Development Of Young Children Research Articles

All about…: early years assessment

Nursery WorldVol. 2017, No. 1 EYFS Best PracticeAll about…: early years assessmentJulian GrenierJulian GrenierSearch for more papers by this authorJulian GrenierPublished Online:14 Jan 2017https://doi.org/10.12968/nuwa.2017.1.21AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View articleAbstractArguing that much of current assessment misses the point of the early years, Dr Julian Grenier sets out the key aims of the Celebrating Children's Learning project and how it can improve practiceREFERENCESSusan Isaacs (1937) Social Development in Young Children: A study of beginnings. Routledge Google ScholarMary Jane Drummond et al. (2004) Learning Without Limits. Open University Press Google ScholarAlison Peacock et al. (2016) Assessment for Learning Without Limits. Open University Press Google ScholarThe Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) project, www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-study-repository/eppse Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 9 January 2017Volume 2017Issue 1ISSN (print): 0029-6422ISSN (online): 2059-9358 Metrics History Published online 14 January 2017 Published in print 9 January 2017 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

Mediated Learning Experience: Questions to Enhance Cognitive Development of Young Children

Mediated learning experience (MLE) stresses that the quality of interaction between the child and the environment via a human mediator plays a pivotal role in the cognitive development of the individual. Feuerstein’s theory of structural cognitive modifiability posited that humans have the propensity to change the structure of their cognitive functioning. Therefore, teachers and practitioners can intervene early during early childhood to potentially enhance cognition functions of young children, which will prepare them for successful adaptation to the rapidly changing environment. This article rides on the theoretical underpinnings of Feuerstein’s theory of MLE to elaborate appropriate use of questions to enhance cognitive development during early childhood. Essentially, appropriate conditions foster the mediation of intentionality and reciprocity, meaning, and transcendence, the three parameters necessary for mediated interaction to take place and questions are used to mediate the parameters as we scaffold through teacher–student interactions.

Parents’ shared storybook reading – learning to read

ABSTRACTParents engage in joint story book sharing where adults read an appropriate text to children, usually in the home environment. Story book sharing promotes the young children's development of receptive and expressive language abilities as well as their emerging early literacy abilities, which have an effect on the childrens success in school-based literacy instruction. This review describes and analyses studies that have examined the parents and children’s involvement in shared storybook reading. It specifically focuses on the parents teaching behaviours and storybook reading interactions during formal and informal literacy experiences including the quality of their interactions, interactions in dialogic reading, and extratextual interactions. The review also discusses studies on the value and effect of using different story book genres in particular narrative and informational texts (such as science texts as information books). These studies support that storybook reading promotes childrens language growth, emergent literacy, and reading achievement.

Using Language to Promote Literacy in Young English Language Learners

All children walk into our schools using ways they have learned to communicate and problem solve within their homes and communities. These "ways of knowing" are important, familiar, and valued because children have learned them at the knee and by the sides of those they care about the most. As educators, we need to value the "ways of knowing" or "funds of knowledge” (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) that accompany all students to school. However, for English language learners (ELLs) or children who first language is not English, if we don't know about their communities and homes, we are teaching blind, so to speak. In this paper, we focus on one foundational area for early literacy development -- oral language as a window into ELL's cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and outline ways teachers can become familiar with their ELLs' "ways of knowing." First, we discuss language as a phenomenon that evolves naturally and serves as the basis upon which literacy develops. Then we offer a number of suggestions for ways teachers can enhance language to benefit young children's literacy development in the preschool through 2nd grade period.
 

Disruptive Effects of Colorful vs. Non-colorful Play Area on Structured Play-A Pilot Study with Preschoolers.

To contribute to young children's development, sensory enrichment is often provided via colorful play areas. However, little is known about the effects of colorful environments on children while they engage in age-appropriate tasks and games. Studies in adults suggest that aspects of color can distract attention and impair performance, and children are known to have less developed attentional and executive abilities than adults. Preliminary studies conducted in children aged 5–8 suggest that the colorfulness of both distal (e.g., wall decorations) and proximal (e.g., the surface of the desktop) environments can have a disruptive effect on children's performance. The present research seeks to extend the previous studies to an even younger age group and focus on proximal colorfulness. With a sample of 15 pre-schoolers (3–4 years old) we examined whether a colorful play surface compared to a non-colorful (white) play surface would affect engagement in developmentally appropriate structured play. Our pilot findings suggest that a colorful play surface interfered with preschoolers' structured play, inducing more behaviors indicating disruption in task execution compared with a non-colorful play surface. The implications of the current study for practice and further research are discussed.

