The "Kind Intentions Program" (KIP) was developed in a childcare facility in an effort to encourage children to engage in kind acts. In addition to support for displays of kindness, the programme encourages children to engage in perspective taking skills as they observe the actions of those around them. This study involved the identification of…

Barrett, Richert, and Driesenga [Barrett, J. L., Richert, R. A., & Driesenga, A. (2001). "God's beliefs versus mother's: The development of nonhuman agents concepts." "Child Development," 72(1), 50-65] have suggested that children are able to conceptualize the representational properties held by certain super-natural entities, such as God, before…

When child-raising involves violence, a conflict of values arises between the parents' autonomy and the children's right to equal participation in a democratic society. In this article I discuss, from the perspective of discourse analysis, how a dichotomous understanding of the public versus private sphere can constitute a threat to children's…

This reflective essay describes the author's experiences as an observer in a behaviorist infant classroom. The author developed four categories of practice to describe what happened in the behaviorist infant room: (1) curricular focus on training typically developing infants to meet typical developmental milestones, (2) the use of highly…

Twelve- and 14-month-old infants' ability to represent another person's visual perspective (Level-1 visual perspective taking) was studied in a looking-time paradigm. Fourteen-month-olds looked longer at a person reaching for and grasping a new object when the old goal-object was visible than when it was invisible to the person (but visible to the…

The present study examined two key aspects of young children's ability to explain human behaviour in a mentalistic way. First, we explored desires that are of a level of difficulty comparable with that of false beliefs. For this purpose, the so-called "alternative desires" were created. Second, we examined how children's psychological…

In this article, we report a research project on web-based case instruction that was developed and implemented to allow prospective early childhood teachers to be exposed to various dilemmas faced by practicing teachers. The goal of this project was to design an instructional tool and method that could help prospective teachers expand their notion…

Although "hindsight bias" (the "I knew it all along" phenomenon) has been documented in adults, its development has not been investigated. This is despite the fact that hindsight bias errors closely resemble the errors children make on theory of mind (ToM) tasks. Two main goals of the present work were to (a) create a battery of hindsight tasks…

This article examines how drama education strategies enrich children's understanding and excitement of a story before they read, preparing them for a deeper exploration and appreciation of the story. Following a book's basic storyline, drama strategies guide children through an honest, spontaneous enactment of a story's key events without…

Child development theorists, researchers, and educators have long known that play is one of children's most valuable resources, vital to their social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Through play children make sense of the world around them and work through new experiences, ideas, and feelings. But in recent years, a host of social forces and…

The theme of the 38th meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME 38) and the 36th meeting of the North American Chapter of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA 36) was "Mathematics Education at the Edge." Academically, the theme provides opportunities to highlight and examine…

Early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand includes different philosophical perspectives, may be part of the public or private sector and aims to be inclusive and holistic. The early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, supports these aims. Aspects of the curriculum that are holistic may be conceptualized in diverse ways and this qualitative…

In this classic essay, first published by the "Harvard Educational Review" in 1986, Vivian Gussin Paley details the beginnings of her career as a teacher and author. The article describes her methods of tape-recording and analyzing her students' daily engagement in the "three Fs: fantasy, fairness, and friendship." Her careful analysis provides…

Twenty years after research on children's "theory of mind" began, this field continues to be a leading influence in the study of developmental psychology and psychopathology. In this review we examine the contribution of research on children's theories of mind to our understanding of children's developing social relationships. Evidence shows that…

This paper examines the concept of "teaching" in early education and childcare and argues that the activity of teaching, broadly defined, concerns all adults who work in this area and occurs in all phases of the educational system. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological perspective on human development is applied to conceptualise teaching as (1)…