School readiness assessments in South Africa still predominantly focus on the assessment of cognitive skills. The Emotional Social Screening Tool for School Readiness (E3SR) was developed to bridge the perceived gap in assessing emotional-social skills as a domain of school readiness. An emerging body of research reports exists on the psychometric…

The cause of African countries' perennial low-income status and failure to achieve lasting social transformation has proven to be a consistently vexing puzzle. This dissertation was an exploration of a conceptual framework that addressed this important query. The framework was informed by existing literature, including works on the ideas of social…

To address the need for interventions targeting social emotional development and mental health of young children in South Africa, the "Mazi Umntanakho" ('know your child') digital tool was co-designed, and piloted with caregivers and 3-5-year-old children involved in home visiting programmes promoting early childhood development. The aim…

Background: Early childhood is a formative period during which distinguishable development has projections of bearing desirable outcomes within an individual. Hence, physical, language, cognitive, emotional and social independence are healthy components of a typical child's development that early childhood development (ECD) educators deem…

What comes to mind when you think about skateboarding? Depending on your age (wink), your initial thoughts might range from "kid's toy" to "action sport," or from "thrilling" to "dangerous" or even "annoying noise." Although skateboarding bore the reputation of a rebellious counterculture in its…

School-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs emerged in North America and have not traditionally focused on embodied learning processes that are situated in the learners' contexts and lived experiences. Thus, we present evidence and advance the case that transferable social-emotional competencies are inherently culturally responsive or…

Inclusion of learners with mild hearing impairments in mainstream classes contributes to their language, social and academic development. These learners require adequate support from the teachers to succeed in the classroom. However, such an endeavour requires that teachers are appropriately prepared and supported. With this study we investigated…

Background: This review explores the pastoral role of early childhood development (ECD) teachers through a trauma-informed lens, grounded in neuroscience. Traumatised learners experience neurobiological changes that hinder cognitive and physical functioning. The review highlights the importance of pastoral support in ECD because of learners'…

Unsafe and violent schools are a widespread problem in South Africa. This paper argues that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) contribute to this phenomenon. While various individual and community-level interventions to address ACEs have been reported on, the contribution of safe parks towards preventing school violence has not yet been…

Current research around the middle grades has brought a heightened attention by teachers, policymakers, and researchers recognizing that this stage is a time when a students' health and social and emotional well-being directly impacts their academic progress. To date, school leaders and teachers have not been well served by explicit resources for…

This study evaluated the impact of a parenting intervention on children's cognitive and socioemotional development in a group of caregivers and their 21-to-28-month-old children in a low-income South African township. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group (n = 70) receiving training in dialogic book-sharing (8 weekly group…

Rhymes, poetry, stories, wrestling, music and dancing were essential cultural elements through which childhood play was promoted in traditional Africa. "Modernisation" brought about by colonialism led to distortion and decline in the use of traditional play for childhood education in many parts of Africa. This work assessed the value of…

There are limited studies into the exact pervasiveness of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in sub-Saharan Africa, and fewer still into early intervention for learners with autism. This paper focuses on how three foundation phase teachers provided explicitly structured classroom experiences to develop social skills training, particularly…

Background: In the history of early childhood education (ECE), language is viewed as key in teaching and learning. Children in the ECE are mostly confined to verbal communication which, to a certain extent, restricts their imagination and inventive ability. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy, initiated the…

Children and youth at risk, particularly those placed in child and youth care centres (CYCC) in South Africa, have suffered from school disengagement due to multiple barriers to learning such as the exposure to crime and violence at a young age. As children and youth at risk at these centres find it difficult to engage in learning, new approaches…