Understanding how Young Children Learn


Book Description

Ostroff highlights processes that propel learning (including play and collaboration), distilling the research into the most important ideas teachers need to design pedagogy and curriculum.




Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play


Book Description

This timely and accessible text introduces, theorises and practically applies two important concepts which now underpin early years practice: those of ‘playful learning' and 'playful pedagogies'. Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt draw upon filmed material, conversations with children, reflection, observation, and parental and staff interviews, in their longitudinal study of outdoor and indoor play environments in an early years unit. This research-based text offers extensive insights into related theories, as well drawing on the authors’ skills and knowledge as researcher and as class teacher in order to provide opportunities for personal reflection and possibilities for practical application in early years classes and settings. Discussing both indoor and outdoor environments, the text explores ideas surrounding ‘open-ended play’, and ‘the whatever you want it to be place’. It illustrates how the themes of children’s play reflect their interests, experiences, knowledge gained at home and in school, and their cultural heritages. By showing how children become familiar and skilful within open-ended play environments, the authors illustrate how the children’s co-operative skills develop over time as they become connected in communities of learners. Alongside the examples of children’s playful learning, the book also considers the implications for resourcing and organising playful settings through playful pedagogies that connect with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (DfES 2007) and with the Tickell Review, ongoing as the book went to press. Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play uses children’s perspectives on their play to illustrate how rich their personal understandings are. It also includes parental reflections on what may initially appear a risky and unusual outdoor environment, and it draws attention to the importance of conflict resolution in play in order to extend children’s resilience and assertiveness. This insightful text will be of interest to students of early years education, early years practitioners, academics and researchers.




Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8


Book Description

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.




The Developmental Science of Early Childhood: Clinical Applications of Infant Mental Health Concepts From Infancy Through Adolescence


Book Description

A practical distillation of cutting-edge developmental research for mental health professionals. The field commonly known as "infant mental health" integrates current research from developmental psychology, genetics, and neuroscience to form a model of prevention, intervention, and treatment well beyond infancy. This book presents the core concepts of this vibrant field and applies them to common childhood problems, from attention deficits to anxiety and sleep disorders. Readers will find a friendly guide that distills this developmental science into key ideas and clinical scenarios that practitioners can make sense of and use in their day-to-day work. Part I offers an overview of the major areas of research and theory, providing a pragmatic knowledge base to comfortably integrate the principles of this expansive field in clinical practice. It reviews the newest science, exploring the way relationships change the brain, breakthrough attachment theory, epigenetics, the polyvagal theory of emotional development, the role of stress response systems, and many other illuminating concepts. Part II then guides the reader through the remarkable applications of these concepts in clinical work. Chapters address how to take a textured early developmental history, navigate the complexity of postpartum depression, address the impact of trauma and loss on children's emotional and behavioral problems, treat sleep problems through an infant mental health lens, and synthesize tools from the science of the developing mind in the treatment of specific problems of regulation of emotion, behavior, and attention. Fundamental knowledge of the science of early brain development is deeply relevant to mental health care throughout a client's lifespan. In an era when new research is illuminating so much, mental health practitioners have much to gain by learning this leading-edge discipline's essential applications. This book makes those applications, and their robust benefits in work with clients, readily available to any professional.




Perception and Understanding in Young Children


Book Description

Originally published in 1974: ‘This book sets forth a theory of cognitive development based on simple but powerful processes of inference. The theory is applied with great ingenuity and freshness to complex phenomena found during intellectual development. Dr Bryant has written an important and original book.’ (J.S. Bruner) ‘In this elegant, timely and brief volume, Dr Bryant produces strong experimental evidence which not only challenges Piaget’s ideas, but even more importantly synthesizes the old and new findings into a newer theory of perceptual development. The importance of this book lies both in its demonstration of elegant experimental techniques in working with young children, and in the optimism it will eventually bring to all concerned with their education. Realizing that children can make deductive inferences at an early age, educators will have to rethink some of their approaches to the teaching of young children. The studies related to the understanding of number have crucial implications for the future teaching of mathematics. This book will cause many people to take fresh thoughts on the subjects here dealt with, and so it can be strongly recommended for all students of child development.’ (William Yule, British Journal of Psychiatry)




