Examining the Relationship Between Neighborhood Environment and School Readiness for Kindergarten Children

In the current research project, the relationship between neighborhood environment and school readiness was investigated. To measure neighbourhood environment, data from the 2001 Canadian Census were used, while school readiness was measured using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). EDI data were collected for kindergarten children across British Columbia, Canada, in the school years 2000/2001 through 2004/2005 by the Human Early Learning Partnership. A hierarchical linear modeling approach to data analysis was taken given the complex structure of the data (children nested within neighborhoods). Results from this study suggest that neighborhood environment is related to children's school readiness outcomes as measured by the EDI. Specifically, all 5 EDI domains were significantly predicted by between 2 and 8 of 13 neighborhood variables that were conceptually grouped into 8 categories accounting for family structure, income, education, Aboriginal status, language, labor force occupations, employment rates, and domestic work. Overall, 3 themes emerged from this study that suggest neighborhood-level sources of social wealth: the importance of neighborhood culture, stability, and heterogeneity in promoting better school readiness outcomes for children. Formulations regarding areas for future research are presented.     

Early Learning in CRESPAR

The goal of the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR) Early Learning program is to ensure that young children reach the 1st grade with the necessary skills and competencies to be effective learners. This goal has been accomplished by 2 integrated areas of research. One area of research focuses on the development of effective practices that promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children. A 2nd area of research examines the systemic issues regarding school policies and teachers' beliefs and expectations that affect classroom practices. Over the past 5 years, the CRESPAR Early Learning Program has been conducting research in these areas, which has added to our understanding of how children learn and what teachers think that they can learn.     

An Early Education Pilot Program Using a Developmentally Appropriate Practice for Children With Language and Learning Problems: The Guidelines for the Early Learning (GEL) Program

The Easter Seal Society of Southwest Florida's GEL Program (Guidelines for Early Learning), based on the developmental theories of Piaget and Chomsky, is an early education program using a developmentally appropriate practice for children four to six years old who have demonstrated language, learning, and/or developmental problems. The program staff consists of a multidisciplinary team of early childhood specialists, early childhood educators, a pediatric neurologist, an occupational therapist, and a speech and language pathologist. The program is developmental in nature and was designed to guide and encourage language, cognitive, social, and motor development. This paper describes how this special program was planned and implemented in a nonprofit organization.     

An Early Education Pilot Program Using a Developmentally Appropriate Practice for Children With Language and Learning Problems: The Guidelines for the Early Learning (GEL) Program

The Easter Seal Society of Southwest Florida's GEL Program (Guidelines for Early Learning), based on the developmental theories of Piaget and Chomsky, is an early education program using a developmentally appropriate practice for children four to six years old who have demonstrated language, learning, and/or developmental problems. The program staff consists of a multidisciplinary team of early childhood specialists, early childhood educators, a pediatric neurologist, an occupational therapist, and a speech and language pathologist. The program is developmental in nature and was designed to guide and encourage language, cognitive, social, and motor development. This paper describes how this special program was planned and implemented in a nonprofit organization.     

Conceptual Foundations and Components of a Contextual Intervention to Promote Student Engagement During Early Adolescence: The Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success (SEALS) Model

Decades of research indicate that many early adolescents are at risk for developing significant school adjustment problems in the academic, behavioral, and social domains during the transition to middle school. The Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success (SEALS) model has been developed as a professional development and consultation program to train teachers in universal (Tier 1) instructional and classroom management strategies to address the correlated risks experienced by students during this time. This article reviews the conceptual foundations of the SEALS model, provides an overview of SEALS intervention components, describes the SEALS professional development training and consultation framework, reviews preliminary findings of the impact of SEALS in rural school settings in the United States, and discusses research needs and future directions regarding the use of the SEALS model.     

What We Know about Integrating Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs: A Review,a Reminder and a Request

In the last two decades, a myriad of political and social factors have converged and had a dramatic impact on Early Childhood Education (EC) and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE). There have been sweeping changes in policy and shifts in society that have resulted in greater numbers of programs serving young children of all abilities and their families. Great strides in research related to early childhood development and early intervention have provided a growing knowledge of how children learn. The combination of these factors has created a call for increasingly higher quality services for young children. Professionals in both EC and ECSE have been responding to the demands and taken steps to prepare more and better-qualified teachers for children enrolled in early childhood programs. The most immediate avenue for effecting change in the profession is through the programs that prepare our teachers for the classrooms and the child care centers. This article reviews the research and the rationale regarding the implementation of integrated EC/ECSE programs.     