Do child healthcare professionals and parents recognize social-emotional and behavioral problems in 1-year-old infants?

Growing evidence supports the existence of clinically significant social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) problems among as young as 1-year-old infants. However, a substantial proportion of early SEB problems remain unidentified during contacts with child healthcare professionals. In this study, child healthcare nurse (CHCN; N=1008) and parental (N=518) reports about SEB worries were gathered, along with the maternal and paternal Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) ratings, for 12-month-old infants randomly recruited through Finnish child health centers. Only 1.4-1.8% of CHCNs, 3.9% of mothers, and 3.2% of fathers reported of being worried about the assessed child's SEB development. When the CHCNs' and parental reports were combined, 7.7% (33/428) of the infants assessed each by all three adults had one (7.0%), two (0.7%) or three (0%) worry reports. Even the combination of the CHCN's and parental worry reports identified only 7.0-13.8% of the infants with the maternal and/or paternal BITSEA Problem or Competence rating in the of-concern range. Identified associations across the three informants' worry reports, parental BITSEA ratings and sociodemographic factors are discussed in the paper. Routine and frequent use of developmentally appropriate screening measures, such as the BITSEA, might enhance identification and intervening of early SEB problems in preventive child healthcare by guiding both professionals and parents to pay more attention to substantial aspects of young children's SEB development and encouraging them to discuss possible problems and worries.

Mapping young children's development: Are we on the right path?

Di Chilvers returns to the fundamentals of assessment for learning, keeping the child visible in the process and getting back to making informed decisions about children's progress.

Self-esteem and Emotional Development of Young Children in Connection with Mothers’ Parental Attitudes

Abstract The aim of the present study is to examine the quality of mothers’ parental attitudes in connection with the emotional development and self-esteem of their three-year-old children. The results show that young children's self-esteem has a negative correlation with the ability to recognise emotions and does not correlate with the ability to understand the causes of emotions. These aspects of emotional development are connected with differing mother's parental attitudes. The highest level of recognising emotions is developed when a mother has attitudes of power, intrusion, and a dependent child. In such relationships a child has to develop a high ability to recognise emotions to adapt better to the mother's demands and pressure. In relationship with authority, the young child of an intrusive mother can develop the ability to read the emotional states of others accurately as a coping strategy, but at the high price of healthy self-esteem. On the contrary, the mother's democratic attitudes affect the high level of self-esteem, the high level of understanding the causes of emotions, and the average level of recognising emotions.

Sibling Additions, Resource Dilution, and Cognitive Development During Early Childhood

AbstractA sizable literature found an inverse association between number of siblings and developmental outcomes. Little is known about this relationship during the earliest years of children's lives, a period when parental attention and resources matter greatly for cognitive development. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, a nationally representative sample of American children born in 2001, this study investigates the inter‐relationships between siblings, home resources, and cognitive development during the years before formal schooling. To address unobserved differences between families, child fixed effects models were used to assess children's experiences before and after the birth of a sibling. The birth of a sibling was not significantly associated with lower cognitive development, even when the age spacing between the siblings was small. Concerning home resources, interpersonal resources mattered a great deal for young children's cognitive development, but interpersonal resources were not shaped by the presence of siblings.

DEFINING RELATIONAL PATHOLOGY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD: THE DIAGNOSTIC CLASSIFICATION OF MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS OF INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DC:0-5 APPROACH.

Infant mental health is explicitly relational in its focus, and therefore a diagnostic classification system for early childhood disorders should include attention not only to within-the-child psychopathology but also between child and caregiver psychopathology. In this article, we begin by providing a review of previous efforts to introduce this approach that date back more than 30 years. Next, we introduce changes proposed in the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood DC:0-5 (ZERO TO THREE, in press). In a major change from previous attempts, the DC:0-5 includes an Axis I "Relationship Specific Disorder of Early Childhood." This disorder intends to capture disordered behavior that is limited to one caregiver relationship rather than cross contextually. An axial characterization is continued from the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood DC:0-3R (ZERO TO THREE, 2005), but two major changes are introduced. First, the DC:0-5 proposes to simplify ratings of relationship adaptation/maladaptation, and to expand what is rated so that in addition to characterizing the child's relationship with his or her primary caregiver, there also is a characterization of the network of family relationships in which the child develops. This includes coparenting relationships and the entire network of close relationships that impinge on the young child's development and adaptation.

