Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Muinji’J Asks Why (2022) By Shanika Maceachern And Breighlynn Maceachern, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Pig In The Spigot (2000) By Richard Wilbur, Peter Shea

Picture Books

The Pig in the Spigot informs the reader that a pig in the spigot is no big problem; a little extra water will flush him out. An ox in the phlox is more worrisome. The elf in the belfry has a problem; a belfry is too gloomy for an elf. And the rat on Ararat has no problems at all; he should go make friends with the lady rat. In short verses, the poet Richard Wilbur invites the reader to find friendly little words inside big words, and then to imagine why they’re there. These games are very good — …

From Pañales To Partnership: An Ethnographic Investigation Of Knowledge, Gender, And Power Within A Family Literacy Program, Sara Mohler

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Within research on family literacy programming (Lynch & Prins, 2021), few studies bring together assets-based perspectives on knowledge and power alongside critical feminist lenses. This qualitative case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Yin, 2018) informed by ethnography (Alonso Bejarano et al., 2019; Desmond, 2014; Günel & Watanabe, 2024) aimed to understand the culture of one family literacy program serving primarily Mexican-American families, named here the Treehouse Preschool, giving particular attention to the intersecting elements of knowledge, gender, and power as they are enacted across the roles and relationships of families and personnel participating in in the program. Data for this …

The Reggio Emilia Approach: Exploring Implementation And Challenges In An American Classroom Setting, Karoline S. Kniel

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Over the past decades, the Reggio Emilia Approach has gained popularity as an early childhood pedagogy due to both its child-led approach and its inherent inclusive nature. An innovative alternative to traditional early childhood education practices, the Reggio Emilia Approach focuses on fostering a deep relationship between the child and teacher wherein the child takes the lead on choosing classroom projects, themes, and topics for exploration. Emphasis is placed on the child’s self-expression, ideas, and emotions, culminating in a child-driven classroom agenda with a strong focus on the arts. According to the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) data, there …

Behavioral Interventions For Increasing Group Engagement In K-12 Classrooms: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Lauren M. Lejeune, Mark Devdas Samudre, Hongyang Zhao, Meredith Jeffords, Jason C. Chow

Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education Faculty Publications

This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized the body of research on behavioral interventions for improving group engagement. Fifty studies were included (n = 10 group designs; n = 40 single case designs [SCDs]). Most research on interventions to improve group engagement was conducted in elementary and middle school general education settings. Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (n = 6), the Good Behavior Game (n = 6), Tootling (n = 8), and multicomponent approaches (n = 9) were the most commonly reported intervention types. Antecedent strategies that were most commonly embedded in behavioral interventions to increase group …

Disability Studies And Disability Evaluation In Healthcare—Themes And Challenges Moving Forward, Debra A. Harley, Si-Yi Chao

Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Early Childhood Special Education (Ecse), Children's Health School Services

School Guides

Parent guide about the Texas Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program.

Early Childhood Special Education (Ecse) (Spanish), Children's Health School Services

School Guides

Parent guide about the Texas Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program. Translated into Spanish.

Health Matters: Advancing Pediatric Health Equity Through Accessible And Engaging Health Literacy Activity Books, Lorraine Sheldon

2026

This poster describes the development and implementation of the Health Matters activity book series, a health literacy initiative designed to provide engaging, accessible, and developmentally appropriate health education for pediatric patients and their families. Through multidisciplinary collaboration, audience-centered design, and distribution across more than 30 departments, the project demonstrates how interactive educational materials can advance pediatric health equity, support family engagement, and improve health literacy outcomes.

Success Stories From Ecd Educators And Community Lead Facilitators, Yasmeen Mehboob, Kausar Waqar, Tahira Jabeen, Bibi Salima, Zakir Ahmad

Books

These stories are intended to inspire learning and reflection. As each context is different, the approaches and outcomes described may not apply in the same way elsewhere. Readers are encouraged to thoughtfully adapt these insights to their own settings.

