Background: Around 800 million young children worldwide have cognitive-developmental limitations due to issues related to biological, environmental, and psychosocial factors. These problems lead to educational challenges, limited skill development, and higher unemployment rates. Therefore, timely interventions addressing the underlying problems in…

Teachers play a crucial role in promoting motor development in early childhood. A series of focus-group discussions was conducted with kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong to co-design movement activities. This paper reports the process and implications to teachers' professional development.

Self-injurious behavior is prevalent in early childhood and it affects almost 53% of young children with disabilities. Once these behaviors are consistently present, they may become resistant to intervention. The purpose of this article is to provide early care and education center providers and family caregivers with ways to effectively reduce…

Background: This study was designed to develop a program to increase the confidence level among kindergarten teachers to teach handwriting in kindergarten. Methods: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was utilized. Five teachers employed at the kindergarten center in a school district in Illinois participated in the study. Data…

Shared experiences through school-hosted events, such as family literacy events, can afford opportunities to support and extend academic learning while fostering positive home-school relationships. This article describes the importance of developing primary-grade students' literacy skills through a talent development lens and explains several ways…

Efforts to improve education should not neglect to provide the rich play opportunities that benefit children in so many ways. In Tanzania, the pre-primary curriculum, for example, guides teachers to use play as the primary method of teaching and learning. Despite this policy mandate for play, however, abundant evidence indicates that Tanzanian…

This manuscript describes a major revision and update of the First Step to Success Early Intervention Program, now called First Step Next. The original First Step Program was published in 1997 and the revised, updated version was published in 2015 (Walker et al.). First Step Next is a collaborative, Tier II school- and family-supported early…

Improving learning outcomes for all young children requires skilled and knowledgeable leaders who are disposed to effectively promote early care and education program and system goals. Yet, state early education administrators--those responsible for overseeing pre-Kindergarten policies and programs--vary in their leadership competencies. To…

Improving learning outcomes for all young children requires skilled and knowledgeable leaders with the capacity to effectively promote early care and education programs and systems. To do so, administrators must be able to work within government to improve policy and promote policy implementation at scale in local communities. In many states,…

Hands-on learning is a highly effective teaching method for topics in STEM disciplines. Unfortunately, environmental science teachers sometimes lack the tools to engage their students in hands-on experimentation in real-world research outside of the classroom. Partnerships between science professionals and teachers can help address this disparity,…

This study was conducted in an attempt to develop Social Values Education Program aimed at nursery school students and examine the effect of Social Values Education Program upon the social skill acquisition of nursery school students. The effect of the education program that was developed within the scope of the study upon the social skill…

Early childhood educators, especially those in preschool centers, are often expected to design and implement movement programs. However, these individuals may not have been taught these skills during their education. The purpose of this study was to determine if early childhood majors could successfully be taught to implement a mastery climate…

This article presents two models for creating new developmentally appropriate preschool movement programs: CHAOS (Children Helping Adults Open Senses) at Eastern Connecticut State University and "KinderPlay" at Florida International University. CHAOS and KinderPlay utilize skill themes and movement concepts as their focus and incorporate…