Playschool in pictures: children’s photographs as a research method

The paper focuses on children’s photographs as a method to use in research with children. Studies using photographs with children are reviewed and compared and a study conducted in one Icelandic playschool is described. The playschool was involved in a project where the purpose was to look at the ways children think about their early childhood educational setting and to develop methods for listening to children’s perspectives. The paper describes and compares two approaches where cameras were used. One group used digital cameras to take pictures in their playschool while they showed the researcher important places and things in the playschool. The other group was given disposable cameras that they could use unsupervised for a period of time. The results show that using cameras and children’s photos is a notable method to use when seeking children’s perspectives on their life in an early childhood setting.     

What’s next for research on young children’s interactive media?

Abstract

Since early in the development of children’s television, research has informed policy and practice involving young children’s media use. To increase the likelihood that new media support children’s development, research in the coming decade must stay current with advancing technology. With the advent of various forms of interactive digital media, key research questions involve social and physical interactivity. How should adults appropriately support children’s use of different kinds of media to promote children’s creativity, learning, and development? How does co-viewing (social interaction) overlap with and differ from contingency built into the medium itself? When a device interacts, does that change the kind of support required of a co-viewing adult, or eliminate the need for such support? How does the introduction of new technology impact the lives of families? Issues related to video chat, touchscreen and motion capture technology, artificial intelligence, and electronic books and games are discussed.     

Supporting the development of young children’s metacognition through the use of video-stimulated reflective dialogue

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a study exploring metacognition in young children. Developing metacognitive skills helps children become responsible and ‘thoughtful about their learning’ [Chatzipanteli, A., Grammatikopoulos, V., & Gregoriadis, A. (2014). Development and evaluation of metacognition in early childhood education. Early Child Development and Care, 184(8), 1223] and can improve educational outcomes [Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximising impact on learning. Abingdon: Routledge]. This paper explores how conducting video-stimulated reflective dialogues with young children about their thinking supported their metacognitive and cognitive development. Performance on a number of standardized tests was compared to that of a control group. Results indicated that the intervention group made more progress than the control group, became better at discussing their thinking and demonstrated an increase in metacognitive behaviours during classroom activities. The results suggest that VSRD with young children is valuable – as a participatory research tool, but also as a pedagogical strategy to support the development of metacognition and reflection.     

Parent scaffolding of young children’s use of touch screen tablets

ABSTRACT

Parents play a key role in supporting young children’s interactions with tablets (e.g. iPads). Little is known about the types of scaffolding parents provide during tablet activities and how these relate to child age, SES, and home use. Fifty-five parent–child dyads (M child age?=?3.49 years) were videoed as they played on an iPad. All parent utterances were coded into three types of scaffolding behaviours (cognitive, affective, technical scaffolding; CATs). Home tablet use and family demographics were reported via a parent questionnaire. Parents used CATs strategies to support their children’s learning. Parents most frequently used cognitive scaffolding and least frequently technical scaffolding. SES was not related to the number of tablets at home. The negative association found between technical scaffolding and child age suggests that younger children require more scaffolding by parents. Coaching parents in using scaffolding strategies during joint-tablet activities has the potential to support early learning.     

Expressing collective voices on children’s health: photovoice exploration with mothers of young children from the Indian Sundarbans

Background

The Indian Sundarbans is marked by inhospitable terrain and frequent climatic shocks which jointly hinder access to health care. Community members, and women in particular, have few means to communicate their concerns to local decision makers. Photovoice is one way in which communities can raise their local health challenges with decision makers. This study unlocks mothers’ voices on the determinants of their children’s health to inform local level decision-making on child health issues in the Indian Sundarbans.

Methods

Photovoice action research was conducted in three blocks in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal, India. The project involved eight groups of eight to ten mothers who had at least one child below 6 years of age across four villages. The mothers received training on photo documentation and ethical concerns before taking two rounds of photographs within 6 months, interspersed by fortnightly group meetings facilitated by researchers. Photographs and key messages were communicated to local decision makers during block and village level interface sessions with the mothers and researchers.

Results

Mothers’ photos focused on specific determinants of health, such as water and sanitation; health status, such as malnutrition and non-communicable diseases; service accessibility; climate conditions; and social issues such as early marriage and recurrent pregnancy. Some issues were not captured by photos but were discussed in group meetings, including domestic violence and the non-availability of medical practitioners. We found differences by mother’s educational status, livelihood and caste identity in the extent and nature of photographs taken. As a result of the mother’s interface with community decision makers, which included showcasing a selection of their photos, efforts to improve road infrastructure and human resource availability in the primary health centres and local government were realized.

Conclusion

Photovoice has the potential to express the voices of vulnerable communities regarding their health needs and can help them dialogue with local decision makers to inform community health policy and planning. More needs to be done to understand how social differences among photovoice participants influences how they engage with the methodology.

