Developmental needs and early childhood education: evolutionary, my dear Watson

Examining the processes of natural selection, described by Darwin in The Origin of Species, casts light on our own species' fundamental needs and on the far greater role that early childhood educators can play in their fulfillment. The second section of this paper analyzes how our fundamental needs emerge in a sequence underpinned by the processes of natural selection (goodness-of-fit, variation and replication), are thus developmental in a new sense and are fulfilled only as organisms interact with their immediate environment. The subsequent section presents a model of how, in accordance with natural selection, adults can practise collaborative behaviors that facilitate this developmental sequence throughout life. The fourth section shows how early childhood educators who practise this model in interaction with their immediate environment (which includes parents) help to fulfill the fundamental needs and increase the internal resources of all participants—themselves, parents and children. Substantiating evidence comes from the author's studies.     

Making learning visible – parents perceptions of children's learning outdoors

Parents as partners in their children's learning is predicated by a notion of a mutual understanding of the learning as shared by educators. Documenting learning in early childhood education and care (ECE & C) settings has evolved from more traditional developmental approaches to include photographs, artefacts and social stories to make learning visible for parents. However, while educators are using these approaches to document learning in ECE & C settings, the shared understanding of the learning for parents is not always mutually understood. The paper presents a small-scale case study, which examined the way parents in one long day ECE & C service which had recently redeveloped an outdoor play area to bring in more natural affordances to support the children's learning and development. The paper reports on the perceptions of two parents with children attending this centre in how the educators were making visible the learning and development afforded the children through engaging in this newly designed space. The study found that while educators were using a range of documentation approaches, the parents had little shared understanding of their children as engaging in this space.     

Can you hear me now? Staff–parent communication in child care centres

Supporting the growth and development of young children through effective communication with parents is one of the greatest challenges of the twenty‐first century facing early childhood and special educators. This article examines adult communication in child care centres through data gathered via a mixed‐method study of child care directors’ perspectives on parent education and their actual practices and a one‐year‐long ethnographic study of relationships between mothers and teachers in an ethnically and economically diverse child care centre. Findings show that practicing ongoing dialogue between child care centre personnel and parents presents multiple opportunities for clarification which support the current NAEYC and CEC standards requiring collaboration with families. Yet, the analysis suggests that the fields of early childhood education and special education need to focus more on the process of how information is provided and conveyed to, received by, and accepted by/from families. Communication between staff and family can be viewed as a theoretical model that contains three primary components: (1) The communication process is ongoing and continuous; (2) there is open, bi‐directional communication; and (3) support of parents is provided through education.     

Individual plans for children in transition to pre-school: a case study in one Finnish day-care centre

This paper outlines a case study on teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on children's individual plans in transition from early childhood education to pre-school in Finland. The study was based on the importance of continuity as a part of positive educational transition experiences. The national curricula, educators’ interpretations and parents’ perspectives were investigated in one day-care centre. Individual planning is mandatory in early childhood, but there is little information about using the plans in transition to pre-school. At the local level, individual planning occurred in discussions with parents and various planning forms. Familiarity and good relationships between the educators and the parents were important. The educators and the parents had different perceptions of the usefulness and use of individual planning. On the basis of this study, individual planning can be recommended as an appropriate tool to strengthen continuity in transition, but more discussion between parents and educators is needed to build a shared understanding about it.     

Agentive and communitarian play in early childhood

Play has long been recognised as a vehicle by which significant developmental advances occur during early childhood. Children use play to explore their relationships, their psychosocial skills, and their environment, and through their experiences, they begin to adopt specific capacities and values that have an impact on future socio-emotional and academic outcomes. To understand more fully the factors that contribute to well-being in early childhood, we explored footage of a full ‘day in the life’ of a 5-year-old boy in transition to kindergarten, and we conducted interviews with him, his parents, and teacher. We identified agentive and communitarian strivings to be significant sources of his thriving and primary elements of many episodes of play during his filmed day. Previous research indicates that the development of strong agentive and communitarian skills and values is related to positive psychosocial outcomes. The current case study explores our participant's agentive and communitarian behaviours as exemplified through episodes of play, and the ways in which these skills and values are encouraged and supported by his caregivers. Implications regarding the role of parents and educators in the facilitation of agentive and communitarian skills are discussed.     

