Mainstream images of "toddler" tend to serve a humorous purpose in mass media, most often presenting children of this age (18 months-3 years) as out-of-control. This assumed "barbaric" toddler promotes early childhood as a time for intervention, expecting adults to be the shapers of behavior and knowledge within discourses of…

What would it mean to center theories of the child around those who are evacuated from childhood? I propose the idea of the "problem child" as an encapsulation of those who are constructed outside of Western understandings of childhood. In this essay, I explore how the problem child illuminates colonial entanglements between childhood…

Drawing on a critical debate in the social studies of childhood on the empowerment of children to participate in research, the paper illustrates how ethnographic research in childhood institutions has the potential to destabilise hierarchic power relationships towards an open, dynamic, playful engagement between ethnographer, children, and the…

This study investigates whether preschool-aged children show consistent patterns of behaviour in conflicts with their siblings. Consistency was assessed at the nomothetic (i.e., group), idiographic (i.e., individual), and idiosyncratic (i.e., consistent patterns that differed from the norm) levels. We examined conflicts between 19 2-year-old and…

This multimethod study of 101 mothers, fathers, and children elucidates poorly understood role of children's attachment security as "moderating" a common maladaptive trajectory: from parental power assertion, to child resentful opposition, to child antisocial conduct. Children's security was assessed at 15 months, parents' power assertion observed…

Play is sometimes said to be paradoxical because it displays one quality and the opposite of that quality at the same time. One of the best examples of this is the copresence of order and disorder. This article explores the differences between orderly and disorderly play. The author emphasizes the ways in which any event can be said to be orderly…

This article explores the practitioner's relationships with colleagues, on teams and with professionals from other disciplines and systems. While there has been much analysis and discussion about relationships between practitioners and clients, there has been relatively little attention paid to the professional relationships that are at the center…

The present study provides a qualitative analysis of mothers' childrearing behaviour focused on the coercive-inductive dimension, in particular in an effort to show that coerciveness is not always negative, but may be adaptive to the child's characteristics. Thirty-one mothers provided self-reports from a structured interview on their childrearing…

This article critically analyses the AIM Assessment Model for children who have sexually harmful behaviour, exploring the underpinning knowledge and the processes involved. The model reflects current trends in the assessment of children, in child welfare and criminal justice services, producing categories of risk that lead to levels of…

Many early childhood professionals recommend the use of learning centers in classrooms for young children (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 2004). Centers provide children with opportunities for making choices, working with others, being involved in hands-on activities, and becoming fully engaged in learning. In contrast, traditional classroom…