To facilitate preschoolers' emotional development, it is useful to have a developmentally and culturally appropriate measure of emotion knowledge. The Affect Knowledge Test (AKT), a widely used measure of emotion knowledge, has been previously used with diverse cultural groups, including Japanese preschoolers, despite scarce reliability and…

The benefits of play to children's development and academic learning are often discussed in the research. However, inconsistencies in definitions of play and differing perspectives concerning the purpose of play in educational settings make it challenging for teachers to determine how to productively integrate play-based pedagogies into their…

Recent years have witnessed a surge in evidence on preschoolers' emotional development as crucial for both concurrent and later well-being and mental health, and for learning and academic success. Given the importance of building such strengths, assessing emotional competence skills is important to aid early childhood educators in focusing…

The Early Learning Guidelines: Nebraska's Birth to Five Learning and Development Standards (hereafter referred to as the Guidelines) is a resource to provide information about young children's learning and development. The Guidelines are intended to assist adults in planning and providing meaningful learning experiences and environments for…

This resource provides parents with widely held expectations for their child's development prior to kindergarten and ways parents can encourage their child's growth. Although a child's growth and development follows a general pattern, all children grow at different rates. Some children will be doing things earlier or later than others. There's no…

Research Findings: This study, undertaken in Nicosia, Cyprus, sought to evaluate some of the hypothesized developmental benefits of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) by investigating how the pedagogical attitudes and practices of Greek/Cypriot parents (n = 142) and teachers (n = 16) relate to 4- to 7-year-olds' (n = 142) social-emotional…

Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care (EDOPC) is a formal didactic curriculum based on Healthy Steps materials that is designed to improve practicing pediatricians' knowledge and confidence in developmental screening within the medical home. We modified the EDOPC program to provide a formal curriculum to pediatric residents serving…

This book discusses the developmental characteristics and needs of preschoolers and how to create an environment that fosters growth in all facets of their development. The four chapters examine intellectual development, social-emotional growth, spiritual growth, and physical development. Each chapter explores the particular needs and…

Intended for use with the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, this integrated ongoing student assessment toolkit is designed for preschool teachers to help them focus on all aspects of a child's development, thereby giving them a way to ensure that all children in their classes are making progress. The assessment kit uses a strength-based…

Intended for use with the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, this integrated ongoing student assessment toolkit, in Spanish, is designed for preschool teachers to help them focus on all aspects of a child's development, thereby giving them a way to ensure that all children in their classes are making progress. The assessment kit uses a…

Reviews and critiques past research that investigated the effects of various types of day-care provisions on the development of preschool children. Argues that, in view of the diversity of provisions offered in different countries, simple global generalizations about the effects of out-of-home preschool experiences on later development cannot be…

Noting that there are few resources available for preschool or kindergarten teachers committed to providing high-quality drama experiences to students, this book explores ways teachers can maximize the drama experience in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Topics discussed in the book's introduction include dramatic play and early development,…

Stressing the importance of collective efforts among families, early childhood care and education programs, communities, and policymakers in supporting the learning and development of children, this resource guide provides a framework for understanding and communicating a common set of developmentally appropriate expectations for young children…

This technical assistance paper provides preschool planners and staff with information on developmental characteristics of preschool children relevant to planning and providing a quality preschool program. Following a case scenario underscoring the need for understanding child development, a theoretical framework concerning child development is…

"Make Early Learning Standards Come Alive" provides help, support, and explanations of how to make early learning standards come alive in classrooms and programs. Easy-to-read charts show how different states define standards in each of the major content areas and how these standards can be addressed in the classroom. The book discusses how to:…