Abstract
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of pedagogical intervention on early childhood education professionals’ emotional availability to children with different temperament characteristics. Participants were 136 children (intervention group = 87; control group = 49) aged 1–6 years from 16 early childhood and care centres in Finland. The PedaSens intervention was a 9-month programme that included theory and video-based training for the professionals. Adult–child interaction was assessed with the Emotional Availability Scales before and after the intervention, and children’s temperament was assessed with the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire. According to results, early childhood professionals’ emotional availability increased in the intervention group, especially to children with high levels of activity and pleasure seeking and with low levels of attentional focusing. We argue that the quality of interaction in early childhood education and care can be increased by targeting professional trainings to support children with different temperament characteristics.
Highlights
The results of the Starting Strong Survey 2018 have indicated that the quality of staff-child interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres varies within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries
The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of pedagogical intervention on the quality of early childhood professionals’ (ECPs’) interactions regarding children’s temperament
Our study suggests that training targeted to enhance teacher’s pedagogical sensitivity can improve early childhood professionals’ (ECPs’) emotional availability for children with temperamental challenges, including challenges to focus their attention and to plan and suppress their inappropriate actions
Summary
The results of the Starting Strong Survey 2018 have indicated that the quality of staff-child interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres varies within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The quality differences depend, for example, on the diversity of children with different backgrounds and various needs in the classrooms (OECD 2019). We focused on the quality of interaction in ECEC in light of children’s individual characteristics. We assessed the impact of pedagogical intervention on early childhood professionals’ (ECPs’) emotional availability to children with different temperament characteristics. The quality of interaction is an essential part of the process quality in the context of ECEC (Slot et al 2015). Several international studies have indicated teacher interaction as
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