Exploring a Novel Tool to Measure Wandering Behavior in the Early Childhood Classroom

Wandering, or random movement, affects cognitive and social skills. However, we lack methods to objectively measure wandering behavior. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the use of the Ubisense real-time location system (RTLS) in an early childhood setting to explore wandering in typically developing (TD) children ( n = 2) and children with or at risk for developmental disabilities (WA-DD; n = 3). We used the Ubisense RTLS, a tool for capturing locations of individuals in indoor environments, and Fractal Dimension (FD) to measure the degree of wandering or the straightness of a path. Results of this descriptive, observational study indicated the Ubisense RTLS collected 46,229 1-s location estimates across the five children, and TD children had lower FD ( M = 1.36) than children WA-DD ( M = 1.42). Children WA-DD have more nonlinear paths than TD children. Implications for measuring wandering are discussed.

Parent Cooperative Early Childhood Settings: Empowering Family Strengths and Family Engagement for All Young Children

Parent cooperative preschools are unique educational enterprises because they involve the participation of parents and children. The purpose of this historical qualitative analysis examines the history of parent cooperative preschools and the contributions of this type of early childhood setting, including parent engagement in the classroom, family strengths (both personal and in the community), and the teacher’s role in the classroom as a facilitator, leader, and parent educator. Reflections from past parent cooperative board members of a parent cooperative are included sharing their personal contributions, joys, collaborations, and challenges of engagement in this type of early childhood program. The reflections from the parent cooperative board members share insight into the role they played in the awareness of early childhood education to society, family engagement, advocacy, and the critical importance of this type of early childhood setting for all young children. Parent cooperative preschools encourages families to engage in reciprocal relationships with teachers by offering learning activities for the home and in the community. They are associated with important values and virtues for families to grow and learn with their child.

The effects of a phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge intervention on four-year-old children in an early childhood setting

Phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK) are two of the strongest predictors of reading acquisition, and evidence shows that many New Zealand children are entering school with low levels of emergent literacy (EL) skills. The current research showed that four-year-old children identified as having low levels of EL, who participated in an evidence-based 10-week intervention using games and books, made significant gains in PA and AK in comparison to a control group. The children were assessed pre-intervention and post-intervention using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening PreK and it was found that the PA and AK intervention used in this research was effective in significantly raising the levels of upper-case letter naming, letter-sound awareness and beginning sound awareness.

No Happy Endings: Practicing Care in Troubled Times

This article uses a multispecies inquiry to research the relations between human children and other-than-human animals, specifically, a piglet, in a home-based early childhood setting. The focus of this work is to activate critical posthumanism and common worlds scholarship to consider the ethics of relations of care in which the fate of the cared-for is uncertain. I draw on Puig de la Bellacasa’s theory of care to consider the implications of our school community’s care for the piglet, which was offered freely and in full awareness of uncertain consequences and precarious futures.

Becoming clowns: How do digital technologies contribute to young children’s play?

Research concerning play and technology is largely aimed at expanding the knowledge of what technological play may be and, to a lesser extent, examines what happens to children’s play when it encounters digital tools. In order to explore some of the complexity in play, this article elaborates on how Latour’s concepts of ‘translation’ and ‘inscription’ can make sense of a narrative from an early childhood setting. The article explores how to challenge ‘taken-for-granted knowledge’ and create different understandings of children’s play in technology-rich environments. Through a flattened ontology, the article considers how humans, non-humans and transcendental ideas relate to one another as equal forces; this allows for an understanding of play as located within and emerging from various networks. The discussion sheds light on how activation of material agents can lead us to look for differences and new spaces regarding play. Play and learning are no longer orchestrated by what is already known; rather, they become co-constructed when both the children and the material world have a say in constructing the ambiguity of play. Lastly, the discussion points to how early years practitioners need tools to challenge their assumptions of what play might become in the digital age.