Category: Research on Early Years Development

Alphablocks Research Lab: 2025 Report

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date December 19, 2025

Executive Summary

In 2025, Alphablocks Research Lab continued its mission to advance the science of child development and mental health.

This year, the lab focused on how early environments influence learning and mental health throughout development, from childhood to adolescence. Using large-scale data from population cohorts, longitudinal surveys, and neuroimaging scans, our work examined how social safety, parenting, inequality, cognition, and digital environments influence children’s development.

Below we summarise this year’s research by theme.

2025 in Review

Celebrating 10 Years!
New site in Hadley Wood – now in its 2nd year.
Twice Rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted (2018, 2024).
BBC-Pearson Early Years Team of the Year (2025).
New Projects by Alphablocks Research Lab.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, child development, Cockfosters Nursery School, early learning, early years, Enfield Nursery, Hadley Wood Montessori Nursery School, nursery school, Ofsted Outstanding, Outstanding, pre-school education, Reggio Emilia

Alphablocks Research Lab Early Years Education Early Years Foundation Stage Pre-School Learning Research on Early Years Development

Infant Motor Skills and Adolescent Personality

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date February 1, 2025

A new study published in the Journal of Personality identifies how early psychomotor development is associated with personality later in life through childhood cognition, self-regulation, and social competence. Drawing on data from over 9,000 children from the United Kingdom, the research explores the long-term pathways linking infants’ motor and communicative functions to personality traits in late adolescence.

Tags child development, early learning, early years education, Five factor model, personality structure, personality traits, psychomotor function, social cognition, social competence, theory of mind

Alphablocks Research Lab Annual Research Report Early Years Education Ofsted outstanding Pre-School Learning Research on Early Years Development

Alphablocks Research Lab: 2024 Report

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date December 29, 2024

Executive Summary

Alphablocks Nursery School is committed to providing outstanding early years education and empowering children to become confident learners. Now in its second year (2024), our research organisation, Alphablocks Research Lab, contributed to a better understanding of how children develop cognitive and social skills, as well as how we can support the mental health of children and adolescents. This report summarises the year’s achievements and highlights how our findings can shape educational practice in our nursery school and beyond.

In brief, this year the lab focused its efforts on projects that examined language skills, prosocial behaviour, and the broader environmental and psychological factors impacting child development. In doing so, we aimed to provide evidence-based strategies for educators, parents, and policymakers.

Tags child development, early learning, early years, original research, pre-school education, research lab

Alphablocks Research Lab Annual Research Report Early Years Education Research on Early Years Development

Alphablocks Research Lab: 2023 Report

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date December 27, 2023

Executive Summary

Alphablocks Nursery School is committed to providing outstanding education and empowering children to become confident learners. In 2023, our research organisation, Alphablocks Research Lab, funded academic work that made significant contributions in the exploration of childhood social cognitive abilities and mental health outcomes. This report summarises the year’s achievements.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, child development, early learning, nursery school, report

Alphablocks Research Lab Cockfosters Nursery Early Years Education Early Years Foundation Stage Enfield Nursery Ofsted outstanding Pre-School Learning Research on Early Years Development

The long-term impact of early social cognition & Theory of Mind

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date March 23, 2023

There are a few aspects of child development that teachers, parents and carers often talk about when it comes to nursery-age children. These include aspects of development such as the physical, social, and emotional growth of a child, early literacy and numeracy abilities, or self-regulation skills. However, an area of development that has been relatively overlooked is that of social cognition. It includes a complex set of skills that are crucial for development and have long-lasting impact, well beyond childhood. In this post, we briefly discuss the basic dimensions of social cognition in early childhood, and summarise some recent findings that have come out of our work at Alphablocks Research Lab in collaboration with leading academics.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, Cockfosters Nursery School, early learning, early years, Enfield Nursery, Hadley Wood Montessori Nursery School, nursery school