<p> This dissertation examines the extent to which children's tablet software applications, commonly called <i>apps,</i> are designed appropriately to promote the optimal development of preschool children aged three to five. This study extends previous research, particularly the theoretical frameworks of <i>developmentally appropriate practice</i> and Bers' <i> positive technological development.</i> The researcher argues that, for children's mobile apps to be developmentally meaningful, they need to satisfy three conditions: (1) apps must be designed appropriately to accommodate the developmental stages and needs of young children; (2) content must be designed to promote young children's development in the areas of cognition, academic skills, social-emotional skills, and physical development; and (3) digital interactions engage children in activities and behaviors that foster optimal developmental assets. The researcher devised three instruments to evaluate and examine the breadth, depth, and design quality of 100 children's apps from the Apple's App Store for iPad. Content analysis revealed that only a non-significant majority of apps (58%) were meaningfully designed for preschool children in terms of user interface, audio and visual design, and instructional support. The apps selected for this sample included games and learning activities, interactive eBooks, as well as creativity and utility apps. The content of these apps tended to cluster around school skills and they rarely engaged children in activities beyond academic drill-and-practice. These apps largely ignored the social, emotional, and physical aspects of children's development. Using numerous vignettes and examples as illustrations, the analysis highlights design techniques, content offering, and technological features that could be productive toward children's development, as well as those that distract from meaningful user experiences. This study underscores the need for developmentally meaningful children's mobile apps for preschool children.</p>

<p> The purpose of this multiple case study is to document how directors at private preschools have already, or are preparing for, leadership transitions. The study documents two private preschools; one preschool recently completed a leadership transition and the other is preparing for a transition that is scheduled to take place in the next five years. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with directors, teachers, and families in both centers and analysis of archival records. Data were analyzed deductively drawing on key concepts from literature discussing leadership styles, factors impacting leadership transitions in organizations, and Heifetz's theory of adaptive leadership. Findings suggest that private preschools benefit from long-term succession planning for future leadership transitions, that includes staff participation and parent feedback. This study documents examples of intentionally planned transparent and collaborative administrative and leadership change in early childhood environments.</p>

<p> The current study examined the possible gaps in meeting the needs of children in foster care, the additional skillsets that contribute to meeting their needs, and the role child life specialists play in meeting those needs. Additionally, the study looked specifically at how child life could find a place in the nontraditional setting of foster care. Two groups of participants were recruited for the study; the first group was comprised of child life specialists. The second group included professionals who worked directly with children in foster care in some capacity. Two surveys were designed and conducted, one for each group. Generally, both groups of participants identified the following unmet needs: emotional needs, attachment needs, behavioral needs, supporting children in coping, and psychological preparation. Skillset matches for meeting these needs included experience in psychological preparation for children, knowledge in supporting coping, child development expertise, and awareness of family-centered care. These matches are closely tied to child life specialists' training. Additionally, there seems to be a lack of play in working with foster children, and this was identified as a possible gap in the system, highlighting another way child life specialists could support children in foster care. Through this study, clear ways were identified in which child life specialists could strengthen the services provided to children in foster care. These results have implications for an interdisciplinary future of the child life field. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> child life, foster care, unmet needs, child life in nontraditional roles</p>

<p> The current study examined the role of music in Mandarin vocabulary learning in a Mandarin immersion preschool setting. The goal was to find out how children learn Mandarin with and without music. Using a pre-test/post-test design, I first identified 5 Mandarin words that most children did not know, and then divided children into two groups: the experimental group were taught the 5 words using pictures and song, and the control group learned the same words by pictures and the same song with the melody removed. In the post-test, I asked children of each group "Which one is the XX" in Mandarin and each child pointed to the picture of what they thought was XX. My results show that both groups learned new words; however, children in the non-music group learned more words than children in the music group. These results demonstrate learning from a short-term intervention, but also raise questions about the role of the language's tonality in the effectiveness of using music for word learning.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> immersion school, music, vocabulary learning, Mandarin</p>

<p> This study examines the professional identities of early educators with master's degrees in the United States. While other democratic nations have begun to move toward fully funded early care and education that offers qualified teachers a living wage, early education in the U.S. continues to be vastly underfunded and inconsistently regulated. Through semi-structured interviews with five teachers I identified specific ways in which highly qualified early educators have constructed professional identities within a marginalized profession. Results indicate that the attainment of a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education [ECE] positively influences teachers' abilities to take a leadership role, reflect critically on the field, and participate within the broader public sphere to enact change. Implications of this study highlight the pivotal role that early educators with master's degrees play in shaping the future of ECE in the U.S.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Early Care and Education, professional identity, professional status, reflection, leadership</p>

<p> The current study examines the connection between a change of family income and the retention of academic gains for children in low-income households who have attended a center-based preschool program. These children are often shown to lose the academic advantage they gain during preschool as they move through k&ndash;12 education in a phenomenon called fade out. A theoretical framework was constructed positing that material and psychological effects of poverty inhibit the ability of these families to support and maintain growth during this critical time when children are highly nested in the family unit. </p><p> Treating family income as a causal risk factor, a study was crafted to examine the fade out effect when family income increased during early childhood for children in low-income households. Using the ECLS-K data set, ex post facto, quasi-experimental methods were employed to analyze two comparison groups of low-income children who went through a center-based preschool program. One group gained the treatment of a constant increase in family income beginning during early childhood (LIP), while the other stayed within their starting low-income bracket throughout the study (LCP). Multiple regression analysis was used to test if this treatment would correlate to the LIP group retaining more of their preschool skills than the LCP group, measuring from kindergarten to eighth grade. Before the main dependent cognitive measures (math and reading scores) were examined, regressions on social competence variables were performed. After examination, these variables were added as controls to the academic regressions. </p><p> The results of the academic regressions showed that the LIP group correlated to nearly a one-half reduction in fade out as compared to the LCP group by eighth grade in both mathematics and reading. These findings lead to many implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers as well as open the door to future exploration into the subject.</p>

