Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Supporting Intervention Fidelity Of Dialogic Reading To Support Preschool Children’S Early Literacy Skills, Cara Dillon, Daniel Newman

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Early literacy skills are key indicators of later reading success, and early literacy instruction in early childhood education can support both positive academic and behavioral child outcomes. Dialogic reading (DR) is an evidence-based intervention that targets early literacy skills like oral language, vocabulary, and print concepts. Although research suggests DR has the potential to impact the early literacy skills of young children, intervention fidelity must be maintained for the intervention to be effective. Two single case design studies were conducted in an early childhood setting that together examined (a) the effects of intervention supports on the intervention fidelity of educators …

Avoiding The Summer Slide: Tier One And Two Supports Targeting Early Readers, Sarah Harry

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

For more than 100 years, the “summer slide,” or the learning losses by students following a long summer break have been well documented. On average, a typical student loses a little more than one month’s worth of skill across each academic area (e.g., language arts and mathematics) throughout the summer months. Research has also demonstrated that the “summer slide” has a particularly harmful impact on reading achievement of students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a tiered system of support for oral reading fluency in early elementary school aged …

Aligning Classroom Management Strategies With A Social Emotional Learning Curriculum In Early Childhood, Jessica Kemp, Sara Whitcomb

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Traditionally, school-based preventative frameworks have been implemented in isolation with little consideration of alignment and integration of practices throughout the school day. The present study aims to address this gap by increasing school psychologists’ preventative involvement with consultation in early childhood school settings. Using an integrated approach through a multiple baseline design, four Head Start educators were trained in classroom management practices, to increase opportunities throughout the day for teaching, prompting, and reinforcing key skills taught through the Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) social emotional learning curriculum. Findings suggest that a brief professional development session (1-hour) followed by weekly performance …

Estimating The Impacts Of Legislation To Expand Affordable Quality Child Care And Early Education In Massachusetts: Initial Findings On Utilization, Employment, And Financial Assistance. Research Brief #1, Randy Albelda, Alan Clayton-Matthews, Anne Douglass, Christa Kelleher, Songtian Zeng, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The UMass Boston Early Education CUSP is led by a multidisciplinary team that designed the simulator and uses it to produce current, relevant, accurate, and responsive estimates about the key impacts of proposed legislation to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. One of the simulator’s valuable features is that it can produce estimates for a range of policy parameters and provisions. The team will release additional briefs in the coming months to offer a more detailed look at the impacts outlined in this initial publication. Other planned briefs will examine key topics, such as impacts related …

How Teachers Use Data: Description And Differences Across Prek Through Third Grade, Amanda Witte, Lisa Knoche, Susan Sheridan, Natalie A. Koziol

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The use of data to inform instruction has been linked to improved student outcomes, early identification of intervention needs, and teacher decision-making and efficacy. Additionally, data are used as a means of accountability within educational settings. However, little is known about data use practices among early grades teachers. The purpose of the current study is to describe the data use of PreK to third grade teachers and to investigate differences in data use and support across grade levels. Participants were 307 early childhood teachers in PreK and early elementary school. Analysis of survey data revealed, overall, most teachers across grade …

Evaluating Children's Menus In Theme Park Restaurants, Maria Fusté Forné

Journal of Sustainability and Resilience

Children who travel with their families eat in restaurants that usually offer special kid’s menus. The quality of those menus is often questioned and in the present context where children’s obesity and overweight are increasing, it is relevant to pay attention to the different environments where children eat. The present paper wants to analyse if specific restaurants menus in one of the most relevant theme park are healthy or unhealthy. Using a validated instrument to evaluate kids’ menu, restaurants in Disney Village (Disneyland Paris) are analysed. Results show that half of them are unhealthy and none of them are completely …

Does Play Belong In The Primary School Classroom?, Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Rachel Parker

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Learning through play has emerged as an important strategy to promote student engagement, inclusion, and holistic skills development beyond the preschool years. If we want to build an education system preparing children for lifelong learning, we can use these strategies and achieve a balance of academic growth, holistic skills and a joy of learning. This presentation addresses the disconnect between policy, research, and practice, by summarising 5 key findings from international studies and 4 challenges to connect policy and practice. The evidence that play supports learning is considerable, and a new framework can create continuity between the early years learning …

The Effects Of Isolated Affordances On Preschool Counting Improvement When Using A Digital Coloring App, Katherine Papazian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Counting is an important preschool math skill that is necessary for building a strong foundation in mathematics. Previous research has demonstrated that guided counting activities can improve counting ability in preschoolers and that drawing on paper while learning can deepen processing, but research has not included digital drawing as a potential means of deepening processing while children count. This study developed a novel touch-screen app, which used a guided coloring activity to encourage effective counting skills and serve as a home numeracy tool that could be employed by all parents, including those with math anxiety. To evaluate the benefits of …

