This single-case study focused on Aylin (name anonymized), a typically developing five-year-old girl, observed over 9 months following her kindergarten enrollment. Using the Tavistock Child Observation Model, videography, HAVAS 5 language screening, and semi-structured parental interviews, the study examined her social interaction, emotion regulation, and expressive language development. Aylin experienced marked anxiety and stress, especially during the adjustment phase, struggling with separation from her parents and the unfamiliar school environment. Initially withdrawn, she gradually developed strategies to engage with peers and seek inclusion in group activities. Emotional security was a key factor in her ability to play cooperatively and express herself more fluently. HAVAS 5 results reflected notable progress in her expressive language skills by the end of the year. Parental interviews revealed that Aylin had spent over a year in pandemic-related isolation starting at age two and a half, limiting her social and physical development. Both parents cited challenges in offering consistent interaction, which may have shaped Aylin’s early difficulties. The findings underscore the interconnectedness of emotional regulation, symbolic play, and language expression, emphasizing the value of emotionally responsive early education.

Over the recent years, a significant increase has been observed in screen based media use among different age groups. Unregulated and excessive use of technological instruments such as smart phones, tablets or computers also leads to a number of health problems. Vision problems induced by the use of technological instruments among youth and children are gradually increasing in several countries across Europe. When we examine Eastern Asian countries, we see that the prevalence is much higher. A study based in Taiwan discovered that 84% of children have vision disorders. Apart from this, excessive screen based media use is known to cause other problems during early childhood period at various ages including attention deficit, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, academic inadequacy and linguistic development disorders. Unregulated and excessive screen based media use demonstrates an incline with an increasing acceleration every day. The objective of this brief evaluation article is to investigate the problem in its current state in general, to highlight brain plasticity during the early childhood period, and to open the effects of excessive screen based media use particularly on linguistic development to discussion in light of current studies.

In this study, postgraduate theses in the fields of pedagogy and preschool education in Austria and Turkey are compared in terms of factors such as similarity index, research designs and quality of academic writing. To achieve this goal, a commonly-used web-based plagiarism detection service was used to determine the similarity indexes of 258 theses prepared in the two countries (124 from Austria, 134 from Turkey) by checking them against existing sources such as articles, theses, and books; and a relational screening model was used to determine the degree of correlation among variables. In addition, the research topics, research designs, and data collection tools employed in each thesis were identified and content analysis was performed on selected theses with an eye to gaining a sense of the methodological approaches used in pedagogy in Austrian and Turkish universities and making comparisons between the two countries. Our results suggest that the mean similarity index between the postgraduate theses in Austria is 8.78 (Std. Dev. 4.91), while the mean similarity index between the postgraduate theses prepared in Turkey is 25.10 (Std. Dev. 9.85). Our analysis indeed indicates that 91% (n 113) of the theses prepared at Austrian universities and only 13% (n 17) of the theses prepared at Turkish universities did not exceed the acceptable similarity index of 15%. The fact that 87% of the theses written in Turkey are dramatically similar to the available resources shows that many of the studies carry potential risks in terms of originality and plagiarism.

This study investigated whether there are significant differences between reading achievements of 15-year-old students and starting age for preschool and socioeconomic factors according to the results from the PISA 2015 and 2018. The quantitative results show that there is a clear and statistically significant difference between reading test scores of Turkish students in PISA 2015 and in PISA 2018 according to the variables starting age for preschool education, highest parental educational attainment and the number of books at home. Our quantitative analysis shows that students who attended kindergartens from age four have higher average test scores in reading skills than students who cared for only in homes, either by their parents or by others.

Background/Objectives: Reading is a core cognitive ability that plays a central role in children’s brain development and academic success. This review aims to examine the neuroplastic relationship between reading acquisition and white matter development from infancy through adolescence, with a focus on implications for literacy interventions and educational planning. Methods: A systematic review of 89 neuroimaging studies published between 1998 and 2024 was conducted. Eligible studies utilized diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or structural MRI to investigate white matter changes related to reading behavior in children aged 0 to 18. Studies were identified through comprehensive searches in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Results: Children with stronger reading abilities consistently showed increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in key white matter pathways, such as the arcuate fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus, supporting phonological processing and reading fluency. Longitudinal data suggest that early exposure to literacy enhances brain flexibility and white matter organization. In contrast, children with reading disabilities, including dyslexia, often show disorganized white matter structure, but compensatory pathways may emerge through targeted interventions. Conclusions: Reading experience is associated with measurable changes in white matter development across childhood. Early and sustained literacy engagement appears to optimize neural structures for reading. These findings can inform early diagnosis and improve pedagogical strategies for literacy education. Further research is needed on the long-term neurobiological effects of reading interventions.

In the basic theories of first language acquisition that attempt to explain how infants learn their primary languages children are treated sometimes as a ‘black box’, at times as a ‘universal grammarian” free from everything, and at times almost as a ‘processor’, and they are seen as objects in a laboratory where emotional factors are ignored.This article is the outcome of a thorough survey of literature and primarily it aims to present the most widely accepted language acquisition theories, and, in addition, to examine as to what extent they contain factors of affect and emotion.Apart from that, our study aims to find out whether or not the classical and popular theories of language acquisition have empirical or theoretical answers as to the effect variables like joy, happiness, worry, anxiety, introversion, aggression or loneliness have on linguistic development.In the centre of the research are the most widely accepted first-language acquisition theories. In this article, behaviorist (Burrhus F. Skinner), nativist (Noam Chomsky), interactionist (Jerome Brunner), usage-based (Michael Tomasello) and linear (William O’Grady) theories of first-language acquisition will be generally examined and the connection of affect and emotion with linguistic development will be discussed in detail as to the place it occupies in the literature.Özet:Çocukların anadillerini nasıl öğrendiklerini açıklamaya çalışan temel ilk dil edinim kuramlarında çocuklar kimi zaman: “kara kutu”, kimi zaman: “evrensel bir gramerci”, bazen de adeta bir: “işlemci” olarak ele alınmış ve duygusal faktörlerin sürekli göz ardı edildiği bir laboratuvar objesi olarak görülmüşlerdir.Elinizdeki bu makale, derinlemesine bir alan yazın taramasının ürünüdür ve herşeyden önce en çok kabul görmüş/gören dil edinim kuramlarını ana hatlarıyla sunmayı hedeflemektedir. Bununla birlikte ilgili kuramların duygulanım ve duygusal faktörlerin edinim sürecine olan etkisi konusuna yönelik takındığı mesafeli pozisyonu göstermeyi deneyeceğiz.Çalışmamız bunun dışında; sevinç, mutluluk, endişe, kaygı, içe dönüklük, agresyon, yalnızlık gibi değişkenlerin dilsel gelişime olan etkisi konusunda klasik ve popüler dil edinim kuramlarının teorik ya da empirik yanıtlarının olup olmadığını ortaya koymak gayesini taşımaktadır.Araştırmanın merkezinde en çok bilinen ve kabul edilen ilk dil edinim kuramları yer almaktadır. Bu makalede; davranışçı (Burrhus F. Skinner), nativist (Noam Chomsky), etkileşimsel (Jerome Brunner), kullanım temelli (Michael Tomasello) ve doğrusalcı (William O´Grady) ilk dil edinim kuramları ana hatlarıyla irdelenecek ve duygu ya da duygulanım olgularının dilsel gelişim ile olan bağıntısı konusunun dilbilim literatüründe kapladığı yer ve bu ilişkinin göz ardı edilip, edilmediği konusu masaya yatırılacaktır.