Neighborhood Characteristics,and Child Care Type and Quality

Research Findings: Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this article relates neighborhood characteristics to the type of child care used in families with toddlers and preschoolers (N = 1,121; representative of children in Chicago in 1996–1998). Neighborhood structural disadvantage was assessed via U.S. Census data, and neighborhood processes (i.e., density of social networks, collective efficacy, and level of participation in neighborhood organizations) were accessed with a community survey. Child care decisions (i.e., whether they chose care in centers; child care homes by non-relative, by relatives, and exclusively by parents) and the quality of center child care (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised) were assessed in a longitudinal sample. After controlling for family characteristics, various neighborhood characteristics were related to child care characteristics. In communities with denser social networks, children were less likely to experience care in child care homes by unrelated adults. Children were more likely to be in child care homes and less likely to cared for by parents exclusively or by relatives when collective efficacy was higher. Center care quality was lower in disadvantaged neighborhoods and higher for publicly funded programs. Further, neighborhood structural disadvantage was more negatively related to quality when mothers had less education. Practice or Policy: These findings provide further evidence that public programs such as Head Start and public pre-kindergarten programs may be especially important to ensure that children living in poverty in disadvantaged neighborhoods have access to the types of child care that promote school readiness.     

Economic Hardship and the Development of Five- and Six-Year-Olds: Neighborhood and Regional Perspectives

The present study examines the association between neighborhood characteristics and the development of 5- and 6-year-olds. We also explore how region might moderate the effects of neighborhoods on children, thus considering both larger (regional) and smaller (community) contexts of families. We find that structural aspects of the neighborhood at the census tract level are associated with child development in the early school-age period. For the sample as a whole, neighborhood factors play a role in both cognitive and socioemotional outcomes, even when family factors are controlled. Yet only modest support for neighborhood influences on child development is evident in our main effects models. It appears that neighborhood influences on child development are underestimated or masked unless the associations are examined separately by two areas of the United States: the Midwest and Northeast versus the South and West. Significant associations between neighborhood variables and children's development are seen in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions, but less so in the Southern and Western regions of the United States. Greater economic and social resources as measured by average neighborhood SES (income, education, occupation) and greater ethnic congruity as measured by more neighbors of the same racial heritage as the child are related to higher cognitive functioning, but only in the Northeast and Midwest. Furthermore, children in these regions show more competent behavioral functioning when the relative presence of adults to children in the neighborhood is higher. In these regions, African-American but not white children show higher levels of behavior problems when community male joblessness rates are higher. We speculate about processes that might underlie these neighborhood and regional effects and point to directions for further research.     

Information and communication technologies: transforming views of literacies in early childhood settings

This paper reports on an early childhood technology project that has been conducted in Australia since 2000. The background to the project is that IBM extended their international KidSmart Early Learning program to the Asia‐Pacific region. A partnership with the Australian National Schools Network was formed to implement the program in Australia. This organisation took responsibility for identification of early childhood centres (preschool and day care) serving low socio‐economic status communities across Australia (approximately 100 centres per year), the design and facilitation of professional development for teachers and research and evaluation in conjunction with the program. Whilst this was a national project, this paper deals only with the research conducted in Western Australia with the first round of centres involved in the project. The paper highlights themes emerging from teacher action research based in early childhood centres. The pedagogical considerations, challenges and dilemmas emerging from teachers' use of ICT in early childhood settings are also discussed.     

Toward a Model for Early Childhood Environmental Education: Foregrounding,Developing, and Connecting Knowledge Through Play-Based Learning

Environmental education represents a growing area of interest in early childhood education, especially since the inclusion of environmental principles and practices in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework. Traditionally, these two fields of education have been characterized by diverse pedagogical emphases. This article considers how teachers in particular see different types of pedagogical play, such as open-ended play, modeled play, and purposefully framed play as providing opportunities for young children and teachers to develop knowledge through experiences about environmental education in early childhood settings. As a result of findings based on our qualitative research study involving early childhood teachers and children, an emerging model for thinking about environmental education in early childhood is proposed as a way of integrating these pedagogical emphases traditionally associated with environmental and early childhood education. Avenues for future research associated with this model are also identified.     

