The words "routine" and "ritual" are sometimes used interchangeably. Yet there are some important differences. Routines are repeated, predictable events that provide a foundation for the daily tasks in a child's life. Teachers can create a predictable routine in early childhood settings for infants and toddlers, and they can individualize those…

In England, early years education services and the children and who attend them are the subject of increasing scrutiny and assessment. While these assessments offer a number of benefits in terms of tracking child development and ensuring the efficient use of public monies, they also impose restrictions to practice, limits to understandings of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the level of job satisfaction that school principals experience and, based on the findings, to suggest policies or techniques for improving it. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaires were administered to 180 primary school heads in 13 prefectures--one from each of…

The transition from infancy to toddlerhood occurs after the youngster's first year of life (12-24 months). This is a critical time in a child's development. In this year, children develop critical thinking skills and begin making connections in the world around them. They demonstrate increased independence and view themselves as the center of…

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health problems in young children but there has been a dearth of studies focusing on Asian American children. This study examines the patterns and the predictors of childhood anxiety and related symptoms in young children in a diverse Asian American (ASA) sample (n = 101). Findings indicate that ASA…

The present study contrasted physiological arousal in infants and toddlers with fragile X syndrome to typically developing control participants and examined physiological predictors early in development to autism severity later in development in fragile X syndrome. Thirty-one males with fragile X syndrome (ages 8-40 months) and 25 age-matched…

Interest in child development as a knowledge base for early childhood education programs flourished in the 1970s as a result of the theories and philosophies of Jean Piaget and other cognitive developmentalists. During subsequent decades in America, reform movements emphasizing accountability and achievement became a political and social…

Universal design for learning (UDL), an outgrowth of the architectural model of universal design, has been widely researched as a promising method of supporting the growth and development of all children. The focus of this article is UDL in the preschool. To begin, the principles of UDL are outlined and explained. Next, UDL as it applies to a…

Previous studies of the long-term effects of maternal postpartum depression (PPD) on child development have mostly focused on a limited set of outcomes, and have often not controlled for risk factors associated with maternal depression. The present study compared children of postpartum depressed mothers (n = 29) with children from a community…

For centuries, educators and psychologists have advocated "play" as the ideal activity for the development of young children. Actually, play has been found currently to be the central pedagogy in the learning of young children in 21 countries in the world. However, the quality of play-based pedagogy is becoming a key concern across…

In a four-year longitudinal study, changes in and continuity of behavioral and emotional problems were examined in 814 subjects from kindergarten to primary school. Mental health problems were assessed by means of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The distribution of the CBCL broadband groups revealed a high level of continuity of internalizing…

Young children's experiences outside of both home and school are important for their development. As women have entered the labor force, child care has become an increasingly important context for child development. Child care experiences prior to school entry have been well-documented as important influences on children's academic and…

For each of the past 19 years, the American Montessori Society has chosen to recognize one Montessorian as an AMS Living Legacy. Recipients are honored at the AMS annual conference for their salient work or volunteerism in the Montessori field and their dedication and leadership that has made an impact on the AMS community. It seems fitting that…

This study reports on the validation of the language domain subtest of a developmental assessment scale for Cantonese Chinese preschool children. Three hundred and seventy eight multi-stage randomly selected children between 3;4 and 6;3 years of age were tested on the 104-item subtest. Fifty-four of these children, spreading across three age…

Heritage language (HL) proficiency confers developmental benefits; however, the onset of HL loss is observed among many young children from immigrant families. In this longitudinal study, transactional associations between children's HL proficiency and supportive family climate were examined in Chinese immigrant families with pre-school-aged…