Many kindergarten teachers are feeling the effects of standard-based education. The problem is that it is unknown whether teachers implement mandated state standards in a developmentally appropriate way. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate kindergarten teachers' perspectives on implementing standards in a developmentally…

The problem addressed in this qualitative case study was that many early childhood educators are unprepared for or lack the knowledge and skills to utilize trauma informed practices in their classrooms to help address early childhood trauma which leads to the use of exclusionary disciplinary measures. The purpose was to better understand teachers'…

Districts across the country are using Preschool to Third Grade (P-3) approaches to address long-standing barriers to achieving positive outcomes for young children, for example by helping increase children's readiness for elementary school. P-3 approaches are promising for realizing these results because they demand investments in the systems…

Retention in kindergarten involves holding students back from advancing to the next grade level due to unresolved learning gaps. This practice has been the subject of continuous research as educational experts seek to balance the potential developmental risks of prolonging kindergarten by providing students an additional year to fill their…

A recent study showed that less than 50 forest kindergartens or nature preschools were in operation in 2012, but as of 2017, over 250 such schools have emerged in 43 states in the United States, with estimations for continuous growth over the next decade (NAAEE, 2017). While nature-based education programs are gaining popularity in light of recent…

There are five developmental areas: gross motor, fine motor, communication, adaptive behavior, and social-emotional. If social-emotional skills are delayed, all other developmental areas are negatively impacted. Preschool-aged students are incapable of kindergarten readiness if they have a delay in social-emotional development as it impacts their…

Children who begin formal schooling with stronger executive functioning (EF) capacities are better able to adapt to a more regimented learning environment and to succeed academically. Unfortunately, children growing up in low-income households are less prepared to meet the EF demands required of more formal learning environments than their…

Despite the fact that high-quality preschool education is empirically acknowledged to facilitate short- and long-term personal, social, cognitive, and economic benefits, the professionals who teach preschool experience overwhelmingly poor working conditions that have historically been present as the role of childcare worker persisted throughout…

The family is the axis of the initial formation of the individual in the early stage of his life. The attachment and affective ties that are established through the interactions between its members and the experiences that are shared, promote meaningful learning. Through this research, the perception families have about exposing their children to…

The consequences of trauma and chronic toxic stress on young children's social and neurobiological developments are numerous and well-documented in the literature (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020; Jimenez et al., 2016; Sciaraffa et al., 2018; Statman-Weil, 2015; Zeng et al., 2019). Children exposed to trauma during early…

A hopeful path to furthering social justice in America is to support all young children to develop the habits of mind necessary for guiding, and fully living, their own lives. Unfortunately, much of what is known from brain research, psychology, and the learning sciences regarding the contextual and relational ways young children learn is not…

Research has shown time spent outdoors in quality environments benefits the health, physical, mental, and cognitive development of young children. Despite these findings, many teachers in traditional preschool programs spend only a small part of the school day outdoors for gross motor and social development. The number of preschools that spend…

Play is essential to children's growth and development. For many years, theorists have defined play as active, engaging, and interactive. Play has been identified as a way in which children communicate and learn. Such skills are important as children interact and communicate with their family members, teachers, peers, and the community at large.…

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of non-Arab preschool teachers' experiences in assessing Arabic-English dual language learners (DLLs) in classrooms using a well-established, teacher scored authentic assessment of early childhood holistic development. Moreover, this study explored parents' experiences by discussing these…

Raising young children in Botswana was traditionally a communal effort shared by the child's parents and the extended family members in a kinship system. However, the economic and social transformations that are taking place in Botswana have altered the traditional child upbringing to involve paid caregivers unrelated to the children or their…