Childhood states are commonly invoked by adult humans in derisory ways and as put-downs. While infantile and clownish ways of behaving are often met with insult, we argue that these ways of being could instead be seen in terms of their productive potential. Drawing on posthuman and feminist theories and invoking clownish qualities of Haraway's Bag…

Mainstream images of "toddler" tend to serve a humorous purpose in mass media, most often presenting children of this age (18 months-3 years) as out-of-control. This assumed "barbaric" toddler promotes early childhood as a time for intervention, expecting adults to be the shapers of behavior and knowledge within discourses of…

The literature has yet to review the differential effects of Natural Environment Teaching (NET) and Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) on adaptive skills. A sample of 142 children diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 16 and 35 months received either DTT, NET, or both interventions (NET+ DTT). The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID)…

Young children are disproportionately impacted by trauma (Barnett & Hambien, n.d.) and are more vulnerable to the impact of trauma (Bartlett et al., 2017). Trauma in the early years' impacts brain development (Bartlett, et al., 2017; Sciaffara et al., 2018), which has both immediate (Bartlett & Smith, 2017) as well as long-term…

Learning to descend stairs requires motor and cognitive capacities on the part of infants and opportunities for practice and assurance of safety offered by caregivers. The American Academy of Pediatrics prescribes the age strategy to teach toddlers to safely descend stairs but without much consideration for individual differences in infants'…

Introduction: The main focus of early intervention is to strengthen the interaction of parents with young children with disabilities, and to ensure that parents become active participants in the development and education of their children. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an Early Intervention Program based on…

The purpose of this pilot study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of an experiential teaching and learning initiative that trained undergraduate students studying speech-language pathology to serve as family navigators promoting social communication and language development in infants and toddlers from lower-income backgrounds. Three…

Although there have been calls in the early childhood field for effective approaches to preparing the workforce to support optimal early child development, there is a gap in understanding how different types of professional development predict teachers' beliefs about children and their self-reported classroom practices. Using the National Survey…

Given its importance in children's development and learning, researchers have rigorously studied play, and many teachers have used it as a classroom tool. Music researchers have observed that music regularly accompanies children's play because music is part of their culture, and "playing with music" is the most natural form of expression…

In Portugal, professional preparation for working with infants and toddlers is often characterized as insufficient and/or inadequate in light of the specific professionalism required for working with very young children. This study is situated in initial professional education (IPE) and, in particular, on practicum experiences within an early…

This pilot study conducted an initial evaluation of the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE) Infant-Toddler Teacher Training program. The program is unique in three ways: 1) use of an online platform with courses that explain social-emotional, language, and literacy development in young children…

This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

This article examines how an educator develops a drama pedagogy through the course of her dramatic interactions with three toddlers. A cultural-historical approach was used to explore the concepts of dramatic interactions and dimensions of drama pedagogy. Visual research methodology involved video observations and a reflective interview with the…

Vygotsky (in: Rieber, Carton (eds) The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, vol 1, Pleneum Press, Newyork, pp 167-241, Retrieved from http://images.lib.monash.edu.au/edf5411/04118997.pdf, 1987) stated that academic or scientific concepts require a level of conscious awareness on the part of the child within everyday situations. Academic concepts can…

With growing emphasis on the development and use of competencies (knowledge, dispositions, skills) for training and evaluating the early childhood workforce, this study aimed to identify sources of variation in undergraduate students' beliefs and knowledge related to competencies identified by the Collaborative for Understanding Pedagogy for…