The expectation of establishing an educational partnership with parents poses challenges for both parents and early childhood educators (ECEs). Structural conditions and diverging orientations often complicate cooperation between educators and parents. This exploratory qualitative interview study with 15 ECEs examines which situations in their interaction with parents they find challenging. Based on qualitative content analysis, tense situations in interactions with parents are interpreted through the lenses of vulnerability and dissonance theory. The results show that ECEs experience different dissonances, vulnerabilities, and varying forms of trust in their work with parents. While experienced ECEs report role-related tensions (dissonances), younger ECEs describe relational strains with parents. The findings highlight profession-specific challenges that are discussed in terms of their implications for ECEs’ (further) professional development.
Professional learning and development (PLD) activities for Chinese kindergarten teachers have introduced imported knowledge to promote teaching and learning. Much PLD provision is led by leaders and experts rather than teachers. To understand the educational beliefs and power differences that surface among teachers, leaders and experts during PLD sessions and how teachers navigate this complex terrain, this paper presents a post-intentional phenomenological study involving seven participants from two Chinese early childhood settings. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, observations of PLD meetings and videos of teachers’ implementation of PLD ideas. Educational policies, PLD materials, and the researcher’s reflexive journal were also used for analysis. Analysis involved a line-by-line reading process where theoretical concepts, data and researcher reflexivity interacted. The findings reveal that teachers experienced tensions in relation to formal PLD sessions. These tensions stemmed from established values and hierarchical constraints that limited their joint reflection and actions. Our analysis, framed by the concepts of relational agency and in-between spaces, shows how teachers navigated these tensions. Despite these constraints, the teachers responded by creating opportunities for collaborative learning. They sought out informal situations where they had the flexibility to develop shared knowledge. We argue that Chinese teachers’ PLD can occur within and across such tensions and opportunities. These informal situations empowered teachers to enact relational agency by aligning their expertise to make PLD decisions. This process eased tensions and created space for collaborative learning. The study concludes that valuing these informal, teacher-initiated spaces is crucial for moving beyond top-down knowledge transmission and fostering sustainable professional growth in hierarchical educational contexts. Ultimately, by empowering teachers as collaborative and adaptable professionals, this model of PLD offers new insights into enhancing the professional environments that shape teaching practice and young children’s learning.
Early childhood educators who are also parents represent an important yet understudied population within workforce development research. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the lived experiences of early childhood educators who are also parents as they navigated workforce development programs, parenting responsibilities, and organizational practices in pursuit of career advancement and economic stability. Guided by work-family border theory (Clark, 2000) and ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the study examined how parenting responsibilities shaped engagement in workforce development opportunities and influenced professional trajectories over time. Twenty-two early childhood educators who were also parents participated in virtual semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Narrative data were analyzed using Polkinghorne’s (1995) narrative analysis framework, resulting in eight emergent themes organized around two research questions. Findings revealed that workforce development served as both a pathway to career advancement and a source of professional affirmation, while organizational and leadership support played a significant role in shaping participants’ professional experiences. Participants demonstrated persistence and adaptability in pursuing professional growth and described economic stability as closely connected to family well-being. Parenthood was found to reshape professional perspectives, create competing demands, and influence participation in workforce development opportunities. Support systems, boundary setting, and redefining success emerged as important factors in sustaining professional engagement. Findings suggest that workforce development systems, organizational practices, and compensation initiatives should more intentionally address the realities of working parent-educators to better support career advancement, economic stability, and long-term workforce retention within early childhood education.
Background. The digital transformation of education requires preschool teacher education to move beyond the instrumental use of technology towards the ability to purposefully design learning experiences for young children. Design competence, understood as the capacity to analyse learning needs, model, prototype, implement and evaluate developmentally appropriate learning environments and resources, remains insufficiently conceptualised in early childhood teacher education. Aim. This article substantiates the theoretical and methodological foundations for developing design competence among future preschool educators in a digital educational environment. Methods. The study applies a conceptual-methodological approach based on thematic analysis of the theoretical literature and on the integration of the TPACK, DigCompEdu, backward design and constructive alignment frameworks. Results. A working definition of design competence is proposed, together with a five-component structure (conceptual-pedagogical, digital-technological, creative-design, reflective-evaluative and ethical-value), a three-level scale of development, and a four-stage methodological model of training (orientation, modelling, practice-based implementation, reflection). Pedagogical conditions and an assessment approach are specified. Conclusion. The proposed model provides a coherent basis for curriculum design and for future empirical validation through mixed-methods research.
