Forest School, an experiential, nature-based pedagogy is attracting considerable interest in Ireland presently. This paper presents findings from the first national survey of Forest School pedagogy in Ireland, conducted in 2019-2020 as part of a larger study. The aim of the survey was to find out how Forest School pedagogy is understood by adults…

Concepts such as participation and environment may differ across cultures. Consequently, to use a measure like the Young Children's Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) in other than the original English-speaking contexts, cultural adaptation needs to be assured. The objective is to cross-culturally translate, adapt, and pilot test the…

Demand for early childhood education and care (ECEC) is on the rise across the United States, driven by strong public support and research showing the value of high-quality ECEC services. However, persistent difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified workers, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts, have raised concerns about the field's…

Introduction: The measures implemented to manage the COVID-19 pandemic have been shown to impair mental health. This problem is likely to be exacerbated for carers. Method: Informal carers (mainly parents) of children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and a comparison group of parents of children without disabilities, completed an online…

Shared interactive book reading (SIBR) is a broad term used to describe the act of adults reading aloud to children, while encouraging interaction by asking questions and engaging in a discussion about the book. SIBR can be used to embed naturalistic communication teaching strategies, creating learning opportunities to promote a child's language…

Background: Although there is now an extensive international body of research and evidence about care and carers it is fragmented and disparate. Without synthesis, organisation and accessibility it cannot effectively inform and improve policy and practice with carers. Key points for discussion: This paper makes the case for an accessible…

Standards and competencies are critical structural supports for any professional workforce, including early childhood professionals. Workforce capacity building, career progression, and career longevity can be supported by the foundation of consistent competency expectations. Defining and embedding consistent, evidence-based competencies is a…

Background: The use of videos for patient and public health education has been widely adopted and well documented in the literature. Aims: To conduct a systematic review of empirical studies that used video-based interventions for cancer prevention and control to document study designs, settings, approaches, targeted cancer sites and behaviors,…

Background: People with Down syndrome (PDS) have complex healthcare needs. Little is known about the quality of health care for PDS, let alone how it is appraised by PDS and their caregivers. This study explores the perspectives of PDS, their parents and support staff regarding quality in health care for PDS. Method: The present authors conducted…

Based on videodata of play situations between children and professionals, a qualitative analysis of gender socialisation of boys in German EEC (Early Education and Care) institutions has been conducted. The theoretical and methodological framework of this research is an attempt to describe gender identity as an interactional phenomenon, which is…

Caregiver-implemented intervention, commonly facilitated via coaching, is an increasingly common approach to early intervention for infants and toddlers with or at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present systematic review examines four coaching components across the literature on caregiver-implemented intervention models for children…

The relation between caregiver follow-in utterances with verbs presented in different states of dyadic engagement and later child expressive verb vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was examined in 29 toddlers with ASD and their caregivers. Caregiver verb input in follow-in utterances presented during higher order supported…

Identifying the early signs of developmental disability is important for ensuring timely diagnosis and early intervention. Day-care workers may be in a prime position to notice potential developmental deviations, but it is unclear if they can accurately recognize subtle early signs of atypical development. Sixty day-care workers examined…

Mindfulness-based therapies are rising in popularity. However, evidence for their effectiveness in reducing psychological distress and enhancing wellbeing for families living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited. A systematic search identified 10 independent studies, involving a pooled sample of 233 children and adults with ASD and 241…

Background: Antipsychotic medications are used among 19%--58% of adults with intellectual disabilities to manage challenging behaviour against the NICE guideline recommendations. Studies show that it is possible to completely withdraw antipsychotics in about one third of adults with intellectual disabilities and a dose reduction of 50% or more in…