Early Childhood Research Research Articles

Early childhood care, support and research: how early screening and longitudinal studies can help children thrive

Early childhood care, support and research: how early screening and longitudinal studies can help children thrive

Fidelity Assessment Checklist Development for Community Nursing Research in Early Childhood.

Nurses play an important role in promoting positive childhood development via early interventions intended to support parenting. Despite recognizing the need to deliver vital parenting programs, monitoring fidelity has largely been ignored. Fidelity refers to the degree to which healthcare programs follow a well-defined set of criteria specifically designed for a particular program model. With increasing demands for early intervention programs to be delivered by non-specialists, rigorous yet pragmatic strategies for maintaining fidelity are needed. This paper describes the step-by-step development and evaluation of a program fidelity measure, using the Attachment and Child Health (ATTACH™) parenting program as an exemplar. The overall quality index for program delivery varied between “very good” to “excellent,” with a mean of 4.3/5. Development of checklists like the ATTACH™ fidelity assessment checklist enables the systematic evaluation of program delivery and identification of therapeutic components that enable targeted efforts at improvement. In future, research should examine links between program fidelity and targeted outcomes to ascertain if increased fidelity scores yield more favorable effects of parenting programs.

Using Mind Mapping Learning Methods for Children’s Language Skills

Language skills are significant predictors of early academic and social-emotional outcomes of children and are important predictors of school readiness. This study aims to improve children's language skills through the application of mind mapping learning methods. This classroom action research used Kemmis and Taggart's cycle model. The research subjects were 12 children in group B consisting of eight boys and four girls. The data was collected through observation, interviews, and documentation with the validity of the data using source triangulation and method triangulation. This research uses data analysis techniques in the form of data condensation, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results showed that the children's language skills through the application of the mind mapping method in the first cycle were 75%, and in the second cycle had increased to 92%. Based on the results of teacher observations in the implementation of cycle I, the children's language skills obtained a percentage value of 61.5%, and in cycle II increased to 92.3%. While the results of observations of children's activities in the implementation of the first cycle obtained a percentage of 54%, and in the second cycle, it increased to 85%. This study found that the teacher's assessment of this mind mapping method was an easy method to understand so that it was easy to apply in classroom learning. The implication of this research is that it is necessary to carry out further research on the application of the mind mapping method for other aspects of development.
 Keywords: Early Childhood, language Skills, Mind Mapping Learning Methods

Whose Story Is It? Thinking Through Early Childhood with Young Children’s Photographs

Child-centered practices and pedagogies of listening to children are part and parcel of progressive early childhood education. As critical early childhood teachers and researchers, we demonstrate that we value the voices and narratives of children by placing them at the center of our classroom and research agendas. Simultaneously, however, young children’s social position can put them at the mercy of adults’ (teachers’ and researchers’) whims, and their stories may easily be consumed in the name of provocative classroom displays or academic articles. This work explores the potential for visual participatory research, guided by critical childhood studies, to grasp the stories that young children themselves want to tell. Through interviews and group meetings wherein young children (ages 2 to 5) show, gesture, and talk about the photographs they take, the children and their peers make determinations as to how their stories take shape. The narrative I share in this work illustrates one young child’s identity work during the Collaborative Seeing process. Jaylen’s participation in the study speaks to how we can come to see and know children on their terms.

Ambivalent Legacies: A Response to Harper Keenan

Harper Keenan’s generous letter to beginning queer/trans teachers hinges on the question: How do we stand in that impossible moment when we are welcoming newcomers while still acknowledging our debts to those who’ve come before? Jonathan Silin, whose work this issue celebrates, grapples with these questions of legacy in an essay that reflects on his contributions as an early childhood educator and researcher and a gay rights and HIV/AIDS activist. Silin (2020) asks:

Who Is Centered? A Systematic Review of Early Childhood Researchers’ Descriptions of Children and Caregivers From Linguistically Minoritized Communities

