Increasing child engagement and improving social-communication (SC) and play skills for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may provide a foundation for future academic and social development; yet preschool practitioners may not have the resources to successfully identify and target these skills for all children in their classrooms.…

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…

Sustained shared thinking dialogues which focus on teacher talk with preschool learners have long been considered an important route to learning progression. Toddlers, however, seldom engage in dialogues through talk alone, and their encounters are often fleeting. As a consequence, they are often positioned on the periphery of learning dialogues…

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,…

This study reports on a medium-scale Jamaican study, The Early Interactions Project, which measured environmental quality in 42 childcare facilities in Jamaica using Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-3). One of the overarching goals of the project was to quantitatively measure programme quality with the goal of providing…

Researchers have found young children's academic skills and life outcomes are correlated to teachers' postsecondary education. Despite this, 60% of infant/toddler-PK4 teachers who work in center-based settings in the District of Columbia do not have postsecondary education beyond the high school level. The purpose of this basic qualitative study…

High-quality early education and care experiences are critical for children's growth and development, families' ability to work, and the future health of society. In Greece, with regard to research for children under 3 years of age in early childhood education and care services, the issue of quality has been only marginally researched. The lack of…

In our research on the quality of ECEC settings in France, we were inspired by the 'Mosaic approach' developed by Clark and Moss to take into account the viewpoint of the children aged 2-3 years, who are welcomed in this study through the 'voice' of photography. The aim of this article is to analyse the results of the children's practices of…

Early childhood intervention is particularly cost-beneficial when it reduces justice involvement, but ingredients that contribute to this outcome are unknown. The goal of this study was to estimate the effects of two common early childhood intervention ingredients--home visits and center-based education--on juvenile justice involvement. The Infant…

It is beneficial to keep the information concerning quality of care offered to infants and toddlers current to maximize children's outcomes. This study analyzed the data collected from 2016 to 2018 in order to examine the current status of quality of care for infants/toddlers in licensed child-care centers in North Carolina and compared findings…

This article explores conflicts among toddlers in kindergarten and the impact of toys in these conflicts. The author describes these interactions as part of how children develop and express their citizenship, and argues that staff members should hesitate before interfering with rules in order to prevent such conflicts. This is based on Mouffe's…

This paper reports the findings of in-depth qualitative research to investigate two-year-old and three-year-old children's writing. It focuses on nine families whose children attended the same early years pre-school setting. The research developed a clear understanding of what children of this age understand about the functions and purpose of…

Supportive early relationships are critical to young children's development. Previous research has focused primarily on aspects of specific parenting practices that impact infants' and toddlers' development. However, additional research is needed for a more nuanced understanding of the relationships among family experiences, parenting behaviors,…

Research Findings: This study examined whether teacher-child interaction quality varied as a function of type of activity in toddler classrooms in four European countries (Finland, Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal). It also investigated whether specific activity settings, namely levels of adult involvement, use of whole group, and children's…

The Maryland's Premature Infant Developmental Enrichment (PRIDE) program is a unique collaborative endeavor between the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Part C program for Baltimore City residents (Baltimore Infants and Toddlers Program; BITP). To evaluate the impact of PRIDE, the current study compared premature infants from…