Healthy weight maintenance strategy in early childhood: The views of black African migrant parents and health visitors

In Europe and the US, childhood obesity is found to be higher in migrant children from black African communities and other visible minority ethnic groups. However, very little is known about the factors that contribute to the significant rates of obesity in these groups. The material for this study is drawn from a community‐based qualitative study that examined the sociocultural, familial and environmental factors that either facilitate or hinder healthy weight in black African children during early childhood. The participants for the study were black African parents (n = 30) and health visitors (n = 32), residing and working in the East Midlands, UK. The participants were purposively selected according to an inclusion/exclusion criterion and invited to participate in seven focus groups (FG‐7) conducted for parents (FG‐4) and health visitors (FG‐3) at a time and place convenient to the participants, between March and June 2018. The focus groups examined a number of issues, including the participants’ views on the barriers and facilitators to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes within the data. Although participants were knowledgeable about the need for a healthy weight in early childhood, the parents discussed how immigration status and experiences of discrimination had an impact on their children's diet and well‐being, also discussing how structural factors influenced the decisions they made regarding healthy weight in early childhood. While the health visitors in general felt they did not have the skills to advise black African parents about the cultural influences on diet during early childhood, findings highlighted a need for a system‐based approach in meeting the nutritional needs of black African children. This study concludes by suggesting the need for broad social‐environment and economic changes that address factors such as migration status, deprivation and discrimination, coupled with culturally specific healthy diet messages.     

Early childhood educators’ perceptions of nurturing spirituality in secular settings

ABSTRACT

In-service early childhood educators (n?=?33) completed a survey describing their perceptions towards: (a) how educators draw on personal spirituality to support their role in the classroom, (b) what curricular activities, interactions or experiences educators believe relate to nourishing children’s spirituality, (c) how the classroom environment or schedule may support children’s spirituality, and (d) how school culture may be related to supporting children’s spirituality. Findings suggest that educators believe opportunities for creative expression and free play, engagement with nature, contemplative practices (e.g. mindfulness), relationship building and moral/character development are related to nourishing children’s spirituality. Expressions of personal spirituality for the surveyed educators include treating colleagues and children well, intentionally providing a good example for children, use of contemplative practices and connecting with nature. There was substantial overlap found between developmentally appropriate practice and the activities educators reported as nurturing a child’s spirit. Findings suggest that discussing the spiritual nature of child development may help educators protect and enhance high-quality early learning environments in secular settings.     

Ethnic and Indigenous access to early childhood healthcare services in Australia: parents' perceived unmet needs and related barriers

Objective: To evaluate the parents’ perceived unmet needs in early childhood healthcare services among Indigenous, non‐English‐speaking background (NESB) and English‐speaking background (ESB) children and the related barriers. Method: Data was from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Rao‐Scott chi‐square was used to examine the level of parents’ perceived unmet needs in three ethnic groups in early childhood healthcare services over a 12 month period. Survey logistic regression was used to assess the association between the groups of infants and the barriers to utilisation. Results: Ten per cent of Australian infants have at least one parents’ perceived unmet need in early childhood healthcare services. NESB (15.3%) and Indigenous (15.1%) infants were more likely than ESB infants (9.9%, p<0.001) to have parents’ perceived unmet needs in health care services. The barriers to service access include cost, transport problems, child care difficulties, service availability and family reasons. Parents of ESB infants were more likely to cite operating hours as the major barrier to accessing services. Conclusion: There were parents’ perceived unmet needs in a number of health services for all Australian infants, but at different levels by Indigenous, NESB and ESB groups. The most common barrier to services utilisation related to cost or private health insurance, availability and accessibility of service provision and other socioeconomic issues. Implications: Policy attention and operational changes are required to improve equity in accessing early childhood services, as well as to improve the overall access to healthcare services for all Australian infants.     

