Providing social skills to children through an appropriate educational programme positively affects their overall development. The aim of this study was to examine the views and experiences of 13 Turkish preschool teachers working with 5-6-year-old children regarding support of children's social skills. An interview protocol was used to gather the…

This study presents the descriptive data of a family context assessment carried out using a new instrument which includes a wide range of variables identified in recent scientific literature as influencing children's psychological development. Participants were 772 families with children aged between 7 and 11. The results reveal variability…

This article draws on current literature leading to the development of a holistic framework to support practitioners in observation and assessment of childrens evolving inquiry skills. Evidence from the 2011 Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) in England identifies a decline of year five student achievement in science. A…

There is strong evidence that children of mothers with insecure attachment styles have poor outcome trajectories. "Maternal sensitivity" may be the behaviour which links mother and child attachment models. This would, therefore, be a natural target for treatment in attachment interventions. A systematic literature review was conducted to…

This study aimed to investigate how 33 preschool teachers' and 30 special educational needs teachers in Swedish preschools documented and described children's speech, language and communication development. The views on concepts as 'scientific basis', 'proven experience' and ways to follow language development for children in need of extra-support…

Although observational instruments are considered to be the gold standard for measuring toddler childcare quality, large-scale studies often have to rely on interviews or questionnaires. However, it remains unclear whether such reports can serve as reliable indicators for childcare quality. The present study used the ITERS and FCCERS to examine…

This work aims to highlight the relevance of Stephenson's Q methodology (QM) for improving the assessment of child-father attachment relationships. We argue that reconceptualising the relationship can enhance the validity of assessment techniques and help in identifying the paternal behaviours that predict a secure child-father attachment pattern.…

Literature reveals that there are very few validated motor proficiency tests for young children. According to Gallahue and Ozmun, the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency is a valid test. However, manipulative skills, which are classified as gross motor skills by most motor development specialists, are only tested in the Upper Limb…

This study analyzes the influence of socioeconomic status, quality of family context and sibling status on cognitive development in a sample of 551 five-year-old children. The regression analyses confirmed the predictive value of socioeconomic status and quality of family context on cognitive development. The quality of family context mediates the…

A challenge of today's teacher preparation programmes is to educate teachers about families formed through international adoption and of the challenges they face, in order to meet their educational needs. This population has a unique developmental history affected by pre- and post-adoption conditions which stand to impact on learning experiences…

Initial validation data are presented for the Risky Situation (RS), a 20-minute observational procedure designed to assess the father-child activation relationship with children aged 12-18 months. The coding grid, which is simple and easy to use, allows parent-child dyads to be classified into three categories and provides an activation score. By…

This article explores aspects of early language and literacy that may predict later literacy development. It explores a range of assessment procedures used for oral language, vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology and early reading and writing. The article then describes a small-scale study which highlights the disconnections between the…

Describes three types of functional assessment of young children with special needs: play-based, family interviews, and the evaluation of multiple intelligences. Claims that all three types are useful for planning developmentally appropriate interventions and are positive because the emphasis is on the children's and their families' strengths…

In this article, we examine the extent to which children with autism and children with learning difficulties can be discriminated from their responses to different patterns of sensory stimuli. Using an adapted version of the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), sensory processing was compared in 34 children with autism to 33 children with typical…

Discusses the development and use of indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of services for child mental health and development in Sri Lanka. Also considers indicators for rating home environment. The conclusion covers the effects of the development and use of indicators. (BG)