特殊需要儿童进入普通幼儿园的困境和策略

普通幼儿园中特殊需要儿童数量正在逐步增加,但有特殊需要儿童进入普通园比率较低,生存状态不佳。这是由于政府扶持力度不大、园所重视度不高、幼儿教师学前融合教育知识和技能缺乏以及园内外环境支持系统缺失等原因造成。各地应提高对学前有特殊需要儿童教育事业的重视,加大职前、职后学前融合教育师资培养和培训力度,组建家、园、校、医为一体的专业团队,建立资源教室等支持系统,使有特殊需要儿童与普通儿童享有一样的受教育权利。     

The role of early childhood settings for 4–5 year old children in early academic skills and later achievement in Australia

Formal early childhood education programs have been shown to promote the early academic skills of young children. However, the academic benefits acquired through program attendance fade quickly in the early elementary school years. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we describe the programmatic and teacher differences between different types of formal early childhood programs for children between 4 and 5 years old—pre-year 1, school-based preschool, standalone preschool, and center-based child care. We examine the child and family background characteristics that are correlated with selection into different settings and how these settings are associated with children's early academic skills and on their subsequent achievement. We focus on understanding if there are differential academic benefits accrued from each program type and whether or not these benefits persist into the early elementary school years. Results indicate that maternal employment and economic disadvantage are correlated with program participation and that pre-year 1 and preschool teachers have higher qualifications. Results also show that children who attended a pre-year 1 program held an initial, significant advantage in early academic skills compared to children enrolled in center child care. Center child care was associated with higher early math skills than preschools. Children who did not attend any early childhood programming lagged behind their peers in school readiness skills. By middle childhood, all the early skill advantages had disappeared, showing rapid fadeout of academic benefits acquired from these specific types of early childhood programs. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

A Model for Involvement of Fathers in Literacy Development with Young At-Risk and Exceptional Children

Early involvement in literacy activities can provide many benefits for at-risk and exceptional children and their fathers. These benefits include development of children's reading and writing skills, increased bonding, and positive self-esteem of fathers. Early childhood professionals can foster male involvement by describing benefits, suggesting appropriate activities, materials and expectations, and by providing ongoing feedback. A model for getting fathers involved in literacy activities with their young at risk and exceptional children is described. The four major approaches in this model are early social interaction, reading books, incidental preliteracy activities, and school involvement.     

Nurturing Emergent Readers Through Readers Theater

Readers theater is a familiar literacy strategy for children who can read independently; however, it can also be used with younger children who have not yet developed independent reading skills. The purpose of this article is to adapt the concept of readers theater for use with emergent readers. It focuses first on defining readers theater and its many benefits, particularly in the areas of literacy development. Finally, it includes suggestions for successfully implementing a readers theater program with young children.     

When behavioral barriers are too high or low – How timing matters for text-based parenting interventions

Text-messaged-based parenting curricula can be effective in supporting positive parenting practices. This study compares weekday to weekend delivery of such a program focused on early childhood development. Weekend texts are, on average, more beneficial to children's literacy and math development for initially lower-achieving children. The weekday texts show benefits for higher-achieving children on higher-order skills. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that lower-educated parents and parents of lower-achieving students face such high barriers during weekdays that light-touch supports cannot consistently overcome them, while during weekends barriers to parenting are well-suited to being addressed by these behavioral approaches.     

Initial insights into phoneme awareness intervention for children with complex communication needs

This study provides insights into the benefits of phoneme awareness intervention for children with complex communication needs (CCN). The specific aims of the study were: (1) to determine whether phoneme awareness skills can be successfully trained in children with CCN; and (2) to observe any transfer effects to phoneme awareness tasks not directly targeted during intervention, and to the encoding and decoding of printed words. Two children participated in the study: Scott, aged 7 and Anna, aged 10. Prior to intervention, both children exhibited poor phoneme awareness knowledge and severely delayed written language skills. Scott received 7 hours of intervention that focused on improving his phoneme identity skills and his letter‐sound knowledge. Anna received 11 hours of intervention that focused on improving her phoneme segmentation and manipulation skills. Results indicated that both children responded favourably to the phoneme awareness intervention, demonstrating improved performance on trained tasks compared with untrained control measures. Anna generalised phoneme segmentation skills to novel words. Both children, however, demonstrated little or no generalisation to different versions of the same tasks or to other phoneme awareness and literacy tasks. Further research is required to ascertain the extent of generalisation that is possible for children with CCN.     