Young children with and without disabilities who are bilingual or in the process of learning multiple languages have many strengths; however, educational policies and bias related to bilingualism for children from linguistically minoritized groups have typically included deficit-based views. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify how researchers describe these children and their caregivers. Thirty research studies were included in the review. Each study was published in Infants and Young Children, Journal of Early Intervention, or Topics in Early Childhood Special Education between 1988 and 2020. Studies were coded to determine participant characteristics and whether deficit- or strength-based descriptions of participants were used. Although researchers’ descriptions of participants’ linguistic backgrounds varied, most were English-centric, and deficit-based descriptions of bilingualism were more prevalent than strength-based descriptions. Preliminary recommendations are provided for describing children and families from linguistically minoritized communities and including strength-based language in research and practice.

An Overview of Research Opportunities to Increase the Impact of Nutrition Intervention Research in Early Childhood and Education Care Settings According to the RE-AIM Framework.

Objective: To highlight opportunities for future nutrition intervention research within early childhood and education care (ECEC) settings, with a focus on generating evidence that has applicability to real-world policy and practice. Methods: An overview of opportunities to progress the field was developed by the authors using a collaborative writing approach and informed by recent research in the field. The group developed a list of recommendations aligned with the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Pairs of authors drafted individual sections of the manuscript, which were then reviewed by a separate pair. The first and senior author consolidated all sections of the manuscript and sought critical input on the draft iterations of the manuscript. Results: Interventions that employ digital platforms (reach) in ECEC settings, as well as research in the family day care setting (effectiveness) were identified as areas of opportunities. Research understanding the determinants of and effective strategies for dissemination (adoption), the implementation of nutrition programs, in addition to de-implementation (implementation) of inappropriate nutrition practices, is warranted. For maintenance, there is a need to better understand sustainability and the sustainment of interventions, in addition to undertaking policy-relevant research. Conclusions: The ECEC setting is prime for innovative and practical nutrition intervention research.

Understanding the Contribution of Visual Methods to Early Childhood Research: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Research in education has previously been dominated by what Law (2007) terms the “hygienic forms” (p. 33). Hygienic forms apply to positivistic quantitative traditions which claim supremacy over other forms of knowing. In this methodological paper we report on a phenomenon auto-driven visual elicitation approach of an on going research which attempts to make sense of how children (3-5 year olds) in cross-cultural settings understand risk and safety situations in their settings. We reflect on the concern for contextual reflexivity, emanating from the notion that research activity in early childhood education is “in danger of succumbing to political ideology and methodological fashion” (Prosser & Loxley, 2007, p. 1). We argue that research into early childhood education needs to acknowledge the implicit tensions between conventional empirical research and the politics of research methodology and that researchers cannot bring to the fore everything that is there to be known about child development and learning through orthodox mechanistic means. There are quotidian aspects of children's experiences, development and learning which can best be captured by visual methods that combine other approaches like interviews and observations. The paper concludes with some reflections on the ethical dilemmas and validity issues that confront the researcher when the visual and digital are used across cultures with children.

Uncovering Community Cultural Wealth Through an Early Intervention Program: Syrian Refugee Children Speaking

The voices of young refugee children are often unheard and unacknowledged in early childhood research. Deficit views that perpetuate their vulnerability and victimization pervade research and media. Such omnipresent views need to be challenged by foregrounding and capitalizing on the strengths, agency, and resilience of refugee children. Grounded in the Community Cultural Wealth framework, this study aimed to explore the aspects of cultural wealth among Syrian refugee children through their subjective perspectives about their experiences in attending a preschool intervention program and resettlement lives in Turkey. Drawing upon the research with children paradigm, individual pictorial interviews were conducted with 36 refugee children based on visually-enriched child-friendly methods that echoed the photo-elicitation technique. Findings revealed the various funds of assets, skills, and knowledges possessed and employed by children within six cultural wealth capitals: Navigational, social, familial, linguistic, resistant, and aspirational capital. Diverse facets of cultural wealth captured in these capitals suggest the strengths, agency, and resilience of refugee children in their educational experiences and adaptation processes to their new lives in resettlement communities. Findings also highlight their understanding of social and racial justice against inequalities of forced displacement, xenophobia, and social exclusion. Children’s overall human capital and strengths-based portrayal serve as an antidote to their existing deficit views and marginalized narratives. This study is the first to uncover early education and life experiences of young Syrian children by directly working with them and spotlighting their own voices. Findings have implications for early childhood research and practitioners working with refugee children.

