Developmental theory has long emphasized a range of skills that young children need for healthy development across the life course. Nevertheless, most evaluations of early childhood programs and policies have focused on measuring a somewhat limited set of competencies. In this article, we explore this "streetlight effect" in early childhood intervention research and propose an initial set of skills that we argue should be prioritized alongside traditionally measured outcomes as targets of intervention during the preschool period (i.e., between ages 3 and 5 years). These skills, which we call the foundations of learning and development (FOLD) skills, include both well-studied and emerging constructs such as curiosity, creativity, self-regulation and executive function, critical thinking, perspective taking, and internal representations of self. To better understand FOLD skills' potential as more practical, effective, and inclusive targets of early childhood programs and policies, we review research regarding each skill's malleability, measurability, predictive validity, and universality. We end with a set of future directions for the field, including the need to (a) formulate a more inclusive taxonomy of FOLD skills that incorporates currently omitted competencies relevant to marginalized populations, (b) measure these skills in scalable and actionable ways, and (c) enhance or modify intervention strategies to optimize the development of these FOLD skills in the preschool period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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克服路灯效应：照亮儿童早期学习和发展的基础。


长期以来，发展理论一直强调幼儿在整个生命过程中健康发展所需的一系列技能。然而，大多数对幼儿计划和政策的评估都集中在衡量一组有限的能力上。在本文中，我们探讨了幼儿干预研究中的这种“路灯效应”，并提出了一组初始技能，我们认为这些技能应该与传统测量的结果一起作为学龄前时期（即 3 至 5 岁）的干预目标。这些技能，我们称之为学习和发展的基础 （FOLD） 技能，包括经过充分研究和新兴的结构，例如好奇心、创造力、自我调节和执行功能、批判性思维、观点采纳和自我的内部表征。为了更好地了解 FOLD 技能作为更实用、更有效和更具包容性的幼儿计划和政策目标的潜力，我们回顾了有关每项技能的可塑性、可衡量性、预测有效性和普遍性的研究。我们最后提出了该领域的一系列未来方向，包括需要 （a） 制定一个更具包容性的 FOLD 技能分类法，其中包含目前被遗漏的与边缘化人群相关的能力，（b） 以可扩展和可操作的方式衡量这些技能，以及 （c） 增强或修改干预策略以优化这些 FOLD 技能在学龄前阶段的发展。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。