Promoting Early Literacy Through Professional Development For Childcare Providers

This study investigated the potential benefits of offering childcare providers professional development to promote preliteracy skills in young children. It was hypothesized that direct instruction to providers, through rigorous training and mentorship, would increase children's opportunities for reading success and thus, enhance their preliteracy skills. The BUILDING BLOCKS for Literacy program followed recommendations made by the National Research Council, which included shared book reading, phonological awareness, and relationships between speech and print. Sixty-seven providers from 44 settings were trained and mentored over six months. Preliteracy skills of 88 children from those settings were assessed before and after the training. A control group of children was also assessed during the same time frame. Results demonstrated that target children showed significantly greater preliteracy gains than did controls. More importantly, a larger proportion of target children rose from below to above a level considered at risk for reading failure. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Promoting young children’s interpersonal safety knowledge,intentions, confidence,and protective behavior skills: Outcomes of a randomized controlled trial

Promoting young children’s interpersonal safety knowledge, intentions confidence and skills is the goal of many child maltreatment prevention programs; however, evaluation of their effectiveness has been limited. In this study, a randomized controlled trial was conducted examining the effectiveness of the Australian protective behaviors program, Learn to be safe with Emmy and friends™ compared to a waitlist condition. In total, 611 Australian children in Grade 1 (5–7 years; 50% male) participated, with assessments at Pre-intervention, Post-intervention and a 6-month follow-up. This study also included a novel assessment of interpersonal safety skills through the Observed Protective Behaviors Test (OPBT). Analyses showed participating in Learn to be safe with Emmy and friends™ was effective post-program in improving interpersonal safety knowledge (child and parent-rated) and parent-rated interpersonal safety skills. These benefits were retained at the 6-month follow-up, with participating children also reporting increased disclosure confidence. However, Learn to be safe with Emmy and friends™ participation did not significantly impact children’s disclosure intentions, safety identification skills, or interpersonal safety skills as measured by the OPBT. Future research may seek to evaluate the effect of further parent and teacher integration into training methods and increased use of behavioral rehearsal and modelling to more effectively target specific disclosure intentions and skills.     

The Challenge Kindergarten Model: Integrating Body-Movement and Scaffolding to Keep the Child in the Center and Make Systematic Progress in Learning

This article presents a “child-centered” model of the teaching–learning process—the challenge kindergarten model. The model is an attempt to deal with the limitations of the “child-centered” approach without giving up its benefits. In this model, the teachers enable the children to direct their activities and improve their independent learning thanks to careful planning and consistent implementation. The model focuses on two learning-related skills that are most likely to bring about independent learning and two teaching strategies designed to promote these skills. The learning-related skills are self-regulated learning and cooperative behaviors. The integrated strategies are allowing children to direct body-movement and using it as an opportunity for setting up personal and group scaffolding.     

Heroes of resiliency and reciprocity: teachers’ supporting role for reconceptualizing superhero play in early childhood settings

Superhero play is a specialised form of fantasy play with considerable appeal to young children. During superhero play, children have opportunities to pretend and often to play different types of roles within a safe and caring environment. When guided appropriately in an early childhood classroom, superhero play gives young children opportunities to gain a sense of mastery and empowerment as well as developmentally appropriate benefits by improving language skills, problem-solving and cooperation with peers. By recognising and modelling the characteristics of resiliency and promoting kindness with peers during superhero play, teachers can encourage children to be kind and resilient heroes to classroom friends. As today’s classrooms increasingly include diverse members, it is important for young children to understand and appreciate the peers they play and learn with at school. The result may be a richer learning experience and may break down barriers that can produce unfairness, bullying and aggressive behaviours. This article explores the essence of superhero fantasy play along with its benefits for young children. In addition, the article examines the challenge of superhero play in classrooms for early childhood educators by exploring teachers’ roles in play. A new pedagogy for supporting superhero play is introduced, addressing spiritual and educational concerns by suggesting ways in which teachers can increase resiliency, encourage new friendships and build classroom community among peers during play and classroom activities.     