Help Me Where I Am: Scaffolding Writing in Preschool Classrooms

Early writing is important to young children's development—research indicates that writing is predictive of later reading and writing. Despite this, preschool teachers often do not focus on writing and offer limited scaffolding to foster children's writing development. This article shares innovative ways to scaffold early writing across the three component skills of writing: composing, spelling, and forming letters.

Cross-Informant Evaluations of Preschoolers’ Adjustment in Different Cultures

An accurate and agreed upon evaluation of preschoolers' behavior is crucial for young children's positive development. This study explores possible cultural differences in cross-informants’ evaluations. The premise is that informants who are from different cultures tend to give different evaluations of preschoolers’ adjustment and/or that the disparity size between informants differs across different cultures. Data on children’s kindergarten adjustment, early development and current behavior at home were collected among 135 Arab and Jewish Israeli preschoolers, as evaluated by their kindergarten teachers, parents, and independent observers who conducted home visits. The study findings indicate that, generally speaking, Arab children received more positive evaluations than Jewish children, with no significant gender or interaction effect. Nevertheless, that culture effect was non-significant when the teachers evaluated the children’s problem behavior. Thus, the current study results support the notion that profound bias may exist in adults’ evaluations of preschoolers.

Current Understandings of What Works to Support the Development of Emergent Literacy in Early Childhood Classrooms

AbstractDespite growing attention to early literacy experiences and emergent literacy perspectives, many children start kindergarten with less than optimal emergent literacy skills. In this article, I review research on efforts to identify what works to support young children's development of emergent literacy in early childhood classrooms prior to starting kindergarten. These efforts include curricula, best practices, and professional development. Such efforts show promise in improving children's emergent literacy skills, but many gaps remain and require further study. In particular, research is necessary to identify ways to improve meaning‐focused skills, understand the generalizability and sustainability of effects, and translate findings into practice.

The Influence of General Characteristics, Temperament, and Attachment on the Development of Young Children in Institutional Care

Objective: This study examined that general characteristics such as gender, age, period of stay at an institution, size of facility, and temperament and attachment affect young children's development under institutional care. Methods: A total of 94 young children (ages 2-4years), who live in 32 institutions in Seoul were assessed on their development using the Korean-Age & Stage Questionnaire. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis, and multiple regression analyses were used for data analysis. Results: The major findings of this study were as follows: first, a longer period of stay at an institution had more positive effects on the development of communication. Facilities with more than 60 children had lower communication, gross motor, and fine motor development compared to facilities with less than 60 children. Second, social temperament had positive effects on communication, problem solving, and personal-social development. Emotional temperament had no effects on all development areas. Third, attachment had positive effects on all development areas. Lastly, social temperament and attachment had interactive effects on communication, gross motor, problem solving, and personal-social development. Conclusion: These results imply that caretakers in institutions should give developmental mediation services for considering temperament and facilitation of attachment. Keywords: temperament, attachment, development, young children, institutional care

The relationship between physical activity and diet and young children's cognitive development: A systematic review.

ObjectiveGiven the high prevalence of suboptimal nutrition and low activity levels in children, we systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship between physical activity and dietary patterns and cognitive development in early childhood (six months to five years).MethodsIn February 2016, we conducted two different searches of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and ERIC. Each search included either physical activity (including gross motor skills) or diet terms, and neurocognitive development outcome terms. Included studies were in English, published since 2005, and of any study design in which the physical activity or diet measure occurred prior to age five.ResultsFor physical activity, twelve studies (5 cross-sectional, 3 longitudinal and 4 experimental) were included. Eleven studies reported evidence suggesting that physical activity or gross motor skills are related to cognition or learning. Both acute bouts and longer term exposures showed benefit. For diet, eight studies were included consisting of secondary analyses from longitudinal cohort studies. A healthier dietary pattern was associated with better cognitive outcomes in all studies, although some of the reported associations were weak and the measures used varied across the studies.ConclusionsPhysical activity and healthy diets in early childhood are associated with better cognitive outcomes in young children. The paucity of literature and the variability in the type and quality of measures used highlight the need for more rigorous research. Given that the early childhood years are critical for both obesity prevention and neurocognitive development, evidence that the same healthy behaviors could promote both should inform future interventions.

