Maximising Advantage in the Preschool Years: Parents' Resources and Strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Ciara Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Concerted Cultivation ◽  
Primary Schooling ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Downward Shift ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT HAS GAINED increasing importance in determining life chances. Parents hoping to secure a learning advantage for their offspring are increasingly focused on the preschool years. This downward shift from primary schooling has been prompted by the ‘first three years' movement, with its emphasis on infancy and early childhood as critical periods for development and learning. So what does this mean for early years parenting? Do parents try to secure a learning advantage in the preschool years and how do they do it? This paper highlights the four resource-dependent strategies Australian parents employ, both individually and in combination, to promote their child's early learning: ‘parenting for cognitive development’, outsourcing for cognitive development, ‘concerted cultivation’ and ‘redshirting’. By highlighting these resource-dependent strategies, this study highlights the socioeconomic gap in children's access to opportunities that parents believe give children a learning advantage in the preschool years.

Assessment of Growth and Development During Infancy and Early Childhood

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-96
Author(s):  
Victor C. Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Skinfold Thickness ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Developmental Assessment ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Infant And Young Child ◽  
Standard Values ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood ◽  
And Function

A prime function of the pediatrician is to monitor the developmental status of his or her patients. Sensitive monitoring demands a broad knowledge of developmental processes and issues and the ability to assess the data made available from the clinical examination accurately and efficiently. Areas of Developmental Assessment Developmental assessment is made in four broad areas during early childhood: physical or physiologic, neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and psychosocial. PHYSICAL OR PHYSIOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT This area comprises the changes in physical size, shape, and function that come with age. Many of these changes can be measured, such as height, weight, skinfold thickness, head circumference, body surface area, blood counts, enzyme activities, and hormone levels. These measurements can be compared with standard values that indicate the range of normal findings. NEURODEVELOPMENTAL MATURATION This area comprises changes in behavior that evolve with the passage of time, particularly those changes that depend primarily upon maturation. They include some reflex activities and many gross and fine motor skills, including visuomotor and other intersensory functions. These behaviors are assessed primarily by observation, often informally, but sometimes (when more critical appraisal is required) in a carefully structured setting. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cognitive development and neurodevelopmental maturation are closely related, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them in the infant and young child.

scholarly journals Analysis of relations between “equality of life chances” and “early childhood care and education”, as foundations for social justice and human development: a case study of Mauritius

Afrika Focus ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Morabito
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Qualitative Focus Groups ◽  
Quantitative Analyses

In this research, we have analysed the relations between equality of life chances and early childhood care and education (ECCE). During the last decades we have seen a constant growth in socio-economic inequalities world-wide. Yet, in the same period, we have acknowledged an increasing attention, among scholars and policy makers, to early childhood education as a prominent (and consensual) equalizing policy. We critically reviewed this claim, by using a mixed method research, including a theoretical analysis through a critical literature review, quantitative analyses of a longitudinal database, and qualitative focus groups with parents in Mauritius. Findings suggest ECCE can only be an equaliser if accompanied by a change in the educational and social structures. Conclusions highlight the need of focusing further research on detecting complex mechanisms of accumulation of disadvantage in specific groups, and assessing the equalising effects of diverse interventions during early years, including income redistribution. Key words: equality, education, early childhood, Mauritius 

Multimodal Music in Infancy and Early Childhood

2018 ◽  
pp. 382-398
Author(s):  
Sandra E. Trehub
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Temporal Patterning ◽  
Creative Play ◽  
Early School ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood ◽  
Infants And Young Children ◽  
Musical Forms

Music in the early years is best understood as creative play with sound and body. Infants are highly responsive observers of mothers’ multimodal singing, which consists of expressive vocalizations in conjunction with facial and bodily gestures. Infants derive pleasure and solace from music, and they exhibit sensitivity to its pitch and temporal patterning. As toddlers, they engage in rudimentary singing and dancing, which ultimately become tools for emotional self-regulation. Preschoolers exhibit increasing sensitivity to culture-specific aspects of music. They sing as they play, producing conventional as well as invented songs and aligning their vocal patterns with their movements. By the early school years, children exhibit considerable understanding of musical forms and functions. Their melodic and rhythmic skills are more readily evident on the playground than in the classroom. Although music and movement are linked for adults, they are inseparable for infants and young children.

scholarly journals Sexuality education and early childhood educators in Ontario, Canada: A Foucauldian exploration of constraints and possibilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110607
Author(s):  
Adam WJ Davies ◽  
Alice Simone-Balter ◽  
Tricia van Rhijn
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Sexual Diversity

Open conversations regarding sexuality education and gender and sexual diversity with young children in early childhood education settings are still highly constrained. Educators report lacking professional training and fearing parental and community pushback when explicitly addressing these topics in their professional practices. As such, gender and sexual diversity and conversations of bodily development are left silenced and, when addressed, filtered through heteronormative and cisnormative frameworks. Through a Foucauldian post-structural lens, this article analyses data from open-ended qualitative questions in a previous research study regarding early childhood educators’ perceptions on discussing the development of sexuality in early learning settings in an Ontario, Canada context. Through this Foucauldian post-structural analysis, the authors discuss forms of surveillance and regulation that early childhood educators experience in early learning settings regarding the open discussion of gender and sexuality. The authors explore how both the lack of explicit curricula addressing gender and sexuality in the early years in Ontario and taken-for-granted notions of developmentally appropriate practice, childhood innocence, and the gender binary – employed in discourses of sexuality education in the early years – regulate early childhood educators’ professional practices. The authors provide recommendations which critique the developmentalist logics – specifically, normative development – that are used to silence non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities in the early years, while articulating the need for explicit curricula for educators in the early years regarding gender and sexuality in young children.

scholarly journals Exploring early childhood educators’ notions about professionalism in Prince Edward Island

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-36
Author(s):  
Alaina Roach O'Keefe ◽  
Sonya Hooper ◽  
Brittany A.E. Jakubiec
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Curriculum Frameworks ◽  
Negative Impacts

Despite policy changes in a growing number of countries to increase the quality of early years education through the introduction of national curricular frameworks, conceptualizations of early childhood professionals remain distinctly variegated. Early learning curriculum frameworks have become embedded into the 21st-century early learning movement, creating a shift in professional deliverables and system expectations. This study explores how early childhood educators (ECEs) in Prince Edward Island (PEI) understand the concept of professionalism in their everyday practice. The researchers used qualitative methodology and a variety of methods, including workshops, interviews, and field notes, to gain insight into how ECEs understand professionalism. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis and understood through the lens of sociocultural theories of learning that embrace communities of practice as a positive way to promote professional learning. Primary findings explore (1) how ECEs understand professionalism in PEI, (2) positive and negative impacts on their understanding of professionalism in their daily practice, and (3) professional development opportunities that impact professionalism in the early childhood field.

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