Measuring children's retention of skills to resist stranger abduction: use of the simulation technique

This paper describes an evaluation which builds upon an earlier project to measure actual behavioral change in the form of reduction of vulnerability to abduction and abuse by strangers; change attributable to participation in a primary prevention program. Simulations, life-like scenarios previously described, were used to address three key questions: Did children who had demonstrated mastery of prevention skills acquired six months earlier retain those skills? Would reteaching the prevention program result in mastery for those children who failed to demonstrate required skills after the first presentation of the prevention program? Could the experimental group results of the first project be repeated with the previous control group? Several findings validated the earlier work and enhanced the understanding of what can be accomplished through prevention programing. Thirty of the original 44 children who participated six months earlier were again available to take part in the final simulation. Of those, all of the previous experimental group children who had performed successfully when participating in the simulation upon completion of the first project were again successful six months later in resisting the invitation of a stranger to leave their school. Each of the previous control group children were successful in the final simulation after participation in the program. But reteaching of the prevention program was successful for just two of the four children who had earlier failed following participation in the program. These findings document the immediate and continued benefits which may accrue from experientially based prevention programing and suggest an important research agenda to facilitate the further evolution of prevention programing and evaluation.     

Self-recording in kindergarten: A study in naturalistic evaluation

When kindergarten children began to self-record their own progress in skills targeted across the curriculum, there was a distinct increase in their rate of achieving these skills. It is argued that this has significant implications for a comprehensive, naturalistic evaluation in the classroom, with many benefits and few costs.     

Chinese Parents’ Expectations and Child Preacademic Skills: The Indirect Role of Parenting and Social Competence

Research Findings: This study examined how parenting styles and child social-emotional functioning may help explain the indirect relations between Chinese parents’ expectations for their preschool-age children’s social-emotional development and their children’s preacademic skills. A total of 154 parents with preschool-age children were recruited from 7 preschools located in northeastern China. The results showed that when parents expected their child to master social-emotional skills at a younger age or when they placed more value on social-emotional skills, they were more likely to adopt authoritative parenting, their children had better social competence, and finally their children showed better preacademic skills. The findings not only provided support for the interconnections between Chinese young children’s social-emotional functioning and preacademic skills but also revealed parenting styles and child social competence as potential pathways through which parents’ social-emotional expectations relate to children’s preacademic skills. Practice or Policy: The findings can be used to facilitate parent education efforts to help contemporary Chinese parents reflect on and even adjust their developmental expectations for young children. Parental expectations can also be an important element to consider in prevention and intervention programs that are designed to improve young children’s social-emotional and preacademic skills.     

Extracurricular Activities and Chinese Children’s School Readiness: Who Benefits More?

Organized extracurricular activities (EAs) are prevalent among Chinese preschoolers, yet their role in children’s development is poorly understood. This study investigated the relations between EA participation and Chinese preschoolers’ school readiness (N = 343; M_age = 55.14 months) among a predominantly middle-class sample. EA breadth had positive linear relations with children’s early math and social skills, while attendance intensity demonstrated nonlinear associations, partially supporting the overscheduling hypothesis. EA breadth had stronger associations with early reading and math skills among lower socioeconomic status children, as well as greater benefits for math skills in children with less exposure to home learning activities, indicating a compensatory role of EAs. The findings highlight the interplay between EA and family contexts in relation to child development.     

An exploration of the perceived health,life skill and academic benefits of dinghy sailing for 9–13-year-old school children

Research evidence suggests that outdoor education offers significant potential in priming healthy physical activity behaviors, developing life skills, enhancing self-esteem and promoting improved academic performance. The aim of the current study was to explore from a cross-sectional perspective the perceived benefits of a dinghy sailing program on 9–13-year-old school children. Participants (n = 38) were drawn from a diverse range of relevant participation and stakeholder groups, including school children, teachers and sailing instructors. Semi-structured interviews (adults) and focus groups (children) were used to collect data, with inductive data analysis methods applied. Six superordinate themes arose from the data highlighting physical and mental health benefits as well as the potential to development key life skills, self-esteem and the possible interaction with other aspects of the school curriculum to enhance student learning.     