Digital technologies are increasingly embedded in young children’s lives, yet uncertainty remains regarding their role in early childhood education and care (ECEC). This study explores Irish early years educators’ beliefs and perceptions concerning digital play, employing Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework to examine how policy, parental expectations and professional identity interact to shape children’s learning opportunities. Semi-structured interviews with 10 educators identified five themes: developmentalist beliefs prioritising ‘natural’ play, cautious openness to digital tools, professional identity and ethical tensions, perceptions of children and families and concerns about policy directives. Findings reveal a persistent policy–practice gap, where limited professional development and unclear guidance leave educators uncertain about how to define and implement quality digital play. The study emphasises that educators’ attitudes are closely associated with the extent and quality of children’s digital engagement, highlighting the need for sustained professional development and strengthened mesosystemic communication across home, school and policy contexts. Implications include the creation of context-sensitive frameworks that integrate digital and traditional play while supporting children’s holistic development. This study demonstrates that educators’ definitions of digital play are shaped by the interaction of professional identity, policy ambiguity, family expectations and resource conditions, offering new insight into the conditions that constrain digital play in Irish early years settings.
Introducing the environment and cultivating emergent literacy represent crucial foundational aspects of early childhood education. However, practical environmental instruction in classrooms continues to require concrete, contextual, and developmentally appropriate learning media. This performance-based development aims to design the Big Book of Environmental Literacy (BiLiNG) as an instructional medium to introduce environmental concepts while stimulating emergent literacy among young learners at KB Al Hidayah Pemalang. The media development was conducted through four procedural stages: planning, content and visual structuring, physical assembly, and instructional implementation. BiLiNG was engineered as a large-format book incorporating real-world environmental photographs familiar to children, simple narrative texts, vibrant illustrations, and interactive inquiry prompts. The classroom implementation was conducted through shared reading sessions, guided questioning, and structured dialogues. The implementation results demonstrate that utilizing the BiLiNG media effectively enhanced children's visual attention, learning enthusiasm, communicative participation, and verbal responsiveness during the learning process. The children exhibited greater proficiency in identifying, categorizing, and naming various environmental components displayed in the book. These findings confirm that the BiLiNG media serves as a simple, contextual, and relevant alternative instructional medium to foster early environmental awareness and emergent literacy skills in early childhood education. ABSTRAK Pengenalan lingkungan dan pengembangan literasi awal merupakan aspek esensial dalam pembelajaran anak usia dini. Namun, pelaksanaan pembelajaran pengenalan lingkungan di lapangan masih membutuhkan media konkret yang kontekstual, menarik, dan selaras dengan tahapan perkembangan anak. Karya kinerja ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan media Big Book Literasi Nuansa Lingkungan (BiLiNG) sebagai sarana pembelajaran guna mengenalkan lingkungan sekaligus menstimulasi literasi awal anak usia dini di KB Al Hidayah Pemalang. Pengembangan media dilakukan melalui empat tahapan prosedural, yaitu perencanaan, penyusunan isi dan ilustrasi, pembuatan media fisik, serta penerapan dalam proses pembelajaran. Media BiLiNG dirancang dalam bentuk buku berukuran besar dengan memanfaatkan dokumentasi foto lingkungan nyata di sekitar anak, teks bersahaja, ilustrasi visual yang kontras, serta stimulus pertanyaan interaktif. Implementasi media diterapkan melalui kegiatan membaca bersama (shared reading), tanya jawab, dan diskusi terarah. Hasil penerapan membuktikan bahwa penggunaan media BiLiNG efektif meningkatkan atensi visual, antusiasme, partisipasi komunikatif, serta respons verbal anak selama proses pembelajaran berlangsung. Anak menjadi lebih mudah mengenali, membedakan, dan menyebutkan beragam objek lingkungan yang disajikan dalam media. Temuan ini menegaskan bahwa media BiLiNG dapat menjadi alternatif sarana instruksional yang sederhana, kontekstual, dan relevan untuk menumbuhkan kepedulian lingkungan serta literasi awal sejak usia dini.
