Learning how to regulate emotions is a significant developmental milestone in a child's life. It is important to understand which activities help children cope with emotionally distressing situations. One such activity, I argue, is drawing. In this article, I consider 2 ways in which drawing elevates mood in children: Drawing allows them to be…

Pretence and creativity are often regarded as ubiquitous characteristics of childhood, yet not all education systems value or promote these attributes to the same extent. Different pedagogies and practices are evident within the UK National Curriculum, Steiner and Montessori schools. In this study, 20 children participated from each of these…

This paper shares the results of an exploratory study that measured the change in Executive Function (EF) skills of At-Risk third-grade students with varying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before and after an Arts-Integration (AI) program. Student EF skills were measured using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS) and a statistically…

Using both child-guided and adult-guided learning, Intentional Teaching in the early years can be a powerful tool for enhancing young children's numeracy skills. As Epstein (2009) notes, this can include providing "opportunities for children to represent things by drawing, building and moving" (p. 47). This paper investigates how…

This paper reports findings from a 2-year Australian study that explored children's perceptions of the meaning and value of the arts, and accounts of their engagement in arts activities in school and youth arts settings. The research also aimed to develop data generation methods sensitive to the ways children communicate and make meaning. The 570…

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationships among art, language, and communication through the use of children's art books in early childhood teaching. By children's art books, meaning books for children that serve as contexts for reproductions of artworks, are stunning works of art themselves, engage the curiosity and thinking of…