In his Keynote address, Dr. Kretchmar suggests that children who demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to play may have a "play disability," and thus offers interventions for remediation. In response, Oslin and Collier argue that due to cultural influences, it is more likely that physical educators are play disabled. Oslin and Collier share…

This study investigated symbolic play in 12 children with autism and 12 children with typical development and compared theories that consider either theory of mind, executive function or central coherence to be causally involved in the development of symbolic play in autism. Children with autism demonstrated significantly less symbolic play than…

Written for use in play therapy and child counseling courses, this extraordinarily practical text provides a detailed examination of basic and advanced play therapy concepts and skills and guidance on when and how to use them. Kottman's multitheoretical approach and wealth of explicit techniques are also helpful for clinicians who want to gain…

"Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1" reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7-year olds. Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day -- for example, at registration and snack time -- to familiarise children…

Through the lens of a student, this Note from the Field responds to a historical research project which engages pre-service teachers in critical citizenship and social imagination. Looking inward facilitates a personal learning experience of identity that is applied to learning in the 21st century. When 21st century pre-service teacher education…

This paper describes some of the findings emerging from a small-scale pilot study investigating the potential of a tablet app, "Our Story (Ar Stòiridh)," to enhance language-learning opportunities for children in Gaelic-medium preschool playrooms. The intervention drew on design-based research, a methodology for investigating the…

The use of the "outdoors" in pre-school and school settings is becoming an increasingly important field of education and researchers have emphasised the positive influence of the "outdoors" on various social aspects. However, the facilitative conditions for such positive influences are not studied exhaustively. Therefore, we…

Quality engagement in early childhood programs is critical to the development and learning of young children, particularly those with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of engagement and interaction of children with disabilities in inclusive kindergartens in China. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the…

Affective computing seeks to create computational systems that adapt content and resources according to the affective states of the users. However, the detection of the user's affection such as motivation and emotion is challenging especially when an attention problem is present. An approach to convey learning resources to children with learning…

Research on family socialization of positive emotion has primarily focused on the infant and toddler stages of development, and relied on observations of parent-child interactions in highly structured laboratory environments. Little is known about how children's spontaneous expressions of positive emotion are maintained in the uncontrolled…

Background: Consistent with evidence from high-income countries (HICs), we previously showed that, in an informal peri-urban settlement in a low-middle income country, training parents in book sharing with their infants benefitted infant language and attention (Vally, Murray, Tomlinson, & Cooper, [Vally, Z., 2015]). Here, we investigated…

This study tested and integrated the effects of an inquiry-based didactic method for preschool science in a real practical classroom setting. Four preschool classrooms participated in the experiment (N = 57) and the children were 4-6 years old. In order to assess children's attention for causal events and their understanding at the level of…

For systematic implementation of value education in educational institutions, the national programme "Values Development in Estonian Society 2009-2013" (Ministry of Education and Research 2009) was prepared in Estonia. However, it was launched only in 2010, and the authors intended to ascertain the values of the heads of preschool child…

This paper reports on a study that investigated the ways that young children interact with discrete programmable digital toys in a free play setting. One intention was to see whether this interaction would address some of the requirements of the Digital Technologies subject in the Australian Curriculum. The study was implemented in two phases in…

This article examines how international organizations promote play-based pedagogical approaches in early childhood settings around the world, and how local educators respond. As a case study, I investigated Sesame Workshop's efforts to introduce play-based approaches in Nigerian classrooms. In addition to producing a Nigerian version of…