Background: Mouth breathing (MB) in children is a functional alteration characterized by the substitution of nasal breathing with oral or mixed breathing. Persistent MB, particularly when occurring during sleep (nocturnal MB), may be associated with sleep fragmentation, neurobehavioral disturbances, and alterations in craniofacial development. Although established sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), particularly obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), is well-recognized and addressed by international guidelines, children presenting with persistent or nocturnal MB without established diagnostic criteria for OSAS may remain outside conventional diagnostic pathways. The multifactorial nature of MB therefore requires the coordinated evaluation of nasal, allergic, upper airway, craniofacial, dental, and orofacial factors. Methods: This narrative review was based primarily on a structured search of the PubMed/MEDLINE database covering publications from database inception to June 2026, supplemented by manual screening of the reference lists of relevant articles and clinical guidelines. The literature was selected according to relevance to the review objectives, methodological robustness, clinical applicability, and contribution to pediatric, allergological, otorhinolaryngological, and dental/orthodontic perspectives. Priority was given to systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, clinical practice guidelines, consensus documents, and high-quality observational studies. A total of 80 references were included in the final manuscript. Results: The reviewed evidence indicates that MB may be associated with allergic and nasal conditions, upper airway obstruction, craniofacial and dental abnormalities, and orofacial functional alterations, and may coexist with SDB in selected children. The evidence was synthesized across pediatric, allergological, otorhinolaryngological, and orthodontic perspectives to develop a multidisciplinary care pathway based on the clinical identification of MB, targeted specialist assessment, objective evaluation of SDB when indicated, and individualized management and follow-up. Conclusions: MB may represent an important clinical entry point for the early recognition of potentially treatable conditions and associated SDB. The proposed multidisciplinary care pathway integrates pediatric, allergological, otorhinolaryngological, and dental/orthodontic expertise to support coordinated assessment, individualized management, and longitudinal follow-up of children with MB.
Luca Pecoraro, Martina Attanasi, Francesca Marra et al.
Aim This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to investigate the characteristics of resilience among preschool left-behind children in China. We examined the relationship between resilience and problem behaviors in these children and found that the underlying categories of resilience were related to sociodemographics. Design and method A total of 940 preschool left-behind children from kindergartens in the Zhejiang and Shandong provinces were selected as subjects for this cross-sectional study. We used the Personal Information Form, the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers (Second Edition), and the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales for measurements. Results The four resilience profiles for preschool left-behind children showed the best model fit, including the high-resilience group (17.5% of the sample), medium-resilience group (34.5% of the sample), low-resilience group (37.7% of the sample), and risk group (10.3% of the sample). A one-way analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences in problem behaviors among the four groups of children. A multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that child sex, age, parental education, and annual family income had significant predictive effects on the membership of the profiles. Conclusion Preschool left-behind children generally lack resilience, which is related to their problem behaviors. Therefore, the results of this study can assist in the development of resilience-focused interventions to promote better psychosocial adjustment among preschool left-behind children.
Adaptive Digital Service Management is increasingly essential for developing intelligent, personalized, and trustworthy digital service ecosystems that can adapt to diverse user requirements. In inclusive Early Childhood Education (ECE), children with disabilities require adaptive assistance mechanisms that continuously respond to individual learning conditions. This study aims to develop and validate an Adaptive Digital Service Management framework by integrating the ASYIK ATIK SIUUL Models with Prompt-based assistance mechanisms to support basic life skills development in inclusive ECE environments. The research applied a Research and Development (R&D) methodology using a mixed-method approach with the ADDIE development model. The participants consisted of 10 children with disabilities from Class A and Class B at PAUD Baitul Huda Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta. The framework was implemented through 12 basic life skill activities involving 12 achievement indicators over a six-month intervention period. Data were collected using structured observation instruments with a 1–4 rating scale and analyzed using N-Gain evaluation and the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test due to the small non-normally distributed paired dataset. The findings demonstrate that the integration of ASYIK ATIK SIUUL Models with Prompt mechanisms improves adaptive learning service effectiveness through continuous observation, personalized assistance adjustment, and progressive fading strategies. The proposed framework provides an adaptive service mechanism that dynamically manages learning support based on individual performance conditions. This study contributes to IJCITSM by presenting a trustworthy and intelligent service management approach that integrates human-centered adaptation, performance monitoring, and personalized digital service delivery. The proposed framework provides practical implications for educators, caregivers, and digital service developers in designing resilient and adaptive learning service systems for inclusive education environments.
Cognitive difficulties may emerge early in childhood epilepsy and are not necessarily restricted to patients with a long disease duration or prolonged exposure to antiseizure medications. Particular attention has recently been directed toward interictal epileptiform activity during sleep, when physiological changes in neuronal synchronization may facilitate epileptiform discharges. Since sleep plays an essential role in memory consolidation, learning, and neuroplasticity, increased sleep-related epileptiform activity may interfere with cognitive processing during critical periods of brain development. Assessment of this relationship at the onset of epilepsy may therefore provide clinically relevant information on early cognitive vulnerability.
