Early Preschool Research Articles

Outdoor playing during preschool was associated with a reduced risk of school-age obesity in Japan.

This study investigated the association between outdoor play habits during preschool and school-age obesity. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of all children born in Japan during 2 weeks in January and July 2001. We defined outdoor play habits at age 2.5 years (third survey) as exposure, while parent-reported height and weight at age 7 years (seventh survey) were defined as overweight and obesity status using the WHO reference. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for associations between preschool outdoor play habits and school-age obesity, adjusting for parental and child factors. Of 53 575 children born, 42 812 had data on outdoor play habits at age 2.5 years, with 91% (38 970) having such habits. At age 7 years, 31 743/42 812 (74%) children had height and weight data, with 3249/31 743 (10%) classified as overweight or obesity (BMI SD score ≥1.0). Outdoor play habits were negatively associated with obesity (adjusted OR 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74-0.97). Outdoor play habits in early preschool years are associated with a reduced risk of school-age obesity. Parents and caregivers may consider encouraging their children to outdoor play habits at an early age to help prevent obesity later in life.

Dynamic coupling of maternal sensitivity and toddlers' responsive/assertive behaviors predicts children's behavior toward peers during the preschool years.

We examined the extent to which dynamic coupling of (a) maternal sensitivity and (b) children's responsive and assertive behaviors toward mothers during a semistructured play session predicts children's responsive and assertive behavior toward an unfamiliar peer at 39 months and a close friend at 58 and 66 months. Maternal and child behaviors were rated in 30-s epochs during play when children were 32 months old (Time 1; N = 128; 66 girls). Children were rated on their responsiveness and assertiveness toward an unfamiliar peer in the early preschool years (Time 2) and toward a friend in the late preschool years (Time 3). Residual dynamic structural equation models showed that stronger positive contemporaneous coupling of maternal sensitivity and children's responsiveness in a given 30-s epoch of the play session predicted greater observed responsiveness toward a friend in the late preschool years, after controlling for mean levels of maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness. On the other hand, positive contemporaneous coupling of maternal sensitivity and child assertiveness predicted children's higher levels of observed assertiveness toward an unfamiliar peer in the early preschool years, after controlling for mean levels of maternal sensitivity and child assertiveness. Results suggest that the dynamic coupling of specific positive behaviors during mother-child interaction may provide children with social scripts to draw on in diverse peer contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Examination of early literacy-rich settings in inclusive preschool classrooms

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe the current state of early literacy-rich settings of inclusive preschool classrooms where inclusive practices are implemented. In order to build the scale (measurement instrument), first, an item pool was created, expert input was solicited, and a pilot form of the scale was created, all in accordance with the study’s objectives. Following that, data were collected from 311 teachers employed in 55 kindergartens to undertake validity and reliability analyses of the measurement instrument and to construct its final form. The study began with an examination of the validity and reliability of the Preschool Early Literacy Settings Evaluation Scale (PELSES). Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the scale’s factor structure, yielding a 27-item 5-factor PELSES with eigenvalues ranging from 1.43 to 9.27. Second, the state of the early literacy-rich settings of preschool classroom environments was described by determining mean scores and the classroom environments these scores represented. According to the findings, 17.4% of the preschool classrooms in the study were classified as inadequate, 30.2% as incomplete, 35.4% as average, and 17% as good classroom environments. Finally, which demographic characteristics make a difference in early literacy settings in inclusive preschool classrooms were investigated.

Book Review: "Educational Processes, Decisions, and the Development of Competencies from Early Preschool Age to Adolescence"

Book Review: "Educational Processes, Decisions, and the Development of Competencies from Early Preschool Age to Adolescence"

Особенности опознавания изображений фигур разного цвета и размера детьми 3-4 лет с использованием шумового фона

<p>The study is aimed at analyzing the training of early preschool children to recognize visual stimuli of different colors and sizes, based on a method we are developing, in an ordinary situation and with the introduction of acoustic interference, i.e., spoken noise presented through headphones. The materials of two empirical studies on a sample of 3–4-year-old children (3.5±0.43) from a kindergarten in St. Petersburg, of whom there were 13 girls and 17 boys, are presented. The study was conducted with an interval of 2 months. The findings showed that children took longer to recognize and select stimuli of different colors and made more perseverative errors, compared to recognizing and selecting stimuli of different sizes. The introduction of acoustic noise significantly impaired task success, which was particularly pronounced when identifying irritants from colored stimuli. It is suggested that difficulties in identifying colored stimuli may be due to the absence of a sensory reference marked by a word, and the acoustic noise slowed sensorimotor response.</p>

Revisiting associations between behavioral inhibition/shyness and social competence in young Chinese children: Sociohistorical imprint on three samples.

