Today, many children worldwide grow up in bilingual or multilingual families. This study explores early literacy development in Russian-Hebrew bilingual families in Israel. It studies the contribution of the home literacy environment (HLE), the language of communication, and the nature of the maternal writing support in Hebrew and Russian, to…

While Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) play a crucial role in children's and parents' ability to maintain routines, their impact during armed conflicts remains understudied. During a 10-day military operation in Israel involving missile launches, we conducted an online survey among parents of children aged 1-7, to assess the relationship…

The aim of the study encompasses three primary objectives: (1) To examine the capability of children of varying ages to reproduce increasingly complex rhythms through hand-clapping and drumming; (2) To explore the ability of children of different ages to notate increasingly complex rhythms; and (3) To investigate the impact of age on children's…

Research Findings: Cultural differences emerge in the home literacy environment and the nature of shared book-reading (SBR), yet the impact of culture on parents' book selection remains unexplored, despite the centrality of the book in SBR. Parents in Spain (n = 132) and Israel (n = 123), two Western countries with different cultural patterns,…

This study examined the effects of maternal and children's resources on school readiness, literacy achievements, and reading motivation in children. The participants included children (N = 180) (124 girls; 56 boys) from 19 kindergartens, their mothers, and their kindergarten teachers. Mothers reported on their working hours, interaction quality,…

Music experience in childhood has beneficial effects on early cognitive and linguistic development. Most children under the age of five experience music every day, with family members. Yet, few studies that have focused on "Parental Musical Engagement" (PME). The issue is there are but few psychometrically standardized measures that…

The study focuses on language and cognitive abilities of siblings of the linguistically most affected children with autism (i.e. siblings of nonverbal children--SIBS-ANV). Twenty-eight SIBS-ANV (17 boys), ages 4-9 years, took part in the study. All children attended regular schools, and none had received a diagnosis of autism. Controls were 27…

Home observations of Israeli families with retarded children (N=40) and with normal children (N=40) indicated that, among families with retarded children, there was less frequent maternal behavior toward the child, less frequent communicative behavior of the child toward the parents, and more frequent spousal interchanges regarding the child.…

Examines the relationships between childrearing environments, adult control behaviors, and children's compliance and violation in Israeli town and Kibbutz children. (HOD)

This newsletter theme issue deals with the phenomenon of mobility or transience in India, Kenya, Greece, Ireland, Malaysia, Thailand and Israel. The primary focus is on mobility's effect on young children, specifically their health and education; some of the broader concerns also addressed by the newsletter are the causes of mobility and its…