While child development is well-recognized as a complex process which could hardly be decomposed into separate lines or domains in contemporary psychological theories, the decomposition approach is widely used in empirical studies. Based on the cultural-historical theory, this study argues for adopting the unit of analysis as a way to bridge this…

There is a considerable body of research on children's number knowledge development, and in particular on children ages 4 years and older and who have some counting experience. Children in early care preschool settings (ages 2 and 3) and who are not yet experienced counters are an understudied population. We conducted a multiple-case study on five…

In early childhood, young children frequently engage in object-oriented play. According to cultural-historical activity theory, object-oriented play provides children with opportunities to learn about the characteristics and cultural applications of objects and materials. These characteristics are referred to as rules or affordances of objects and…

Poverty of the stimulus has been at the heart of ferocious and tear-filled debates at the nexus of psychology, linguistics, and philosophy for decades. This review is intended as a guide for readers without a formal linguistics or philosophy background, focusing on what poverty of the stimulus is and how it's been interpreted, which is…

Many governments have launched the top-down early childhood curriculum (ECC) reforms to enhance the accountability of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The present discourse analysis of latest ECC policies across four diverse but representative countries -- Australia, China, New Zealand, and Singapore -- aims to examine the…

Friedrich Froebel is well-known for the invention of kindergarten and the pioneering educational philosophy he developed in the 1800s, which respected children's self activity and women's capabilities for the role of teacher, while promoting play as the primary medium for learning. His radical ideas and principled approach to early childhood…

This paper explores one child's use of their schema to construct their knowledge and understanding within the early years curriculum for Wales -- the Foundation Phase (FP). It considers how a knowledge of schemas can facilitate practitioners in supporting children along their learning continuum and inform classroom pedagogy. This paper explores…

Beyond his contributions to the field of psychology, Vygotsky may be considered as 'one of the first thinkers in complexity' (Jörg, 2011 p. 14). Vygotsky challenged linear causality and defended the idea of the transcendence of individual learning to focus on the generative potential of learning and development through social interactions,…

There is a consensus that the crises children encounter during the transition period might impact negatively on children's learning and development. However, from cultural-historical perspective, qualitative leap in development can hardly be achieved without crises. This paper, drawing upon cultural-historical theory as the framework and by using…

Interpersonal interactions during childhood form the foundation for development and learning (Tomasello, 2014; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Numerous studies have documented the impact of interactions between preschool teachers and preschool-aged children between 3 and 6 years of age (e.g., Denham et al., 2003; Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta & Jamil, 2013).…

This paper draws on observational studies of three young children in order to demonstrate firstly, their intrinsic motivation to explore systematically through repeated patterns of action or 'schemas'; secondly, how those repeated actions appear and are explored in their emerging language demonstrating their increasing construction of and…

Museum visits can offer rich learning environments for preschool children. In potentiating learning environments, power is shared between adults and children as children and teachers co-construct understanding. Such learning environments also maximise opportunities for dialogue between adults, children and their peers. Drawing on the findings from…

Parents as partners in their children's learning is predicated by a notion of a mutual understanding of the learning as shared by educators. Documenting learning in early childhood education and care (ECE & C) settings has evolved from more traditional developmental approaches to include photographs, artefacts and social stories to make…

In this paper, we present an examination of the literature on prolonged periods of silence in children from the perspective of two different scientific fields. The aim is to call attention to the inherent complexity of the factors that may be involved in the etiology of mutistic behavior during child development. Medical and linguistic literature…

Studying relationships in infant/toddler play, using visual narrative methodology to identify transitory moments, supports our current research on babies and toddlers. We use Vygotsky's theorisation of play to understand children's affective and intellectual aspirations in play. The theoretical discussion, using cultural-historical concepts,…