Early Childhood Education Commons^™

The Indispensable Role Of The Sister Disability Agencies: Safeguarding Progress And Enhancing Outcomes Through Collaboration, Lesley Cottrell, Susan Given, Christina E. Wiseman

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

This manuscript emphasizes the critical importance of having a Disability Network of services—including University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs), State Councils on Developmental Disabilities, and Protection & Advocacy organizations - in promoting systemic innovation and improved outcomes for individuals with developmental disabilities. Highlighting a case study from West Virginia, where collaboration between West Virginia University’s Center for Excellence in Disabilities, Disability Rights of West Virginia, and the West Virginia Developmental Disabilities Council has resulted in cost-effective, sustainable improvements, this paper underscores the urgent need to protect and expand these programs amidst current policy threats. The evidence underscores that …

Training On "Learn The Signs. Act Early." In Head Start And Early Head Start Shows Ineffective Without Supporting Implementation Policy, Kayla Livingston, Mary O'Donnell, Kate G. Barlow

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Early identification and intervention for children with developmental delays improves child outcomes, yet many children are not monitored, screened, or identified early despite its effectiveness. The relationship between the use of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” developmental monitoring program and referrals to intervention services is not well understood. This study investigated how “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” implementation practices within Massachusetts’ Head Start and Early Head Start agencies correlated with the rate of referrals to intervention services. Researchers utilized a non-experimental quantitative design. Secondary data on referral rates from Head Start and Early …

Educating Medical Trainees On Mental Healthcare And Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Andrea Palmieri, Joan B. Beasley, Micah Peace Urquilla, Jennifer Mclaren

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Many children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience mental health conditions and commonly receive treatment with psychotropic medications. Prescribers often overuse these medications in children with IDD, who are frequently treated with polypharmacy and antipsychotics, a trend that continues into adulthood. Medical trainees receive little training regarding the IDD patient population. This paper describes the development and evaluation of an evidence-informed, easy-to-use training curriculum. The 6-hour training establishes a foundation for medical trainees regarding the treatment of mental health conditions in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD-MH) as part of an integrated health, interdisciplinary treatment approach. …

Public Education Rankings In The Mountain West, 2025, Anthony Arroyo, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet reports 2025 public education rankings for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Consumer Affairs report, “Best States for Public Education 2025,” ranks all 50 U.S. states across four categories: K-12 performance, school funding and resources, higher education quality, and school safety. This fact sheet also highlights the change in each Mountain West state’s overall ranking between 2024 and 2025.

Understanding Early Childhood Community Collaborations (Ecccs) In Relation To Systems Change, Rebecca Waterstone Halperin

Dissertations

The early childhood system in the United States is piecemeal and fragmented (Adams et al., 2017; Gomez & Rendon, 2019; Kagan & Kauerz, 2012; State Capacity Building Center, 2022). The result is that families have unequal access to care, education, and other early childhood services for their young children. There have been various approaches to building, impacting, and changing the early childhood system to move toward equity, and many of these approaches call for collaborative efforts. The state of Illinois is engaged in comprehensive early childhood systems work, and one of the vehicles driving this change has been the work …

Perspectives Of Current And Former Kindergarten Teachers Regarding The Role Of Play-Based Learning Practices, Breann Nicole Crocker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increase in standards-based curriculum in kindergarten has led to uncertainty about the use play-based learning to teach to benchmark standards. The problem that was addressed through this study is that the role of play-based learning in the study state new kindergarten (SSNK) curriculum to teach benchmark standards has not been evaluated. Grounded in Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore kindergarten teachers’ perspectives of the role of play-based learning practices in teaching to state learning benchmarks after being trained in (SSNK) curriculum. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with eight kindergarten …

Differentiated Learning In Pgsd: Enhancing Innovation In Teaching Module Development To Accommodate Students' Learning Styles, Dian Fitri Nur Aini Dian, Falisyta Roisatul Mar'atin Nuro

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

Differentiated learning is an effort to meet learning needs by adjusting to the diverse learning readiness, learning profiles, and interests of each student. Differentiated learning is expected to create effective teaching and learning activities, give students the freedom to exercise their right to learn, and facilitate students' learning needs to develop their abilities. The basic elements of differentiated learning include four (4) aspects, namely: 1) learning environment, 2) curriculum, 3) assessment, 4) learning process. These four elements are interrelated. This research model is qualitative research. The research model used in this study is a descriptive model with the aim of …

