Literacy success lays the foundation for children's later educational, health, and well-being outcomes. Thus, early identification of literacy need is vital. Using data from New Zealand's national preschool health screening program for fiscal years 2010/2011-2014/2015, demographic and health variables from 255,090 children aged 4 years were…

Parasympathetic nervous system functioning as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is widely used as a measure of physiological regulation. We examined developmental patterns of children's resting RSA and RSA reactivity from 2 to 15 years of age, a period of time that is marked by considerable advances in children's regulatory abilities.…

The aim of this study is to know the extent to which the national interactive curriculum scheduled for governmental kindergartens in Jordan take into account the psychological, social, aesthetic and cognitive foundations are considered. The researchers used the analytical descriptive approach. The sample of the study consisted of all kindergarten…

This study investigates associations between trajectories of children's vocabulary development and subsequent behavioral and emotional difficulties via two potential mediating mechanisms; literacy and peer problems. Nationally representative data from 4,983 Australian children were used to examine trajectories of receptive vocabulary (4-5, 6-7,…

This paper takes up the question of risk by examining childhood memories of nuisance-making and punishment shared by 26 participants enrolled in teacher education and/or childhood studies programs. Our analysis surfaces a tension that, on the one hand, idealizes the child as innocent instigator of playful antics and, on the other, produces a child…

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and born to hearing parents have delays in their social-cognitive development and in particular in their theory of mind (ToM). These delays are often attributed to the difficulties they encounter in acquiring age-appropriate linguistic and communicative skills. The present study asks whether this…

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNGA, 1989) clearly spells out the significance of early child development (ECD). Through a descriptive comparative study, and by randomized control trial, the researcher investigates if free school feeding programs affect children enrollment at ECD centers in rural communities taking the case of Maraba…

Research has demonstrated links between childhood trauma and changes in brain development that negatively impact students' academic achievement, language development, student behavior, and mental health. Trauma impacts children across all aspects of their lives, including within the school setting. Traumatic experiences can have a negative impact…

It is widely accepted that the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce is central to the quality of services. Modernist constructs of quality signal the importance of qualifications for quality, but the preoccupation with qualification levels silences questions about the knowledge required of ECEC professionals. Postmodern perspectives…

The author counters the common descriptions of play as endlessly diverse, ambiguous, and even paradoxical by describing it as a fundamental experience comparable to three others--ritual, work, and communitas. Play, he argues, entails a distinctive strategy of self-realization and a strategy for living. He first examines four basic types of…

Using the human-animal bond, relational ecology, and the "common world" framework as theoretical underpinnings, I set out to better understand the array of settings and experiences wherein young children are able to interact, either directly or indirectly with animals within the context of early childhood environmental education (ECEE).…

The theory of natural pedagogy stipulates that infants follow gaze because they are sensitive to the communicative intent of others. According to this theory, gaze following should be present if, and only if, accompanied by at least one of a set of specific ostensive cues. The current article demonstrates gaze following in a range of contexts,…

"School as a site for the production of persons" (Packer & Greco-Brooks, 1999) is discussed in this article through an exploration of children's growth as students. Drawing on Nicholas' school stories from Rene Goscinny and Jean-Jacque Sempe's well-known series entitled, "Le Petit Nicolas," the kind of people we could…

I watch my eighteen-month old daughter talking to the soft-bodied doll that I have made her. I wonder what she sees in the undefined cloth face. I wonder if she will make a similar doll for her child one day and I wonder if she will wonder as I do. While the repetition across generations of early childhood experience is both common sense and much…

This is the opening paper in a "Scottish Educational Review" collection on "Making Space for Play in Scottish Education." It is acknowledged that, historically, a perception of divergent purpose enabled education both to enlist play and to curb play to achieve desired educational outcomes. However, a new understanding of play…