Rethinking Attachment for Early Childhood Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has had significant repercussions for early childhood education. In this article, we begin by discussing the impact of a world health pandemic on education and the challenges of conducting a literature review following the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examine the challenges of conducting a literature review on building resilience in young children in the digital era. The four sections categorize the resilience literature into the following themes: (1) defining resilience in young children, (2) powerful play for resilience in young children beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) creative play building resilience in young children, and (4) digital puzzles for resilience: the case of early childhood classrooms in Indonesia. Each of the four themes is presented with a narrative whose content is current, followed by a literary consensus. The article ends with changes to build resilience in young children using creative play through digital puzzles. Digital puzzles as media for creative play support young children in developing skills that will make them happier and more resilient in overcoming daily hardships. Young children can become individuals who successfully face daily hardships creatively to reconstruct themselves after experiencing bad conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Putting the Child Back Into Child Care: Combining Care and Education for Children Ages 3‐5

Young children from impoverished backgrounds experience high levels of family and environmental stress, adversely impacting developmental functioning. Early identification provides a pathway to solutions, but many children are never assessed. In addition, the child-serving workforce lacks resources and expertise to use traditional measures. Furthermore, existing measures do not account for the substantial influence of a child's ecology. To bridge these gaps, we developed the Neurodevelopmental Ecological Screening Tool (NEST) and conducted a pilot study (n=60) to test its feasibility for use with caregivers of children ages 3-5 in low-resource settings. We developed an item pool across three domains (child, caregiver, environment), vetted it with experts, and conducted cognitive interviewing with parents (n=15) and case managers (n-10). Simultaneously, we built an online, user-friendly delivery platform. We used a one parameter Item Response Model and a Rasch-based Rating Scale Model (RSM) and fit confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) models to test for unidimensional and construct validity. The results support the feasibility of screening children from low SES populations within low-resource settings using an ecological perspective and supports the work of child-serving paraprofessionals in identifying and addressing risks in the lives of young children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of young children's character on the relationship between grateful disposition and resilience. To this end, 302 young children aged 5 years were surveyed using young children's resilience, grateful disposition, and character as measures. For the data analysis, the SPSS 23.0 program was used to calculate the mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, descriptive statistics, analysis of frequency, correlation analysis, and reliability analysis. The structural equation model was validated using the AMOS 23.0 program to determine the casual relationship of the three factors. The findings of this study were as follows. First, young children’s grateful disposition tended not to have a direct effect on young children’s resilience, and young children’s character had a significant effect on children’s resilience. Second, young children’s grateful disposition tends to have an indirect effect on young children’s resilience by mediating young children’s character, and the mediating effect was found to be significant as a result of validating the significance of the mediating effect by the bootstrapping method.

This paper describes the efforts made by one community mental health center to develop a system of program evaluation for children's treatment services. The approach described has the capability of objectively assessing (1) patterns of utilization of children's services; (2) satisfaction with services as well as the availability, accessibility, and acceptability of services; and (3) the quality of children's mental health services as measured by the attainment of individualized treatment goals. A rationale for the development of this system as well as a description of the modifications and automatization of the procedure are included. By way of illustration, initial results are presented which pertain to 500 goals written for 208 child clients receiving treatment within any one of three of the center's child direct-service programs.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 crystallized the concern for accountability in education. National testing was mandated as a way to improve the “broken” educational system. Publicly funded early education programs were not spared from such testing. While the positive effects of high-quality early education on children’s later school achievement is well demonstrated, too many early care and educational settings in the United States are of minimal or poor quality. Accountability is clearly important for increasing the quality of our early childhood programs, however, it is not yet evident how best to formulate a standard of accountability that reflects the body of knowledge we have gained concerning how young children learn. In this report, we propose two major thrusts designed to bring about a more scientifically informed accountability system: reconceptualizing the ways in which we think about the validity of our test instruments, and reconceptualizing markers of development from products of learning (performance standards) to processes of learning. We introduce the term “empirical validity” to draw attention to the fact that assessments should be built on current empirical work in the various developmental domains. This report focuses on the domains of language and literacy, two areas of major concern for the Federal Head Start program and for which there is an abundance of current research. This body of knowledge provides many examples illustrating how an emphasis on process rather than product can be vital for improving the quality of education. For example, although vocabulary is centrally important and psychometrically adequate tests of early vocabulary exist, these tests do not measure essential aspects of word learning that have been identified as predictive of later language and reading success in early language learning literature. Our case study of language and literacy illustrates how today’s developmental science offers a new knowledge that can be strategically incorporated in assessments for empirically valid testing of children’s competencies. The same argument for “empirically valid” and evidence-based assessments applies to other domains of cognitive growth and to socio-emotional development. The future of preschool assessment would be well served by attention to primary research that focuses on the processes of learning. In this report, we also suggest that one possible avenue for progress in assessment would center on integrative and dynamic assessment techniques that would comprehensively capture the nature of children’s learning, minimize validity concerns related to context and culture, and evaluate how competencies in different developmental domains interact for optimal learning. To bridge the gap between science and policy, developmental scientists and test developers are urged to work together to create innovative ways to chart the developmental processes that support learning and progress toward social maturity in ways designed to ensure that research findings are continuously reflected in current assessments.