Inattentive Behavior and Homework Performance in Elementary School: the Mediating Effects of Academic Enablers

Early attention skills have been found to be a significant and consistent predictor of academic outcomes, grades, and achievement results (Rabiner et al., School Psychology Review, 45(2), 250–267, 2016; Rhoades et al., Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(2), 182–191, 2011). A significant portion of students in elementary school experience attention difficulties, which can lead to difficulties attaining fundamental academic skills and enablers (DiPerna & Elliot, School Psychology Review, 31(3), 293–297, 2002; Merrell & Tymms, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 43–56, 2001). The current study aimed to investigate the role of four academic enablers—motivation, study skills, interpersonal skills, and engagement—in the relationship between inattention and homework performance. Teachers completed questionnaires on inattention, academic enablers, and homework for 147 students in 1st through 4th grades. Using a multivariate path analytic approach, we tested the hypothesis that the academic enablers would have mediational, and potentially differential, effects on the relationship between inattention and two facets of homework performance—homework responsibility and homework competence. Our proposed model was supported by the data; results suggested that academic enablers play a significant role in the relationship between inattention and homework performance. These findings support a shift in focus to supporting students’ academic enabling behavior as a means of providing the necessary academic skills to mitigate the effects of attention difficulties on academic outcomes.

Executive and Social Functioning Across Development in Children and Adolescents With Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is linked to a variety of neurodevelopmental challenges, including social functioning (SF) and executive functioning (EF) deficits. These deficits present differently across developmental stages from preschool age to adolescence. The post hoc analyses described here were conducted on data from 83 preschool-age children with PAE (early childhood group; ages 2.5 to 5.0) and 95 adolescents (49 with PAE, 46 controls; ages 8 to 16). Each child completed EF tasks as part of several prior studies. Parents completed social and communication inventories about their child's abilities. Thirty-three participants from the early childhood group returned for a 4-year follow-up and completed both SF and EF measures. Both the early childhood and adolescent groups with PAE showed deficits in SF and EF. There was a relationship between SF and EF within the adolescent PAE group that was not present in the adolescent control group or the early childhood PAE group. However, at the 4-year follow-up (Mage =8.45), participants originally in the early childhood PAE group also demonstrated this relationship. These findings support previous research on EF/SF deficits in adolescents with PAE while also addressing a gap in the literature concerning early childhood research on this topic. Additionally, these findings suggest that the relationship between EF and SF deficits may strengthen throughout development. This line of research highlights potential sensitive periods for SF and EF training in children with PAE and suggests that fetal alcohol spectrum disorders programs consider targeting EF training as a component of social skill interventions.

The impact of B. F. Skinner’s science of operant learning on early childhood research, theory, treatment, and care

ABSTRACT B. F. Skinner is the most eminent psychologist of the twentieth century, and it is no exaggeration to say that his discovery of operant learning (conditioning) has influenced the broader field of psychology, as well as other disciplines, including education, neuroscience, and philosophy. Skinner’s discovery and elucidation of operant learning has also had an immeasurable impact on our understanding of behavioural changes in infancy and childhood and on the treatment of behavioural disorders in children. In this article, I present the case that Skinner’s discoveries and inventions have not only contributed to a scientific understanding of typical child development, but have also led to significant advances in the education, treatment, and care of children. In that regard, it could be argued that Skinner was an early childhood pioneer.

