The aim of this research was to study how children's play behaviour was related to their cognitive skills and vocabulary development in integrated early childhood special education (ECSE) groups. The longitudinal study is part of the LASSO research project, which concerns children's stress regulation, learning and quality of early childhood…

In the quest for quality in early childhood education, it is important to explore the subtleties that define socio-culturally relevant pedagogy. A qualitative, multi-case study approach was used to explore perspectives of teachers about socio-cultural influences on their teaching in kindergarten classrooms in Ghana. Four teachers from two…

Publicly funded center-based preschool programs were designed to enhance low-income children's early cognitive and social-emotional skills in preparation for kindergarten. In the U.S., the federal Head Start program and state-funded public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs are the two primary center-based settings in which low-income…

The use of tests is a well-established tradition in the study of children's learning. Most of these tests claim to establish a child's general understanding, independent of situations and well-known contexts. I have studied narratives told by a four-year-old boy who failed to pass a false belief test (a test designed to examine whether a child is…

This policy brief explores kindergarten readiness observation and its benefits to local and state level stakeholders; highlights efforts by California counties and other states to measure school readiness; and makes recommendations for moving toward statewide use of kindergarten readiness observation tools. Key points include: (1) Early efforts to…