Over the past three decades, our understanding of science learning in early childhood has improved exponentially and today we have a strong empirically based understanding of science experiences for children aged three to six years. However, our understanding of science learning as it occurs for children from birth to three years, is limited. We…

Child care quality in general, and caregiver-child interactions in particular, are salient predictors of children's outcomes. While the importance of process quality is well known, the complex relations between structural quality and process quality are far less researched in family child care, compared to centre based child care. Flanders shows…

This article explores emerging findings in a sensory ethnography based in a nursery setting where video data has been co-produced with parents, practitioners and 2-year-old children. The project mobilises Froebel's twin concepts of 'unfoldment' and 'self-activity', reinstating the importance of the sensory-motor register as a form of knowledge…

The global pandemic has caused some sudden changes in education. The Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE), which aims at the musical education of babies (0-3) and conducts the lessons face-to-face, is one of the areas most affected by the pandemic. Due to the nature of babies, in these lessons, where digital technology is rarely involved,…

Infants show shifting patterns of visual engagement to faces over the first years of life. To explore the adaptive implications of this engagement, we collected eye-tracking measures on cross-sectional samples of 10-25-month-old typically developing toddlers (TD;N = 28) and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;N = 54). Concurrent language…

Toddlers learn more about the world from picture books with photographs instead of drawings, but commercial books often have tactile features such as flaps that may counterintuitively hinder learning. This study tested how lift-the-flap features in a commercial picture book of first words affected 2-year-olds' (N = 32) learning of a new word for…

Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a genetic, degenerative disorder, in which individuals become unable to engage in typical motor activities, including speech. The outcome for the most common type of SMA (Type 1), has previously been death before the age of 2, but new medical improvements are showing promising results for life longevity. Research has…

Social engagement, pretend play, and concern for another's distress represent fundamental features of typical social-emotional development in the second year. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display delays and deficits in these areas, and research on toddlers at heightened risk for ASD (HR; younger siblings of children with ASD)…

Decisions being made on Capitol Hill and in state capitals may seem remote from the experiences of early childhood professionals, but policymakers have a big impact on babies and families. Early childhood professionals and parents bring key expertise and passion to policy advocacy and have a powerful role to play. This article identifies the…

Studies have shown that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) screening and diagnostic instruments may be affected by the presence of emotional and behavior problems (EBPs). This study assessed the impact of EBPs on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Participants included 290 children, 18-48 months of age,…

The use of the multiaxial dimensions of the DC:0-5 classification system during the assessment process provides an organizing framework for understanding the impact of family relationships on a child's functioning. In this article, the authors describe an assessment with a high-conflict family and how contrasting the impact of parental conflict…

Families across the United States face a variety of challenges securing early care and education (ECE) for their children. The supply and price of ECE programs in local areas tell part but not all the access story for families. Describing access across multiple dimensions provides decision makers with a deeper understanding of families' ECE needs…

The purpose of this pilot study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of an experiential teaching and learning initiative that trained undergraduate students studying speech-language pathology to serve as family navigators promoting social communication and language development in infants and toddlers from lower-income backgrounds. Three…

Background and Aims: This longitudinal study investigated the language skills, phonological working memory and lexical-tone perception of Mandarin-speaking late-talkers (LTs) and those with typical language development (TLD) at 27 months, while also examining their connections with novel word-referent mapping (W-R mapping) through eye-tracking at…

Mounting evidence supports several naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI) for toddlers and preschoolers within inclusive childcare centers and preschools. However, these interventions pose many barriers to community implementation. As part of a larger project to create an adapted NDBI for early educators in childcare centers,…