Every day, young children--around the world and in the United States--experience stress or trauma. Some children are exposed to crises such as natural disasters, community violence, abuse, neglect, and separation from or death of loved ones. These events can cause young children to feel vulnerable, worried, fearful, sad, frustrated, or lonely.…

Early childhood programs with infants and toddlers are bustling and alive in ways different from programs that have only preschoolers. Infants and toddlers can make group care environments more caring and family focused spaces, nurturing the well-being of all adults and children participating in the program. The number of infants and toddlers who…

A gender-diverse workforce is becoming the global goal for high-quality early childhood programming. Having a balance of female and male early care and education (ECE) professionals supports greater flexibility in the gender role expectations of young children and helps girls and boys avoid stereotypic assumptions about gender. This article lists…

Low pay, meager benefits, poor morale, and high turnover impact the daily experience of many early childhood educators in the United States. While public spending in early childhood education has substantially increased in recent years, it has mainly fueled expansion, not quality enhancement to help programs attract, compensate, and retain…

In the United States, only 2.2 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers and 5 percent of child care workers are men. Other countries have much higher rates, but the percentage of men in U.S. early education has remained between 2 and 3 percent for the last several years. There are many reasons why so few men become early childhood educators.…

Newcomers to intergenerational programs in early childhood settings tend to recognize immediately the value of bringing younger and older age groups together. However, they then ask, "But what do they do together?" The goal of intergenerational programs is to promote bonds between younger and older generations--relationships that will…

Young children benefit from learning about and experiencing cultural and ethnic diversity. Early childhood practitioners often strive to diversify the curriculum by including children's cultural traditions, holidays, or foods. Yet, one knows that young children need more than a celebration or a circle time story about a place or people to feel…

This study explores how early childhood education programs engage immigrant families in their children's learning, how programs learn about these families and incorporate their cultures into the classrooms, and what programs are doing in terms of their staff's professional development related to working with immigrant children and families. The…

One of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh has faced many challenges during its almost 40-year history as an independent nation. Yet the country has recently made substantial progress in improving young children's survival and protection. It now provides health care, nutrition, immunization, and education…

All deserve an early childhood education that is responsive to their families, communities, and racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. For young children to experience optimum learning, early childhood professionals must be prepared to meet children's diverse developmental, cultural, linguistic, and educational needs. Remembering her son's…

Maintains that the Italian concept of "l'inserimento" suggests a different way of thinking about children's entry to out-of-home care and challenges American practitioners to rethink current interpretations of quality care, teachers' professional responsibilities, and the role of child-development theory. Concludes that cultural…