     

Exploring the role of ‘RE’ in early childhood education and care as a response to the PREVENT agenda in England

By the time children are 8 years of age, their attitudes, values, identities and beliefs are shaped and becoming solidly formed. Early childhood educators are uniquely positioned in children’s lives to promote positive values and beliefs and to foster authentic appreciation of difference. This important work is challenged by a discourse in wider society, based on fears of certain groups of people linked to extremism and terrorism. Recent policy and law changes in England require teachers to be gatekeepers and report concerns to authorities. Contextual discourse analysis was used as the methodology to identify themes within the policy and curriculum documents reviewed in paper. This paper presents a case for early childhood academics and educators to consider a rationale for how they can promote values of tolerance and compassion and highlight and celebrate a range of religious and cultural traditions, and in order to promote a deeper respect and understanding.     

Preschool teachers’ perceptions and pedagogical practices: young children’s use of ICT

ICT has been widely introduced to early childhood programs for young children to learn and play, but the meaningful integration of ICT into early learning and development is not strongly evident. While studies reveal that teachers are the key to the effective use of ICT in the classroom, there is to date limited research investigating how early childhood teachers perceive and support young childrens use of ICT. This paper reports on a survey study examining Chinese preschool teachers perspectives and pedagogical practices. Although there was a level of correspondence between the teachers perceptions and pedagogical practices, the teachers high positive perceptions of ICT benefits conflicted with their low frequencies of using pedagogies to facilitate the childrens ICT use. The results point to the importance of providing effective professional learning and development programs so teachers can employ a wider range of pedagogical strategies to support the childrens use of ICT.     

Outdoors in nature: special spaces for young children’s learning

Outdoor experiences allow teachers to focus on expanding child learning in different domains. Nature experiences can sharpen child senses, enrich vocabulary, increase spatial understandings, and permit more practice for large muscle skills. As well, teachers can arrange outdoor activities to promote positive peer cooperation and aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation – of birds, flowers, clouds, plants, clouds, rain, and trees. Outdoor environments challenge teachers to create new ways to involve children with disabilities in enjoyable learning opportunities. Caregivers can arrange new ways to enhance children's experiences and insights in activities not possible within the confines of indoor classroom spaces. Helping young children enjoy nature and outdoors, teachers create a lifelong path for them to become conservers of sustainable environments in the future.     

Early childhood teacher involvement in children’s socio-dramatic play: creative drama as a scaffolding tool

We acknowledge the importance of scaffolding during play; thus, the present study explores the ways early childhood (EC) teachers provide guidance during children’s socio-dramatic play and how they employ creative drama in their play interactions. Data collection included the play video recordings of an in-service teacher with a drama background, who was used as an instrumental study, to then explore the videos of 17 student teachers. Findings suggest that EC teachers employ multiple levels of guidance during play with the most frequent being indirect involvement. All of them employed the drama technique ‘teacher in role’ in order to include new elements in children’s scenario, to develop roles and to support material uses. Creative drama can develop a proximal development play zone through which teachers can support role and scenario development during socio-dramatic play. This study proposes a three-stage training framework for teachers to develop their play skills.     

Fathers and young children’s literacy experiences in a family environment

Research provides evidence that fathers can promote the development of their children’s literacy skills, including reading books to them that are appropriate, engaging their children in discussions about books they read, recording in a notebook the books the children have read and encouraging their children to read more books. This review presents some emerging findings and issues in the research literature that are relevant to the role of fathers in promoting their children’s literacy learning. It also summarizes the concerns and findings presented in selected research studies. Recommendations are provided for both researchers and educators.     

From pupils to consumers: the transformation of the concept of childhood in Israeli children’s television

This article divides the history of children’s television in Israel in its first decades into three distinct eras: The Single Channel Era (1966–1989), The New Exclusivity Era (1989–2000), and The Age of Multichannel TV (2000–2010). Based on qualitative interviews with 20 central producers, who worked in Israel’s leading channels for children, the article examines the significant changes that occurred in the production field of television for children: from past broadcasts of only public and educational nature in a single Israeli channel, to the current reality of a great number of private channels, some globally owned, broadcasting mainly entertainment. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural theories, this work analyzes the changes that took place in the collective conventions and practices in children’s television in Israel, and in its producers’ concept of childhood: from a national educational service for children, to looking at children as consumers in a media market.     

Parental mediation of children’s digital technology use in Singapore

This study examines parental mediation of children’s digital technology use and factors associated with it. A survey of 557 parents of primary school children in Singapore revealed that parents tend to utilize simpler mediation strategies to supervise and control their children’s digital technology use. Findings also suggest that parental mediation is more a function of parents’ usage of digital technology and parent–child interaction patterns rather than parent–child demographic characteristics.     

