We investigated whether the cool and hot executive functions (EFs) exhibited by kindergarteners could predict their academic achievement in the middle grades of elementary school. The study assessed the cool and hot EF of 48 Japanese kindergartners (M = 78.12 months) and then measured these same children's academic achievement in language and…

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…

Objectives: Motor deficits related to imitation have been observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients. This pilot investigation focused on motor performances, including daily tool-use actions, performing an action in the absence of the tool, and imitating (copying tool-use action presented visually), in eight children with ASD and eight…

The aim of this study was to test the relationship of theory of mind (ToM) and maternal emotional expressiveness with children's aggressive behaviours (i.e., relational aggression, physical aggression). ToM is vital to relational aggression, which involves harming others through purposeful manipulation and damaging peer relationships. However,…

There has been a lack of research into conceptually teaching the structure of contextual problems to kindergarten students. This is despite the popularity of contextual problems and the difficulties that students have with them. This study focuses on creating a textless, image-based application that uses the Triplet Structure Model to teach about…

The present study examined whether young children demonstrated consistencies in their allocation patterns across distributions of positive and negative resources. Preschool children from younger (age 4-5) and elder (age 5-6) classrooms were asked to allocate rewards when one person contributed more than the other and to allocate the responsibility…

Purpose: This study investigated the auditory comprehension of Japanese sentences including relative clauses (RCs) by 52 Japanese-speaking children with typical development (TD) and 16 children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: A picture-pointing task measured RC and main clause (MC) comprehension for object and subject relatives in…

Mental state terms are believed to be closely related to the development of Theory of Mind (ToM). This study focuses on mental state verbs (MSVs) and investigates how they are used by Japanese-speaking mother-child dyads compared to their English-speaking counterparts. Analyses of their spontaneous speech from the CHILDES archives show that…

This paper examined whether a younger starting age of formal instruction on a foreign language is beneficial in expanding circle countries. An experimental study was designed to examine to what extent the five varieties of English language teachers are intelligible to Japanese- (JSLs) and Korean-speaking language learners (KSLs), who have…

BACKGROUND: Low-functional health literacy (HL) of parents influences poor child health outcomes. This study aimed to assess the relationship between comprehensive HL of parents and body mass index (BMI) of their children. METHODS: We enrolled 3- to 6-year-old preschool-aged children and their parents in this multicenter cross-sectional cohort…

Home-based child care or childminding as it is commonly known in the United Kingdom (UK) is a service often used by parents and families in many countries. However, despite its prevalence, there is a paucity of research on the subject. Addressing this gap, this study presents new empirical data to better understand this type of provision in…

This study investigated age differences in the utilization of visually contrastive information (i.e., differently colored identical objects) for temporary referential ambiguity resolution during spoken sentence comprehension. Five- and 6-year-old Japanese children and adults listened to sentences that contained a color adjective-noun combination…

This study investigated the flow experience of Jiro, a 2-year-old Japanese boy, regarding his violin playing in a social context. In this study, Jiro's violin playing was videotaped at home and during musical sessions for young children and families, guided by the author as a violinist-teacher-researcher. The method adopted a single case study…

In recent years, scholars have increasingly advocated the importance of cultivating non-cognitive skills (social and emotional skills) in early childhood, and play is useful in acquiring the skills. Simultaneously, young children also need to acquire mathematical cognitive skills as a learning foundation. However, many researchers have indicated…

The first six years of the child's life are infinitely the most important, as they are the years in which attitudes are being established, habits formed, and character trends largely fixed. This article examines topics such as race relations and prejudice in kindergarten, the role of kindergarten teachers, soldier play in kindergarten and its…