This article explores the practice narratives of a group of 25 caregivers who work with babies in daycare settings in England and seeks to illustrate awareness of, resistance to and compliance with powerful discourses. It is argued that multiple voices exert an influence over baby room practice, disempowering the caregivers and reducing their…

This article provides an overview of ECEC services in France for children under three. It reviews research carried out in this area, and shows its genesis, main issues, cultural context and modalities of its production. The French provision for the under threes' is characterized by its increasing diversification. French research shows a diversity…

The importance of encouraging language skills in early childhood has been well documented. Educators who are responsible for children in daycare services have many opportunities to use rich and stimulating educational practices that support language acquisition. The purpose of this study was to assess the language-support practices used by 22…

In this article we interrogate neoliberal assemblages within the context of eating and feeding practices in early childhood education. We consider how neoliberal assemblages are enacted and created through multiple linkages between micro and macro regulations and policies, and everyday food routines. We attend to the embodied intensities, desires…

This study documents a reflective journey of a community music programme initiated by a university music education faculty member and an occupational therapist within the setting of a nursing home and day-care centre in Singapore. Weekly music interaction sessions in conjunction with reminiscence therapy were conducted over a period of five…

This paper explores the language experiences of preverbal infants in Australian childcare centres with the aim of examining cultural regulation within the childcare context. Language is defined as a social and communicative act that is related to the development of voluntary action (Vygotsky 1962; Lock 1980; Leontiev 1994). The study uses…

This research brief summarizes research suggesting that the U.S. Department of Defense may wish to consider expanding its child care benefits to cover more military families and a broader set of child care needs. [For "Options for Improving the Military Child Care System. Occasional Paper Summary", see ED502782. For the full paper, see ED502783.]

Multilingualism is an international fact of life and increasing in the United States. Multilingual families are exceedingly diverse, and policies relevant to them should take this into account. The quantity and quality of a child's exposure to responsive conversation spoken by fluent adults predicts both monolingual and multilingual language and…

Of all the developmental difficulties that may be present in childhood, language impairment is probably the most common. It is of vast importance to prevent cumulative negative consequences of these impairments. The present study evaluates the effects of a language and activity-based intervention programme on verbal and non-verbal performance and…

Core findings of the ongoing National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study of early child care and youth development through the end of the primary-school years are summarized, highlighting the fact that both positive effects of good quality care on cognitive-linguistic-academic functioning and negative effects of extensive…

This article gives a general picture of the policy and main structural features of early childhood education services for the younger children in Finland. It also provides an overview of the research on 1 to 3-year-old children in day care centres carried out in Finland during the last 15 years, the focus being on a review of all the eight…

The study examined whether preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich literacy curriculum had better early reading skills than preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich science curriculum. The study randomly assigned 80 preschool classes to incorporate either a media-rich literacy curriculum or a media-rich science curriculum. The final…

Using narrative interviews underpinned by an ecocultural framework, this Australian study investigated the experiences of 39 mothers of children with disabilities and 27 staff members from the early childhood services which these children attended. The data highlight serious limitations of current government policy and provisions in Australia to…

Of the over 6 million students earning college credit at community colleges, 1.7 million (27 percent) are parents. Of those, about 1 million (16 percent) are single parents, more than twice the proportion at 4-year institutions. Three-quarters of single parents in college are women. One study of student parents attending community college found…

Estimates of school-aged English learners are derived from national counts of children enrolled in school. There is no precise analogue for preschool children, and hence there is no exact nationwide count of this population of children. The number of 3- and 4-year old children enrolled in center-based care is rising, and some center-based programs…