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The early childhood ecosystem is comprised of individuals, organizations/institutions, and microsystems (health, education, etc.) which support young children (ages 0-5). This ecosystem is path-dependent because of historical and ecological barriers and facilitators. These barriers and facilitators are sustained by social, political, and economic structures that perpetuate patterns of inequality in early childhood outcomes.The purpose of this research is to (1) identify these barriers and facilitators from the perspective of families in Los Angeles in Los Angeles as they seek to access informal and formal early childhood services and resources, and (2) understand the role of the early childhood system—encompassing the individuals, institutions, and microsystems centered on childhood development embedded within the early childhood ecosystem— in helping families. This research used qualitative methods to interview families, service providers, government officials, and community members across Los Angeles County, California (LA). LA was selected given the complexity of its early-childhood ecosystem.This research suggests that barriers and facilitators exist across the macro, meso, and micro-levels of the early childhood ecosystem - and contribute to the perpetuation of inequalities. Some of these barriers include poverty, gentrification, social isolation, language, and complicated bureaucracy. However, there are also facilitators expanding policy interests, increasing financial investments, and building social networks. Furthermore, this study found that while much of the early childhood system (embedded within the early childhood ecosystem) perpetuates patterned inequities, there are some individuals, organizations/institutions, and sub-systems that mitigate these barriers. Some of the characteristics of an effective early childhood system are strong governance and accountability, sustainable financing, strong partnerships, and empathetic and responsive programming.Findings indicate implications for policymakers, practitioners, and academics. For example, policymakers should create policies that accounts for the early childhood ecosystem, practitioners should design relational programming, and academics should seek to understand how the early childhood system can be leveraged to influence the early childhood ecosystem.

It is imperative to offer equal quality learning opportunities for young children at both deprived and advantaged early childhood development centres (ECDCs). To this end, substantive involvement by young children in the envisioned quality learning that should take place, even in constrained contexts, warrants thoughtful exploration. Consequently, this study investigated the development of young children's communication and mathematical skills to explore the affordances of the South African National Curriculum Framework for children from birth to 4 years in relation to incorporating science concepts. Our proposition for privileging science concepts relevant to early learning and development areas of the curriculum framework was premised on the urge to respond to young children's current learning needs in order to make learning in the future sustainable. We adopted a participatory action research design, undergirded by principles of intra-relationality, to develop an assessment and activity plan consistent with our proposition. Using the principles of free attitude interviews and brainstorming as techniques, rich qualitative data were generated during meetings, workshops, and reflection sessions with study team member participants. The team made the following observations and findings: the transition of young children from ECD to Grade R is marred by challenges that make the learning of young children beyond ECD unsustainable because of the absence of continual communication between the ECD and Grade R teachers and, to some extent, between the parents (home) and the ECDC. Through the knowledge gained from regular participatory action-oriented meetings, workshops, and reflections, the study contributed to the development of participants and benefited the ECDC involved in this study in several respects.

Early childhood development (ECD) centres are strategically positioned to create quality early learning opportunities that prepare children for adulthood, providing the necessary holistic sustainable learning. However, many ECD facilities in the informal settlements in South Africa function under a variety of psychosocial and contextual challenges that impact directly on the well-being of supervisors and practitioners. This study explored the need to enable, and the ways to relationally promote, the well-being of supervisors. Underpinned by posthumanism, and consistent with participatory action learning and action research cycles, we recognised that the challenges facing humanity today require new understandings and responsive solutions, which include engagements and contributions with and by nonhuman relationalities for sustainable early childhood learning. In this paper, we argue that focus on the promotion of the well-being of ECD supervisors in informal settlements is crucial. Data generation was conducted with an action team of six participants, that is, three ECD supervisors and three researchers utilising reflective drawings and group meetings that provided opportunities for action and reflection. A critical thematic analysis of data concluded that innovative collaborative ways to solve own problems in own contexts utilising responsive solutions promotes social change. An adaption to the decentralisation of supervisors' power using interdisciplinary interventions makes communities feel responsible, valued, and accountable for the ECD centres-thus, relational interconnections are improved at human and nonhuman levels. This study has the potential to contribute to the well-being of supervisors, which may filter down to improved well-being for teachers and learners, resulting in sustainable ECD in informal settlements.