Learning in Early Childhood: experiences,relationships and ‘Learning to Be’

Learning in the earliest stage of life — the infancy, toddlerhood and preschool period — is relational and rapid. Child-initiated and adult-mediated conversations, playful interactions and learning through active involvement are integral to young children making sense of their environments and to their development over time. The child's experience in this early phase of life is at the heart of ‘Learning to Be’ in any society. This article reviews early learning studies aimed at understanding children's personal, intellectual and social development, and promoting that development. Particular reference is made to attachment and attention, the process of self-regulation, and the adult-child engagement strategies that advance the child's receptive and expressive language: these all exercise substantial influence on early childhood learning and child development outcomes over time. The selected research studies variously highlight the development of infants, toddlers, and young children in kindergarten and the early years of school, and how children make sense of their environments as social, learning and unique human beings. Both the home learning environment and early childhood education programmes are important in children's development. This article argues for high-quality early childhood experience and giving attention to the engagement role of adults in advancing young children's development, minimising the risk of poor development and supporting positive long-lasting personal, academic and social benefits. In this early phase of life, in the words of Jacques Delors: ‘… none of the talents which are hidden like buried treasure in every person must be left untapped’. (Delors et al. 1996, p. 23).     

Rural Neighborhood Context,Child Care Quality,and Relationship to Early Language Development

Research Findings: Prior research with older urban children indicates that a disadvantaged neighborhood context is associated with poorer early development, including poorer verbal ability, reading recognition, and achievement scores among children. Neighborhood disadvantage in rural communities and at younger age levels may also be related to development; however, this relationship has received little examination. In this study we utilized data from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of babies born to mothers in poor rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, to address questions related to the relationship between neighborhood context (disadvantage and safety) and children's early language development. We examined the mediation of this relationship by child care quality. We also examined geographic isolation and collective socialization as moderators of the relationship between neighborhood context and child care quality. Results indicated that although neighborhood disadvantage did not predict children's development or child care quality, neighborhood safety predicted children's receptive language, with child care quality a partial mediator of this relationship. Collective socialization but not geographic isolation moderated the relationship between neighborhood safety and child care quality. Practice or Policy: Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed, including improving community safety through community policing, neighborhood watch, and social networks and increasing access to quality child care.     

Improving numeracy outcomes for children through community action research

Virtue, according to Aristotle, is doing the right things at the right time with the right people for the right end and in the right way. This concept is central to the work of the Early Learning Initiative, an Irish community-based educational initiative. This paper describes how a community of parents, early childhood care and education practitioners and a third-level institution used action research to develop a three-year numeracy programme for children aged zero to six years. The Early Numeracy Project was one of 11 national projects that aimed to influence early years practice, provision and policy in Ireland. Remaining true to our local values and virtuous practice while implementing a national project was challenging, particularly when robust evidence of the impact of the programme on the children and parents in our community was required at national level. Approximately 860 children (zero to six years old) and their families took part in the Early Numeracy Programme each year, with national and local evaluations indicating that the outcomes for children in the programme had improved. The programme is an example of how a local community can use action research and virtuous practices to implement a national programme and improve outcomes for children.     

The impact of a Caribbean home-visiting child development program on cognitive skills

This paper provides a short-term impact evaluation of a home-visiting Early Child Development (ECD) program in the Caribbean aimed at vulnerable children from birth to three years. The analysis is based on a quasi-experimental research design including approximately four hundred children in treatment and comparable control communities. The differences-in-differences methodology estimates intention-to-treat effects. One year after implementation, we find no significant effects on the cognitive development of the average child, but pronounced differences by birth cohort. The program has significantly improved Fine Motor Skills and Visual Reception scores, related to early reading and writing abilities, of the youngest children aged below 18 months at program start. There is no program impact on the older cohort, whose cognitive development appears to be more strongly correlated with center-based ECD services. Language development has not improved for either cohort. The findings suggest that an early window of opportunities may exist for home-based programs.     

美国“父母即教师”项目(PAT)的发展及效果评估

20世纪以来,美国社会的急剧变化使家庭系统面临巨大的压力并引发一系列社会问题,致使美国开始开展增加家庭教育的知识与技能、预防和减少家庭危机的系列研究与实践。以美国密苏里州为代表的"父母即教师"项目(ParentsAsTeachersProgram,PAT),关注孩子在校园的表现与家长参与的互动关系,通过丰富的项目研究实践来提高家长的教育水平,有力地促进了家长有效参与到孩子的发展中去。美国各州普遍实践的"父母即教师"项目的评估表明,参加该项目的父母在育儿技巧、参与的程度与质量方面有显著提升;孩子在认知与入学适应能力等方面也有明显提高。该项目尤其是对贫穷家庭的孩子和非白人家庭的孩子影响更大。     

Children's cognition of stressful events

Current research on children and stress supports the belief that children today experience stressful events in a complex developmental-ecological context. Many interdependent elements, including child variables (sex, age, temperament, and developmental stage), family variables (marital status, interactions, child-rearing practices, and socioeconomic status), and variables related to the child's extended social and physical environments (neighborhood, child care, and peers), affect the ways in which children perceive, respond, and cope with stressors (Benswanger, 1982; Honig, 1986). The accuracy of children's perceptions and the development of coping skills, however, vary according to children's cognitive abilities and limitations.Jan Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Human Ecology, at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The author is appreciative of helpful comments about this article from Dr. Deborah W. Tegano and Becki A. Bowditch.     