Empowering Pre-Service Ecse Teachers Through Ai Simulation: Strengthening Family-Centered Iep Facilitation, Jody L. Shong

Essays in Education

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping instructional practice across educational contexts, yet its role in preparing early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers for complex relational work remains underexplored. Facilitating Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings requires educators to integrate legal knowledge, developmental data, interdisciplinary collaboration, and family priorities within emotionally nuanced conversations. Many pre-service teachers enter the profession without structured opportunities to rehearse these responsibilities.

This article argues that AI-supported simulation represents a practical and equity-oriented approach to strengthening teacher preparation. Grounded in family–professional partnership theory, anti-bias education, and practice-based pedagogy, this manuscript examines how simulation can support relational competence while …

Early Childhood Classrooms And Higher Education Faculty: Partnerships With Far-Reaching Benefits, Anita Weisburger

Essays in Education

The relationship between a community college early childhood teacher education faculty member and the director of an early learning center grew into a deep and meaningful partnership that went beyond the two main participants.  This description and analysis of their collaboration demonstrates the value of these partnerships to the early childhood classrooms and the faculty at the college, but it also highlights the positive impact on the college students, the young children, the school families and the community at large.  The goal of this article is to reflect on the benefits and challenges in these collaborative endeavors and highlight lessons …

Ecce Leadership Development: Supports, Barriers, And Identity Formation, Andrea Weidele

Open Access Dissertations

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) leadership development is not given the attention it deserves. Despite the proven link between high-quality ECCE programs and positive societal outcomes, leadership development within the sector is significantly under-resourced. Because program quality is inherently tied to leadership efficacy, there is an urgent need to investigate the supports and structures that foster effective ECCE leadership. This study addressed that gap by using a qualitative multiple case study to explore how six ECCE program leaders of licensed ECCE programs from a New England state describe their leadership development, including supports and barriers they encountered and how …

Seeing The Whole Child: Bridging Community Beliefs And Early Intervention, Grace Danladi Saleh

Graduate Research Posters

Background

The first five years of a child’s life are a very important time. What happens during these early years has a big effect on how the child grows, learns to communicate, and relates to others. When caregivers respond warmly and consistently, children tend to do better later on. However, most screening tools used to spot developmental concerns are based mainly on Western ideas of what is normal. These tools often don’t match what many families from different backgrounds believe about child growth, behavior, or communication. As a result, children from diverse communities can be missed or identified too late. …

People And Movement: A Unit Of Study On The Great Migration, Maria Arteta-Martelo

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This unit of study for third graders on the Great Migration was developed to fill a gap in a year-long immigration curriculum by incorporating Black history and the often-overlooked experiences of internal migration.

Child Care Directors' Perspectives On Inclusion And Classroom Performance On Quality Rating Observation Measures, Dana C. Childress, Kristen Ingram, Ann Maydosz, Jonna L. Bobzien

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This research examined child care center directors’ perceptions of inclusion, specifically related to staff’s knowledge and skills of how to care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with developmental delays and disabilities. They were also asked if their center’s ability to care for these children could affect performance on classroom observation measures such as those included in quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Two hundred forty-four directors in one southeastern state in the United States responded to a cross-sectional, electronic survey and provided the following insights: (1) staff were likely to have at least some knowledge of how to include and …

When We Are Alone (2016) By David A. Robertson, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story (2024) Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Secret Pocket (2023) By Peggy Janicki, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Walking Together (2023) By Elder Albert Marshall And Louise Zimanyi, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

I Am Not A Number (2019) By Jenny Kay Dupuis And Kathy Kacer, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Red Bird Sings: The Story Of Zitkala-Ša (2011) By Gina Capaldi, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

I Know A Lady (1986) By Charlotte Zolotow, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

“On our block, there is a lady who lives alone.” That line begins young Sally’s reflection on a neighbor friend, an elderly woman who is a comforting presence to the neighborhood. I Know a Lady gives us a model of a mutually supportive inter-generational friendship. Near the end of the story, Sally wonders “if some old lady she knew had a garden and cooked and smiled and patted dogs and fed cats and knew her name.” Sally’s thought includes a realization hard for children and adults to manage: that old people were once children. Sally then thinks that if she …

Shrek! (1990) By William Steig, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Shrek is a revoltingly ugly and repulsive ogre who, after a series of adventures, falls in love with an equally ugly princess. Many children have delighted in William Steig’s story of incredible ugliness and vulgar behavior--striking a blow for their own liberation against oppressive adult expectations. Why not actually discuss with them the way they (and many of us!) become fascinated with ugliness? Steig’s story also raises an important philosophical question about whether there can be anything genuinely attractive, even beautiful, that is also extremely ugly.

