Practice-based coursework in higher education programs is considered a critical aspect of early childhood practitioner preparation. Many undergraduates also have formal (e.g., childcare) or informal (e.g., nannying, babysitting) work experience outside of their degree programs, which may influence their caregiving competencies. In this study we…

The separation of young children from their families for most of their awake hours, and the specific segregation of children by discrete chronological age through classrooms and grade levels, is a relatively new phenomenon in the history of human society. Such settler colonial constructs continue to influence early learning design, policy and…

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…

This experiment tests the age at which left-to-right spatial associations found in infancy shift to culture-specific spatial biases in later childhood, for both numerical and non-numerical information. Children ages 1-5 years (N = 320) were tested within an eye-tracking paradigm which required passive viewing of a video portraying a spatial…

In Portugal, professional preparation for working with infants and toddlers is often characterized as insufficient and/or inadequate in light of the specific professionalism required for working with very young children. This study is situated in initial professional education (IPE) and, in particular, on practicum experiences within an early…

Historically, in the USA context child development content knowledge has been one of the main emphases of early childhood teacher education programs, as it is theorized that teachers need strong content knowledge if they are to teach well. Teachers gain knowledge as they move through the degree ladder, from Child Development Associate to…

This study explores "toddling style" in adult-child interaction. Toddling style was conceptualised by Gunvor Løkken in relation to toddlers' playful and social style in peer groups; however, adults' position was rarely explored. Therefore, this article aims to examine adults' emotional and playful support in creating, maintaining and…

Although the social-emotional competence of preservice early childhood professionals (ECPs) has been associated with the quality of their interactions with young children, there is limited understanding of these associations during preservice training. Utilizing a sample of students with career goals in early childhood (N=473), we examined the…

Home visitors provide individualized services to families of infants and young children in their homes. Due to their unique role, home visitors must develop a specialized set of critical competencies--specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes. They therefore require preparation that differs in distinct ways from the preparation typically available…

The main aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of university graduate working mothers who have 36-60 months-old children of the quality of the time spent with their children. In the study, the phenomenology design was used among qualitative research techniques. The study group consisted of 32 mothers selected by using a maximum variation…

A watershed of knowledge about how very young children learn and develop has been revealed through the science of child development. The science of child development has demonstrated that immediately from birth, babies need supportive relationships and responsive environments in order to build strong brain circuits and lay the foundations for both…

With growing emphasis on the development and use of competencies (knowledge, dispositions, skills) for training and evaluating the early childhood workforce, this study aimed to identify sources of variation in undergraduate students' beliefs and knowledge related to competencies identified by the Collaborative for Understanding Pedagogy for…

This book began as a deep discussion among administrators, teachers, researchers, teacher educators, and educational consultants concerned about the critical reduction of play, engaged learning opportunities, and intellectually stimulating experiences in classrooms for toddlers through the primary grades. This group made a pact to organize and…

Background: Interventions found to be effective in research settings are often not as effective when implemented in community settings. Considering children with autism, studies have rarely examined the efficacy of laboratory-tested interventions on child outcomes in community settings using randomized controlled designs. Methods: One hundred and…

Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the qualifications of teachers in center-based settings and preschool-age children's developmental outcomes, very little is known about the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed…