ABSTRACT: This text aims to analyze the process of professional constitution of the pedagogical coordinators of daycare centers and preschools, based on the social experiences they have lived in Early Childhood Education. The article is conceptually based on the Pedagogies of Childhood and Early Childhood Education (FERNANDES; CAMPOS, 2015; ROCHA, 2001; SILVA, 2008; among others), articulated with the sociology of experience, formulated by François Dubet (1996). From the methodological point of view, the empirical material was produced through document analysis and interviews with six pedagogical coordinators from Turmalina, a city situated in the northern of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and, consecutively, was submitted to content analysis (BARDIN, 1977). The analyzes of this material allowed to verify that they act from different logic of action to become professionals, which affects the construction process of their professionalities. The study highlights the emergence of an epistemological statute that defines the roles due to the pedagogical coordination of daycare centers and preschools, considering the sociopolitical and pedagogical specificities of Early Childhood Education.
Sandro Vinícius Sales dos Santos, Fabiana Pinheiro Barroso
This study aimed to identify the biocultural geometric space in children from two rural schools in the commune of San Felipe, Chile, through a pedagogical approach based on the visualization level of Van Hiele’s theory. The methodology followed a Design-Based Research framework, implementing learning experiences contextualized within the local biocultural heritage. The sample was homogeneous and consisted of 25 preschool children, with participant observation and semi-structured interviews as instruments. The analysis revealed that the children developed skills in spatial orientation and organization and were able to identify 2D and 3D shapes in their surroundings. An initial understanding of attributes such as faces, vertices, and edges was observed. The results confirm that interaction with environmental elements and teacher mediation encourage geometric thinking. It is concluded that biocultural heritage is a powerful educational resource for re-signifying the learning of geometry in early childhood education.
INTRODUCTION: The opioid crisis has brought an increasing focus on the long-term outcomes of children following prenatal opioid exposure. Evidence to date has been conflicting, which has caused confusion and concern amongst parents, caregivers, social service providers, medical providers and policy makers. METHODS: This review systematically evaluated the highest quality studies relating prenatal exposure to opioids with early childhood developmental outcomes. It focused on developmental outcomes as measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, encompassing cognitive, motor, and psychosocial domains of child development. RESULTS: Although several articles reported correlations between prenatal opioid exposure and poor early childhood developmental outcomes, these relationships were no longer statistically significant after adjusting for socio-environmental factors. CONCLUSION: Additional research is needed to determine the extent of any relationship of socio-environmental factors with early childhood development in children prenatally exposed to opioids. This review suggests that socio-environmental factors may be significantly related to poor early childhood outcomes in the presence of prenatal opioid exposure.
Ginny Carter, Sarah McGlothlin, Skyler McLaurin‐Jiang et al.
It can be difficult for families with young children to navigate early childhood development supports. In particular, newcomer families often encounter additional barriers and require resources, programs, and services that are tailored to their unique assets, experiences, and needs. We conducted a scoping review of the literature published between 2000 and 2019 to explore what is known about newcomer families’ experiences with programs and services to support early childhood development in Canada. We searched 12 databases, screened 2390 articles, and included 34 articles for synthesis and analysis. Three common and connected themes were identified: 1) effective intercultural understanding, responsiveness, and communication are critical to ensuring full access to meaningful programs and services; 2) some newcomer families face systemic barriers exacerbated by their immigration status, and; 3) feelings and perceptions of families and service providers, as well as social supports, networks, and relationships influence how programs and services are accessed and experienced. Our review identifies the requirement for additional, participatory research that centres the voices and perspectives of newcomer children and their families and the need to expand that research to less populated and rural areas of the country to inform meaningful and culturally relevant policies, programs, and services for newcomer families to support their children’s well-being.
Alison Leigh Brown, Jessie‐Lee D. McIsaac, Sarah Reddington et al.
Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental chemicals widely detected in humans. Prenatal PFAS exposure has been linked to adverse fetal and early childhood growth outcomes, raising significant public health concerns. This study investigates the influence of PFAS exposure on fetal and early childhood development. Methods: A systematic review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and 2026 was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar. Studies assessing maternal PFAS exposure during pregnancy and outcomes such as birth weight, gestational age, fetal growth trajectories, and early childhood anthropometry were included. Results: Higher prenatal exposure to PFAS was associated with lower birth weight, smaller head circumference, and altered fetal growth trajectories. Sex-specific effects were observed, and maternal metabolic risk factors amplified susceptibility. Associations with early childhood growth, including catch-up growth, altered weight-for-length, and increased risk of adiposity and cardiometabolic alterations were identified. Mixture effects and paternal exposures were also reported to influence outcomes. Conclusion: Prenatal PFAS exposure poses measurable risks to fetal and early childhood development. These findings highlight the need for targeted public health interventions, exposure mitigation strategies, and regulatory policies to reduce environmental PFAS exposure and protect vulnerable populations. Keywords: PFAS, prenatal exposure, fetal growth, early childhood development, birth outcomes, public health
Benson Varghese, Chelsea Mazonde, Fadzai Nyarugwe et al.
