The purpose of this viewpoint is to consider the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis on the educational prospects of young children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Studies show that health pandemics and environmental, political, and socio-economic crises jeopardize children's development and education. It is likely…

Rosemarie T. Truglio is the senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, where she is responsible for the development of the interdisciplinary curriculum on which "Sesame Street" is based, and oversees content development across platforms such as television, publishing, toys, home video, and theme park activities.…

The recently revised NAEYC position papers and the fourth edition of NAEYC's Developmentally Appropriate Guidelines (NAEYC. 2022. "Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: Serving Children from Birth through Age 8," edited by S. Friedman, 4th ed. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young…

Today millions of children are trapped in situations of war, conflict, violence and displacement. Science shows that violence has a detrimental effect on the development of young children. It, also, heralds in a new era, with opportunities to contribute to sustaining peace and prevention of violence, through investment in early childhood…

Erickson and Thompson articulate and defend reasonableness as an important civic educational aim for early childhood education. In this response, I argue that further clarity regarding the nature and scope of "reasonableness" as an educational concept or idea is needed. Is such a concept fundamentally political, or does it capture a…

Strain provides his perspective on four issues facing science and practice in early childhood and special education. He points to the need for (a) long-term functional research, (b) greater emphasis on the use of evidence-based programs in practice, (c) moving special education research back to the Office of Special Education Programs, and (d)…

How learning relates to development in children of school age is the most central and fundamental question. Without an answer to this, problems of pedagogical psychology and analysis of the pedagogical process can neither be properly resolved nor even stated. Nevertheless, this question remains the most obscure and unexplained of all the basic…

Over the past decade or so, the importance of self-regulation for academic development and later life success has become increasingly clear (Morrison, Bachman, & Connor, 2005). This article is a commentary regarding the articles in a special issue of "Early Education and Development," which broaden the understanding of the important…

Policy for young children in South Africa is now receiving high-level government support through the ANC's renewed commitment to redress poverty and inequity and creating "a better life for all" as promised before the 1994 election. In this article, I explore the power relations, knowledge hierarchies and discourses of childhood, family…

The articles in this special issue make clear that the field of early education is characterized by a breadth and depth of knowledge unimaginable 200 years ago, even to someone as exceptional as Elizabeth Peabody. This radical feminist used early 19th-century ideas of the "woman's sphere" to suggest that a career in early childhood education was…

Hachey (2013) aptly describes a recent surge in attention to mathematics for young children. The value of math for children as young as preschool age, however, was discovered before the 21st century. This is presently not a revolution but rather a potentially important step in an evolution of work that began at least a half century ago. Some…

Worksheets hold a special place among the many well-intentioned--yet ineffective--items in the early childhood and elementary toolkit. They are nearly ubiquitous in some elementary classrooms and are even popular in preschools. Parents are encouraged when they see worksheets in their children's backpacks; they see such papers as indicators that…

Policy in relation to early years education is developing apace and is likely to be a significant issue in the 2015 election. This articles critiques current government thinking with its emphasis on "school readiness". The article argues that the emotional and learning needs of young children are being neglected by a system that sees…

Hachey's (2013) article celebrates a revolution that is taking place in early childhood mathematics education, fueled in part by developmental research demonstrating the mathematical capabilities of young children. At the same time, Hachey notes that the mathematics revolution she describes is not yet complete. In this commentary, the author…

Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide school leadership for children from preschool to grade twelve instead of kindergarten to grade twelve. Illinois is the first state to make such a change and may well serve as a model for change in school leadership preparation on a national level. The…