In South Africa, many children with extensive support needs--including children who require AAC--are accommodated in care centers rather than the public schooling system. Caregivers employed at these centers need training in order to support children's communication using augmentative and alternative methods. A total of 29 center-based caregivers…

Ninety percent of brain development takes place before the age of five, and while universally agreed to be pivotal in defining the trajectory of a child's life, access to high-quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is often inaccessible for the world's most vulnerable populations. For the 2.5 million children living in East Africa's…

This report presents key findings from the four years of the Quality Support Program (QSP). The QSP is an initiative of, and funded by, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education Early Childhood Education Quality Assurance and Regulatory Services Directorate (NSW DoE), involving the delivery by Australian Children's Education and Care…

The present study explored the association between the structural quality of child care, caregivers' sensitive responsiveness, children's involvement in play and activity in the setting, and children's expression of aggression. Eighty-four early childhood care settings were classified into either high (29) or low structural quality (55) based on…

Early childhood education [ECE] can foster the social-emotional adjustment and development of young refugee children. Still, the large numbers of newly arriving refugee families challenge the ECE capacities of host countries. In Germany, state authorities have subsidized flexible ECE programs for refugee children in response to this situation. The…

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the provision of under-five childcare services taking experiences from marginalized and vulnerable communities in Tanzania. This interpretive study employs phenomenology design to investigate the views of stakeholders based on childcare services. The focus was to determine the childcare…

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) - particularly care defined by highly responsive interactions between educators and children - has the potential to have lasting positive impacts on children's development. While there is variability in the level of quality among early education and care settings, professional development for…

There is a growing consensus in early childhood education and care (ECEC) that intentional teaching is pivotal for deep level learning, especially when teaching scientific concepts. However, intentional teaching alone does not always account for how educators communicate their intentions with children. To bridge this gap, we explore the…

In this study, it was aimed to examine the effects of using Web 2.0 tools in environmental education on the attitudes of preschool children towards the environment. The research used a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected through the "Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale: Children's Attitudes…

The current study assessed (1) the importance of six caregiver interactions skills (sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions) as rated by several stakeholders, (2) the quality of caregiver interactive skills, and (3) the…

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global health issue that affects significant proportions of women and girls. Despite research showing that children understand and perform stereotypical gender norms from as young as 3 years, addressing gender with young children is controversial. Programs that aim to teach gender fairness and respectful…

Recent advances in policy development and professional practice in the field of early learning and child care have led to the expectation that it is appropriate and advantageous to include children with disabilities and extra support needs in early child care and learning programs. Yet, to date, evidence-based research on the effects of…

Policymakers, child care providers, and parents face tradeoffs in determining how much to spend on child care, including how many hours to purchase, and the features of programs that might influence quality. Given these tradeoffs, it is useful to understand what constitutes quality, the cost of care features associated with quality, the effects of…

The Singapore government has laid out a regulation for daily minimum time spent outdoors and the Outdoor Learning Guide (OLG) to support children's outdoor experiences in full-day childcare programmes. However, there is scarce research on young children's outdoor learning experiences from children's and teachers' perspectives. This study aims to…

Parental pressure to include formalised school-type literacy lessons has been reported as a factor influencing the types of phonics instruction young children encounter in the prior-to-school years. Parents and early childhood teachers support effective phonics instruction through guided play-based learning in the prior-to-school years. Few…