Perezhivanie as a phenomenon and a unit of analysis for studying children’s interactions with iPads in the early years of school in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, there is a lack of research into the educational use of touch technologies. The literature focuses on how children use these technologies and how they support learning, but little is known about the impact of these devices on children’s socio-emotional outcomes. This study examines how children relate emotionally to both iPads and each other when they are introduced into educational settings in Saudi Arabia, where no tradition for their use exists. Data (80 hours of video observations and interviews) were collected from a grade one class in a Saudi school. The cultural-historical concept of perezhivanie was used to analyse how iPads affect children’s interaction within the classroom, and it was found that the initial introduction of the iPad acted as a tool for both explicit self-regulation and implicit self-regulation. This study contributes to understanding how the use of touch technologies in Saudi Arabia affects children’s emotional development.     

Parent versus child report of young children’s parasocial relationships in the United States

This study examines parent perceptions of their young children’s one-sided, emotionally tinged relationships with media characters, also known as parasocial relationships (PSR). Prior research has collected data on young children’s PSR by surveying parents, while other studies have relied directly on child interview. The current study is the first to compare children’s answers to those of their parents. Factor analyses revealed that parents and children both reported three components of children’s PSR: social realism, attachment and character personification (parents) or attachment and friendship (for their children), and humanlike needs. Both parent and child reports accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in children’s PSR. Nonetheless, only approximately one-third of parents and children reported on the same favorite character. The implications for research on children’s PSR using both parent and child reports are discussed.     

Developmental services in primary care for low-income children: Clinicians’ perceptions of the healthy steps for young children program

Difficulties with providing quality primary health care for low-income Americans have been well documented. Few studies have addressed the challenges faced by pediatric clinicians serving low-income families or whether practice-based interventions improve clinicians’ ability to provide quality preventive health services. We investigated if, over time, the Healthy Steps for Young Children program affected the practices and perceptions of clinicians in pediatric primary care practices serving low-income families compared to practices serving more affluent families. Self-administered questionnaires were completed at baseline (N=104) and at 30 months (N=91) by clinicians at 20 pediatric practices participating in the Healthy Steps program. Practices were divided into three groups: those serving families with low, middle, and high incomes. Barriers to providing care, provision of preventive developmental services, and perceptions of care were assessed at baseline and at 30 months after introducing the program. Across all income groups and over time, clinicians were more likely to report the provision of preventive developmental health services. Clinicians in low-income practices reported increased problems with both reimbursement and time barriers; clinicians in high-income practices reported increased problems with reim-bursement. At 30 months, clinicians serving low-income families reported the greatest positive changes in their perceptions about the quality of care provided by their practices. They also were more likely to strongly agree that they gave support to families and to be very satisfied with the ability of their clinical staff to meet the developmental needs of children. We found that Healthy Steps was successful in universally increasing developmental services despite the reported practice barriers for both low- and high-income practices. The Healthy Steps program enabled low-income practices to achieve similar levels of clinician satisfaction as middle- and high-income practices despite having reported lower levels at the beginning months of the program. The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program is a program of the Commonwealth Fund, local funders, and health care providers across the nation. It is cosponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Funding for the Healthy Steps National Evaluation is being provided by the Commonwealth Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropic Foundation, and local funders. The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders, their directors, officers, or staff.     

Empowered parents: the role of self-efficacy in parental mediation of children’s smartphone use in the United States

This study examines how different types of self-efficacy – media competency, perceived parenting abilities, and perceived control over parental mediation practices – influence the extent to which parents mediate their children’s use of smartphones. A survey conducted with parents of young smartphone users aged 10–17 in the United States (N = 304) reveals that parents who feel confident about their own smartphone skills view themselves as good parents and believe that they have control over their parental mediation practices and are more likely to engage in parental mediation of children’s smartphone use. The findings also indicate that when parents are less confident about their smartphone skills, those with higher parenting competencies are more likely to engage in discussion-based active mediation than those with lower parenting competencies.     

Motor planning in preschool children – the use of a visual cue to test the end-state comfort effect: a preliminary study

The end-state comfort effect has been observed in grip selections of adult humans and other species of primates, but few studies have explored this effect in young children. The present study investigated the effect of a visual cue on the sensitivity to exhibit end-state comfort. Preschool children (N?=?17) completed the task of picking up an overturned cup, turning it right-side up, and pouring water into it. Each child performed three trials of this task in both visual cue and non-visual cue conditions. Results revealed no significant difference between the two visual cue conditions in using a thumb-down or end-state comfort grip, χ ² (1)?=?0.12, p?>?0.05. The findings offer practical implications regarding young children's ability to plan movement along with the potential role of early learning centres in creating environments that promote motor planning.