Variations In Family Child Care: Providers' Experiences Crafting Spaces In-Between School And Home, Eleanor Luken

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Family child care, which takes place in the caregiver’s own home, is one of the most common arrangements for American working parents, yet it remains low paid and undervalued in the ecosystem of early childhood care and education (Uttal and Tuominen, 1999). Little is known about how family child care providers organize space within their homes and the repercussions the location of care has on their daily practices with children, relationships with family members, and design of their homes. Even less is known about the strategies used by providers operating in dense, urban neighborhoods with high housing costs. This investigation …

A Feminist Ethnography Of Care In The Infant/Toddler Classroom, Chesley Anne Sorrells

Doctoral Dissertations

In the neoliberal context of the Global North, early care and education (ECE) is a conceptually dichotomized and stratified field, with ‘care’ widely considered to be separate from - and lesser than - ‘education.’ Feminist perspectives challenge this dichotomization by reconceptualizing care as foundational to education, centering the historically feminized ideals of emotion, relationality, and interdependence. This three-part qualitative dissertation presents the findings of an 8-month feminist ethnography of care practices in one infant/toddler classroom. Participant observation and semi-structured teacher interviews were used to explore the following research questions: 1) What are teachers’ lived experiences of care in this early …

Dental Care Utilization Among U.S. Children Participating In Early Head Start Programs, Ahlam Ibraheem Joufi

Health Services Research Dissertations

Early childhood caries (ECC) remains one of the most common preventable diseases among children under the age of 6 years. Several national stakeholders recommend establishing a continuous collaboration of individuals involved with receiving oral health services (dental home) and routine dental care for the child by 12 months. Despite this recommendation, disparities exist among young, low-income children in preventive dental service utilization. The Early Head Start (EHS) program serves low-income children aged 0-3 years and their families and promotes oral health practices and service utilization within the program. This study aims to examine predictors of dental care utilization among children …

Professionals' Application Of Intersectionality With Marginalized Youth: Considerations For Teen Dating Violence Prevention Programming And Beyond, Bradley Kyle Daly

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Marginalized youth disproportionality experience adverse outcomes such as increased rates of mental health issues and teen dating violence. Addressing their compounding concerns requires an approach that considers their interlocking marginalized identities and the oppressive systems impacting them. Intersectionality incorporates both elements, yet the literature on how frontline practitioners understand and apply this complex theory within their practice remains sparse. This integrated-article dissertation explored how professionals working with marginalized youth within various settings, including teen dating violence prevention contexts, understood and applied intersectionality. The first paper (chapter two) used group concept mapping to explore how 12 professionals applied intersectionality. Results yielded …

Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, Resilience And Turnover In The Child Welfare Workforce: Results From A 6-Month, Cluster-Randomized Control Trial Of Resilience Alliance, Rebecca Orsi-Hunt, Courtney L. Harrison, Kayla E. Rockwell, Anita P. Barbee

QIC-WD Journal Articles

Introduction: US child welfare agencies have historically struggled with workforce retention and turnover. As part of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development in Child Welfare, we tested an adaptation of the Resilience Alliance (RA) model in a large, Midwestern state to address workplace stress, burnout and actual workforce turnover. RA is a 24-week, facilitated program designed to mitigate the impact of secondary traumatic stress among child welfare professionals, and to therefore increase job satisfaction, resilience and optimism and to decrease turnover, stress reactivity and burnout.

Methods: Supervisory units of caseworkers and supervisors were randomized to the RA treatment …

Making Pla(Y)Ces: Softening The City Through Play, Shivani Pinapotu

Masters Theses

Cities that grow naturally over time integrate spaces of gathering that allow for serendipitous happenstance. However, the cities we design today instruct and codify through intentional planning and design; they assign use, hardening specific function to place. Such strategies lead to spaces devoid of spirit, inculcating in city-dwellers to a sense of disconnect from the city.

In contrast to this, the places we make as children, express our intuitive, direct, and unselfconscious relationships with space and one other. These spaces embody softness through their malleability and adaptability, borrowing from the world around them and imbuing the ordinary with imagination. …

Family Strengths Among Native American Families And Families Living In Poverty: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences, Natira Mullet, Emily A. Waterman, Katie Edwards, Briana Simon, Skyler Hopfauf, Ramona Herrington

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand how youth, caregivers, and community professionals perceive family strengths and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their community. Specifically, this study was focused on the protective role of caregivers and families, positive youth development, and how Native American families and families living in poverty support adolescents’ social–emotional development and help them thrive in the face of adversity.