Pulmonary Complications and Chronic Conditions of Down Syndrome during Childhood: An Agenda for Clinical Care and Research

Providers perspectives on self-regulation impact their use of responsive feeding practices in child care

Learning objectives In this chapter you will: • Develop your understanding of the evidence-based nursing assessments and interventions used in the care of acutely ill infants and young children • Develop your understanding of the aetiology, signs and symptoms of key acute illnesses experienced by infants and young children in Australia • Consider the developmental needs of infants and young children in the planning and implementation of nursing care • Explore the impact of illness and hospitalisation on infants and young children Introduction Children contract infections regularly during early childhood, and are also at risk of injury; thus they can experience episodes of acute illness. For the most part, these episodes are of short duration and resolve with the care of parents at home, sometimes with support from community health care professionals such as a general practitioner. However, in some instances the illness can reach a level of severity that requires nursing care and medical treatment in a hospital setting. Children aged 0–4 years are the most common age group presenting for care in an emergency department (AIHW, 2015). Infants and children are still developing, so they have physiological and anatomical differences from adults that require specialist skills and knowledge. Hospital environments can be challenging for both the young child and their family. For many families, visiting the emergency department with their sick child may be the first time they have ever had to seek acute care from a hospital. It is important that nurses understand this, and that we ensure the child's care is delivered in a way that is supportive and respectful of the individual child and their family. In Chapter 6, you were introduced to primary assessment of infants and children and recognition of the sick or deteriorating child. In this chapter, some key nursing considerations and interventions for the acutely unwell child will be discussed. Following this, you will explore some of the illnesses children can acquire that may require hospital care. You will be asked to reflect upon the nursing management of some of these conditions through review of case studies and reflective questions.

Objectives The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of self-understanding group art therapy programs on self-esteem and interpersonal relationships of elementary school children using local children's centers.
 Methods Among the local children's centers in N City, 12 elementary school students attending the H-area children's center were organized as an experimental group, and 12 elementary school students attending the S-area children's center were organized as a control group. Self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and dynamic school life were conducted as preliminary tests for both the experimental and control groups, and a self-understanding group art therapy program was conducted 10 times a week for 90 minutes. After that, a post-test was conducted on the two groups, and it was verified whether there were significant changes in self-esteem and interpersonal relationships.
 Results First, children in the experimental group who participated in the implementation of the self-understanding group art therapy program showed significant positive changes in satisfaction and communication among the overall average self-esteem and sub-factors of interpersonal relationships. Second, children in the control group who did not participate in the implementation of the self-understanding group art therapy program did not show any significant differences in self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. Third, in the dynamic school life test, children in the experimental group who participated in the self-understanding group art therapy program were able to observe meaningful positive changes in self-esteem and interpersonal relationships compared to children in the control group who did not participate in the group art therapy program.
 Conclusions This study is meaningful in that elementary school students who use local children's centers developed self-esteem by gaining positive emotions, confidence, achievement, efficiency, and satisfaction through participation in self-understanding group art therapy programs.

Previous articleNext article No AccessChild Care, Government Financing, and the Public Schools: Lessons from the California Children's CentersW. Norton Grubb, and Marvin LazersonW. Norton Grubb Search for more articles by this author , and Marvin Lazerson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 86, Number 1Nov., 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/443386 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:ELLEN REESE MATERNALISM AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION, Gender & Society 10, no.55 (Oct 1996): 566–589.https://doi.org/10.1177/089124396010005005 Sorca M. O'Connor Rationales for the Institutionalization of Programs for Young Children, American Journal of Education 98, no.22 (Oct 2015): 114–146.https://doi.org/10.1086/443949 W. Norton Grubb Young Children Face the State: Issues and Options for Early Childhood Programs, American Journal of Education 97, no.44 (Oct 2015): 358–397.https://doi.org/10.1086/443934

Decision letter for "The error‐related negativity as a neuromarker of risk or resilience in young children"

Decision letter for "The error‐related negativity as a neuromarker of risk or resilience in young children"

Definitions of quality in early childhood education (ECE) has predominantly adopted a developmental perspective, where quality care is that which promotes optimal child outcomes in all domains of development. This study investigates Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), an approach designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development in four (4) early childhood centers in Accra, Ghana. A sample of parents and teachers (154 respondents comprising (100) parents (males - 44%; females - 56%), fifty (50) teachers (males - 20%; females - 80%) analyzed indicated that both parents and teachers had only fair knowledge on quality and DAP recommendations in early childhood settings, and this knowledge was associated with high income, higher education and fewer children in the family for parents but not teachers. Parents cited trained staff as a more essential quality indicator than teachers did. There was no statistically significant difference between the level of knowledge of developmentally appropriate practices between parents and teachers and between trained and untrained teachers. Recommendations offered include monitoring by the Ministry of Education to ensure professional training of teachers in childcare settings and also in dissemination of research-based findings to practitioners/professionals in the childcare settings to update their knowledge and skills.Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Developmentally Appropriate Practices, Quality.

Informed by models of resilience in military families, we explored factors theorized to be associated with social-emotional resilience and risk among young military-connected children. Our secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from 199 military-connected families (n = 346 parents) with at least one preschool-age child in the home (n = 199) led to the empirical identification of two distinct clusters: families with children demonstrating healthy social-emotional functioning and those showing indicators of less healthy social-emotional functioning when compared to the first group. We then identified factors associated with membership in each cluster to determine which deployment and parental well-being variables were salient for young child adjustment. Parent psychological symptoms, parenting, child behavior, and parent-child relationships were measured by parent report and observed interaction. Children with healthier social-emotional functioning were found to be residing with families experiencing less stress and distress. The importance of maternal trauma history is highlighted in our study, as elevated maternal symptoms across all three posttraumatic stress disorder symptom domains were associated with child social-emotional risk. Basic family demographic characteristics did not contribute significantly to the cluster distinctions, nor did military service factors such as active duty, reserve or veteran status, military rank or parent deployment history. These findings are important as the results deemphasize the importance of military service characteristics and highlight the importance of parent well-being when considering social-emotional risk and resilience of young children within military families.