preschoolers

Background: Children's motor skills are inversely related to sedentary screen time. COVID-19-lockdown during the pandemic has caused a further increasing on screening time. Aim: The current research aims at investigating the impact of Stickygym games on motor development of children. Materials and Methods: Twenty-eight eligible subjects (4-6 years old) were chosen and randomly grouped into control group (n=13) and experimental group (n=15). Using TGMD-2 test, gross motor development was measured. The experimental group performed online Stickygym games for 8 weeks. Stickygym kit includes Hook & Loop strips, with two linear polyester strips being easily but firmly attached together. Trained instructors performed online training sessions. In the end, TGMD-2 test was conducted again in person. Data analysis was done using Shapiro-Wilk, Levene and the analysis of covariance tests were with the significance level of 0.05 in SPSS 24. Results : Some locomotion skills were significantly improved by Stickygym games: bound ( P =0.005), galloping ( P =0.012), and running ( P =0.003), as well as object control skills: overhand throw ( P =0.004), underhand roll ( P =0.01), and striking a stationary ball ( P =0.021). Conclusion : This play kit can be utilized by pre-school educators and parents for improving object control and locomotion skills in preschool children.

This study focused on capturing the research landscape of past studies related to the effects of electronic books on young children’s reading development from 1999 to 2022 through a bibliometric analysis. All 99 included bibliographic data were extracted from the Scopus database. The findings show an increasing trend in publications and citations over the last twenty years. The publications were distributed over six continents, namely North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and Asia. The United States was the most productive country with the highest number of publications, h-index, and g-index. The foci of the research are (i) the important role digital device plays in children’s book reading; (ii) strategies taken by families and teachers to support the emergent literacy skills based on e-book; (iii) cognition and language skills domains in e-book reading among preschoolers. The findings of this study help researchers to understand the current landscape of research on e-book reading among preschoolers and provide guidelines for researchers to understand the core issues.

This study quantitatively explored a causal model of the association between two focal self-regulation constructs (executive functioning and effortful control) and social school readiness in preschoolers. The population comprised all preschool children and their mothers who resided in Tehran (2018-2019). With the help of their mothers, 342 children with a mean age of five years completed the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB; 1994), the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Very Short Form) – (CBQ-VSF; 2006), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; 2001), and the Social School Readiness Scale (1982). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS 22. Effortful control and socio-emotional competence significantly affected social school readiness (p<0.01). Moreover, executive functioning affected social school readiness, mediated by effortful control in the alternative model (p<0.01). These findings expand the existing early childhood research by specifying the link between two major aspects of self-regulation and social-emotional school readiness. An integrative approach considering the behavioral and neuropsychological measurements of self-regulation would help elucidate the predictors of social school readiness in early childhood.