It’s difficult to go through life feeling alone, and children especially need to feel they’ve got the support of family and friends as they navigate their way from childhood to adulthood. Without ...

One of my earliest posts here concerned the definition of play, which I developed further in an article on “Definitions of Play” for Scholarpedia (Gray, 2013) and in my book Free to Learn. I first ...

Peking University, August 4, 2025: Why do young children often miss the emotions behind adult expressions? A pioneering study led by researcher Xie Wanze from Peking University’s School of ...

From hearing lullabies to the sing-song lilt of a parent’s voice, babies form strong connections with their caregivers through sound and song. Think about the way we instinctively bounce or rock fussy ...

Natalie Day's research was funded by a Faculty Postgraduate Research Scholarship and International Postgraduate Tuition Award from the University of Wollongong, with a contribution from the NSW ...

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an educational process that aims to help children develop social and emotional life skills. These include managing difficult emotions, dealing with stress, ...

New research reveals that Covid lockdowns set children's development back by years. The study shows how the pandemic hampered children’s ability to regulate their behaviour, stay focused and adapt to ...

Just as a gardener plants seeds and nurtures them into strong, flourishing plants, early childhood educators have the opportunity to nurture the earliest seeds of literacy in young children. When ...