Background: Research documents the concerning rates and negative outcomes of ACEs. However, very little research has examined the views of families and professionals on how to prevent ACES among these populations.

Method: Participants were youth …

The Skin I’M In: A Critical Content Analysis Of Picture Books Written By Black Authors, Angela Latrece Justice

Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the experiences of Black male protagonists in picture books. The following question guided this study: How do Black authors demonstrate a commitment to social justice? The theoretical framework that guides this study is Critical Race Theory (CRT), which aids in understanding how Black authors use experiential knowledge to represent experiences that challenge dominant ideologies about Black males. The sample consists of 20 pictures books all written by Black authors and published within the United States from 2018 to 2021. The deductive and inductive approaches to critical content analysis is used as it is effective for …

The Brothers Grimm Fairytale Cookboook, Grace Therriault

Graphic Communication

Modern technology and the Internet have made cookbooks relatively obsolete. Nowadays you only see them as coffee table decoration, something to flip through but not actually use. Designing a creative and fun children’s’ cookbook based on some of the famous Brothers Grimm fairytales, will encourage kids, ages 5-12, to have some fun in the kitchen and use their imagination to whip up some incredible edibles. This opportunity creates a window for children to get excited about a book and translate what they read into the real world. Lastly, this project is important to me because it the impact experimenting in …

White Privilege And Teacher Perceptions Of Teacher-Child Relationship Quality, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Colin M. Mcginnis, Sheng-Lun Cheng, Dwayne Ray Cormier, Natalie A. Koziol

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigated differences in teachers’ perceptions of the teacher-child relationship from kindergarten through second grade as a function of child race and gender from the perspective of critical race theory and the cultural synchrony hypothesis. Given the extensive evidence of White privilege and anti-Black racism in the US education system, we expected that teachers, particularly White teachers, would perceive their relationships with White children more positively than with Black children. Controlling for family SES and child gender, results supported this hypothesis. Black boys had the highest risk of being perceived by teachers as having poor relationships with …

Recognizing Paralanguage In Teaching, Allison Delmonico

The Downtown Review

Paralanguage is used every day to communicate and is related to one’s culture. It is often unconscious, however, when teaching a conscious effort should be made so one understands how they are perceived by others and what signals they give off. Teachers must take into consideration their own culture, the culture of the community they teach in, and the culture of students and their families. Teachers use paralanguage when communicating with their colleagues and need to understand how best to collaborate with each other. When communicating with parents, teachers need to make sure they feel welcome in the classroom and …

Evidence-Based Practice As An Undergraduate Clinician, Abigail Guinan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Evidence-based practice consists of client perspectives, clinical expertise, and research evidence to make clinical decisions for client treatment. This project evaluated evidence-based practice in the field of speech-language pathology. One evidence-based treatment method was found for each of the Big Nine areas of treatment in speech-language pathology. More focus was put on the area of language, specifically late language emergence in pediatric populations. Late language emergence is a delay in language development that is not caused by any comorbidities. Children with late language emergence struggle in all areas of language. The three intervention strategies for late language emergence are family-centered, …

Taking Science Museums To The Edge: How Science Museums Can Advocate For Social Justice, Education And Inclusivity Through Their Exhibits, Sasha C. Naples

Museum Studies Theses

Science museums have often associated affluent populations and quality education with access to scientific material and content. While these institutions have become more accessible in many ways, they can and should increase their efforts to include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and individuals. As the need grows for diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields so does the demand for science museums to include these communities’ needs and wants. This thesis discusses the need for and importance of BIPOC representation in science museums and what museums have already done to include them in their programming and …

A Discourse Analysis Of Parents' And Teachers' Social Constructions Of School Readiness And Transition To Kindergarten For Children With Disabilities, Ronica Senores Toyota

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This study examined parents’ and teachers’ social constructions of disability, school readiness, and the transition to kindergarten process for children with disabilities who participated in a self-contained preschool special education (SPED) class, called a special day class (SDC). The 12 participants included parents of children with disabilities (i.e., three with autism and one with Down syndrome), four preschool SDC teachers, two kindergarten SDC teachers, and two general education kindergarten teachers. They were recruited from a large urban school district in Southern California. Semistructured interviews were conducted to invite participants to share their experiences working with students with disabilities and their …