The study was funded by Bernard van Leer Foundation and implemented by Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV). Objective: Consistent with ecological systems theory and the heuristic model of parental behavior dynamics, the current study is focused on both individual and contextual factors that determine fatherhood involvement in the context of a traditional patriarchal culture. Background: Father–child interaction during the early childhood period is a salient factor in predicting later child outcomes. However, studies on antecedents of involved fatherhood are scarce, mostly concentrated on one aspect of fathering behavior, and limited to few cultural contexts. Method: Data were collected from a representative urban sample of fathers of preschoolers in Turkey (N = 1,070). Different components of fatherhood involvement were assessed to project three distinct paternal behavior dimensions as care, affection, and control. Results: Father role satisfaction, psychological value attributed to the child, and perceived family support were positively associated with involved fatherhood and higher parental warmth. Working hours per day was negatively associated with involved fatherhood, as expected. Higher life satisfaction was associated with higher positive parenting. Patriarchal views of masculinity were found to be the main predictor of parental physical punishment, controlling for all other predictors in the model. Conclusion: Study findings emphasized the importance of factors other than parenting skills that contribute to fathers' parental effectiveness. Implications: Our study's findings have implications for family practices and policies. For example, besides parenting skills, father support programs should also focus on other factors such as developing awareness of traditional masculinity norms and gender role prescriptions that can harm democratic family environments and childcare practices. Bernard van Leer Foundation Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV) Publisher's Version Q3 WOS:000787686300001

Background Lack of control over life situations is an important social determinant that may negatively affect parental and child health. This study took place in an area of Stockholm, Sweden with high indications of socioeconomic disadvantage, a large part of the population with foreign background, as well as higher levels of poor health than the county average. It investigated staff perceptions of pathways from situations of low control, potentially leading to health inequities, affecting families enrolled in an early childhood home visiting programme during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 23 child health care nurses and parental advisors working in a home visiting programme. The data was analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Results The analysis resulted in five pathways on two explanatory levels, affecting parents’ health and parenting capacity and children’s health and well-being, potentially damaging health and leading to health inequities. The first four pathways related to control at the personal explanatory level: Families facing instability and insecurity; Caring for children in crowded and poor housing conditions; Experiencing restricted access to resources; and Parenting with limited social support. The fifth pathway, Living in a segregated society, covered the collective experience of lack of control on community level. The Covid-19 pandemic was observed to negatively affect all pathways and thus potentially aggravate health inequities for this population. The pandemic has also limited the delivery of home visits to the families which creates further barriers in families’ access to resources and increases isolation for parents with already limited social support. Conclusions The diversity of pathways connected to health inequities presented in this study highlights the importance of considering this variety of influences when designing interventions for socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. The additional negative consequences of Covid-19 indicate the need for sustainable preventive early childhood interventions for families in such areas. The study also emphasizes the need for further research as well as policy action on possible long-term effects of changing behaviours during the Covid-19 period on child health and health equity. Trial registration The study was retrospectively registered (11 August 2016) in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN11832097).

The aim of the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) Project is to develop robust, universal, and psychometrically sound scales to measure the development of children aged 0-3 years. This study aims at the validation of the GSED measures (Short, Long and Psychosocial Forms)

The objectives of this rapid review are to review and map existing evidence of the impacts, costs and cost-effectiveness of interventions designed to improve early child development outcomes for refugees and people affected by forced displacement. The review additionally seeks to identify key limitations and gaps in the current research literature. In particular, we aim to answer the following three questions: 1) What evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of interventions in improving early childhood development outcomes? 2) What is the cost and cost-effectiveness of interventions designed to improve early childhood development outcomes? 3) What are the evidence gaps evident in the research literature? In particular, what innovative and scalable approaches to early childhood development have yet to be evaluated?

