This article reports on a study conducted to investigate the development of abstract thinking in preschool children (ages from three years to four years old) in a nursery school in England. Adopting a social influence approach, the researcher engaged in "close listening" to document children's ideas expressed in various representations…

This study, comprising three sub-studies, aims to examine how child-rearing practices vary according to different social circumstances in Japan. By comparing teacher-child interaction at mealtimes in day care centres both on an isolated small island located in Okinawa prefecture, Tarama, and in a large industrialised city, Tokyo, the following was…

In Brazil there are at least 2.247 shelters for children and adolescents, and of these 5% are in the North Region. The conceptions of development exert influence on the care practices adopted and vice versa, both being mutually altered by the institutional environment. This study investigated the association between the conceptions of child…

This study investigated the humorous activity of two infants, 18 and 21 months old, in their infant group childcare setting. This was a qualitative study that followed two infants for four months. Through participant and non-participant observations, journal writing and interviews, data were collected on children's involvement in humorous…