This study investigated the quantity of audible and intelligible ('near and clear') educator talk directly experienced by under-two-year-old infants attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes and examined whether the quantity of educator talk was related to characteristics of quality in their ECEC room. Participants were 57…

The Sustainable Development Goals mandate that by 2030, all children should have access to quality early child development opportunities, healthcare and pre-primary education. Yet validated measures of ECD in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are rare. To address this gap, a Systematic Review (SR) of measures available to profile the…

This article focuses on educational language practices as described by preschool teachers in Norwegian kindergartens in groups consisting of one- to three-year-old children. Research indicates a relationship between high-quality childcare and language development, yet there is a need for more research on educational practices in high-quality…

This study aims to investigate the language-learning environment and educational language practices in four toddler groups measured as high quality on the 'Listening and Talking' subscale in the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale -- Revised. The empirical data are taken from a larger fieldwork conducted in four child groups, and comprise 98…

This paper reports on a study in which educators from four early childhood centres used metaphor to discuss their provision of high-quality early childhood education. Qualitative mining of focus group data confirmed 'quality' to be complex, multi-dimensional and value-laden. Findings contribute to understandings of quality in early childhood…

Research has shown that in Germany, language skills differ greatly already at the preschool age. There is, therefore, a strong need for high-quality language education in institutional early childhood education and care. The fact that Early childhood education and care quality has been shown to be rather low calls for implementing evidence-based…

Building on extensive feedback from the field as well as vigorous new research on how best to support infant and toddler development and learning, the authors have revised and updated the widely used "Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale." ITERS-3 is the next-generation assessment tool for use in center-based child care programs for…

This study examined differences in classroom quality, assessed by the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ITERS-R), in 287 infant and 479 toddler classrooms. Classroom quality was compared across classroom age group (infant compared to toddler classrooms) as well as across programme type (for-profit compared to not-for-profit…