The United States is entering a pivotal period in history, led by extraordinary shifts in the demographic makeup of children who are in need of medical, educational, and developmental services. For the first time in this country's history, the majority of children are being born to non-white populations. Simultaneously, racism (personal, institutional, and systemic) is now being recognized as a powerful social determinant of children's mental and physical health by the time they enter kindergarten. It is crucial to evaluate how early childhood development (ECD) settings are prepared to authentically engage racially diverse children. In this paper, we critically analyze the narratives of the architect of Head Start, Dr. Edward Zigler, and investigate his evolving contributions to early childhood programming. We propose that Zigler's conceptualization of culture and its impact on children's development, although advanced for his time, had historical limitations that have perpetuated the personal, institutional, and systemic racism that children of color experience in early childhood settings. This paper concludes with suggestions to include topics covering implicit bias, white privilege, and the impact of slavery, colonization, and oppression as core principles in professional training. Only then will we be able to eliminate racism across early childhood settings in the United States.
BACKGROUND: In March 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), generating stark economic and social repercussions that directly or indirectly affected families' wellbeing and health status. AIMS: This review aims at mapping the existing evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal mental health, early childhood development, and parental practices, worldwide, to identify evidence gaps and better inform future delivery of care and health policy measures. METHODS: Following the protocol defined by PRISMA-ScR, this scoping review has searched for relevant studies published between January 2020 and June 2021, selecting evidence sources based on pre-established criteria. From a total of 2,308 articles, data were extracted from 537 publications from 35 countries on all three health domains. RESULTS: The combined stressors brought forth by the pandemic have exerted a heavy burden on the mental health of mothers and the development of young children, partly mediated by its impact on parental practices. CONCLUSIONS: Despite remaining gaps, we have identified sufficient evidence pointing to an urgent need for more concerted global research efforts and rapid policy responses to timely address severe and pervasive negative impacts to the mental health of mothers and children at a key developmental stage.
Ana Luiza Penna, Camila Machado de Aquino, Maria Suelly Nogueira Pinheiro et al.
Although socioeconomic disparities in cognitive ability emerge early in the life course, most research on the consequences of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has focused on school-age children or adolescents. In this study, we outline and test a theoretical model of neighborhood effects on cognitive development during early childhood that highlights the mediating role of exposure to neurotoxic lead. To evaluate this model, we follow 1,266 children in Chicago from birth through school entry and track both their areal risk of lead exposure and their neighborhoods' socioeconomic composition over time. With these data, we estimate the joint effects of neighborhood poverty and environmental lead contamination on receptive vocabulary ability. We find that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods reduces vocabulary skills during early childhood and that this effect operates through a causal mechanism involving lead contamination.
Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Sagi Ramaj, Jared N. Schachner
For 250 million children under the age of five in low- and middle-income countries, extreme poverty and stunting undermines their developmental potential. This puts children at risk of a lifetime of hardship, and remaining trapped in poverty. Provision of economic support to families, in particular to mothers as the main carers for children, through comprehensive social protection programmes such as ‘graduation programmes’ may offer a ‘double boon’: it can improve early childhood development (ECD) in the short term and reduce poverty in the long run. Evidence from in-depth research in Haiti shows that supporting women to have sustainable livelihoods such as livestock rearing or market trading needs to go hand in hand with promoting a nurturing environment for their children to achieve positive impacts all round.
BACKGROUND: Outdoor play is important for children's health and development. Research indicates that neighborhood characteristics influence children's engagement in outdoor play, but no studies have examined associations between neighborhood playability and childhood development. METHODS: Using a population-based child cohort (n = 30,126) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, we studied the association between early-life neighborhood playability and early childhood development. Neighborhood playability, the suitability of an area for young children to engage in outdoor free play, and its five domains (traffic environment, spaces for play, social environment, natural environment, child-relevant destinations) was quantified with a novel geospatial metric. Early childhood development was assessed via teacher-ratings on the Early Development Instrument that measures children's development in physical, social, emotional, and cognitive domains (mean age = 5.6 years). Multilevel models were used to analyze the association between neighborhood playability, as measured by a composite score and individual domain scores, and early childhood development. RESULTS: Following adjustment for demographic and socio-economic variables, the highest quartile of composite neighborhood playability was associated with higher child development scores (b: 0.30, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.54) and lower odds of developmental vulnerability (OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.82, 0.98). Associations varied across playability domain scores, with the strongest positive association observed for the natural environment domain, followed by the social and traffic environment domains. Negative associations were observed for the child-relevant destinations domain score. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that increased neighborhood playability, particularly natural environments, may promote healthy early childhood development. Findings inform urban planning policies and interventions that support childhood development.
Ingrid Jarvis, Emily Gemmell, Alicia Cavanaugh et al.