A tool to record and support the early development of children including those with special educational needs or disabilities

Early intervention is key for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), and therefore early assessment is crucial. Information from parents about children's current ability and their developmental history can make valid and useful contributions to developmental assessments. Parental input is also important in early education for children with and without SEND. In England, recent changes to statutory guidance for early education highlight partnership working with parents, progress checks and continuous observation. The Early Years Developmental Journal (EYDJ), an Early Support tool primarily aimed at families, aims to support early identification and assessment for children with SEND and early education for all children. The article describes Early Support to provide a backdrop and then outlines the purpose, structure and rigorous development process of the EYDJ. Use of the EYDJ to support parents, early years education practitioners, health visitors, developmental assessments and the forthcoming English special educational needs (SEN) reforms is also described.     

A Pilot Study of a Self-Administered Parent Training Intervention for Building Preschoolers’ Social–Emotional Competence

Social–emotional skills are equally as crucial for school success as cognitive and academic skills (Webster-Stratton and Reid in Infants Young Child 17:96–113, 2004), yet many young children lack these skills (Lavigne et al. in J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:204–214, 1996). Therefore, it is essential to invest in the development of social–emotional competence at an early age—a task that necessitates active parent involvement (Webster-Stratton and Reid 2004). This pilot study explored the effectiveness, integrity, and acceptability of a self-administered parent training intervention [Devereux Early Childhood Assessment—Second Edition (DECA-P2) family guide (Mackrain and Cairone in Promoting resilience for now and forever: a family guide for supporting the social and emotional development of preschool children, 2nd edn. Kaplan Early Learning Company, Lewisville, 2013)] targeting the promotion of social–emotional competence in young children (N = 12). Pre- and post-test parent reports revealed that children’s social–emotional competence increased and behavior problems decreased following program completion. Parent ratings indicated the intervention was carried out as intended (i.e., integrity) and that it was helpful (i.e., acceptability). These exploratory findings suggest that this self-administered parent intervention shows promise as an alternative to face-to-face early childhood prevention services.     

The Better Beginnings, Better Futures project: findings from grade 3 to grade 9

Although comprehensive and ecological approaches to early childhood prevention are commonly advocated, there are few examples of long-term follow-up of such programs. In this monograph, we investigate the medium- and long-term effects of an ecological, community-based prevention project for primary school children and families living in three economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ontario, Canada. The Better Beginnings, Better Futures (BBBF) project is one of the most ambitious Canadian research projects on the long-term impacts of early childhood prevention programming to date. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development informed program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Using a quasi-experimental design, the BBBF longitudinal research study involved 601 children and their families who participated in BBBF programs when children were between 4 and 8 years old and 358 children and their families from sociodemographically matched comparison communities. We collected extensive child, parent, family, and community outcome data when children were in Grade 3 (age 8–9), Grade 6 (age 11–12), and Grade 9 (age 14–15). The BBBF mandate was to develop programs that would positively impact all areas of child's development; our findings reflect this ecological approach. We found marked positive effects in social and school functioning domains in Grades 6 and 9 and evidence of fewer emotional and behavioral problems in school across the three grades. Parents from BBBF sites reported greater feelings of social support and more positive ratings of marital satisfaction and general family functioning, especially at the Grade 9 follow-up. Positive neighborhood-level effects were also evident. Economic analyses at Grade 9 showed BBBF participation was associated with government savings of $912 per child. These findings provide evidence that an affordable, ecological, community-based prevention program can promote long-term development of children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods and produce monetary benefits to government as soon as 7 years after program completion.     

A Preliminary Evaluation of REACH: Training Early Childhood Teachers to Support Children’s Social and Emotional Development

This paper describes the development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of the Reaching Educators and Children (REACH) program, a training and coaching intervention designed to increase the capacity of early childhood teachers to support children’s social and emotional development. We evaluated REACH with 139 teachers of toddler and preschool classrooms. Teacher attendance and survey results suggest that teachers were highly satisfied with the training and materials. Data from classroom observation scales conducted pre- and post-REACH implementation suggest significant improvements in the sensitivity of teachers’ interactions with children in the classroom, and increased teacher use of targeted social and emotional supports (such as teaching children to resolve conflicts). Further, data from observations of children’s classroom behavior suggest increases in children’s prosocial behaviors and small but significant decreases in verbal aggression. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the REACH program may be effective in building teachers’ capacity to support social–emotional development of young children, and point to the need for additional research.