Testing theoretical explanations for heterogeneity in associations between a state quality rating and improvement system and prekindergarten children’s academic performance

The present study tests two complementary developmental theories regarding the fit between children’s skills and their environments within the context of a state Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). Specifically, we examine whether high-quality prekindergarten disproportionately benefits children based on their entering ability levels. The sample includes 684 children (48% female; M _age = 57.56 months) residing in a midwestern state who were eligible to receive child care subsidies and participated in an evaluation of state-funded prekindergarten during the 2015-2016 school year (cohort 1), 2016-2017 school year (cohort 2), or 2018-2019 school year (cohort 3). We implemented multilevel regression models with children nested in their respective classrooms and schools to investigate whether children in higher-rated prekindergarten programs on the QRIS experienced greater growth in math, literacy, and vocabulary from fall to spring if they entered with stronger executive function skills (i.e., foundational skills hypothesis), or if they entered with weaker skills in the same respective domain as the outcome (i.e., compensatory skills hypothesis) relative to children who attended programs that were lower-rated or unrated on the QRIS. Contrary to both hypotheses, only one significant interaction emerged indicating that children who attended prekindergarten programs rated as low-quality on the QRIS were more likely to have higher spring literacy performance if they began the year with stronger executive function skills. Implications for research and policy are discussed.     

Why forest gardening for children? Swedish forest garden educators' ideas,purposes, and experiences

Utilizing forest gardens as urban settings for outdoor environmental education in Sweden is a new practice. These forest gardens combine qualities of a forest, e.g., multi-layered polyculture vegetation, with those of a school garden, such as accessibility and food production. The study explores both the perceived qualities of forest gardens in comparison to other outdoor settings and forest garden educators' ideas, purposes, and experiences of activities in a three-year forest gardening project with primary school children. The data were collected through interviews and observations and analyzed qualitatively. Four reported ideas were to give children opportunities to: feel a sense of belonging to a whole; experience self-regulation and systemic dependence; experience that they can co-create with non-human organisms; and imagine possible transformation of places. Four pedagogical forest garden features are discussed.     

高校课堂培养学生沟通能力探析

良好的沟通能力是大学生立足于社会的必备条件,直接影响其生活和工作态度,成为他们就业和职业发展的重要因素。沟通能力是可以通过后天环境因素改变和提升的。高校课堂独特的沟通形式、内容、规律和方法,有利于大学生沟通能力的培养,对于提高大学生的沟通能力具有其他平台不可替代的优势。将培养学生的沟通能力与课堂教学有机融合起来,在传授专业知识的同时,注重挖掘和发展学生的沟通潜能,全方位提高学生的综合素质,可以使学生在激烈的社会竞争中具备较强的生存能力,满足个人、国家和社会的共同需求。     

中小学生非认知技能的测量及实证表现:以中国六省市数据为基础

过去十多年,非认知技能研究迅速兴起,但测量方法的滞后性制约了实证研究的推进。本文建构了一个测量框架,包括成就目标、人际合作和情绪管理三个维度,每个维度包含若干项技能;并选取和修订了相应的量表用以测量,然后应用这个测量框架及工具对中国六省市72所小学、初中和高中的学生进行了测量。研究发现:第一,中小学生在成就和情绪管理方面的非认知表现(包括坚韧性、学校参与、自尊)随学段上升趋于下降,但合作水平随学段提高上升;第二,女生的非认知发展水平高于男生,但随学段上升,两者出现趋同;第三,“双留守儿童”的非认知发展处于困境;第四,不同家庭背景学生的非认知技能表现有显著差异,但学校之间的差异不明显。     

The impact of HeadsUp! Reading on early childhood educators’ literacy practices and preschool children's literacy skills

This study evaluated the effects of HeadsUp! Reading (HUR), a professional development literacy workshop series, with and without supplementary mentoring on early childhood educators’ (ECEs) practices and its subsequent effect on preschool children's literacy skills. ECEs who served children in high poverty communities participated in a 15-week satellite broadcast training series. Pre- and post-assessments were completed for both the control and intervention groups. Participants in HUR and HUR + mentoring significantly exceeded the control ECEs on the quality of their classroom environments. Children's literacy skills improved more in the HUR classrooms than in control classrooms. Mentoring did not enhance preschool children's literacy skills more than HUR alone. The treatment was equally effective for Spanish- and English-speaking children. Early childhood educator participation in HeadsUp! Reading can enhance the effectiveness of classroom literacy practices and has subsequent benefits on language and literacy skills of preschool children from poverty backgrounds. These findings further support the crucial role of high quality programs for the development of children's literacy skills.