Empirical research highlights the benefits for the development of children's mathematical competencies when they play linear number board games with dice and receive feedback. We, therefore, investigated mathematical competencies in two training studies with six sessions and a 3 × 2 design. The sample in the first experiment consisted of N = 79…

This 6-wave longitudinal study (2014-2018) of 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds from a midsized city and rural area in southern Germany (89 females, 72 males; predominantly White; mostly middle class) found that scientific-reasoning abilities first develop at 6 years. Abilities were highly stable, with the kindergarten score predicting 25% of…

The influence of the epistemological beliefs of parents on the development of comprehensive scientific reasoning abilities was investigated in a five-wave longitudinal study from kindergarten to elementary school. The 161 German 5-10-year-olds (89 girls, 72 boys) were assessed yearly on their scientific reasoning abilities using comprehensive…

Previous studies have established the relationship between behavioral problems and specific learning disorders (SLD); however, the exact mechanism by which behavioral disorders impact SLD remains unclear. This longitudinal study used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to investigate how parents' judgment of children's behavioral problems changed…

Given the great influence gender identity issues have in educational settings, it is critical to understand how students, especially in the K-12 context, are affected and how this contributes to their academic success. This article deals with the potential that lies in teaching topics of gender identity in the additional language classroom.…

We examined the contribution of rapid automatized naming (RAN) components (articulation time, pause time, and pause time consistency) to reading fluency, reading comprehension, and spelling in a sample of 257 German children (139 boys, 118 girls; M[subscript age] = 5.60 years, SD = 0.31) followed from kindergarten to Grade 1. In kindergarten,…

Research Findings: Children differ in their ability to adapt to elementary school. Yet, the family factors that foster a successful transition to elementary school are less well understood. Family cohesion as an indicator of a positive emotional climate within families may play an important role for children's ability to adapt to school. Thus,…

First-order and advanced theory of mind (ToM and AToM), and their structures and relations were investigated in 229 children aged 5-8 years. ToM was assessed using 6 tasks from the first-order ToM scale, while AToM was measured using an 18-item battery (higher-order false-belief understanding; strange stories; faux pas test; eyes test;…

This paper provides historical insights and educational background of Froebel's Gifts, hands-on materials developed in the early 19th century. Based on an explorative study with 54 German children (aged 5 to 10) in 2016, we first took steps to explore how these materials meet the demands for early mathematics learning of primary children. Starting…

When asked to draw different kinds of triangles, children reveal many creative ways to express variety. In this paper, the drawings of 81 children in the age between 4 and 6 will be examined and illustrated what kind of understanding of the concept "triangle" precedes the drawings. Therefore, different categories of the children's…

Children's estimation skills on a bounded and unbounded number line task were assessed in the light of their familiarity with numbers. Kindergartners, first graders, and second graders (N = 120) estimated the position of numbers on a 1--100 number line, marked with either two reference points (i.e., 1 and 10: unbounded condition) or three…

Beginning readers in shallow orthographies acquire word reading skills more quickly than in deep orthographies like English. In addition to extending this evidence base by comparing reading acquisition in English with the more transparent German, we conducted a longitudinal study and investigated whether different early reading skills made…

Research Findings: This study investigated the long-term interrelations among children's language competencies, their home literacy environment (HLE), and 3 aspects of socioemotional development from ages 3 to 8, controlling for characteristics of the child and family. For this sample of 547 typically developing German children, parents and…

Mathematical competencies are important not only for academic achievement at school but also for professional success later in life. Although we know a lot about the impact of "Home Literacy Environment" on the development of early linguistic competencies, research on "Home Numeracy Environment" (HNE) and the assessment of its…

People often have difficulties in understanding situations that involve non-linear processes. Also, the topic of non-linear functions is introduced relatively late in the curriculum. Previous research has nevertheless shown that already children aged 6 years and older are able to discriminate non-linear from linear processes. Within the present…