The study investigated the quality of interactions between childcare providers and toddlers during a lunch in childcare centres. Meals in childcare centres are semi-structured adult-led situations where the children not only eat, but are also provided with opportunities for implicit learning and interactions. Participants were 13 toddlers aged…

This paper explores some of the learning of a young child from the age of 8-23 months and considers how identifying schemas or repeated patterns of actions can inform our pedagogic responses. Gabriella was observed using naturalistic observation methods, at home, at her grandparents' home, at parks and using early childhood services. Narrative…

Self-determination theorists argue that parents can support or thwart their children's psychological needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence. The first aim of this study was to develop a measure to assess six dimensions of parenting theoretically linked to meeting toddlers' needs. The second aim was to examine the associations of these…

Children's early years are critical for development and many children access out-of-home care during this time. Services offering high-quality childcare afford an opportunity to impact positively on children's development, including acquisition of communication skills. A strong, responsive relationship between child and carer is important in…

Recent re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement (Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In M. Lamb (Ed.), "The role of the father in child development" (5th ed., pp. 67-107). London: Wiley), while proving fruitful, has yet to be applied to investigations into…

This study examined activative fathering observed during father--child interactions in the family home, focusing on the relation between activative fathering at children aged four and children's behaviour dysregulation and sociability at children aged five. One hundred twenty-seven families participated in the study. Activative fathering was…

The purpose of this study was to develop the "observational scheme of child's free play in kindergarten" (OFP) and examine the associations between "child's attachment to his/her kindergarten teacher" (CAKT) and: (1) cognitive and social play behaviour, (2) child's contacts with his/her peers and teacher during free play…

Attachment research suggests that children with secure attachments are more able to construct meaningful relationships with peers. Few studies, however, have attempted to map early attachment security to the formation and maintenance of preschool friendships. Special attention has been paid to affiliative relationships (particularly friendships)…

Research examining child-care providers' beliefs and behaviour has produced contradictory evidence perhaps because analyses commonly examine providers as a homogenous group. Among providers in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we used cluster analysis to identify groups based on profiles of beliefs. We found evidence for five…

Despite the abundance of research on attachment and on the effects of separation, very little research examines the actual processes of separation occurring daily when mothers leave their children (age 6-18 months) in out-of-home group care. In the current study, this everyday process of separation was observed for three months…

This study took place in two organisations with opposite socio-economic characteristics which gather children (one to four years), their mothers (or nannies), unfamiliar adults and professional caregivers. Pursuant to attachment theory, the children clearly differentiated their mothers from unfamiliar adults according to proximity indicators and…

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…

The purpose of this study was to examine toddlers' emotional reactions to separation from their primary caregivers through the observation on a group of toddlers (18-30 months old) at a university preschool classroom. Interactional ethnography with ethnographic perspective and sociolinguistic discourse analysis was used as the theoretical…