Assessing early childhood social and emotional development: Key conceptual and measurement issues

This concluding paper takes stock of key issues that have emerged across the papers of this special issue on measuring early childhood social and emotional development, as well as in the broader literature anchoring these papers. While we include separate sections focusing on conceptual and measurement issues, it quickly becomes clear that the two are intertwined. The field lacks conceptual and definitional clarity, thus hindering our understanding of the focus and utility of specific measures. Indeed, our overarching conclusion is that the greatest progress will be made when measures of young children's social and emotional development are clearly mapped onto an agreed upon conceptual framework that both distinguishes social and emotional development from other broad domains (such as cognitive development), and includes carefully delineated and defined subdomains (broad areas within social and emotional development, such as emotional competence), constructs (specific aspects within subdomains, such as emotion knowledge), and corresponding behaviors.

Early childhood social and emotional development: Advancing the field of measurement

This paper frames the subject of this special issue — how the field currently measures social and emotional development in early childhood. We first describe the relationship of social and emotional development to child functioning and overall well-being, and then present major measurement challenges associated with this domain, including a lack of clarity around conceptualizations of the subdomains of social and emotional development, and issues tied to quality and ease of use for extant measures. In describing the multiple purposes of early childhood assessment more broadly, the reciprocal dynamic between programs, policymakers, researchers, and developers in generating knowledge, guidance for practitioners, and policy is highlighted. We close with an overview of the remaining articles in this issue, and underscore the need for the field to come to agreement on sound conceptual and methodological approaches to measuring young children's social and emotional development.

Top drawer!

Nursery WorldVol. 2016, No. 2 PracticeTop drawer!Nicole WeinsteinNicole WeinsteinSearch for more papers by this authorNicole WeinsteinPublished Online:1 Feb 2016https://doi.org/10.12968/nuwa.2016.2.27AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View articleAbstractMost children like to draw. Nicole Weinstein finds out how practitioners can best support young children's early development of drawing – and looks at some of the best resources on offer FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byCombining local and remote laboratories for the interactive learning of industrial automation27 February 2018 | Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Vol. 26, No. 3 25 January 2016Volume 2016Issue 2ISSN (print): 0029-6422ISSN (online): 2059-9358 Metrics History Published online 1 February 2016 Published in print 25 January 2016 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

Social, emotional and behavioural influences on young children's pre-reading and word reading development

The first formal instruction of reading typically takes place in the school environment setting. Therefore, there is good reason to predict that children's classroom behaviours at the time of formal learning will influence their early reading acquisition. The present study compared the extent to which symptoms of hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, emotional problems, peer relationship problems and pro-social behaviour predicted children's pre-reading (letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness) and word reading development. Seventy three new school entrants were assessed during their first 2years at school. Children were assessed at T1 (prior to reading instruction) on pre-reading and word reading, at T2 (approximately 6months later) on pre-reading, word reading and classroom behaviours and at T3 (1year after T2) on classroom behaviours and word reading. Overall, hyperactivity/inattention was the strongest predictor of pre-reading and word reading development, but not the only predictor. Implications for education are discussed.

The Grandparent-Grandchild Relationship and Its Effects on the Development of Young Children s Social Competence

Objective: Grandparenting is a widespread phenomenon in Mainland China. In the present study, we examined the grandparents-grandchildren relationship and its influences on preschool children’s social competence. Methods: One hundred and ninety-nine elder adults who live together with their young grandchildren completed Grandparents-grandchildren Relationship Scale with demographic information. The children’s social competence were reported by their teachers. Results: Correlation analyses showed that all dimensions of grandparents-grandchildren relationship were significant correlated with young children’s social competence. Regression analyses some significant effects of some dimensions of the relationship of grandparents-grandchildren on children’s social competence (intimacy, β=6.137, SE=1.170, p<0.01; direction-sharing, β=4.631, SE=0.802, p<0.01; avoidance, β=-1.370, SE=0.662, p=0.04, and conflict-restriction, β=-5.176, SE=0.475, p<0.01). Conclusion: We can evaluate the relationship of grandparents-grandchildren from 6 dimensions and this relationship could predict the children’s social competence: the level of intimacy and direction-sharing could positively predict the children’s social competence while the level of avoidance and conflict-restriction negatively predict the children’s social competence. Therefore, to enhance children’s social competence, we should do something to increase the grandparents-grandchildren’s intimacy and direction-sharing, and decrease the avoidant and conflict-restrict relation between the two generations.