From birth to preschool years, before the young children become conventional readers and writers, children are involved in a developmental process known as "emergent literacy," a concept that was coined by Marie Clay (a New Zealand scholar) in 1966. During this stage, children engage naturally in unconventional literacy behaviors such as…

Learning STEM applications in the first years of education reinforce children's curiosity toward exploring the world around them, and form the basis for all scientific studies they will receive throughout their lives. The aim of this study is to implement the STEM activity on the subject of seasons to preschool students. In the spring semester of…

Writing gives children a way to share their voices and ideas with the world. Even in early childhood, the purpose of writing is to communicate. All young children have messages to share, and writing is one tool they can use to communicate those messages. For young children, it is quite challenging to form and remember messages while also figuring…

Many studies have reported that early interventions on language and early literacy skills are important for preventing later reading difficulties at primary school. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of a 12-week intervention programme focused on enhancing pre-schoolers' language and early literacy skills. Two groups of children…

Children from backgrounds of poverty often lag behind more advantaged peers in early language skills, including breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. We report the results of a pilot study of an explicit and elaborated vocabulary intervention in preschool classrooms serving children from lower-income backgrounds. The intervention used…

A multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of progressive time delay (PTD) during small group instruction to teach social problem-solving to preschoolers and to assess generalization to novel contexts. PTD was used to teach children to both name and use a variety of problem-solving solutions. Target…

Worldwide, a large number of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are enroled in formal non-parental early childhood education or care (ECEC). Theoretically, lower adult/child ratios (fewer children per adult) and smaller group sizes are hypothesised to be associated with positive child outcomes in ECEC. A lower adult/child ratio and a smaller…

This article presents research designed along one scholar course with first-year pre-schoolers in Spain. A coherent sequence of learning activities, that combined classroom work with working outside the classroom (in the school garden), was designed in order to analyse if the first-year-preschool children were able to apply scientific tools,…

Somatic movement literacy is when one is literate in Body, making meaning from somatic experiences. It is not just developing an understanding about the body, objectively. Oriented around somatics and embodied cognition, this article will present a framework of somatic movement literacy developed by Paul Linden to be mapped onto…

Object exploration is considered a driver of motor, cognitive, and social development. However, little is known about how early childhood education and care settings facilitate object exploration. This study examined if children's exploration of objects during free play was facilitated by the use of particular spatial components (floor, tables,…

The study explores children's emerging understanding of an important science concept in chemistry. Play-based learning activities were designed for children to experience and imagine the concept of 'small' as used in chemistry, moving from the visually experienced level of 'small' towards more imaginative understandings. Data were collected…

Purpose/Objectives: Although meals offered through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) have been found to be of higher dietary quality than packed lunches, roughly 40% of students bring packed lunches for a variety of reasons, including cost. The purpose of this study was to explore costs, including time, of NSLP and packed lunches. Methods:…

Research Findings: Given the variable nature of early childhood settings, practitioners and researchers need better guidance on what conditions influence observations conducted within early childhood settings (National Research Council, 2008). Using 230 observations from 23 three- and four-year-old children, we conducted a Generalizability study…

The aim of the paper is to briefly explain the relationship between "early and preschool-aged children's play" and social-emotional learning (SEL). Play, as the child's dominant activity, ensures his full and healthy development and SEL makes a significant contribution to it. As SEL is important for a children's healthy growth, it has…

The current U.S. sociopolitical climate has resurfaced long-held ideas associated with public perceptions concerning the Spanish language, Latin@s, and their portrayal in United States society. Amidst this climate, educators face the challenge of creating critical learning spaces for Latin@ bilingual children within multiple boundaries. This case…