A growing number of 2 year olds are now attending early childhood education (ECE) services nationally and internationally. However, New Zealand has been slow to address the specialist provision and needs for high quality ECE for 2 year olds. The current survey of 248 New Zealand ECE services examined the effect of this lacuna on practice and…

The engagement of migrant families in early childhood education is a strategy pursued by the Ministry of Education in Aotearoa New Zealand. A growing body of research has explored the realities being experienced by these migrant families. These realities include how families are able to maintain their cultural identities, practices and languages…

Play therapy expert Terry Kottman and her colleague Kristin Meany-Walen provide a comprehensive update to this spirited and fun text on integrating Adlerian techniques into play therapy. Clinicians, school counselors, and students will find this to be the definitive guide for using Adlerian strategies with children to foster positive growth and…

For many, childhood memories are of outdoor play: "baking" mud pies, building forts, climbing trees, playing tag at the park, and constructing sand castles at the beach. Children today spend only half as much time playing outside as their parents did 30 years ago. Childhood is moving indoors, yet research shows that a lack of outdoor…

The purpose of this study was to explore the quality of toddler childcare in Norway using the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition (ITERS-R; [Harms, Thelma, Debby Cryer, and Richard M. Clifford. 2006. "Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scales Revised Edition." New York: Teachers College Press.]), drawing on a sample of…

Family-centered practices that build caregiver capacity are a central focus of early intervention services for young children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of adapting the "Parents Interacting with Infants" (PIWI) facilitated playgroup model to target effective communication strategies for…

Purpose: Little is known about how teachers acquire specialized content knowledge (SCK). We examine the hypothesis that SCK is not acquired from K-12 physical education and from extracurricular activities characterized by playing; instead, SCK must be explicitly taught to teachers. Method: Students were enrolled in either basic physical activity…

This study aims to consider children's perspectives about free time activity choices. Through the use of drawings, favourite free time activities of third culture kids in Albania are compared with those of children in the UK. The sample comprises four boys and three girls from four to eight years from each country. Further conversations reveal…

Others' success can be a powerful motivation to innovate, which sometimes means finding new ways to return to beneficial activities. Finland's academic success has prompted many to explore that country's policies and practices, particularly regarding providing opportunities for children to enjoy more unstructured play.

This study developed, delivered and evaluated an interactive intervention, which targeted three- and four-year-old children's oral language. The intervention was carried out over twice-weekly sessions, for ten weeks. The first weekly session was a group shared storybook reading session with a puppet and the second weekly session consisted of…

Senate Bill (SB) 163 would alter the current law that requires coverage of behavioral health treatment (BHT) for autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). SB 163 would expand the definition of BHT to include treatment modalities based on developmental theory, would make technical changes to definitions related to network adequacy, would prohibit denial of…

Despite a 100-year-old history and the existence of schools in nearly every country in the world, Waldorf education is a little known and poorly understood educational model that was developed in Europe by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. For many years it existed in the United States in the form of private schools. Few of their teachers or…

Closing the vocabulary gap for young children at risk for reading and language delays due to low socioeconomic status may have far reaching effects, as the relationship between early vocabulary knowledge and later academic achievement has been well-established. Vocabulary instruction for young children at risk for reading and language delays…

What is the role of early education and care in advocating and providing for nature play in an era when children's exposure to nature play and risk is threatened? This review deconstructs the word "nature," as well as discusses nature's role in centuries of theorists and early childhood care pioneers. The article concludes with some…

Background: The study reported in this article focuses on an exploration of the role and nature of play in young children's use of toys that connect physical and digital domains. Purpose: The purpose of the article is to explore the nature of the connections that are made in play that transverses physical and virtual domains. The article draws on…