While negative associations between behavioral inhibition/shyness and social competence are well established for children from Western cultures, the directions of these associations have been inconsistent for Chinese children, partly due to the ongoing social-cultural changes in China. Drawing from three samples of young Chinese children (born between 2009 and 2019), we aim at examining how inhibition/shyness predicts cooperative behaviors and prosocial behaviors throughout early childhood. In Study 1 (N = 700, children aged between 36 and 72 months), mother-reported inhibition/shyness was negatively associated with mother-reported cooperative and prosocial behaviors during the preschool years. In Study 2 (N = 251, at 6, 15, 25, and 37 months of children's ages), mother-reported inhibition/shyness in infancy was negatively associated with mother-reported cooperative behaviors but was not related to observed cooperative behaviors at the early preschool age. Infancy inhibition/shyness was negatively associated with mother-reported and observed prosocial behaviors. In Study 3 (N = 95, at 14, 25, 38, and 60 months of children's ages), the inhibition/shyness trait, assessed by both observation and maternal report, did not predict any indicators of cooperative behaviors. Early childhood inhibition/shyness, however, still predicted fewer observed and mother-reported prosocial behaviors. On balance, our research supports a negative association between early inhibition/shyness and later prosocial behaviors. The mixed findings concerning cooperative behaviors are interpreted in light of sociopolitical changes in China during the past two decades. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the effects of prekindergarten to second grade classroom quality on early elementary achievement

Previous research has investigated the influence of preschool interventions in early elementary environments with some results suggesting that high quality early preschool experiences may have meaningful effects on student academic outcomes not only immediately following the preschool years but also in the long term. This study aimed to investigate this topic further by using a novel cross-classified model to account for the complex hierarchical structure of a large-scale longitudinal and multilevel dataset. First, we examined the carryover classroom effects from prekindergarten (PK), kindergarten (K), and first grade on later grades’ reading and mathematics scores. Second, we explored the effect of PK to second grade classroom quality on students’ K, first, and second grade reading and mathematics scores. Our analyses yielded significant PK carryover classroom effects for reading; these results provide evidence that a student’s PK classroom continues to impact that student for at least three years after. Additionally, one domain of PK classroom quality —classroom organization—was found to be positively related to students’ K, first, and second grade reading outcomes.

Problems of formation of socially mature students in the educational space

The article studies peculiarities of the formation of socially mature students in the educational space. The following problems of this phenomenon may be mentioned: unplanned pregnancy, prematurity of a child, rejection of a child by one or two parents, aggravating heredity, postnatal disorders in physical or mental development, individual features of a child, negative impact of environment and people, lack of educational influence and social maladaptation, as well as other political, socio-economic, and ethnocultural specifics. In the research, attention is paid to procedural aspects of forming social maturity of students in the educational space. Besides, the article presents its model, main aspects of model creation and implementation are reflected. In addition, the author provides the purposes, objectives, factors, and psycho-pedagogical conditions of the considered occurrence. Some of the given factors of the research affecting a child in early preschool, school, and student age can prevent its favourable formation in any educational institution which happens in such a direction as the natural teaching and educational process. The specifics of the faculty are traced in disciplines and competencies that correspond to the characteristics of social maturity of students.