Using structured choice to increase child engagement in low-preference centres

It is recommended practice for early childhood educators to provide children with extended periods of free play in which children are able to learn through hands-on experiences in the classroom environment. Early childhood educators plan meaningful experiences for each interest centre based on standards and objectives. Although some children choose to participate in all the provided activities, other children require additional assistance in choosing between the varieties of experiences that are provided in the early childhood classroom environment. Children who avoid spending time in certain interest centres or spend time not engaged in any activity miss the opportunity to practise the skills associated with those centres. In this study, a structured choice intervention was used to provide a choice between two low-preference centres and to also decrease the amount of time children spend not engaged in any activity. Results indicate that the structured choice intervention increased the amount of time children spent in interest centres previously identified as low interest and also decreased the amount of time children spent not engaged with materials.     

"Nobody's just normal, you know": the social creation of developmental disability

This paper examines the process through which early childhood developmental disability is socially created within a US public program called Early Intervention (EI). In doing so, the paper analyses and links the social creation of early childhood disability as a category at both the macro-level level and at the micro-level. The analysis is based on qualitative interview data from 31 parents and 19 professions involved in EI programs in Massachusetts. At the macro-level, the paper addresses how federal legislation and state regulations establish the boundary between normalcy and disability. At the micro-level, it analyses adults' social creation of developmental disability, measured as impairment. The paper also investigates the impairment categories that are produced by these processes, exposing the kinds of early childhood developmental delays that have been legislated as worthy of public intervention and discusses some implications of the disability determination process.     

‘What do you notice?’ Parent guidance of preschoolers’ inquiry in activities at home

The present study examined parental guidance of young children’s inquiry during joint interactions in the home environment. Half of the parents received inquiry-based guidance instructions, encouraging their children to observe, question, predict, and evaluate; the control group received no information about guidance. Thirty-two families were observed in their homes, conducting an initial paw print matching activity and a seed sorting activity one month later. The results indicated that although all parents provided significant support for science and mathematics, parents who received inquiry guidance instructions facilitated children’s complex reasoning through support of advanced inquiry processes such as comparing, predicting, and evaluating. The findings provide evidence that parents can be encouraged to support young children’s inquiry learning through simple methods of instruction and highlight the need for coordination between early childhood educational and home contexts to support preschoolers’ learning.     

The influence of simulations on family engagement – prospective early childhood educators’ perceptions

Nurturing experiences in preparation for prospective early childhood educators’ work with families during their training are critical for establishing empowering relationships. This article details a qualitative case study of 77 prospective early childhood educators engaged with the Parent, Family and Community Engagement Simulation. An electronic questionnaire exploring their beliefs regarding the use of the simulation was conducted at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Spain). The results demonstrate the simulation can be a very effective classroom technique to provide students with the necessary competencies to engage with families effectively and promote school readiness. These results also suggest that the simulation provided important insights into how successful partnership occurs and how to strengthen relationships, helping students to reflect on the importance of family involvement.     

Contributions of the home literacy environment to preschool‐aged children’s emerging literacy and language skills

This paper reports on a study that examined both the concurrent and logitudinal connections between multiple components of the home environment and indicators of preschool‐aged children’s literacy and language development. Data were collected from 85 parents and their children at two different times. Results of structural path models indicated that (a) parental literacy habits were positively associated with parental reading beliefs, (b) parental reading beliefs were positively associated with parent–child literacy and language activities in the home, and (c) parent–child literacy and language activities were positively associated with children’s print knowledge and reading interest. Parental demographic characteristics were associated with children’s expressive and receptive language skills. The results highlight how different components of the home literacy environment are associated with different components of preschool‐aged children’s literacy and language abilities, findings that become more important as educators and policy‐makers look for ways to enhance children’s literacy and language development.     