A home-based longitudinal study of vocalization behaviors across infants at low and elevated risk of autism.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand existing literature on prelinguistic vocalizations by reporting results of the first home-based longitudinal study examining a wide variety of behaviors and characteristics, including early vocalizations, across infants at low and elevated risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study of vocalizations and vocalization changes across early developmental periods shows promise in reflecting early clinically significant differences across infants at low and elevated risk of ASD. Observations of early vocalizations and their differences during infancy could provide a reliable and essential component of an early developmental profile that would lower the average diagnostic age for ASD. However, studies employing observation of vocalization behaviors have been limited and often conducted in laboratory settings, reducing the external generalization of the findings. The present study was conducted to determine the consistency of previous findings with longitudinal data collected in home environments. Infants in the present study represented elevated risk from two etiological backgrounds, (a) infants born prematurely and with low birth weight and (b) infants who had an older sibling diagnosed with ASD. All data were collected in the infants' homes and compared with data collected from infants with low likelihood of ASD. The study included 44 participants (31 in the low-risk sample, 13 in the high-risk sample) with vocalization behaviors observed at 6- and 12-months through 20-min semi-structured play interactions with caregivers. Observations were video-recorded and later coded for speech and non-speech vocalizations. Differences in the 6-month vocalization behaviors were not statistically significant across risk levels of ASD. By 12 months; however, risk group differences were evident in the total number of vocalizations overall with specific differences across groups representing moderate to large, clinically relevant effects. Infants at low risk of ASD demonstrated significantly greater developmental change between 6- and 12-months than did the infants at high risk. Data were also reviewed for differences across high-risk group etiologies. The present study was unique and innovative in a number of ways as the first home-based longitudinal study examining infant vocal behaviors across low and high risk of ASD. Many of the present study findings were consistent with previous cross-sectional investigations of infants at elevated risk for ASD, indicating support for further home-based longitudinal study in this area. Findings also indicated some preliminary subgroup differences between high-risk etiologies of ASD. Vocalization differences across high risk groups had not been previously addressed in the literature. Vocalization differences are notable by 12-months of age between infants at low and elevated risk of ASD and infants at high risk demonstrated reduced developmental changes between 6- and 12-months compared to the infants at low risk. Observation of early infant vocalization behaviors may reasonably occur in the home, providing early childhood professionals and researchers with empirical support for data collection of child-caregiver interactions in this setting. Potential differences across high-risk etiologies warrant further investigation.

A systematic review of early childhood research on diversity and difference (1968–2019)

In the field of early childhood education, diversity and difference (DD) in children’s learning is continuously discussed for the reason that various and constantly changing contexts and experiences shape what and how they learn. These discussions are especially important in the current situation of Covid-19. Many unprecedented experiences and events occurred, raising an urgent need for the DD field to review the scholarship contributions that have been made to children’s learning and work out directions for future research. This bibliometric analysis examined the DD research in early childhood education through a systematic review of the articles published between 1968 and 2019. The analysis identified the dynamic of the research development and suggested opportunities for future studies.

The Competent Child: valuing all young children as knowledgeable commentators on their own lives

In this paper, we discuss the concept of ‘competency’ and ‘the competent child’ in relation to young children, particularly those who may be considered ‘less competent’ than others, whether through disability, ethnicity or socio-economic background. We critique normative discourses of ‘competency’ and consider how assumptions about competency in early childhood education can support or hinder young children’s learning. We ask how competent are we, as researchers and educators, in recognising and valuing young children’s perspectives? We ground our argument in brief accounts of findings from two UK-based early childhood research studies which were both founded on the principle that all young children are knowledgeable commentators on their own lives. The first example is taken from a small-scale study exploring the learning experiences of four-year-old children with special educational needs who attended both ‘special’ and ‘mainstream’ early education settings. The second example draws on a longitudinal study with young children aged three to eight years in the re-design of their early childhood education environment. We critique normative conceptualisations of competency and the competent child, and we adopt a socio-material perspective to disentangle how perceptions of competence configure the relationship between competency, participation and pedagogy.

