on a sample of 739 Italian children, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, primarily of European…

Recent years have witnessed increasing attention to early childhood education and care as a foundation for children's successful development in school and beyond. The great majority of children in postindustrial societies now attend preschools or daycare, making this setting a major part of their culturally constructed developmental niches.…

Structured motor tasks may affect cognitive development by creating a cognitively challenging "enriched environment', giving opportunity for social cooperation, increasing the joy to learn through play, improving the sense of mastery and competence. The study investigated the association between motor and cognitive exercises, through a…

It has been well documented that oral language skills are precursors of the development of written abilities, meaning that improving oral language skills, e.g. vocabulary, listening comprehension, could have positive effects reading comprehension. The main aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of a training program focused on four…

Digital technologies are increasingly present in young children's lives. How can early education systems get the best out of digitalisation while minimising its risks? This is especially urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated our reliance on digital tools -- tools that enabled young children to continue learning when early education…

The development of numerical abilities was examined in 59 children aged 5 years divided into three groups: one control group (n = 15) and two experimental groups (pencil-and-paper mathematical training: n = 29: computerized mathematical training: n = 15). The participants were assessed both before and after a battery of validated tests assessing…

The study explored the experience of young children from migrant families during their first entry into an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service and analysed how the children cope with the new context, which is socially, culturally and linguistically different from their home. The activities and social behaviour of two groups of…

Whereas some evidence exists that math anxiety may interfere with math performance from the very beginning of primary school, no study to date has attempted to investigate whether math anxiety may also interfere with early math learning (i.e., the encoding of new math knowledge) and not only with recalling already mastered contents in test…