Understanding Schemas and Young Children


Book Description

Shortlisted for the 2013 Nursery World Awards! ′This exciting book will greatly enhance understanding of learning throughout the early years, and reinforces the importance of responsive professionals who understand children′s schemas. Atherton and Nutbrown have brought together socio-cultural and cognitive learning theories with ease, and their metaphors are brilliantly evocative′ -Dr Anne Meade, Consultant ′This book is drawn from a study carried out with rigour and contains several gems, such as the ′bike and slide exploration′; the idea of adults engaging in ′a dialogue of conceptual correspondence′ with children; and tables outlining ′what the children might have been thinking′. A great read!′ -Dr Cath Arnold, Pen Green Early Years Centre ′This is an exciting and illuminating account of babies and toddlers, following their schema fascinations with determination and competence, as they continually explore and experiment and come to know their world. This book captivated me. It should be in every early childhood education setting′ -Pam Cubey This is the first book to focus specifically on Schemas and children under three. The authors trace the development of schemas from motor level through to symbolic representation, and show how to use schema theory to understand young children′s learning and behaviour. This accessible and student-friendly book includes: -activities and discussion points -links to policy and practice -descriptive observational material -a look at the ethics of this kind of research -numerous photographs and illustrations -suggestions for follow-up reading The book is aimed at early childhood professionals and practitioners in ECEC settings, as well as those on initial training courses, teacher education, Early Years courses, and higher degrees.




Parenting Matters


Book Description

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.




An Open Book: What and How Young Children Learn From Picture and Story Books


Book Description

Looking at and listening to picture and story books is a ubiquitous activity, frequently enjoyed by many young children and their parents. Well before children can read for themselves they are able to learn from books. Looking at and listening to books increases children’s general knowledge, understanding about the world and promotes language acquisition. This collection of papers demonstrates the breadth of information pre-reading children learn from books and increases our understanding of the social and cognitive mechanisms that support this learning. Our hope is that this Research Topic/eBook will be useful for researchers as well as educational practitioners and parents who are interested in optimizing children’s learning.




Understanding Digital Technologies and Young Children


Book Description

Understanding Digital Technologies and Young Children explores the possibilities digital technology brings to enhance the learning and developmental needs of young children. Globally, the role of technology is an increasingly important part of everyday life. In many early childhood education frameworks and curricula around the world, there is an expectation that children are developing skills to become effective communicators and are using digital technology to investigate their ideas and represent their thinking. This means that educators throughout the world are expected to actively enhance children’s learning in ways that provide learning experiences with technology that are balanced and purposeful to allow the transformation of traditional authentic learning experiences. Digital technologies can be used to explore, manipulate, discover, play and interact with real and imaginative worlds to allow active meaning making. With a wide range of expert contributors, this book provides a comprehensive examination of the current research on technology and young children and the importance of engagement for learning. This approach encourages the reader to rethink the possibilities and potential of digital technologies for learning in the early years, especially in the years before formal schooling when children might be attending early childhood settings. This will be a valuable reference for anyone looking for an international perspective on digital technology and young children, and is particularly aimed at current and future teachers.




Your Child Your Way


Book Description

As an often insecure mum of two children herself and a clinical psychologist, Dr Tanya Byron knows about parenting from both a professional and personal perspective. Rather than separate the two, Tanya infuses her professional knowledge with personal insight and the result is advice that really does work. She offers the practical tools to deal with any situation or behaviour, and also helps parents to understand the whys and have the confidence to handle anything life as a parent throws their way. This is the ultimate guide to positive parenting. Tanya's hope is that once a parent has read her book, they won't need her or anyone else's advice again - because they will trust and believe in their own instincts, and follow the signs their child gives them.