Small-group interventions are often used in schools to support the development of children's social skills. One such intervention, Lego®-Based Therapy (LBT), is increasingly popular internationally in schools. Although LBT has an emerging evidence-base, there is limited research exploring effective LBT implementation. An in-depth, exploratory…

Emotional expressions are abundant in children's lives. What role do they play in children's causal inference and exploration? This study investigates whether preschool-aged children use others' emotional expressions to infer the presence of unknown causal functions and guide their exploration accordingly. Children (age: 3.0-4.9; N = 112, the…

This article focuses on children's perspectives of belonging to a place, in this case a Finnish preprimary school setting. This study explores "place-belonging" in photographs originally taken by the children in their preprimary school activities. "Photo-telling" was applied as a methodology to link narrative and visual…

The current study aimed to investigate whether board games could be used to improve creative potential. Games have proven to be effective learning tools, and some studies have indicated positive links between creativity and other types of games, namely video games and role-playing games. However, less is known regarding board games' potential…

Early educators' perceptions of play and learning influence whether they adopt responsive roles to facilitate learning in play. While studies have investigated perceptions of play as pedagogical practice and its perceived relevance for learning, few have also interrogated educator learning perceptions, and hence compared these perceptions. This…

This study explores how infant and toddlers become caring individuals, an aspect that has received little attention among young children's interactions in educational settings. Research findings demonstrate how acts of caring support, embellish and expand infants' and toddlers' interactions. The meanings of these acts are explored based on…

This article explores how gastrostomy feeding tubes can impact the early childhood education and care (ECEC) experiences of children. It presents findings from a small-scale study, which utilised the perspectives of early years educators and parents. The findings indicate that feeding tubes have both an opportunistic and restrictive impact within…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the syllabi of play therapy courses offered by school counseling programs that hold accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. We collected and analyzed 27 course syllabi to (a) identify trends in the content of these courses and…

Background and aims: Play is used by practitioners from across disciplinary backgrounds as a natural and enjoyable context for providing intervention and support in early childhood. In the case of autism interventions, many therapies are based on the association between social play and the development of social skills, language development, and…

We report on a playful introduction of optimization in a high school. The final event of this experience has been an orienteering competition, in which the decision-making component plays a central role. This type of event has been very involving, and it boosted the interest of the students toward operations research. After summarizing the…

Jason Taylor aims in this article to establish two related claims: first, that the features of games provide fertile grounds on which long term philosophical engagement can be fostered; and second, that the attitude of playfulness is a happy bedfellow for the attitude and dispositions that dialogical inquiry is designed to foster in both…

Early childhood teachers attend professional development sessions, take college-level courses, or read articles, and will, at some point, be exposed to some concepts found in Vygotsky's (1986) cultural-historical theory of cognitive development as they are deeply embedded in education standards, professional standards, texts, and journals…

Sibling relationships are a unique and special bond throughout the life span. Having a sibling with autism may present extra difficulties to form a close and meaningful relationship. While siblings play an important role in the child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) life, there is no consistent method for involving siblings in treatment for…

Preschoolers construct culturally sanctioned messages regarding which gender-related behaviors are and are not acceptable (Scott, 2000). While play can bridge differences among children, it can also emphasize them. When opportunities to explore gender themes in an open-ended way are provided, children are afforded access to optimal play settings…

Through analysis of a video recording of two bilingual siblings playing with rubber ducks, this article explores the concept that imaginative play can serve as a potential site for language shift. The article argues that the siblings use English as a means to 'double voice' (Bakhtin, M. M. (1981[1963]). "The Dialogic Imagination" (C.…