In an imaginary "Agency of Smiles," preschool children pretending to be aid workers are immersed in such activities as typing letters, sending and receiving faxes, answering phones, and negotiating with clients. A mail carrier delivers a letter from an immigrant preschool boy in the Netherlands, who requests help in making friends in his…

Deferred imitation has long held a privileged position in early cognitive development, considered an early marker of representational thought with links to language development and symbolic processes. Children with autism have difficulties with several abilities generally thought to be related to deferred imitation: immediate imitation, language,…

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of playful physical contact as an establishing operation (EO) on correct academic responses for four-year-old preschool students with developmental disabilities who functioned at the pre-speaker and pre-listener levels of verbal behavior. Two males and one female served as participants who attended…

The primary aim of this study was to identify particular group configurations and teacher behaviors that co-occurred with children's active engagement in public school early childhood classrooms for 4-year-olds. Children (N=138, 52% boys) were observed using a time sampling method in 12 classrooms in 12 urban schools serving students from…

This paper describes the therapeutic journey of Leigh (not his real name), a nine-year-old boy who was referred for play therapy due to the death of his 15-year-old brother. The play therapy was offered through a joint project called "Playing through Loss" and run jointly between a UK university and the local branch of a national…

In this article, we were interested in how young people learn to play games within a tactical games model (TGM) approach (Griffin, Oslin, & Mitchell, 1997) in terms of the physical-perceptual and social-interactive dimensions of situativity. Kirk and MacPhail's (2002) development of the Bunker-Thorpe TGfU model was used to conceptualize the…

In this article, we document the literacy practices of Genna Johar and her extended family. Genna, a grade 1 student, is a member of a Indo-Canadian joint family in which her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, share a household. Family members including siblings and cousins play important roles in supporting Genna's literacy…

Healthy child development relies on physical activity. New curriculum models are effectively integrating physical activity in education programs. The authors describe three such models: S.M.A.R.T. (Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated Readiness Training); Kids in Action, incorporating cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength and endurance,…

The Thomas Outreach Project (TOP) has developed from the Hampshire outline for meeting the needs of under fives on the autistic spectrum (THOMAS) course and has been in operation for over five years in Hampshire, supporting pre-schools and families with a range of strategies for use in all settings. In reviewing the service delivered we have…

This research began with the premise that video game play, especially as it relates to participation in persistent virtual worlds, provides fictional spaces where players engage in cognitive and communicative practices that can be personally transformative in prosocial ways. Players' experiences with these worlds are as much defined by the…

This study was an ethnographic case study that investigated oral and written language learning in a first grade classroom in Kenya. The languages used in this classroom were Swahili and English only. Kamba the mother tongue of the majority of the children, was banned in the entire school. In this classroom there were 89 children with two teachers,…

Goals of block building in early childhood classrooms focus on physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. Reports survey results of the value teachers place on block play. Offers illustrations of task cards to use with blocks in math, language arts, social studies, and science. Discusses guidelines and suggests idea cards and sentence…

From adding richness and variety to learning, to redesigning a playground, this highly accessible text will provide early years practitioners with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in the outdoor environment with a focus on interacting with the natural world. "Nature and Young Children" contains many simple ideas on the…

Available resources and indicators of high quality inclusive practices are presented in this compilation. Assembling many different resources in one place allows for easy comparison of potential indicators of quality. Excerpts and adaptations of the resources are intended to provide some familiarity with the content of each resource and encourage…

Background: Media culture touches most aspects of the lives of children growing up today, beginning at the earliest ages. It is profoundly the lessons children learn as well as how they learn, thereby contributing to what this article characterizes as "remote control childhood." Educators need to understand remote control childhood so…