Take Time To Play! A Library, University, And Community Organization Partnership To Enhance Children’S Learning And Wellbeing, Carolyn White Gamtso, Karyn Isleb, Marisa Rafal

Faculty Publications

This lightning talk described the collaborative work of the Founder/President of NH Toy, the Head of Youth Services at the Manchester (NH) City Library (MCL), and the Professional Studies Librarian at the UNH Library-Manchester to coordinate a series of student-led enrichment events for local children and their families at the public library. The play days included an American Sign Language (ASL) story time presented by members of the UNH Manchester ASL Club, and an Earth Day craft event with recycled materials led by members of the college’s Student Government. This university/library/community collaboration provided all participants with the time and the …

Utilizing Visual Literacy In Thinking Critically About Children’S Cognitive Development, Andrea Gail Schafer

2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference: Poster Session Papers

Undergraduate coursework in child development requires college students to be proficient in their understanding and assessment of holistic development of young children as defined within the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional domains. Traditionally, undergraduate courses at the 100 and 200 level require college students to critically consider scenarios and evaluate level of child development based on traditional text-based scenarios describing child behaviors or engagement in tasks.

Specifically, considering Piaget's theory of cognitive development (Piaget, 1974), it's critically important in a course that covers early child development that college students (pre-service professionals) be able to identify and correctly assess level of …

Seeing Through Their Lenses: Perspectives Of Kindergarten Teachers On Implementing Purposeful Play For Children’S Academic And Developmental Learning, Subarna Basu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of using purposeful play for children’s academic and developmental learning, and the benefits and challenges they perceive in implementing purposeful play. The study utilized a qualitative, visual arts-based, participatory action research (PAR) design, in the form of Photovoice methodology. This qualitative study focused on the kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences and voices on the importance of implementing purposeful play and employed Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and Constructivist theories. Utilizing this methodology, six kindergarten teacher participants collected photographs based on photo prompts, provided narratives to their photographs, and reflected and …

The Impact Of High-Quality Phonological Awareness Professional Learning On In-Service Teachers' Content Knowledge And Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Roberta S. Thomas

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This convergent mixed-method study examined the impact of high-quality phonological awareness professional learning on Montessori primary lead, associate, and team associate teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of phonological awareness. Eleven teachers (4 lead, 4 associates, and 2 team associates) from a private school in northeast Florida participated in four professional sessions with a content focus on the levels of phonological awareness, including word, syllable, onset and rime, and phoneme awareness. In contrast to previous studies that reported low levels of teacher content knowledge prior to professional learning, participants in this study demonstrated relatively high levels of content knowledge. …

They Don't Talk Very Good: Attending To Raciolinguistic Socialization In Early Childhood, Erin Quast

Faculty Publications - College of Education

In this article, I share experiences from my roles as a teacher, researcher, and parent to show how raciolinguistic ideologies take hold in early childhood. Specifically, I illustrate how children come to uphold English superiority, map language to belonging, and make judgments about whose language counts. In sharing these experiences, I call on educators and caregivers to attend to raciolinguistic socialization and work toward disruption so that all children's languages are valued in literacy learning. I suggest centering multiple languages, cultivating curiosity, and questioning curricular assumptions as ways to work alongside children in challenging hierarchies and creating learning spaces that …

Early Math Readiness And Later Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Bailey Bontrager

Theses and Dissertations

The current body of literature provides much evidence that mathematics skills at the start of kindergarten are predictive of later mathematics achievement, and that students enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs are better prepared for mathematics at the start of kindergarten. However, the potential for children to develop mathematical skills prior to entering kindergarten relies on access to ECE programs and resources in families’ surrounding communities. Recent use of geospatial data collection techniques and measures of community resource availability have enabled researchers to examine specific localities for the ways in which community organizations and institutions support residents in particular …