The Influences Of The Public Health Care System And Education System On The Economic Growth Of Swaziland, Grace Greer

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Kingdom of Eswatini, also known as Swaziland, has one of the youngest populations in the world with over 70% of citizens being under the age of 18 years old. This creates a substantial opportunity for economic, social, and educational growth in a country previously plagued with diseases such as HIV/AIDS, poor health care infrastructure cutting off thousands from basic care, and an educational system with a very low attendance rate and an even lower graduation rate. By evaluating the root causes of such issues dating back to the colonial era there is an opportunity to reprioritize health care and …

Early Childhood Care: A Comparative Analysis Of Preferred Practices, Shaija A. Mills

Child Development Theses

This thesis paper aims to investigate and compare the preferred practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC) across four categories: public/universal, private, outdoor, and daycare or family/in-home care. The study utilized online surveys and interviews with parents/guardians of 3-6 year old children and program directors serving children within the same age range. The primary objective was initially to identify best practices in early childhood care. However, as the study progressed, it became evident that the different approaches to early childhood education and care offered unique and valuable contributions. The research shifted from there to an exploration of the substance …

The Role Of Community Outreach Programs In Partnership With The University Of Mississippi In Combating Food Insecurity In The Oxford/Lafayette Area, Gabrielle Miller

Honors Theses

Grow Club is a community outreach programming effort that was formed in Oxford, Mississippi in the fall of 2020 by University of Mississippi undergraduate students. The program works towards bringing community members as well as university students and staff together in attempts at alleviating many stressors felt by local community members living in poverty. This written work aims to offer a breakdown of how this program began and the steps taken to recognize a community need, formulate solutions, and work with the community to offer resources.

Job Stress Moderates The Effects Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Early Childhood Teachers' Emotion Dysregulation, Emily J. Starr

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Addressing the current crisis of early childhood (EC) teacher turnover is essential for supporting the development of young children. Teacher attrition remains a concern for policymakers globally, and in the United States, early childhood teachers frequently cite job stress and lack of support as reasons for leaving the field. For over 40 years, researchers who study childcare have been concerned about the consequences of work-related stressors. Even if these stressors do not result in turnover, EC teachers’ psychological well-being may be impacted, leading to increased emotion regulation difficulties and more frequent negative teacher-child interactions. Young children’s emotional development is significantly …

Positive Parenting With Guyanese Children, Parthener Pinder

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

During the earliest years of life, a child has rapid neurological development. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as Guyana, there continues to be a struggle to educate all children, especially those in rural or isolated areas leading to concerns about young children's development, particularly those under five. LMICs have little research on how caregiver positive parenting in the household affects early childhood development as well as how other sociodemographic factors influence positive parenting. This study answers the question: Does positive parenting in the household improve learning development in Guyanese children? This study used Guyana’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey …

Emotional Depictions Of Dogs And Cats In Interactions With Humans In Picture Books, Juri Nakagawa, Naoko Koda

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

This study quantitatively analyzed the depiction of dogs’ and cats’ emotions in picture books and discussed the effects on children’s recognition of real dog and cat emotions. The stories depicted many basic emotional depictions of interest, joy, and surprise in dogs and cats, whereas the humans in the stories showed more varied, complicated emotions. Interest was most often caused by familiar humans in dogs, and by objects in cats. Joy was most often caused by familiar humans in dogs and cats, which would lead child readers to recognize that dogs and cats are friendly toward humans. There were depictions of …

Elementary School Educators’ Perceptions Of Discipline Policies And The Overrepresentation Of Discipline Outcomes In Urban Settings, William Casey Cooper

Ed.D. Dissertations

Since the formation of schools, schools have developed ways of understanding discipline and ensuring a safe and orderly environment. Governmental personnel began to influence local school policies beginning in 1989, with United States President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs campaign. This led to the creation and development of zero-tolerance policies. School districts implemented zero-tolerance policies, which helped lead to the overrepresentation of discipline outcomes (i.e., punishment) among certain demographics. Following the Critical Race Theory theoretical framework, I interviewed 12 participants to determine their perceptions of discipline policies and the overrepresentation of discipline outcomes in urban settings. My participants included elementary …

Problems Are A Gift- How To Turn Challenging Behaviors In The Classroom Into Opportunities For Growth And Connection, Lindsey Kealey

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Lindsey Kealey discusses practical ways apply a trauma-responsive approach to helping children and adults solve problems in the classroom. When you unwrap problems with students in productive, rather than punitive ways, you will find that problems are not just fires to put out or issues that weight us down. Rather, problems can be a gift to ourselves and the students we teach.