This doctoral study examined the function of baby massage in supporting early infant-carer attachment relationships among families facing stressful life experiences. It was designed in response to Bennett, Underdown and Barlow's [Bennett, C., A. Underdown, and J. Barlow. 2013. "Massage for Promoting Mental and Physical Health in Typically…

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European…

This article examines how the practice of supervision has developed within a range of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision in a county in Central England in the United Kingdom. Supervision has been recently introduced as a mandatory requirement for ECEC in England in 2012, and there is limited research looking at the impact of this.…

Play acts as the source of children's development in the preschool period. Yet, the global pandemic has changed children's play conditions in ways that are not yet fully understood. With movement restrictions, families have struggled to find ways of bringing children together for play. We studied how family day care (FDC) educators across a remote…

This doctoral research addressed the dearth of research focussed on childminding in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders' pedagogy. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) against the backdrop of Irish Early Childhood…

Much home learning research explores the benefits from the perspectives of the child or staff. Less is written about how parent's view home learning. This became more noticeable recently when nurseries closed because of COVID-19 lockdown. Staff had to design digital home learning activities at speed to help parents support their children's…

When children reminisce with adults about their own past experiences, they are offered a rich forum in which to develop cognitive and socioemotional skills, build their sense of self, and form emotional bonds. Little attention has been directed to reminiscing in educational contexts, however. Our aim was to explore when, how often, and why early…

The main objective of the study was to investigate the status of early childhood care and education (ECCE) from a quality perspective using concurrent mixed-method research. Participants of this study were 161 teachers and 35 principals (total 196) from government and private preschools and 4 supervisors. A questionnaire, observation,…

In flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC), the timing of care depends on parents' non-standard working hours. Multiple individual schedules and care times in a child group may cause irregularity in a child's daily structures, and a child may miss a standard hour's activities that are led by teachers with a pedagogical…

There is an increased understanding of the importance of high-quality early years education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, in relation to their future attainment and future life chances. A recent government initiative in England has sought to provide two-year-olds, from disadvantaged backgrounds, with free early education and…

Friendship matters for young children's development, learning and experience of wellbeing. This paper emphasises the significance of young children's friendships for their wellbeing, especially in the context of early years settings. Findings are presented from two online questionnaires developed for the project, in which 155 parents/carers and…

This study presents the insights gained from interviewing 12 parentally bereaved children aged 5-8. All were below six years of age when bereft. Participants were interviewed through Sandtray interviews. The study finds that children are developing an understanding of what it means to live with loss, but want truthful information about the illness…

Australia and China are experiencing increasing need for trained early childhood teachers. Career identity and work choices are critical ingredients for achievement in career outcomes. This study reports on a survey undertaken by early childhood pre-service teachers from China and Australia regarding identity and choices for early childhood…

Young children spend an increasing amount of time in out of home care, as neuroscientific research reveals the pivotal role love and touch plays in children's development. In response to this new knowledge, there is a growing interest in love and touch in the context of early childhood education. Sadly, cases of sexual abuse in early childhood…

This study examined the effects of a newly developed on-site consultancy programme to improve global quality of the child care environment in non-parental child care centres for 0- to 4-year-old children as measured with the ITERS-R/ECERS-R. Using a randomised controlled trial with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up test, we compared 35…