In 2017, Laura Pace, a middle school family and consumer sciences (FCS) teacher from Farmington, New Mexico, contacted the New Mexico Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NMAFCS) regarding the use of a high school teacher evaluation system developed by the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) to assess her middle school program.…

In the authors' experience, most early childhood and early childhood special educators are quick to endorse the importance of young children's social interactions with each other, particularly in inclusive settings. In this context, it is both ironic and deeply troubling that while giving lip service to peer social skill development, the data…

Social and emotional learning competencies are included within physical education standards in the United States and abroad. Students should begin learning these important life skills in physical education at an early age, but most of the available teaching strategies target secondary environments. Physical educators can intentionally integrate…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit deficits in social-communicative behaviors. Given the increased prevalence of children with ASD, programs designed to teach social-communicative behaviors are necessary. This article introduces a movement-based program that embeds social-skill components to improve the motor skills and…

There is growing community and policy interest in educational efforts among children and young people to address pornography. Education on pornography increasingly is seen as a necessary strategy in the context of young people's widespread exposure to pornography and the potential shifts in young people's sexual and gendered lives and relations…

Recent years have witnessed a surge in evidence on preschoolers' emotional development as crucial for both concurrent and later well-being and mental health, and for learning and academic success. Given the importance of building such strengths, assessing emotional competence skills is important to aid early childhood educators in focusing…

Whether one is a parent of a 3-year-old who is curious about why a friend's skin is brown, the parent of a 9-year-old who has been called a slur because of his religion, or the parent of a 15-year-old who snubs those outside of her social clique at school, this book is designed to help teach children to honor the differences in themselves and in…

Although parents may try to shield their children from information that may be upsetting to them, inevitably they will be exposed to life's challenges and painful realities. People live in the "information age" and children are frequently bombarded with overwhelming news from the media. Since children are very aware of the emotions of the adults…

A secure setting creates a physical perimeter that prevents youth from leaving, which can provide safety for certain troubled youth. But in this totally closed environment, staff bear major responsibility for meeting a youth's developmental needs, a role normally fulfilled by parents. Secure settings often compromise goals of care when safety…

Some of the characteristics and behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), such as difficulty with social interactions and sensory integration, make physical education instruction difficult. Children with ASD also encounter movement difficulties, such as motor-planning and anticipatory deficits. One way to enhance the ability of…

Wise teachers of infants and toddlers know how concerned, helpful, empathic, cooperative, and friendly--that is, how prosocial--very young children can be. Teachers see older infants crawl or toddle over to "friends" arriving later in the morning and greet them as if they had not seen them in weeks. Teachers and families know that these young…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

There has been increased interest in recent years on gardening with children and a variety of programs have been started to support different types of programmatic goals. Goals of gardening programs include environmental stewardship, personal growth/social skills, an integrated learning environment, nutrition/health, science education, practical…

Kindergarten student teachers face a unique set of challenges as they strive to meet the needs of very young children. This article presents ten suggestions for ensuring a successful experience. They are based on the authors' many years of experience in working with student teachers placed in kindergarten settings. Arranged in Letterman fashion in…

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…