Understanding factors that contribute to students' success is of great interest to educators. Research indicates that participation in extracurricular activities positively correlates with students' development both academically and personally. Students who participate in extracurricular activities have greater academic success, greater character…

The purpose of this study was to gain greater understanding of the potential benefits of assistive technology (AT) devices on young children's social development. Specifically, changes to the quality of the adult/young child social interactions as a function of the child's access to and use of his/her personal AT device was examined. Using a…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) spend the majority of their lives as adults, and psychosocial interventions show promise for improving outcomes in this population. This research conducted a systematic review of all peer-review studies evaluating psychosocial interventions for adults with ASD. A total of 1,217 studies were…

The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Social Responsiveness Scale in an accelerated longitudinal sample of 4-year-old preschool children with the complementary approaches of categorical confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis. Measurement models based on the literature and other hypothesized measurement…

In an era of change, preparing our youth for an uncertain future is akin to building the airplane while it is in flight. Since we do not have the luxury of putting development on hold until we figure out the destination and the kind of plane we need to get there, we must fly anyway. This article employs an airplane analogy to illustrate the fact…

"Resilience" has become a popular goal in research, social policy, intervention design and implementation. Reinforced by its conceptual and political slipperiness, resilience has become a key construct in school-based, universal interventions that aim to develop it as part of social and emotional competence or emotional well-being.…

School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) focuses on promoting social competence through the establishment of behavior expectations that are explicitly taught and reinforced by all teachers across all settings. This study investigated the validity of using adherence to SWPBS behavior expectations as a screening tool for predicting behavior…

In recent decades, the notion of the competent child has, in the field of Early Childhood Education, become a powerful discourse. In this paradigm, inspired by the sociology of childhood, the child is seen as a competent social actor having agency in his or her life. However, critical comments have been made at both the micro-and macro-level about…

The purpose of this paper is to consider four pedagogical applications within the Sport Education model to examine the ways in which a young person can become a literate sports person and develop ethical behaviour through engagement in physical education and youth sport. Through a systematic review of the Sport Education research literature we…

This study is the first to test whether receipt of a federal child care subsidy is associated with children of immigrants' school readiness skills. Using nationally representative data (n ˜ 2,900), this study estimates the associations between subsidy receipt at age 4 and kindergarten cognitive and social outcomes, for children of immigrant…

This article examines the use of naturalistic observations to explore children's experiences in the early years at school, from their perspectives. It looks at the difficulties encountered in determining the significance of observed behaviours in relation to (a) experiences and (b) impact of those experiences. Often the children were not satisfied…

For a multitude of reasons, the founding of an independent school in the modern-day United States is an extremely challenging undertaking. The list of essentials necessary to envision, prepare, open, and operate a functioning school are endless, yet school founders are driven to do so out of a commitment to and passion for a particular school…

Head Start has stood as the largest and longest-running early childhood care and education government program in the United States for nearly four decades--and one of the most heavily researched. Yet, despite evidence of both short- and long-term benefits, debate lingers over how effective it is at achieving its primary goal of improving the…

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviews in this topic area focus on early childhood education (ECE) interventions designed for use in school- or center-based settings with 3- to 6-year-old children who are not yet in kindergarten and are attending a center-based program. The primary focus for early childhood education interventions is on cognitive,…

Parents strongly influence their children's development, and prekindergarten and early elementary programs--especially those serving children at risk for low achievement because of their family backgrounds--often feature programming to support parents' role in their children's learning. Despite the prevalence of such programs, however, we have…