Active family involvement in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) is regarded as a beneficial factor in young children's learning and development. One definition of family involvement is the active role parents take in their child's development and the knowledge and participation they share with professionals who are part of the child's daily…

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) consultation has gained increasing attention over the years as an effective approach to supporting young children's social-emotional development (Brennan et al., 2008; Hepburn et al., 2013). The current syndemic (the aggregation of two or more concurrent epidemics that interact synergistically to…

In this paper, our collaborative project team shares design principles and lessons learned from research for designing an app to support families' joint engagement with media and promote powerful shared learning experiences. We provide a rationale, based on research literature, for why a second-screen app in particular addresses our project goals.…

Research Findings: The "Early Education Essentials" surveys use teacher and parent perceptions to measure 6 organizational conditions of early childhood education programs, extending and complementing existing measures of early childhood care and education (ECE) quality constructs. This study tests the reliability and concurrent validity…

New technologies offer exciting opportunities for improving home-school communication, family engagement, and children's learning in early childhood. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study focused on understanding how texting might enhance family-school engagement in early childhood settings. Using focus groups and surveys of…

The US Census states that Americans under the age of five are a majority- minority with 50.2% of this population from minority backgrounds. As our country continues to grow as a rich, diverse multicultural nation, it is imperative that early childhood teacher educators prepare future teachers to embrace this diversity and provide experiences that…

Family involvement, an important element of effective early childhood education programs, is crucial for children's learning processes and development. With family involvement, while families have the opportunity of participating and contributing to their children's development and learning processes schools gain unique information about…

Today in many countries, teachers working with children with refugee status are seeking ways to practice inclusive family engagement. In our two-year-long project, we worked with early childhood teachers serving refugee students in public schools in Turkey, which hosts the world's highest number of child refugees. Our project focused on creating…

There are growing international efforts to identify best practices, quality indicators, and teacher qualifications and sustainable policy in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). This study explores strategies ECEC professionals in China and the United States implement to engage family members of young children with special education needs.…

This study examines transitions to school from the standpoint of the work of families. We identify systemic differences constructed through state responses to childhood disability. Based on data from a longitudinal institutional ethnography conducted in Ontario, Canada, these differences illuminate the ways in which ability and disability are…

What does it mean to inquire? Grownups would say it means to question, to search for information, or to finding out about a topic of interest. For children in an early childhood classroom, the definition is no different. From the time of their birth, children want to know how the world works and actively seek out information. How educators respond…

This report describes the early childhood degree programs offered in Mississippi, focusing on variations in program content, age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics, as well as the extent to which Mississippi ECE higher education programs are incorporating early math, family engagement, and working with dual…

Over the last two decades, a rising number of families with preschool age children speak a language other than English at home (Espinosa, 2010). Known as Dual Language Learners, or DLLs, they are likely to enter kindergarten already academically behind. This gap persists throughout high school, resulting in vastly different academic and life…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between early childhood/elementary pre-service teachers' sense of teaching efficacy and feelings of preparedness and actual performance during student teaching. Findings indicate that both perceptions of preparedness and sense of teaching efficacy increased significantly during student…

This report describes the early childhood degree programs offered in Maryland, focusing on variations in program content, age-group focus, student field-based learning, and faculty characteristics, as well as the extent to which Maryland early care and education (ECE) higher education programs are incorporating early math, family engagement, and…