This article is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, "Mental Health in the Early Years: Challenges and Pathways to Resilience', by Gail L. Ensher, David A. Clark, and Melissa M. Luke with contributing authors. This excerpt includes the value of a family systems and an ecological perspective; provides an overview of social--emotional…

Introduction: This investigation evaluates whether an intervention involving mindfulness-based practices, socio-affective activities, and socio-cognitive instances can foster prosocial attitudes and positive social relationships and reduce perceived stress in children. Method: The study was conducted with 44 children (20 girls and 24 boys) aged…

The purpose of this study is to investigate outdoor play experiences of preschool children in Turkey and to compare the experiences of these children with previous generation. The sample of the study consists of 398 parents with children aged 3-6 years old attending to a pre-school education institution in the province of Adana, a city located in…

The effective integration of educational technologies into early childhood education remains a significant challenge. An important element of this challenge is how practitioner beliefs about pedagogy relate to how digital technologies are used in the early years classroom. Focussing on early childhood practitioner beliefs in relation to pedagogy…

The overall objective of this study is to examine and analyze the impact of a relaxed and fun atmosphere on the second language learning. This is a mixed method research. It combines some parameters from qualitative and some from quantitative type of research. The children were divided into two groups: experimental and control group with 16…

Teachers play an essential role in providing appropriate classroom interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is necessary to discover teachers' perceptions about these interventions for young children with ASD in order to improve the curricula and standards for working with this population. Peer-Mediated Instruction…

Educational videogames support productive learning by organizing content in relation to meaningful contexts and roles. Videogames can also create new opportunities for understanding and supporting learning when the game ends. This presents formative transitions as a strategy for revealing what players learn through videogames, while also…

We used photographic activity schedules to increase the number of play activities completed by children with autism during unstructured time on the playground. All 3 participants engaged in more playground activities during and after training, and they continued to complete activities when novel photographs were introduced.

Through multimodal retellings of kindergarten children's performances of "baby," this article aims to contribute to the emerging "posthuman conversation" within early childhood studies. Specifically, this work makes moves toward reconceptualizing children's becomings within educational contexts by, first, interrogating the ways…

Researchers agree that attention to bilingualism and biliteracy can and should be a goal in all educational settings where young dual language learners are present. The challenge, however, is how to promote biliteracy development while remaining congruent with principles of developmental direction, specifically the idea that children's…

This article explores posthumanism as a philosophy that emphasizes human relationships with the natural world by examining representations of animality, both in children's literature (e.g. titles such as Where the "Wild Things Are," "Wild," "Virginia Wolf," and "No Fits, Nilson!") and in children's play in…

The purpose of the study is to understand the early childhood teacher candidates' perception of play and their understanding of teachers' role in play. Another aim of the study is to disclose pre-service teachers' thoughts on their college training adequacy regarding the play. In this qualitative research, the data came from written responses of…

The positive effects of shared book reading on vocabulary and reading development are well attested (e.g., Bus, van Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995). However, the role of shared book reading in GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT remains unclear. In this study, we conducted a construction-based analysis of caregivers' child-directed speech during shared…

The focus of this article is children's self-organisation of peer-groups through play. The play was initiated by encounters with the environment. The use of ethnographic methods in early childhood research has proved helpful to elucidate, interpret, and understand children's experiences and the creation of meaning in their everyday lives. This…

Having an imaginary companion (IC) is a fascinating example of children's imaginative and pretend play. However, there are inconsistencies in the reported prevalence of children's ICs. This study examined how culture may affect this prevalence. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess whether the culture, as well as age, assessment method, sex, and…