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…

Young children's (n = 108) and adults' (n = 40) ability to compute ad-hoc quantity conversational implicatures was assessed using a new implicit task that relied on eye-tracking. The children were 2 and 5 years old. Looking times reveal that all participants interpreted simple references by relying on implicatures. However, 2-year-olds failed to…

Purpose: This study examined the language and nonverbal inhibitory control skills of Italian monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TD) preschoolers with Italian as their second language and of age-matched monolingual and bilingual peers with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method: Four groups of preschoolers were enrolled: 30 TD…

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…

Introduction: The present study build on previous research that found a bidirectional relation of parenting stress and negative behavioural outcomes in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Aim: To investigate the mediating role of parenting self-efficacy in the relationship of parenting stress and children's behavioural and emotional problems.…

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)…

Research Findings: Prosocial behavior in early childhood can be assessed by various informants and methodologies, but the information each provides may differ in meaningful ways. The present study measured and compared young children's (N = 486; age: M = 48.51 months, SD = 8.22) prosocial behavior based on parent reports, teacher reports, and…

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…

Most cooperative interactions involve interpersonal trust and the expectation of mutual reciprocation. Thus, understanding when and how humans acquire interpersonal trust can help unveil the origins and development of children's cooperative behavior. Here, we investigated whether prior sociomoral information about trading partners modulates the…

While accumulating literature is demonstrating the role of the dopamine transporter (DAT) in predicting emotional-behavioural difficulties in adults of at risk populations, only few studies have focused on the possible association between the methylation status of the DAT promoter and the psychopathological risk of mothers, fathers and children in…

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.…