Increasing numbers of young children are experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues that require support in addition to that typically provided by family members and teachers. The services of professional counselors can be particularly useful when children need help adjusting to and coping with various stressors and situations. Many school…

Amid COVID-19, children's interactions with pet animals in the household were at times strengthened, strained, or established anew. Extensive periods of confinement made the home environment not only the site for most family activities but also the hub for children's school and many adults' work. Research on the role of pets during the pandemic…

A facility dog in a school is a comparatively recent category of working dog. These dogs typically are trained at the assistance, or service dog, level and are thoroughly prepared for their role. The school facility dog accompanies an owner/handler, who is a professional employee of the school, to work on a regular basis. Research on human-canine…

The COVID-19 world health crisis has profound implications for the care and education of young children in homes and schools, the lives of preservice and inservice teachers, and the work of college/university faculty. This article begins by discussing the implications of a world health pandemic for education and the challenges of conducting a…

Understanding the process of attachment formation in young children has been a focal point in child development research for decades. However, young children's attachments are not only with human beings; they also form bonds with companion animals, particularly dogs ("Canis familiaris"). Given the number of dogs that are kept by families…

Expectations for academic writing and publication have intensified in Academia. Doctoral students in colleges of education are advised to publish even before they graduate and evidence of successful publication is influential in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. The purpose of this research was to study the process of writing for…

For many early childhood professionals, their initial foray into writing for publication consists of preparing a conference proposal for a workshop/training type of session and producing a manuscript suitable for publication as a practical article in a professional journal. The primary purpose of the article is to provide authors with templates,…

College and university faculty members specializing in early childhood education face some unique challenges in scholarly writing. The purpose of this research was to use open-ended interviews as a way to gather the collective wisdom of a group of key informants about academic writing and publishing in the field. Twenty-two editors and/or authors,…

Publishing outlets in the field of early childhood vary widely in terms of emphasis on theory, practice, and research as they relate to the care and education of the very young; these outlets also have different readerships (i.e., primarily for teachers, the teachers of their teachers, or the fellow scholars/researchers). Included in the mixture…

The complexity of words makes vocabulary development a multi-faceted process that presents challenges to early childhood educators, offers benefits to young learners, and must be supported through evidence-based strategies. All students, regardless of socio-economic status or background, need to make significant gains in receptive and expressive…

Although it is commonplace for early childhood educators to include a theme or unit on pets, opportunities to incorporate safety goals frequently are overlooked. Approximately 400,000 incidents of dog bites to children are documented in the United States annually and this estimate may be low, due to the fact that not all injuries are reported.…

Listening and reading comprehension can be assessed by analyzing children's visual, verbal, and written representations of their understandings. "Talking Drawings" (McConnell, S. (1993). Talking drawings: A strategy for assisting learners. "Journal of Reading", 36(4), 260-269 is one strategy that enables children to combine…

Discusses why early childhood educators should abandon their use of teacher-oriented decorative items: (1) such items evoke stereotypes with nostalgic appeal; (2) the decorations can undermine professional image; (3) the items communicate a message of subservience; (4) the items commercialize teaching rather than elevate the profession's status;…

Presents a bibliography of 34 teacher resources pertaining to children's literature with a multicultural theme. Resources include booklists and critical essays. (KB)

Argues against using cute ideas for busywork in early childhood classrooms. Asserts that cute activities insult children's intellects, mistake doing with learning, often miseducate, undermine professionalism, and frequently undermine educational equity. Posits that cute ideas interfere with communication between adults and children, between…