Background: Phonological difficulties are prevalent in children with speech and/or language disorders and may hamper their later language outcomes and academic achievements. These children often form a significant proportion of speech and language therapists' caseloads. There is a shortage of information on evidence-based interventions for…

Studies have used psychological games testing to measure children's bioaffinity (a child's love of/for or connection to nature) as a result of time spent in nature enriching children's well-being. Discrepancies found between two studies in different countries (Sweden and Canada) informed this research. Both studies used the same bioaffinity…

The importance of spending time in nature is undeniable for child development, yet from an early age most children's time in nature is restricted. Beginning in preschool, the range and quality of a child's nature experience is restricted by accessibility to nature experiences and pedagogical approaches. This is a problem for building a sustainable…

This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to…

This article examines play as a conceptual third space that serves as a bridge between home and school discourses. Using sociocultural theories and an interpretivist framework, 19 immigrant mothers and their children in Canada were interviewed about their play experiences at home and in preschools. The findings reveal that children and teachers…

Students can become self-determined young adults with improved outcomes if they learn the necessary skills early. Participants in this qualitative study were seven teachers of the visually impaired or orientation and mobility specialists and seven teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The purpose of this qualitative research study…

In this research we explored the relationship between spatial activities in the home and spatial ability at the start of formal schooling at age four. In total, 30 children participated in this research. Data sources included a demographic questionnaire, a survey of at home spatial activities, and standardized testing in verbal and non-verbal…

Given the limited research on preschool teachers' beliefs about teaching language and literacy in the preschool years, as well as on their conceptual understanding of children's language and literacy development, this study examined the beliefs of 79 preschool teachers who had at least a 2-year diploma in early childhood education. All were…

We explored longitudinal effects of a two-generation preschool programme on receptive language scores in children (n = 78) at age 10 years, living with low income. Scores at four time-points, programme intake, exit, age 7, and age 10 years were measured using the "Peabody picture vocabulary test" (3rd ed.). Effects of culture…

The collection of papers contained in this special issue was elicited by a worldwide call for papers to explore settings that provided nature experiences for young children, with attention given to the effects that these initiatives have on the holistic development and environmental awareness of the children, as well as impacts on the teachers and…

The project described here was aimed at piloting an intercultural, multilingual, early learning program that was genuinely responsive to the circumstances and early learning needs of preschool refugee children and parents from three ethnocultural communities--Somali, Sudanese, and Kurdish--in a large city in Western Canada. We discuss the unique…

The current study examined income disparities in a comprehensive set of preschoolers' outcomes (verbal ability, developmental skills, number knowledge, and hyperactivity) and the factors that could reduce differences in outcomes between children in the lowest and highest household income quartiles. Findings using Cycle 6 data from the Canadian…

With the increase in research on multiliteracies comes greater interest in exploring multiple pathways of learning for deaf children. Educational media have been increasingly examined as a tool for facilitating the development of deaf children's language and literacy skills. The authors investigated whether preschool deaf children (N = 31)…

This study investigated teachers' experiences of closeness during interactions with children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their conceptions of closeness, and their perceptions of their own and the child's…

Observed 32 preschoolers' interactions with their toddler siblings. Preschoolers' references about emotions were more likely to be about the toddler than the self. Preschoolers who were skillful perspective takers talked more about internal emotional states and more frequently about the toddler and themselves than did poor perspective takers. (BC)