Background: Successful interventions targeting families can only occur through informed research findings. It is important that policymakers understand the unique household dynamics that low-income households face and the kinds of assistance they need to foster early learning and development at home.Aim: To investigate the extent of parental involvement in the early learning of preschoolers in Philippi and the role of the home environment in promoting or hindering early learning and development.Setting: This study was conducted in Philippi, one of the biggest poor urban settlements in the city of Cape Town, South Africa.Methods: The researcher visited 20 early childhood development (ECD) facilities and 40 caregivers in Philippi. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the ECD principals, practitioners and caregivers.Results: The analysis of the results of the study revealed that, for the most part, preschoolers in Philippi live in household environments that do not encourage or support early learning and development. Moreover, parental involvement in such preschoolers is limited by the parents’ unwillingness or inability to take up opportunities for involvement in the facility and to regularly engage in stimulation activities at home.Conclusion: Given their low-income, low-educational status and general lack, parents need a clearer framework on how to become involved and how to provide a conducive household learning environment to preschoolers.

The home learning environment is a potential correlate of childhood obesity and obesity-related factors. We examined relationships between the home learning environment and weight status and the home learning environment and dietary intake, in a sample of 303 preschool-aged children from Australia. We measured their height and weight, and their parents completed a questionnaire that included questions related to demographics, dietary intake, and the home learning environment. Parents reported their children’s usual consumption of foods from each food group, the frequency of their discretionary food intake, and the frequency of home activities that might support cognitive stimulation. We analysed relationships using regression, adjusting for parents’ education level, and household income. We found no significant associations between the home learning environment and BMI or weight category. We found a significant inverse relationship between the overall home learning environment and discretionary food intake scores, but when stratified by income, this result was significant for children from lower-income families only. Regarding specific elements of the home learning environment, we found significant inverse relationships between discretionary food intake and both reading to children, and teaching them the alphabet. While reading was significant across all income levels, teaching the alphabet was only significant in children from higher-income families. We also found significant inverse relationships between discretionary food intake and: visiting a library, teaching numbers or counting, and teaching songs, poems and nursery rhymes in lower-income families only. There was no association between the home learning environment and meeting individual dietary guidelines. This area requires further research to explore broader home environment factors that may influence these relationships. We also suggest that interventions explore the use of strategies to improve the home learning environment to determine its efficacy in improving healthy eating behaviors.

Early childhood home visiting to improve health and development is commonly delivered by child health care (CHC) whereas home visitors from the social services are rare. We applied a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore the practice and contributions of parental advisors from the preventive social services in a home visiting collaboration with CHC in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area of Sweden. The analysis rendered a conceptual model of a situation-based practice, built on interactive encounters between parents and professionals. It includes strengthening of positive parenting, connecting parents to additional services, early detection of needs and provision of psychosocial support in accordance with each family’s specific situation. Rooted in the training and experience in social work, the practice can be seen as contributory to the delivery of complex support to families through home visiting and could provide input to efforts of improving training of home visitors in different contexts.

TARAMAWOS WOS:000596616100001 TARAMASCOPUS In this study, it is aimed to reveal the effect of creative drama activities implemented in early childhood on the executive functions of children who are between 60 and 72 months old. The study is designed as quasi experimental study with pretest and posttest control group. In the class determined as the experimental group, 18 drama sessions, which are planned according to the learning outcomes improving executive functions, were implemented. In the study, to evaluate the executive functions of the children The Map Task, Camel- Dwarf Game and Tower of London Test were used as data collection tools. A meaningful difference was observed in the executive functions of forward memory and the backward memory, inhibition, problem solving and cognitive flexibility of the children in the experimental group that the creative drama activities were implemented.