<p> The purpose of this case study was to explore the effects of a literature-based social-emotional learning curriculum on kindergarten students' social-emotional behaviors, awareness, and early reading skills in a large elementary school. The study examined beliefs/perceptions of kindergarten teachers in regards to what reading skills students possess, the progress students make during a semester, how social-emotional skills affect the classroom environment and whether a literature-based social-emotional learning curriculum has a general impact. Two experimental and two control teachers participated in the study. There were fifty-three (N = 53) students who participated in the study. Forty (N = 40) students were assessed due to time constraints; twenty (N = 20) in the experimental group, twenty (N = 20) in the control group. Students were assessed using the <i>Assessment of Children's Emotion Skills</i> test, (Schultz, Izard, &amp; Bear, 2004) to measure social awareness and emotional accuracy skills and the <i>Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills</i> (DIBELS) Next Assessment (Dynamic Measurement Group, 2011) to measure first sound and letter naming fluency both before and after implementation of Strong Start, the literature-based social skills curriculum. Qualitative data collected included teacher interviews, teacher reflective journals, fidelity check observations, communication logs, and researcher field notes. </p><p> Results showed that while there was a change in scores on the ACES and <i> DIBELS Next</i> assessments from pretest to posttest for all groups and from experimental to control group, scores were not comparatively statistically different. The change in scores could not be attributed to the social-emotional learning curriculum. Gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, nor group had any effect on the scores for the ACES. However, white children did better than "other" students on the letter naming fluency <i>DIBELS Next</i> subtest. Experimental group students did not lose ground in reading, improved their problem-solving skills and enriched their social-emotional vocabulary. The data revealed classroom schedules filled with primarily teacher driven activities, core academics, and structure. Teachers changed their own behaviors by focusing on students' social-emotional skills and behaviors, teaching social-emotional skills formally and explicitly, and by modeling social-emotional skills.</p>

<p>Outdoor spaces for young children are becoming increasingly recognized for their learning potential. A movement has begun to naturalize children's playgrounds. Designers and landscape architects are moving away from large, plastic superstructures, which allow children to climb and slide and instead creating spaces with interesting topography and water features which allow for more open-ended, imaginative play. In this study, research and data collection took place in three phases. Preschool playgrounds in Boulder, Colorado were evaluated using the Kritchevsky, Prescott, and Walling (1977) model to assess structures and layout for complexity and variety. Playgrounds were also assessed using the Preschool Outdoor Environment Measurement Scale (POEMS) developed by the University of North Carolina. In Phase II, four preschools were chosen to examine children's play. These schools were chosen based on their scores from Phase I. Play behaviors were assessed using scan sampling and coded with a modified Parten-Smilansky Play Scale developed by Shim, Herwig and Shelley (2001) as well as the behavior mapping definitions used in Dowdell, Gray and Malone's 2011 research. In conjunction with this data, a case study at Sunflower Preschool observed and interviewed children for a three-week period in the fall of 2013. The findings from this research indicate that the presence of loose parts and natural features may enhance the types of play displayed on playgrounds. This research focused on child-directed play as opposed to curriculum implementation in outdoor spaces and potentially enhances the credibility of programs like Nature Explore, which provides guidelines for creating a play space with less commercialized equipment and more natural features.

<p> This quantitative study explored the differences in paternal and maternal involvement based on the gender of the child, age of the child (between 0-36 months), and developmental domains in an 8 week period after parents received weekly child development intervention offered by a government funded agency in Southern California for parents of infants/toddlers. A total of 60 parents, 30 female and 30 male, participated in the study. Data was collected from weekly "parent participation forms" submitted by parents to the agency for about 6 months prior to the beginning of the study. The findings revealed some important differences in paternal and maternal involvement and rejected many of the existing stereotypes about lack of paternal involvement in young children's lives. Sampled fathers in the study were found to be more involved in developmental activities in most of the 10 domains of development examined by the study. Their involvement included children of both genders and ages (infants, mobile infants, and toddlers). The findings also indicated that maternal involvement was very close to paternal involvement in some domains especially with infants.</p>

<p> At the time of this study, school districts in the United States faced challenges relative to educational accountability, especially in the areas of language arts and mathematics. Research suggested that music held the potential to bolster student engagement and academic achievement to improve reading outcomes for students. An integrated music curriculum was designed and implemented by the researcher to support reading achievement in a Midwestern, suburban elementary school. The purpose of this counterbalanced research design was to examine the effect of an integrated music curriculum upon the reading achievement of kindergarten students. The lesson framework included brain-based and active listening warm-ups, the presentation of literature, an Orff-Schulwerk activity and literacy centers. Quantitative methods were used to answer four hypotheses statements including <i>t</i>-tests for difference in means, <i>z</i>-tests for difference in means, a chi-square tests for difference in variance, and an analysis of variance to determine the effects of the integrated music curriculum. </p><p> Although the quantitative results for three of the null hypotheses were not statistically significant, there were observable changes in the children's motivations and attitudes toward reading. Student growth in the content area of music was shown to be significant. The researcher concluded that music as a content area was valuable on its own, but could also make learning more powerful when utilized in reading instruction and other content areas. The new information gained from this study may help readers find effective ways of using music to enhance reading achievement.</p>