Age of entry into early childhood education and care, literacy and reduction of educational inequality in Nordic countries

ABSTRACT An early start to good-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is considered beneficial, especially for disadvantaged children's development and educational outcomes. This assumption was tested using the latest two waves (2015 and 2018) of data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in five countries using the Nordic model of early education and care: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The article finds evidence of the overall positive association between the age of entry in ECEC and literacy at age 15 in all Nordic countries. However, the relationship is non-linear, and the highest benefits seem to occur following entry into ECEC from ages two to three. The link between family background and ECEC enrollment largely explains this association. We did not find that ECEC would generally compensate for low socioeconomic status (SES) in children’s achievement. However, the Matthew effect was observed in Norway, where an early ECEC start is more strongly associated with literacy scores for affluent children than disadvantaged children. These findings have limitations due to their correlational nature. Still, this article indicates that even in high-quality universal ECEC systems, early preschool education is not a panacea for lowering achievement gaps due to parental background.

Early executive functioning predicts externalizing problems in neurodiverse preschoolers.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit externalizing problems, which have been linked with increased anxiety and depression, peer rejection, and parental stress. Identification of early predictors of externalizing behaviors in autism will facilitate identification of vulnerable children and implementation of early preventative interventions. There is ample evidence that executive functioning, social functioning, and temperament are predictive of later externalizing problems in general populations, but less is known about these relations in ASD and other neurodiverse populations, particularly in the early preschool years. To address this gap, we assessed the relations between executive functioning, social functioning, and temperament at age 3 and externalizing problems at age 5 in a sample of neurodiverse children with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders and delays. Analyses revealed that severity of early executive functioning impairment predicted increased externalizing problems. Severity of social autism symptoms moderated this relationship such that the effect of executive functioning on externalizing problems decreased as autism symptoms increased. These findings suggest that executive functioning is an important target for identifying and developing interventions for vulnerable children and underscore the necessity of considering severity of autism symptoms when researching the development of externalizing problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

School-entry skills and early skill trajectories predict reading after 1 year.

Oral language and early literacy skills are theorized to provide the foundation for reading acquisition. To understand these relations, methods are needed that depict dynamic skill development in the context of reading acquisition. We modeled contributions of school-entry skills and early skill trajectories to later reading with 105 5-year-old children beginning primary school and formal literacy instruction in New Zealand. Children were assessed at school-entry (Preschool Early Literacy Indicators), followed every fourth school week over their first 6 months of school (five probes of First Sound Fluency, Letter Sound Fluency, and New Zealand Word Identification Fluency: Year 1), and after 1 year of school (researcher-administered and school-used indices of literacy-related skills and reading progress). Modified latent change score (mLCS) modeling was used to describe skill development from repeated progress-monitoring data. Ordinal regression and structural equation modeling (path analyses) indicated skills at school-entry and early learning trajectories, indexed by mLCS, predicted children's early literacy progress. Results have implications for research and screening in beginning reading, supporting school-entry screening and progress monitoring of early literacy skills in beginning reading acquisition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Social and Emotional Learning and Early Literacy Skills: A Quasi-Experimental Study of RULER

RULER is a pre-K–12 systemic approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) that supports educators in cultivating emotion skills and provides them with pedagogical principles and tools to help them explicitly teach social and emotional skills to students. The current study tests whether preschool-level access to RULER was associated with growth in early literacy skills using a sample of 1051 preschoolers in 95 classrooms across 19 community-based centers in a small urban northeastern US community. The Preschool Early Literacy Indicators were collected three times over an academic year by district staff. Multi-level growth modeling with inverse probability weighting revealed that children in preschools with access to RULER grew significantly more in their early literacy skills than children without access to RULER—an end-of-year difference equivalent to 0.25 standard deviations, 95% CI [0.14, 0.40]. The current study demonstrates that RULER may promote young children’s early literacy skills.

Hearing type influences preschoolers’ phoneme-level phonological awareness

Children who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) have lower performance on test of phonological awareness, particularly phoneme-level tasks, than children with normal hearing. These performance deficits have been seen both in children who use cochlear implants (CIs) and children who use hearing aids (HAs), but few studies have explicitly compared the effect of hearing type on phonological awareness. Forty-one preschoolers who were D/HH and 36 preschoolers with normal hearing participated. Participating children were between 3- and 4-years-old. Of the D/HH children, 14 CI were users and 27 were HA users. All children completed the phonological awareness test of the Test of Preschool Early Literacy, which assesses sound blending and elision, and the sound blending test of the Tests of Early Cognitive and Academic Development. Data are raw scores. There was a clear effect of hearing type. Children who used CIs had the lowest performance (TOPEL M = 8.62, ECAD M = 2.62), followed by children who use HAs (TOPEL M = 10.76, ECAD M = 4.92), with children with normal having the best performance (TOPEL M = 15.56, ECAD M = 8.03). Children who use CIs have more difficulty with phoneme-level tasks than children who use HAs, which likely has implications for their future language and literacy development.

