National-level monitoring of quality of early childhood education (ECE) is key to achieving inclusive and equitable education. Most countries report structural quality while process characteristics are rarely observed at the national level. This study examined the associations between ECE and children's development in a middle-income country using…

Gender differences in early childhood development are under-researched in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where almost 90% of the world's young children live. This study examines the direction, magnitude, and variation of gender similarities and differences in 3- and 4-year-olds' early childhood development in 71 low- and middle-income…

The majority of the world's children live in low- and middle-income countries, yet the majority of early childhood cognitive research is done with a small proportion of high-income countries. These findings cannot be assumed to apply across all contexts. It is therefore necessary to confront entrenched systems of power and privilege in early…

An examination into the origins of rights' discourse and contemporary debates around child labour in developing countries, illustrates some of the problems with the discursive uses that children's rights is put to, and its weakness as a means of addressing issues of social justice. Addressing the discourse around child labour, and how this is…

Due to the lack of attention to including early childhood education in the compulsory education system, some families are even unaware of the option to enroll their children at this level. This study aims to estimate the chances of access to early childhood education and to analyse the advantages that pre-primary education offers in terms of child…

In this paper, we have a quick look at the profile of developmental research in terms of its study samples, and then turn our attention to the findings of research on the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, suggesting a notable increase in the number of people experiencing significant economic difficulties and a widening gap between the wealthy…

Across psychology, there is increasing recognition that the experiences of children from minoritized racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented. Research on prosocial behavior exemplifies this systemic bias. This paper suggests that measures of prosocial behavior should be revised to be more culturally equitable, in order to reflect the…

The developing world has continually faced tremendous challenges in providing social security and safety nets for its vast populations culminating in wider educational inequalities and extreme poverty. It is not uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa to find rapacious wealth in the hands of a few co-existing with mass poverty. As a consequence, the…

The first six years of a child's life are the most critical years for development, and appropriate health care, nutrition, stimulation, affection, and education are critical for healthy development. These early years also present a window of opportunity to mitigate any developmental concerns. With the right intervention, the child's health,…

It is well known that the first 1,000 days of life have long-lasting impact on a child's cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and physical development, but there is little evidence from Rwanda about how to maximize parent-child interactions during these critical early years. Save the Children piloted the First Steps "Intera za Mbere"…

Introduction: Inadequate caregiving conditions interfere with successful health and development outcomes. Access to appropriate information can result in improved health and development outcomes in children. Health promotion text messaging, a primary mHealth strategy, has been implemented in various countries to reach communities where the…

The Bayley's Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (Bayley-III) were used to measure the development of 24-month-old children (N = 1,452) in the Interactions of Malnutrition and Enteric Infections: Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study (an international, multisite study on many aspects of child development).…

In the Caribbean, as with many other contexts, though learning through play serves as the impetus behind recommended early years classroom practices, very little is known about children's play, what it looks like and the factors that shape it. To explore this issue, traditional qualitative methodology including interviews, documentation of field…

In this paper I argue for a necessary -- and possible -- paradigmatic shift in early childhood scholarship that embraces multiplicity, diversity, ambiguity, uncertainty and shared situated knowledge creation in response to a profoundly changed global context. The contours of the new paradigm are already emerging as three interconnected…

Many young children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face heightened risk for experiencing environmental adversity, which is linked with poorer develop- mental outcomes. Children's stress physiology can shed light on why children are differentially susceptible to adversity. However, no known studies have examined whether links between…