The following article deals with emotional development and the development of emotion regulation skills in children during early childhood education, focusing primarily on the importance of the early childhood teacher. Emotion regulation is important for success and wellbeing in further life. It is developed in interaction with parents as attachment figures. Teachers can also be important persons for the child in the context of bonding. This leads to the question of how early childhood teachers can support children learning to regulate their emotions. We analyze with the content analysis, four programs for promoting social and emotional skills that are currently used in Germany. The main question is if the programs include elements that increase teachers’ skills in supporting the children in regulating their emotions. The categories to analyze the programs are derived from theories of teacher-child interaction. In addition to programs for promoting emotional and social development, we will discuss aspects of shaping interaction as essential elements in promoting emotion regulation. The conclusion outlines some key implications for educational practice and the importance of developing professional behavior for qualitative teacher-child interactions., International journal of environmental research and public health;Vol.19. 2022, (7), 3978

Background: Litigation has been utilised to advance a range of socio-economic rights in post-apartheid South Africa, including the right to basic education. Nonetheless, there has not been significant litigation or sustained broad-based mobilisation around issues impacting the early childhood development (ECD) sector in the democratic era. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, however, saw some ECD stakeholders turning to the courts to advocate for their survival, as well as to mobilise and advocate for sector reforms.Aim: This article aimed to critically reflect on the role of litigation and social mobilisation in advancing the right to ECD during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.Setting: The article assesses two South African cases with national implications.Methods: The article critically assesses two South African cases relating to ECD during the pandemic. At the time of writing, these were the only South African judgements specifically relating to the impact of COVID-19 on the ECD sector.Results: The two cases played an important role in: (1) reopening the ECD sector during the pandemic; and (2) making efforts to ensure that the sector could remain open. However, the cases were not based on a holistic rights-based approach to ECD, which remains an area for further development.Conclusion: The article concludes that litigation may play a significant role in advancing children’s rights to ECD, particularly as a complement to broader social mobilisation strategies. The cases highlight the (1) need and potential for building a holistic rights-based foundation of ECD jurisprudence post the pandemic; and (2) strategic use of litigation interventions as part of broader mobilisation strategies.

This study examined Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers’ perceptions of ECD programs regarding benefits and opportunities for early intervention. Research indicates that young children with developmental delays and disabilities demonstrate better progress when intervention is offered early and in inclusive classrooms. A mixed method design was used to collect data from a purposeful sample of 81 ECD teachers in Chipinge district, in Zimbabwe. Both descriptive and regression analysis methods were used for data analysis. Findings indicated that there was a general lack of in-depth knowledge, and most teachers did not follow developmentally appropriate curriculum. Threats and challenges included: lack of knowledge and assessments to diagnose developmental delays, disabilities, as well as lack of developmentally and culturally relevant teaching materials. Regression analysis indicated that age, experience, location, and training are important variables explaining perceived benefits of ECD. This study offers research-based ways to address challenges and threats to effective ECD programs.

BACKGROUND: The education and training experiences of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) practitioners reflect gaps and inequalities in South Africa's educational system. Most South African ECCE centre practitioners do not have the appropriate qualifications to provide quality education to young learners AIM: The study aimed to explore how the education and training experiences of ECCE practitioners impact their professional identity in urban and rural settings in KwaZulu-Natal province and to develop a model that would enhance the education and training of ECCE practitioners SETTING: Ten participants were selected for this study: one centre head and four practitioners from a rural setting, and one centre head and four practitioners from an urban area METHODS: Wenger's social theory of learning was used to obtain an in-depth understanding of ECCE practitioners' education and training experiences and how they function as professional workers. An interpretative, qualitative case study was adopted. Data was collected through focus group semi-structured interviews and non-participants' observation and then analysed thematically RESULTS: The findings revealed that practitioners in rural settings had to contend with unfair working conditions daily, working all day in challenging circumstances whilst earning low incomes. Urban practitioners worked reasonable hours and received living wages, although they also experienced challenges such as a lack of parental involvement, lack of transport for children and high rates of absenteeism CONCLUSION: Inequalities between rural and urban practitioners existed concerning resources, salaries, working conditions and further study and professional growth opportunities. Ensuring that practitioners attain proper Early Childhood Care (ECC) qualifications will raise the profession's esteem amongst wider communities

