It has been acknowledged that children from poverty begin school missing many of the prerequisites for school success. The 1963 US initiative, Head Start, is the major federal program aimed at providing children in poverty the experiences necessary to start school on an equal footing with their same-age peers. This article uses data from the Early…

The purpose of the study discussed in this article was: to record the types of literacy activities in whole-day and half-day kindergarten classrooms, initiated either by teachers during the instructional time or by children during the free-choice center time; to examine the amount of time spent on teacher-initiated literacy activities; and to…

Previous research on early intensive intervention in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) has largely focused on outcomes of treatment for children. Although some account has been taken of parental viewpoints, the potential impact of intervention on families has not achieved the same kind of research prominence. This contrasts with the considerable…

Does an early childhood program have an influence on its participants that is detectable 10 years later? The answer is "yes". This research managed to detect differences between children of Ethiopian origin who had immigrated to Israel. It also managed to generalize and conceptualize these differences and provide an explanation of them: The…

This article first offers an overview of policy contexts in the four countries of the UK. Second, it reviews recent research into perspectives on special educational needs and inclusion in the preschool years. Third, the rationale and research design of a study to investigate preschool educators' perspectives on these issues are outlined. Five key…

Starting school is an important time for young children, their families and educators. Data gathered from interviews and questionnaire responses from approximately 300 parents, 300 educators and 300 children have been used to describe the most important issues for children, parents and educators as children start school in New South Wales,…

This article examines how an American preschool teacher's practice and her views of her practice for children considered at-risk for later academic failure are constrained by her cultural contexts. The research is framed by a cultural psychology and draws on an 18-month ethnographic and interpretive biographic study of Anita, an experienced…

In many analyses of children's "emergent literacy" (Clay, 1966) practices, there is little acknowledgement of children's engagement in techno-literacy practices. This article discusses findings from a survey undertaken in a working-class community in the north of England which aimed to identify the "emergent techno-literacy" practices of a group…

In this article theories of the gendered nature of new managerialism are drawn upon to examine the economic rationale behind educational reform (Trow, 1994) and the marketization and economization (Ozga, 2000) of early years education and childcare services. The author concentrates on the policy attention that the early years and childcare sector…

In this qualitative study, multidimensional characteristics of the emerging leadership behavior of six young children were examined within their early childhood classrooms (infant, toddler, and preschool). Grounded in a constructivist framework, the data were gathered through teacher interviews and classroom observations in a University-affiliated…

This study investigates prospective relationships between phonemic awareness and reading performance during the first year of Finnish primary school. Pedagogical interest lay in finding out whether systematic use of phonics in reading instruction supported children's reading performance even if children can already decode. A total of 85 children…

Less than 1 percent of children in sub-Sahara Africa currently attend formal care and education programmes, but the number is expected to increase substantially following large investments in the sector. To date, however, little attention has been given to the contents of these programmes. This article seeks to begin addressing this lacuna,…

The perceptions and experiences of hard-to-manage behaviours were explored among 32 staff working in a variety of local authority and private nurseries and playgroups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to ascertain what behaviours in children staff find most challenging, how they were managed and concerns communicated to parents. Results…

This article reports on the performance of reception-aged, home-educated children. Media reports tend to focus on older home-educated children withdrawing from school but very little is known about younger children many of whom have never been to school. This research sought insight into the learning experience of these young children. The study…

This article presents the findings from a review of literature on leadership in early childhood (EC). It identifies a paucity of research, despite a high potential for leadership activity in the early childhood field. It concludes that there is a clear need to identify what effective leadership practice is in terms of processes and outcomes within…