Due to the lack of tools that can be easily used by practitioners, there is a need to develop acceptable embedded ways to assess children's fine motor skill development within early childhood education and care settings. This study examined the validity and reliability of a brief and ecologically valid fine motor assessment tool for preschool-aged…

This article discusses findings from the first 10 years of the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) Study, which includes more than 450 deaf and hard of hearing Australian children whose hearing losses were identified variously through newborn hearing screening or later paths to confirmation and intervention.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". In relation to Early Childhood Education (ECE), SDG Target 4.2 aims to "ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary…

Research increasingly acknowledges the importance of high quality interactions that support and extend children's thinking. Few measurement tools currently exist, however, to capture this specific aspect of process quality. The Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale was developed to assess interactional quality in early…

In recent years, preschooler's self-regulation has been extensively researched. This systematic review deals with the overlaps and differences among the many different terminologies and definitions of self-regulation in childhood and the association with preschooler's social-emotional and behavioural development. A systematic literature search in…

This study examined associations between maltreatment and early developmental vulnerabilities in a population sample of 68,459 children (M[subscript age] = 5.62 years, SD = 0.37) drawn from the Australian state of New South Wales, using linked administrative data for the children and their parents (collected 2001-2009). Associations were estimated…

Supporting parent-child relationships is vital for children's social and emotional development, future health and well-being. As children now spend significant amounts of time attending early childhood education and care settings, it is opportune that interventions be designed for educators to promote and nurture parent-child relationships. The…

Play acts as the source of children's development in the preschool period. Yet, the global pandemic has changed children's play conditions in ways that are not yet fully understood. With movement restrictions, families have struggled to find ways of bringing children together for play. We studied how family day care (FDC) educators across a remote…

ECEC-based physical activity (PA) interventions have reported modest changes; however, those that are underpinned by theory seem to report more favorable outcomes. To date, no ECEC-based PA interventions have been underpinned by professional development-focused theories, despite professional development being a consistent component in such…

This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of 'emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods…

"Let's Count Online" is a new e-learning approach to delivering "Let's Count" professional learning. It was evaluated in 2018. The findings suggest that the e-learning platform was successful, and that the outcomes for educators were similar to those achieved by participants using the face-to-face workshop professional learning…

Dietary intake can affect the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development of young children. Few studies have explored the relationships between dietary intake and the cognitive and socioemotional dimensions of school readiness. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between children's dietary intake in early…

Background: Children with phonological impairment present with pattern-based errors in their speech production. While some children have difficulties with speech perception and/or the establishment of robust underlying phonological representations, the nature of phonological impairment in children is still not well understood. Given that…

The authors compare pretend play and executive function both in preschool children with an acquired brain injury and in neurotypical preschool children. They find the ability to produce logical, sequenced pretend play actions and object substitutions in play correlates strongly with executive function ability in both groups, and working memory…

Competency in fundamental movement skills (FMS) lays the foundation for developing more complex motor skills and supporting a physically active future. Preschool-aged children are at a crucial window of development, so intervening with motor skill programmes increases the likelihood of future physical activity (PA) participation. Parents/carers…