Transitional kindergarten: an opportunity to explore the intersection between early childhood and kindergarten practice

Early childhood educators are concerned about a ‘shovedown’ of elementary school expectations, standards, and curriculum on to young children due to policy-makers’ moves towards utilising preschool programmes to address disparities in academic achievement. This study employs interviews and classroom observations to contrast the perspectives of two transitional kindergarten (TK) teachers – one a former preschool teacher and one a former kindergarten teacher – to understand how they adapted practices from both early childhood and elementary education to support their students’ development in TK. Key intersections include (1) developing both self-regulation and academic skills, (2) exposing students to kindergarten standards rather than teaching to mastery and (3) differentiating expectations to match children's development and interests. The study suggests that TK, operating in the hybrid space between preschool and kindergarten, has the potential to ‘push up’ child-centred practices of early childhood educators into primary grades.     

Navigating different cultural beliefs and practices to support immigrant preschoolers and their families: a Bakhtinian textual analysis on preschool teacher and administrator perspectives

ABSTRACT

Understanding different cultural beliefs and practices has become increasingly important for early childhood educators in the contemporary United States. This paper investigates how preschool teachers and administrators navigate different cultural discourses in classrooms that frequently go unidentified or ignored, and how they support children and parents from immigrant families. Preschool teachers and administrators play a vital role as moderators in contemporary early childhood education and care settings due to the increasingly diverse demographic and cultural landscape. Using a version of Bakhtinian textual analysis, we illustrate the complexities of navigating multiple sets of cultural beliefs and practices in early childhood classrooms, as well as the possible challenges of supporting children and parents from immigrant families. The paper makes visible tacit cultural values and attitudes that manifest in early childhood classrooms to explore the circulating discourses about cultural diversity in the midst of rising anxieties, ambivalence, and tensions around immigration.     

Divergence in student and educator conceptual structures during auscultation training

Context Simulation‐based medical education allows trainees to engage in self‐regulated learning (SRL), yet research aimed at elucidating the mechanisms of SRL in this context is relatively absent. We compared ‘unguided’ SRL with ‘directed’ SRL (DSRL), wherein learners followed an expert‐designed booklet. Methods Year 1 medical students (n = 37) were randomly assigned to practise identifying seven cardiac murmurs using a simulator and video only (SRL group) or a simulator and video plus the booklet (DSRL group). All participants completed a 22‐item test 3 weeks later. To compare interventions, we analysed students’ diagnostic accuracy. As a novel source of evidence, we documented how participants autonomously sequenced the seven murmurs during initial and delayed practice sessions. In addition, we surveyed clinical educators (n = 17) to find out how they would sequence their teaching of these murmurs. Results The DSRL group used 50% more training time than the SRL group (p < 0.001). The groups’ diagnostic accuracy, however, did not differ significantly on the post‐test, retention test or transfer test items (p > 0.12). Despite practising with the expert‐defined ‘timing‐based’ approach to murmur diagnosis (i.e. systolic versus diastolic), 84% of DSRL participants implemented a location‐based approach (i.e. practising aortic murmurs separately from mitral murmurs) during a second, unguided practice session. Notably, most SRL participants used that same approach spontaneously. By contrast, clinical educators were split in their use of the timing‐based (n = 10) and the location‐based (n = 6) approaches. Chi‐squared analyses suggested educators’ conceptions for organising murmurs differed significantly from students’ conceptions. Conclusions Contrary to our predictions, directing students’ SRL produced no additional benefit and increased their practice time. Our findings suggest one potential source of these results was a divergence between student and educator conceptions for structuring the practice of cardiac auscultation skills. This phenomenon has not been well articulated in the medical education literature, and may have important implications in many (especially technology‐mediated) educational contexts.