Kindergarten Teachers’ Experiences And Training With Critical Reflection To Support Adaptive Teaching, Tessa Cushman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed in this study is that kindergarten teachers often lack training in critical reflection as part of their adaptive teaching practice. Despite much research on critical reflection, there was a lack of knowledge regarding training kindergarten teachers receive on critical reflection and how they use it to adapt their teaching. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of kindergarten teachers regarding the training they received on critical reflection and the support they felt they needed to implement critical reflection for an adaptive teaching practice. Schön’s reflective practice theory was the conceptual framework for …

Play-Based Curriculum, Marina E. Prawdzik

Masters Projects

This project addresses the drastic decline of play and play-based learning in public education early childhood settings. Kindergarten classrooms have shifted their focus more to academics in the form of lecture based learning and lessons, rather than play based learning techniques. Because of this, children are lacking in cognitive development, physical development and social and emotional development and growth. This project includes research from within the state of Michigan, research within the United States as a whole, and research about play based learning from other countries such as Nigeria, Mexico, South Africa, Kenya, Finland, and Germany.

The Hanging Sculpture Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

The combining of disparate materials and distinct visual rhythms give these hanging sculptures an improvisational character and a jazz-like musicality.

Black And White Painting With Colored Tissue Paper, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

Combining materials that have very different properties can heighten a child’s sensitivity to those properties and to the possibilities they offer. In this project, instead of the usual cups of paint containing red, yellow, blue, and white, the children are given only black and white paint.

The Entwined Shape Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

This project is excellent for making children aware of the shape of the space between painted forms. It also provides an opportunity to point out how the shape of these spaces relates to the cardboard shapes they have painted.

The Entwined Shape project functions as a compliment to the Attached Shapes Project.

The Tall Box Sculpture Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

A free-standing sculpture offers a completely different experience than what was true of projects which end up affixed to a wall. There is now the opportunity to create an object that occupies the same space the child’s own body occupies.

Initial Phonemic Awareness Instruction With Printed Words Compared To Oral-Only Instruction: Segmenting, Blending, And Letter–Sound Learning, Jill R. Zablocki

Theses and Dissertations

Two methods of instruction for blending and segmenting eight vowel-consonant words were compared to examine whether instruction that referenced printed words was beneficial during the initial stages of phonemic awareness instruction. Preschool children included in the study (N = 30, M = 4.4 years) could not fully segment any of the words and did not know the sounds of more than four of the nine included letters (M = 1.0 letter sound). Children were randomly assigned to either instruction that mapped the segmented and blended sounds in spoken words to the letters in printed words or similar oral-only instruction that …

The Standing Screen Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

In this project, children use rollers rather than brushes to paint on “scored’’ cardboard shapes. “Scored” is a term which means essentially to cut lightly. With cardboard, it means to cut the face-paper of just one side of the cardboard and not cut all the way through the material. A scored piece of cardboard folds very easily along the scored lines.

The Tube Construction Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

There is much learning by doing in this project. Children test out ideas and continuously adjust their thinking as they gain more knowledge about the material they are using. The sculpture is the material evidence of that back-and-forth process of evolving thought.

The Venetian Blind Sculpture Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

The slats from venetian blinds are quite stiff. When combined with cardboard tubes and glue, they allowed for new, and at times remarkable, solutions to the question of how one slat might be joined to another.

The Cardboard Construction Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

A limitation, restriction, or constraint can force us to consider previously unimagined possibilities. In the Cardboard Construction Project, the restriction is a material one. In preparing the materials for this project, I take cardboard and cut or score* it in as many ways as I can think of.

What will quickly become apparent is the surprising variety of forms that can be generated by altering a single material.

The Divided Box Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

For this project I use a broad variety of cardboard materials, along with some wood and paper materials, but I avoid materials with other color. The reason for doing this is to bring more attention to the different textures of the materials that are available.

The Puzzle Painting Project, Barry Goldberg

College Partner Collection

In this project, each child is given a single sheet of cardboard that has been cut to form a useable puzzle. These puzzles can be as simple or as complex as suits the age of the child. Older children may be able to draw the shapes they want. A teacher can then use a mat-knife to cut the shapes out.