With the COVID-19 lockdowns and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the importance of the early years system for children and their parents has been made particularly obvious over the last few years. In this report, we analyse how public spending on early childhood education and care has changed over the last two decades. Overall spending on the early years in England has grown from around £1.5 billion in 2001-02 to more than £5.3 billion last year (all figures in today's prices). But within this growing envelope, the relative amount of spending on the different childcare programmes has changed dramatically. The 'free entitlement' to funded childcare hours - for all 3- and 4-year-olds and some 2-year-olds - has seen its budget grow substantially, while spending on childcare subsidies through the working-age benefit system has been cut.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood development (ECD) is increasingly being recognised as vital for the care and education of our children, particularly in countries such as South Africa where vast social disparities have a significant influence on development and well-being AIM: This study aimed to explore and develop understandings of quality in early childhood care and education in a particular setting SETTING: The setting of this community research project is a small rural town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The project is facilitated by a non-governmental organisation affiliated with a university in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, working with participants from two neighbourhood hubs. This study coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic METHODS: Located in a social constructionist paradigm, the research methodology may be described as participatory, polyphonic and appreciative. Responses from simple, positively constructed questions, framed by dimensions of an ecological systems model, were interrogated through a multilayered process of content analysis RESULTS: Analysis of the data led to a range of themes and evidence of significant role players, around quality ECD. These were developed into two simple frameworks, capturing conceptual and contextual aspects of quality ECD: 'Quality Early Childhood Development' and 'Circles of Care and Education' CONCLUSION: The juxtaposition of the conceptual and contextual frames is offered as a simple, yet comprehensive, tool to scaffold ongoing research and support further development of quality ECD practice

Purpose: Oncological diseases, especially if experienced in the first 3 years of life, expose young children to conditions of serious physical and emotional stress causing delays in their physical development, cognitive acquisitioning and issues related to their emotional and social functioning. This study examines the effects of the participation in an early childcare intervention to support the children's development, which was proposed to children from 0 to 36 months, at the moment of cancer diagnosis in their hospital setting. Method: A prospective multicenter programme was offered to young children (

Good education for all is the key to a better long-term future for the Sahel region. Education improves employability and incomes, narrows gender gaps, lifts families out of poverty, strengthens institutions, and yields benefits that echo to the next generation. The good news is that the region has taken the important first steps toward building this future. Many more children have been able to access education over the past 15 years: enrollment in the region has nearly doubled in primary education and tripled in secondary education. And governments have launched numerous initiatives and announced high-level commitments in support of education. Still, many children remain out of school, and those who are in school learn far less than they should. Of the region’s primary-school-age children, 40 percent are out of school. Furthermore, the region’s learning poverty rate is 88 per-cent—meaning that only 12 percent of children are enrolled in school and able to read and comprehend an age-appropriate passage by late primary age. Access is lower at other levels of education: enrollment is below 56 percent in lower secondary throughout the Sahel G5 and between 2 and 10 percent in pre-primary and tertiary. All these contributing factors result in low education attainment in the Sahel region and therefore low productivity. In Niger, for example, 72 percent of current working-age adults have no education at all. In every Sahel country, fewer than 50 percent of adult females are literate, compared with 59 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole and 80 percent in low- and middle-in-come countries. This figure drops to 23 percent for females living in the Sahel rural areas. Even among the youngest segment of the labor force—youth aged 15-24, reading and writing performance in the Sahel is relatively low, with literacy rates ranging from 45 to 66 percent, while the average in Sub-Saharan Africa is 77 percent. Additionally, the poorest children and youth, and those affected by conflict, who most need a good education to have a chance in life, suffer the most from failings in education access and quality. The upper secondary enrollment rate is only 5 percent for the poorest rural girls, versus 100 percent for urban boys in the wealthiest quintile.

