How can the use of testimonies, as representations of suffering, be understood in education? What kind of potential can the use of testimonies have for pedagogical transformation? In this article, drawing on Mollenhauer and Sontag, I discuss the problem of representation as selection in education as it is easier to opt out of that which is…

Background: The Preschool Speech and Language Program (PSLP) in Ontario, Canada, is a publicly funded intervention service for children from birth to 5 years with communication disorders. It has begun a population-level programme evaluation of children's communicative participation outcomes following therapy. Data are currently being collected for…

The majority of recent studies conclude that children's private speech development (private speech internalisation) is important for mathematical development and subject to disabling. The main concern of the present study was whether or not the two phonological memory factors evaluated in the study (i.e. the results of children's digit span…

This study investigated children's evaluations of peer group members who deviated from group norms about equal and unequal allocation of resources. Children, ages 3.5 to 4 years and 5 to 6 years (N = 73), were asked to evaluate a peer group member who deviated from 1 of 2 group allocation norms: (a) equal allocation of resources, or (b) unequal…

Little research has been conducted on unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) despite their growing prevalence in Africa, including South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, and Uganda. In this study, researchers implemented a randomized control trial with over 2,500 households to investigate the impact of Africa's child grant program on…

The paper describes the importance of graphicacy as a key communication tool in our everyday lives. The need to better understand the development of graphicacy and its use in the school curriculum is emphasised. The need for a new research tool is explained and the development of a new taxonomy of graphicacy is described. The use of this tool…

Background: Most gene-environment interaction (GXE) research, though based on clear, vulnerability-oriented hypotheses, is carried out using exploratory rather than hypothesis-informed statistical tests, limiting power and making formal evaluation of competing GXE propositions difficult. Method: We present and illustrate a new regression technique…

Recent research suggests that brain development follows an abnormal trajectory in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The current study examined changes in diffusivity with age within defined white matter tracts in a group of typically developing children and a group of children with an ASD, aged 6 to 14 years. Age by group interactions…

Educators around the world are being challenged to promote positive global citizenship skills in the face of daily news concerning widespread discord, dissonance, injustice, and corruption. This article describes a Socratic approach to developing global citizenship. Recognizing the central role of teachers in educating future generations of a…

Background: The development of Bronfenbrenner's bio-social-ecological systems model of human development parallels advances made to the theory of resilience that progressively moved from a more individual (micro) focus on traits to a multisystemic understanding of person-environment reciprocal processes. Methods: This review uses…

The general questions are: what is virtue and how can it be cultivated? The specific focus is on the conceptions of virtue in the works of Immanuel Kant and John Rawls. Kant regarded virtue as a good will that is also strong enough to resist contrary passions, impulses, and inclinations. Childhood training can prepare children for virtue, but…

This paper argues that, because young children's response to the world is primarily sensory and aesthetic, early years curriculum should give due attention to the arts. There is an urgent need to better conceptualise ways of working with young children in relation to the arts. The paper is based on three key and permeating ideas: first, that human…

There is ample evidence that children born to poorer families do not succeed at the same rate as children born to the middle class. On average, low-income children lag behind on almost every cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and health measure. These gaps start early--some of the newest research suggests that cognitive gaps are detectable in…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a topic of increased policy interest in the Slovak Republic where improving quality in the ECEC sector is a subject of growing importance. The OECD has identified five effective policy levers to encourage quality in the sector: 1) quality goals and regulations; 2) curriculum and guidelines; 3)…

Current policy guidance stresses the need for early identification of obstacles to learning and appropriate intervention. New standards for learning (Early Years Foundation Stage) place personal, social and emotional development (PSED) as central to learning and development. This paper reports a survey and follow-up interviews with early years…