Psychometric Evaluation of the Preschool Early Numeracy Skills Test–Brief Version Within the Item Response Theory Framework

AbstractThe Preschool Early Numeracy Skills Test–Brief Version (PENS‐B) is a measure of early numeracy skills, developed and mainly used in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial validity and measurement invariance across gender of PENS‐B in the Greek educational context. PENS‐B was administered to 906 preschool children (473 boys, 433 girls), randomly selected from 84 kindergarten classrooms. A 2PL unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory analysis, using cross‐validation procedures, were used to analyze the data. Results showed that responses to 20 items can be adequately explained by a two‐dimensional model (Numbering Relations and Arithmetic Operations). Application of differential item functioning procedures did not detect any gender bias. Numeracy Relation comprises 16 items, which assess low levels of this latent trait. On the other hand, four items capture average levels of Arithmetic Operations. Total information curves revealed that both dimensions measure with precision only a small area of their underlying latent trait.

The playful learning curriculum: A randomized controlled trial

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Norway has play, exploration, and discovery as foundations for children's learning, but lacks a curriculum that describes and supports principles of playful learning. The present study examines the effects of the Playful Learning Curriculum in ECEC on children's school readiness skills in the play-based ECEC context of Norway. A total of 96 ECEC centers signed up for the project and recruited 1,313 children. Centers were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 49) and a control group (n = 47). Intervention centers were asked to implement the curriculum for at least eight hours per week for nine months, and control centers continued as usual. Outcomes included the Ani Banani Math Test (ABMT), the Preschool Early Numeracy Skills Screener (PENS), the Norwegian Vocabulary Test (NVT), and the Weschler's Intelligence Digit Span Test (DS). Analyses clustered by centers and controlling for blocks showed a significant effect of the intervention on children's mathematics skills, ABMT (d =.079, p =.03) and PENS (d =.104, p =.01), but no significant effects on working memory assessed by DS (d =.070, p =.14) or expressive vocabulary assessed by NVT (d = -.011, p = .65). This study shows that a well-defined age-appropriate curriculum based on playful learning may strengthen children's preschool mathematics skills in a play-based ECEC context.

유아교육의 논리적 사고교육 관련 연구논문의 동향 분석

In this study, 52 research papers related to logical thinking education in early childhood education published in domestic academic journals from 1988 to December 2021 were studied on a 10-year basis, general research trends (by age, research area), research methods, and research results. Trends (by research type, by research subject, by data collection method, by data analysis method, by research result) were analyzed. Following the second round of data collection, preliminary research, this study, and data analysis were carried out in the order. Research Results First, research related to logical thinking education in early childhood education increased rapidly in the 3rd period (2000-2009), and critical thinking was relatively the most studied in the field. Second, experimental studies of quantitative research and studies targeting infants were also relatively frequent, and test methods and difference verification methods were used a lot for data collection and data analysis. And the research result was found to be focused on improving the logical thinking of early childhood teachers and preschool teachers. The significance of this study is that it comprehensively analyzed the current status and actual conditions of research related to logical thinking education in early childhood education and suggested a direction to diversify the research area.