We report the labor market effects of the Jamaica Early Childhood Stimulation intervention at age 31. The study is a small-sample randomized early childhood education stimulation intervention targeting stunted children living in the poor neighborhoods of Kingston, Jamaica. Implemented in 1987-1989, treatment consisted of a two-year home-based intervention designed to improve nutrition and the quality of mother-child interactions to foster cognitive, language and psycho-social skills. The original sample is 127 stunted children between 9 and 24 months old. Our study is able to track and interview 75% of the original sample 30 years after the intervention, both still living in Jamaica and migrated abroad. We find large and statistically significant effects on income and schooling; the treatment group had 43% higher hourly wages and 37% higher earnings than the control group. This is a substantial increase over the treatment effect estimated for age 22 where we observed a 25% increase in earnings.

Background: Over 250 million children in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not achieving their fullest developmental potential due to co-occurring risks such as poor nutrition and inadequate learning opportunities. Early intervention programs integrating the aspects of nurturing care, that is, good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and learning opportunities, may ameliorate against the negative impact of these adverse conditions.Methods: This meta-analytic review updates the evidence base of parenting interventions comprising stimulation and responsive caregiving components on developmental outcomes for children under age 2 years in low- and middle-income countries. It also describes and assesses the moderation effects of population characteristics and implementation features on the intervention effectiveness. Studies were identified based on previous systematic reviews and an updated literature search in eight databases and the gray literature up to December 2020. A random-effect model was used to explore the pooled effect sizes accounted for by the intervention for developmental outcome of cognition, language, motor, and social-emotional capacities. Exploratory moderation analyses were also conducted.Results: Twenty-one randomized controlled trials representing over 10,400 children from 12 low- and middle-income countries and regions across three continents (Africa, Latin America, and Asia) were identified. The interventions showed overall small-to-moderate effects on children's cognitive development (ES = 0.44; 95% CI = [0.30, 0.57]); language development (ES = 0.33; 95% CI = [0.18, 0.49]); and motor skills (ES = 0.21; 95% CI = [0.10, 0.32]). The overall effect on social-emotional development was non-significant (ES = 0.17; 95% CI = [−0.01, 0.34]). Effect sizes (ES) varied significantly across the studies. Parenting programs that targeted vulnerable groups, including rural communities and caregivers with lower education levels, had more significant effects on children's development. Group sessions (vs. individual visits) and high program dose (≥12 sessions) were also associated with stronger effects on child development. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of the workforce and training on programmatic outcomes.Conclusion: The findings indicate that parenting interventions that encourage nurturing care are effective in improving the early development of children, especially among vulnerable populations. We discuss opportunities to strengthen the implementation of research-based parenting interventions in such contexts.

Introduction: In South Africa, early childhood development (ECD) in rural areas is challenged by the lack of a centre-based programme and because the ECD practitioners are inadequately trained. The Crosstrainer Programme (CTP) may be a centre-based early childhood development programme that could address this challenge. Consequently, the aim of this study is not to prove, but to determine the level of efficacy of the CTP on the development of three to four year old children in the rural Mahikeng areas. Method: An experimental trial was conducted. The ECDC (Early Childhood Development Criteria) were used to test the children (49 from 17 ECD centres). Results: Both Section A: Cognitive SRRA (School Readiness Risk Areas) and Section B: Fine Motor Coordination were improved by the CTP. However, Section C: Gross Motor Coordination showed no improvement by the CTP. Conclusions: The CTP proved valuable in the improvement of the Cognitive SRRA and even more so on the fine motor development of the population group. It is recommended that activities directed at gross motor development should be increased and amplified in the programme. Further studies on the CTP regarding the development of the children and the occupational enablement of the ECD practitioners are recommended. Key Words: Early childhood development; ECDCross Trainer Programme; CTP; occupational therapy; early learning programme; rural ECD centres; ECD practitioners.

In Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), children born between January and July have the choice to start school in the year they turn five, or delay entry until the year they turn six. We used linked administrative data for children who started school in NSW in 2009 or 2012 (N = 162,878) to identify child, family and area characteristics associated with delayed entry, and to explore the relationship between school starting age and five domains of child development, measured using the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) in the first year of school. Among both the 2009 and 2012 cohorts, 26% of children delayed starting school until the year they turned six. Area-level rates of delay ranged from 8% to 54% across 198 areas in NSW, with lower levels in disadvantaged urban areas. Factors associated with delayed entry included male sex, a birth date close to the enrolment cut-off date, socioeconomic advantage, and having a mother born in Australia. There was a strong, significant relationship between school starting age and early childhood development: each month of maturity corresponded to an increase of approximately 3% in the probability of scoring above the 25th percentile in all five AEDC domains. Independent of school starting age, children who were older in relation to their classroom peers had better development outcomes. The potential for initial age-related differences to impact later school outcomes warrants further longitudinal research.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and its economic and social effects on households have created an urgent need for timely data to help monitor and mitigate the social and economic impacts of the crisis and protect the welfare of Nigerian society. To monitor how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the economy and people of Nigeria and to inform policy interventions and responses, the National Bureau of Statistics with technical support from the World Bank implemented the Nigeria COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (COVID-19 NLPS). This brief presents findings from the seventh and ninth rounds of this survey which was conducted between January 9 and 25, 2021 respectively.

There is increasing international interest in place-based approaches to improve early childhood development (ECD) outcomes. The available data and evidence are limited and precludes well informed policy and practice change. Developing the evidence-base for community-level effects on ECD is one way to facilitate more informed and targeted community action. This paper presents overall final findings from the Kids in Communities Study (KiCS), an Australian mixed methods investigation into community-level effects on ECD in five domains of influence–physical, social, governance, service, and sociodemographic. Twenty five local communities (suburbs) across Australia were selected based on ‘diagonality type’ i.e. whether they performed better (off-diagonal positive), worse (off-diagonal negative), or ‘as expected’ (on-diagonal) on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) relative to their socioeconomic profile. The approach was designed to determine replicable and modifiable factors that were separate to socioeconomic status. Between 2015–2017, stakeholder interviews (n = 146), parent and service provider focus groups (n = 51), and existing socio-economic and early childhood education and care administrative data were collected. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses were undertaken to understand differences between 14 paired disadvantaged local communities (i.e. on versus off-diagonal). Further analysis of qualitative data elicited important factors for all 25 local communities. From this, we developed a draft set of ‘Foundational Community Factors’ (FCFs); these are the factors that lay the foundations of a good community for young children. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The following article deals with emotional development and the development of emotion regulation skills in children during early childhood education, focusing primarily on the importance of the early childhood teacher. Emotion regulation is important for success and wellbeing in further life. It is developed in interaction with parents as attachment figures. Teachers can also be important persons for the child in the context of bonding. This leads to the question of how early childhood teachers can support children learning to regulate their emotions. We analyze with the content analysis, four programs for promoting social and emotional skills that are currently used in Germany. The main question is if the programs include elements that increase teachers’ skills in supporting the children in regulating their emotions. The categories to analyze the programs are derived from theories of teacher-child interaction. In addition to programs for promoting emotional and social development, we will discuss aspects of shaping interaction as essential elements in promoting emotion regulation. The conclusion outlines some key implications for educational practice and the importance of developing professional behavior for qualitative teacher-child interactions.