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Background: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services have the potential to influence or disrupt sleep patterns given that ECEC attendance coincides with the normative transition towards napping cessation. Objective: In light of the evidence that sleep patterns in early childhood are foundational to lifelong health, this study investigated parent–educator communication about children's 24-h sleep cycles. Communication is critical in ensuring regularity and responsiveness to children's sleep behaviours, yet knowledge about if and how this happens is limited. We sought to address this gap. Method: This study draws upon survey data, both numeric and text, from 116 parents and 39 educators across 25 ECEC services in Brisbane, Australia. The type and regularity of communication strategies between ECEC educators and parents were analysed to establish frequency and demographic patterning. Qualitative analyses investigated the content of sleep-related communication between educators and parents. Results: Most educators and parents reported discussing children's sleep through in-person communication at pick-up and drop-off times. Qualitative analysis of the content of parent–educator communication identified three key themes: sleep quantity, quality and practices. Communication focused primarily on the quantity of children's sleep while attending ECEC settings, and communication about sleep quality and home practices were less frequent. Educators communicated more sleep-related information with parents than parents did with educators. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for frequent, bi-directional parent–educator communication. Providing practices which support regularity of sleep across home and ECEC settings and responding to the developmental transition toward napping cessation promotes children's sleep health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Australians are among the most unhealthy populations in the world and yet they reside in a country where the non-Indigenous population enjoys high standards of well-being. Education has been identified as the key mechanism for closing this equity gap. At school commencement many Indigenous children are already at risk of disengagement. This four-year longitudinal study of two Indigenous boys from a socially marginalised community examined key factors affecting transitional trajectories into school. While child characteristics affected level of achievement the critical factors in sustaining positive educational engagement were social support, school practices, inclusion of family and positive expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OECD (2006 Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. OECD Publishing: Paris) envisions early childhood education and care settings as meeting places for diverse social groups; places that build social capital. This vision was assessed in a comparison of three preschools types: full-fee paying, subsidised-fee and publicly funded. The social composition within each was examined and the connectedness of the children (n = 472) who attended compared. Publicly funded preschools had more socially diverse populations. The quantity of social connectedness did not differ but children in publicly funded preschools described higher quality social relationships. Not all preschool settings are socially diverse but, where they are, the quality of relationships is highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Young children have sensory-rich conceptualisations and experiences of relaxation. • Children's relaxation accounts contrast from the dominant medicalised discourses. • Children must be afforded agency to choose where, when, and how they relax. • Carers and educators should consult with children about relaxation preferences. Relaxation is constructed as a health issue, often as a counter to stress. Such constructions serve to medicalise relaxation as a physiological or psychological treatment for stressful experiences. Yet, children's experiences and understandings of relaxation are not well documented and may differ from these prevailing adult conceptualisations. Situated within the sociology of childhood paradigm, this study investigated: How do young children attending childcare experience relaxation? Informed by a child-centric methodology, in 2018, we conducted drawing-prompted group interviews with 46 child participants aged three to five years old recruited from six childcare services in Brisbane, Australia. Children were asked about what it means to relax and what they did to relax. We found that children clearly articulated their relaxation experiences and conceptualised relaxation as sensory-rich experiences that centred on feelings of cosiness, comfortableness, and air temperature. Places and play were key to shaping children's relaxation experiences: common places for relaxation were in nature or at home, and various types of play were central. Recommendations for improving care practices include engaging children in conversations about their relaxation preferences, and affording children agency to choose experiences that are relaxing when in childcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]