0490 Longitudinal associations between sleep and behavior and cognition in preschoolers from five European birth-cohorts

Abstract Introduction There has been little focus on sleep and its relation to behavior and cognition in preschool-aged children. We aimed to investigate the association between sleep duration in early preschoolers (» 3.5 years of age) and later behavioral and cognitive outcomes (» 5 years of age) in European children. Methods We used harmonized data from five cohorts from the EU Child Cohort Network, established by the LifeCycle Project (n=16.444 children): ALSPAC and SWS from UK, EDEN and ELFE from France and INMA from Spain. Within all cohorts, total sleep duration per day and behavioral and cognitive information were reported by parents. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors were measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and treated as percentile scores. Verbal and non-verbal intelligence were assessed by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence or with the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities depending on the cohort and treated as standardized scores. All scores were cohort specific. Associations between sleep duration during early preschool age and later behavior and/or cognition were estimated using linear regression and pooled with two-stage individual participant data meta-analysis adjusted for child, maternal and household information. Analyses were done in DataSHIELD. Results Global mean sleep duration was 11h54 ± 1h00 per day at mean age 3.5 years but differed by country, with children from France showing longer sleep duration than children from the UK or Spain. In multivariate meta-analysis, 1 hour of additional sleep duration per day at mean age 3.5 years was associated with reduced internalizing and externalizing behavior percentile scores at mean age 5.1 years (internalizing behavior: badjusted= -1.05, 95%-CI [-1.93, -0.18], I2: 30.3%; externalizing behavior: badjusted= -2.12, 95%-CI [-2.78, -1.47], I2: 0.0%). No association was observed between sleep duration and subsequent verbal or non-verbal intelligence Conclusion Longer sleep duration in early preschool age (» 3.5 years of age) was associated with subsequent lower internalizing and externalizing behavior scores (» 5 years of age), but not with verbal or non-verbal intelligence. Adequate sleep duration at an early age is important for children’s later mental health. Support (If Any) KG was granted a LifeCycle fellowship.

Аpproaches to the medical and social rehabilitation for children with organic lesions of the nervous system: history and current trends

Preschool children with organic lesions of the nervous system need a comprehensive approach to medical and social rehabilitation. These pathologies (organic lesions of the organs of hearing, vision, vestibular and speech apparatus) are quite common among children nowadays. The process of speech formation and social behavior of such patients is complex in structural and functional organization. The purpose of the article is to investigate the history and current state of social and medical rehabilitation for sensory and other CNS defects. The novelty of the reserch. The problem of forming life competence in children with special needs from an early age remains undeveloped. Research methods are based on historical and comparative-analytical principles. Conclusions. Thus, considering various aspects of rehabilitation care for early preschool children with CNS defects and speech disorders, it was possible to determine the paramount importance of speech development in rehabilitation work with early preschool children, because successes in learning Ukrainian in this sensitive period, or their absence will significantly affect all aspects of further medical and social rehabilitation.

Examining the Predictors of Naming Speed among Thai Preschoolers: Confirming the Important Roles of Visual Perception and Sustained Attention

Investigations of reading readiness among early preschool children in Thailand have revealed contextual language and social elements that are different from speakers of other languages. The goal of this study was to further understand important variables that predict future reading readiness among Thai children, namely, the influence of visual perception and attention on naming ability. There were 158 preschoolers aged 5 -6.8 years of age, who performed the following tests: Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), Attention Sustained (AS), Visual Perception (VP), and Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) tests. A cross-sectional correlational research design was conducted in this study. The results, which were examined using multiple regression, revealed a strong association among sustained attention, visual perception, intelligence, and naming speed. Sustained attention and visual perception were found to be strongly associated with rapid naming ability. There was a relationship between intelligence and attention. However, intelligence did not appear to be associated with naming speed. Sustained attention and general visual perception were shown to predict the speed of color naming up to 12.2% (Adjust R2 = .12, p < .05) and the speed of digit naming up to 14.1% (Adjust R2 = .14, p < .05). In conclusion, the visual perception and sustained attention abilities of Thai preschool children can predict their rapid naming ability. During early childhood, the importance of developing attentiveness and visual perception is indicated since it offers a positive reading acquisition ability.

The effect of preschool attendance on Children's health: Evidence from a lower middle-income country.

In this study, we find that children in Vietnam who were born in December of a given year have better health outcomes than those born in January of the following year. Children born in December are taller, heavier, and less likely to be underweight and suffer from stunted growth than those born in January of the following year, though these two groups of children differ in age by only 1month. We argue that the effect of being born in December compared to January on children's health is translated through early preschool attendance. In Vietnam, children born in December are more likely to start preschool as well as primary school 1year earlier than those born in January of the following year. Thus, the health benefit for a child born in December would come from earlier and longer exposure to preschool. Importantly, we find that the positive effect of preschool persists over time as children grow. A possible major reason why preschool attendance improves health is the nutrition provided for children in preschools.