In-service early childhood educators (n = 33) completed a survey describing their perceptions towards: (a) how educators draw on personal spirituality to support their role in the classroom, (b) what curricular activities, interactions or experiences educators believe relate to nourishing children's spirituality, (c) how the classroom environment…

The aim of the study is to examine how toddlers (33 months) with weak mathematical skills differ from their peers, the extent to which those weak skills persist into preschool age (57 months), and how the group with persisting weak skills differs from the group with temporary weak skills. Participants were 692 children (344 girls, 348 boys). The…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of explicit and analogy learning on preschool children's running, long jump, gallop and balance. The participants were 43 preschool children randomly assigned to the analogy learning group (22 children) or the explicit (21 children). In the explicit learning group explicit instructions were…

Between three and five years of age, both emotional competence (EC) and cognitive self-regulation (CSR) have been documented as undergoing remarkable growth and as being strong predictors of concurrent and future positive outcomes. EC encompasses three interrelated and progressively developing skills: emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and…

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes can strengthen the social, emotional and cognitive skills that are crucial for future learning and wellbeing. Teacher-child interactions are the most vital component of ECEC service quality in terms of children's social-emotional functioning. However, many children are not…

In the absence of agreement about child resilience, this study used a Delphi procedure with 32 experts in child development to reach agreement about child resilience. According to participants child resilience is best defined as a process whereby a child develops the capacity to adapt when experiencing adversity, although the experience of…

Thirty-three children treated for congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) (13 boys; 13 with focal forms of CHI, median age 10 months) entered the study. The mothers were requested to fill-in the Ages and Stages Questionnaire to estimate communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving and personal-social skills. Children with focal forms had…

To describe and analyze the changes in anthropometric parameters in children with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS) from birth to four years of age. This prospective study evaluated 117 children diagnosed with CZS. Anthropometric indices evaluated annually were classified with respect to presence of microcephaly and adequacy of weight-for-age,…

During early childhood, economically disadvantaged children can experience challenges that affect their social-emotional, language, and physical health development across the lifespan. Psychologists have tested several interventions to address developmental problems during early childhood, but information about the degree to which economically…

The aim of the research was to determine what relations occur between the stress experienced by parents in the relationship with their children and the personality traits that they shape in them. Personal characteristics that parents shape in their children have been classified into metatraits described in the Circumplex of Personality model. The…

Parental playfulness describes a parent's ability to act in a spontaneous, amusing, flexible and creative manner in different parent-child situations. This study examined the hypothesis that parental playfulness promotes children's emotional skills and thus should be related to improved emotion regulation and lower anxiety. A sample of 137 parents…

Although intervening early can improve child and family outcomes when a child has a developmental disability, most children with developmental delays are not identified prior to school entry. Childcare professionals can play a key role in identifying delays early. The developmental monitoring attitudes, knowledge, and practice of childcare…

This quantitative study was based on a parental intervention focused on children's language development. The Test de Vocabulario de Imagenes Peabody-III was used to assess children's vocabulary in Spanish pre- and post-intervention. The data was collected during five semesters from Fall 2015 to Fall 2017 from 421 economically-disadvantaged urban…

Theory of mind (ToM) allows people to understand their own and others' behaviour, crediting it with intentions, desires and beliefs. In the case of parenting, maternal reflective function unfolds within child-caregiver interactions, and previous studies have pointed out this variable as necessary for positive care. In the present study we sought…

The purpose of this study examines the impact of an instructional strategy on kindergarten children's narrative skills. The strategy was based on Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) principles and was adapted for kindergarten children. The sample consisted of 85 children aged 5-6, attending six kindergarten classes in Crete, Greece. The…