Aesthetic-ethical-political movements in professional learning: encounters with feminist new materialisms and Reggio Emilia in early childhood research

ABSTRACT Professional learning is considered essential for early childhood teachers, and is frequently associated with childhood outcomes and dominant constructs of quality which perpetuate neoliberal ideals and position early childhood teachers within a framework of rationality, privileging discourses of masculinity and power. By engaging with feminist new materialist perspectives, with the concept of ‘movement’, and with the theory-practice of the educational project of the city of Reggio Emilia, Italy, this paper extends understandings of professional learning to include nonhuman others as worthy interlocutors, and puts forth an invitation to welcome unease and an aesthetic-ethical-political stance in early childhood education. To complicate normative conceptions of professional learning, fragments from a project that used pedagogical documentation and dialogue to transform children’s relations with waste are presented. These fragments elucidate how professional learning in early childhood education might be aesthetically-ethically-politically conceptually grounded and practiced. The conclusions presented are neither simple nor linear; rather invitations are offered to problematise, to avoid being satisfied with overt, dominant and linear constructs, and to welcome uncertainty in worldly relations.

Clinical pointers from developing self-awareness.

Seven typical developmental steps are described as cardinal changes leading children from implicit embodied self-awareness at birth, self-consciousness by 2 years, and the adoption of an ethical stance toward others by the preschool years (3-5y). This development may be a useful benchmark for clinicians. In this review, some clinical pointers are outlined in relation to each developmental step, but with a particular focus on the testing of self-awareness in children with developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: There are seven major steps in early self and social awareness. Clinical pointers related to each of the seven steps are provided.

Outstanding Educator Performance: Professional Development in Early Childhood Education

Early childhood education as the main foundation of one's education is determined by the quality of teachers who can be seen through the performance of teachers and teachers, so the discourse of professional development is important. This study aims to determine how the performance of superior early childhood teachers and performance measurement as performance standards for outstanding teachers. Qualitative research is carried out with a psychological approach that is carried out directly on the object under study, to obtain data relating to aspects of teacher performance so that increased performance becomes an example for other teachers. Research data collection techniques using interviews, documentation, and observation. The results showed that the performance of outstanding early childhood teachers always tried to hone and control themselves by participating in outstanding teacher competitions to monitor their professional condition and performance. Early childhood teachers who have extraordinary grades also have strong scientific insight, understand learning, have broad social insights, are positive about their work, and show work performance according to the required performance criteria. The teacher's performance in the extraordinary category is the success and ability of the teacher in carrying out various learning tasks. Measuring the performance of early childhood teachers with achievement has two tasks as measurement standards, tasks related to the learning process and tasks related to structuring and planning learning tasks. Referring to these two tasks, there are three main criteria related to teacher performance in early childhood teacher professional development literacy, namely processes, teacher characteristics, and outcomes or products (changes in student attitudes). In the learning process, the performance of early childhood teachers who excel can be seen from the quality of work carried out related to professional teacher learning activities.
 Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Outstanding Educator Performance, Professional Development

Movement and Song Idiom Traditional to Enhance Early Mathematical Skills: Gelantram Audio-visual Learning Media

Movement and Song Idiom Traditional to Enhance Early Mathematical Skills: Gelantram Audio-visual Learning Media

Building a data culture to enhance quality teaching and learning

Data and the use of data for teaching and learning can be a powerful tool. However, data can also be overwhelming or underused if teachers and leaders do not have adequate systems, supports, or mindsets to facilitate effective data use. The Data, Knowledge, Action programme of research involves early childhood researchers and teachers working together to design and try out new data systems to produce useful information to guide pedagogical change and strengthen learning outcomes. This article outlines conceptual processes and tangible supports we’ve embedded in our work to develop the habits of mind and skills to use data effectively.