Child-directed language can support language learning, but how? We addressed two questions: (1) how caregivers prosodically modulated their speech as a function of word familiarity (known or unknown to the child) and accessibility of referent (visually present or absent from the immediate environment); (2) whether such modulations affect…

Community engaged learning has demonstrated educational benefits and is an especially promising method to engage a diverse group of students in engineering. In this work, we present toy adaptation for children with disabilities as a novel community engaged learning tool. According to students surveyed, this process is enjoyable, demonstrates the…

Gender-stereotyped beliefs develop early in childhood and are thought to increase with age based on prior research that was primarily carried out in Western cultures. Little research, however, has examined cross-cultural (in)consistencies in the developmental trajectory of gender-stereotyped beliefs. The present study examined implicit gender-toy…

This study examines whether the Internet of Toys (IoToys) (de)limits children's make-believe play and whether the functionality and manipulatives offered by the IoToys serve as motivational pleasure (tactile, virtual and visual) for children to engage in make-believe play. Combining Piagetian and Vygotskian ideas of play as a unity of cognition…

Robot toys can be used to promote STEM subjects, particularly coding and mathematics. The lesson described in this article illustrates how a robot toy was used with a number line to explore equality and missing addends in Year 1. The lesson progression models how activities can be sequenced to build on developing understandings while supporting…

Toys are designed to be fun and playful and are highly motivating for both children and adults. Commercial toys and child-designed toys can be used both in the classroom and at home to encourage creativity and to teach science concepts. Much of what children can do with toys involves tinkering, defined by Merriam Webster as "to repair,…

The animated children's television show, "Doc McStuffins," may serve as an out-of-school multicultural STEM education platform for its young television audience. The lead character, as well as the supporting cast of toy characters, represents a variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural identities while modeling medicine and healthcare…

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the length of attention in 2-year-olds across three teaching conditions. A total of 49 2-year-olds were observed within their childcare classrooms. The child's regular classroom teacher was asked to select three highly preferred toys to use in offering the child choices within the teaching…

Mathematics educators and researchers have advocated for the use of manipulatives to teach mathematics for decades. The purpose of this article is to provide illustrative uses of a readily available manipulative rather than a complete list. From an Australian perspective, Pop-it fidget toys can be used across the mathematics curriculum. This paper…

Traditional values in many cultures prioritize a deep respect for the environment and a recognition of the interdependence between humans and the natural world. They can help to broaden children's thinking about their choices, inform their decision-making, and help ensure children develop a closer connection with nature and pursue sustainable…

The overall aims of this study are to conduct a needs analysis of curriculum design of the "Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy" course for the teacher candidates at the Department of Primary School Education. Convergent parallel mixed methods design is used. Interviews with eight primary school teachers, three instructors and six…

This study investigated the role of children's gender stereotypes and peer playmate experiences in shaping their desire to play with peers who hold counterstereotypical preferences (e.g., a boy who likes dolls or a girl who likes trucks). Children (N = 95; 46 girls, 49 boys; 67% White, 18% Black, 8% Latinx, 4% Asian, 3% other; median household…

This emerging technology report describes computational toys as tools for learning and building computational thinking (CT) skills in young children. We present both a framework to categorize computational toys as well as a separate framework to evaluate the toys' effectiveness for teaching CT skills. We then apply our frameworks to thirty…

The Teacher of the Year (TOY) program is the longest-standing teacher recognition program in the United States. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of state and national TOY awardees and the schools in which they teach. To accomplish this aim, we develop a new data set including the characteristics of all TOY awardees and…

The Little Bosses' Market, now in its second year and organized by the Hualien Parent-Child Center, challenges the perspective that young children cannot learn about economics. The children participating in this activity took on the responsibilities of planning and selling their goods and services. They interacted with customers by noting prices,…