This study analyses the beliefs and self-reported practices of preschool teachers with regard to the concept of child-centred education, as well as the consistency between these beliefs and practices. Data were collected via interviews with 20 female teachers employed in public preschools in Ankara, Turkey. The results indicated that the…

We compared systematically the structure, the focus, the thematic sequences, the complexity and the syntactic properties between maternal and paternal infant-directed speech in engagements of infants with their mothers and fathers. Eleven mother-infant and 11 father-infant dyads were video-recorded during their natural interactions at home from…

The term family-centred practices refer to a particular set of beliefs, principles, values, and practices for supporting and strengthening family capacity to enhance and promote child development and learning. Family-centred services in early childhood and early childhood special education programmes (EC/ECSE) can affect a wide range of outcomes.…

Background: Parenting of children with Developmental Disabilities is considered to be a challenging task. This group of parents are at risk for lower levels of being satisfied with caregiving to their child compared to parents of typically developing children. Methods: Participants were recruited from different services in four provinces across…

This manuscript presents the findings of a study that explored how teachers' perceptions of natural play learning environments were transformed through targeted professional learning (PL). Australia's early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy outlines a responsibility for educators to ensure that outdoor learning spaces provide experiences…

This paper presents the results of an assessment and preventive education experience involving 50 families with children aged 2. The families were assessed by means of an interview conducted during a home visit, and were subsequently provided with a series of everyday parenting guidelines. The results provide empirical evidence of the…

Family literacy refers to parents and their children using literacy together at home. They participate in literacy experiences in a natural way during their daily routines. Studies on family literacy show its impact on the children's literacy development. For more than five decades, family literacy studies have demonstrated the importance of the…

Within English early childhood education, there is emphasis on improving speech and language development as well as a drive for outdoor learning. This paper synthesises both aspects to consider whether or not links exist between the environment and the quality of young children's utterances as part of their speech and language development and if…

At start-up of a book distribution programme (Dolly Parton's Imagination Library) in a southeastern United States community, we examined baseline relationships between at-home shared book reading (SBR) and children's language/literacy abilities and skills at kindergarten entry. One hundred fifty-two parent/child dyads participated; children (53%…

Parental involvement (PI) in their children's schools has been shown to have a positive influence on the children's behaviours and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of PI and relations of PI in schools to child externalizing and internalizing behaviours. Data were from the fifth-grade wave of the Early Head…

Mathematical knowledge at school entry predicts school achievement, and children from low-income families are at risk for low math achievement. The study purpose was to observe low-income parents' numeracy guidance in two contexts, a board game and a number concept assessment, and to compare preschoolers' independent and guided math…

The current study examines the contributions of family context (e.g. life events, home environments) to low-income preschool children's self-regulation (behaviour regulation and executive function) in the United States and Turkey. Participants were 1139 low-income children (486 from the U.S. and 653 from Turkey) and their parents. Children's…

Children's fine motor skills (FMS) are being increasingly recognized as an important aspect of preschool development; yet, we know very little about the experiences that foster their development. We utilized a parent-administered children's fine and gross motor activities questionnaire (MAQ) to investigate links with FMS. We recruited a sample of…

Language and metacommunication are assumed to be important for accomplishing a high level of cooperation in social play. Research to date, however, does not address the relationship of language ability and metacommunication to the complexity of cooperation. This study investigated this relationship by observing 24 four- and five-year-old…

From the beginning of the twenty-first century, many authorities and educational policies had begun to campaign their curricula towards the promotion of creativity. Researchers' interest turned to teachers' perceptions, implicit theories and beliefs about creativity-related issues which reflect and influence their behaviours and actions in…