Mixed-Age Interactions in Family Child Care

Dunn, Loraine; Kontos, Susan; Potter, LaWanda

doi:10.1207/s15566935eed0704_3

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Yet participants mirrored the sentiment of Reggio teachers by responding according to each child's developmental level. The participant's results are confirmed by Dunn, Kontos, and Potter's (1996) research indicating that mixed-age interactions with an older child were associated with more complex play and language, especially with responsive caregivers.…”

Section: Responsivenesssupporting

confidence: 60%

“…Since the participants cared for children of varying ages, subject matter woven into play episodes was influenced by developmental levels (mathematics and science would be experienced differently by three year olds and six year olds playing together). Dunn et al's (1996) study of play in family childcare found that mixed-age settings influenced the complexity of social and cognitive play, and that responsive caregivers' positive interactions with children influenced both play and language development. The present study also found responsive providers who fostered complex play episodes in multi-age groups.…”

Section: Children's Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky, and Family Childcare: Four American Providers Describe their Pedagogical Practice

Freeman¹

2011

Child Care in Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This case study considers pedagogical techniques used in family childcare to promote children's learning experiences. Data extracted from an earlier study were used to inform this examination of four family childcare providers' pedagogy. In the current study, I use socio-cultural theory and the Reggio Emilia approach to address the following research question: how do family childcare providers describe learning experiences of children in their care? Four themes emerged from the data: responsiveness to children, children's play, reflective thinking, and didactic teaching. The study indicated that providers' work is informal, but nonetheless these caregivers follow a natural, experiential learning, along with more didactic practices common to traditional classrooms.

show abstract

Section: Responsivenesssupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Children's Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky, and Family Childcare: Four American Providers Describe their Pedagogical Practice

Freeman¹

2011

Child Care in Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Specifically, mixed-age groups may benefit younger children yet have no effect or even a negative effect on older children (e.g., Bailey, Burchinal, & McWilliam, 1993; Dunn, Kontos, & Potter, 1996; Winsler et al, 2002). To this point, Justice, Petscher, Schatschneider, and Mashburn (2011) recently emphasized the importance of considering a child’s reference status—that is, his or her skills in relation to those of his or her classmates—in understanding how classroom composition may be influential to children’s growth in language skills.…”

Section: Classroom Age Composition and Language Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classroom Age Composition and Vocabulary Development Among At-Risk Preschoolers

Guo

Tompkins

Justice

et al. 2014

Early Education and Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research Findings The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between classroom age composition and preschoolers’ vocabulary gains over an academic year and also to examine whether these relations were moderated by classroom quality. In this study (N = 130 children in 16 classrooms representing a subset of all children enrolled in these classrooms), results showed a significant cross-level interaction between classroom age composition and children’s age, suggesting positive effects of greater variance in classroom age composition for younger but not older children. The interaction between behavior management (1 dimension of classroom quality) and classroom age composition was also significant, indicating that a wider distribution of classroom age composition was positively related to children’s vocabulary gains within classrooms characterized by better behavior management. Practice or Policy Findings underscore the importance of children’s social interactions with more knowledgeable conversational partners in promoting their vocabulary development and signify the need to help teachers learn how to manage children’s behaviors so as to provide a classroom that is optimal for child learning.

show abstract

“…Second, young children's knowledge levels are very hard to access using a measure that relies on children's language skills. Third, based on earlier studies we were able to construct a systematic observation scheme to distinguish simple from more complex levels of exploratory play (Dunn, Kontos, & Potter, 1996;Rubenstein & Howes, 1979;Smilansky, 1968). The so called Exploratory Play Scale (EPS) enabled us to measure differences in level of exploratory play between the experimental and control group.…”

Section: Our Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We developed the Exploratory Play Scale (EPS) based on existing play scales (Dunn et al, 1996;Rubenstein & Howes, 1979;Smilansky, 1968) and literature on exploration (Lindahl & Pramling Samuelsson, 2002;Weisler & McCall, 1976). The EPS consists of four levels of increasingly difficult exploratory interaction with the physical environment.…”

Section: Measure -Exploratory Play Scale (Eps)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A sciencing programme and young children's exploratory play in the sandpit

Schijndel

Singer

Maas

et al. 2010

European Journal of Developmental Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A six-week sciencing programme, directed at stimulating exploratory play, was implemented with 2-and 3-year-olds in a day-care centre. The core of the programme consisted of guided play with children in the centre's sandpit. The effectiveness of the programme was determined with ecologically valid methods consisting of pre-and post-observations of children's exploratory behaviour during free sandpit play in the experimental group as well as in a control group. A systematic observation scheme for exploratory play, the Exploratory Play Scale, was used for this purpose. The experimental group showed an increase in level of exploratory play from pre-to post-observations, while the control group did not. This study shows that a small-scale sciencing programme can have an effect on children's level of free exploratory play.

show abstract

Mixed-Age Interactions in Family Child Care

Cited by 11 publications

References 28 publications

Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky, and Family Childcare: Four American Providers Describe their Pedagogical Practice

Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky, and Family Childcare: Four American Providers Describe their Pedagogical Practice

Classroom Age Composition and Vocabulary Development Among At-Risk Preschoolers

A sciencing programme and young children's exploratory play in the sandpit

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About