Exercise times can enhance a variety of child learning goals and especially help some children with attention span difficulties to concentrate better on class lessons. Specific ways for teachers to create exercise sessions are suggested and how teachers can use exercise times to promote new word learning, creative imagination, as well as pride in…

Teachers are sometimes puzzled and frustrated by some children's difficulties and troubles as these children respond aggressively when feeling that peers crowd too close or seem 'threatening'. This article provides a variety of bodily games to help children become more aware of how their bodies and muscles work. The activities suggested are…

Often, because of low wages for center and family childcare providers, low-income family financial constraints, and sometimes lack of societal awareness and appreciation for the crucial nature of early childhood relationships for later life flourishing, many agencies and decision-makers do not set specific standards for qualifications for training…

Outdoor experiences allow teachers to focus on expanding child learning in different domains. Nature experiences can sharpen child senses, enrich vocabulary, increase spatial understandings, and permit more practice for large muscle skills. As well, teachers can arrange outdoor activities to promote positive peer cooperation and aesthetic…

How to help babies and young children right from birth to become competent in talking as well as emergent literacy is illustrated by research findings as well as with specific clinical stories. Both kinds of knowledge can serve to galvanize parents and teachers to increase awareness of infant and preschool language development and the crucial role…

Teachers of infants need a large bunch of key ideas and activities of all kinds to unlock in each child the treasures of loving kindness, thoughtful and eloquent use of language, intense active curiosity to learn, willingness to cooperate, and the deep desire to work hard to master new tasks. Teachers can tune in to each child's special…

Children's active involvement in storytelling develops diverse lifelong skills for critical thinking, cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Central to the success of attracting the attention of students for storytelling are the social-emotional roles that teachers play in children's lives. This study investigated 23 kindergarten teachers' views…

By three to four months of age, most babies placed on their tummies on a safe, warm surface push down with their arms and raise their chests, so that they can turn their heads to look about at the world around them. By five months, babies stretch both feet and hands upward in order to swipe at interesting mobiles placed overhead. At seven to nine…

Language is a great communication system. Through language, humans can express logical reasoning, grief, happiness, wishes, descriptions, and a rich array of feelings and ideas. Every baby deserves the gift of language power! In this article, the author discusses how babies build language skills and presents activities to help babies build…

Interpersonal, familial, and situational risk factors that predict young children's aggression and non-compliance are explored. Here examples of specific techniques and provided to help teachers and parents effectively support children's early development of cooperative and prosocial behaviours as well as problem-solving skills in family and…

Observed 37 pairs of low-income adolescent mothers and infants over a 6-month period to determine efficacy of clinical determinations of risk. Found that maternal-risk status was significantly associated with more sensitive parenting behaviors including responsiveness to infant cues and to infant distress, and social, emotional, and cognitive…

The ability to form secure attachments during early childhood promotes a lifetime of emotional health. This article describes emotional milestones for babies (i.e., activities that promote self-comfort and self-control), as well as for toddlers. In the case of toddlers, a profound emotional milestone that is accomplished during the first year is…

This study examined effects of 1-session training to increase 2 targeted teacher language behaviors: use of Socratic (open-ended) questions and length of turn-taking conversations with low-income preschoolers. Teachers, matched in 21 pairs for education, age, and training in early childhood education, were assigned to E (experimental) or C…

The author contends that families are uniquely constituted to bestow the gifts of caring, courage, and problem solving ability upon children. Clinical and epistemological insights as well as research evidence concerning child development and family relationships are presented as sources of information which will aid families to bestow these gifts.…

A review of research on fathering and research on men employed in work with young children in centers and in elementary schools emphasises the importance of positive male engagement with young children for their optimal development. Research also reveals the complexity of studying these relationships and the barriers in families and in society…