Aline-Wendy Dunlop – författare

All children are born with emotional talent. But if left untended, those talents can wane during the first five years of life. Children are sensitive and social beings from birth, exhibiting an innate enthusiasm for communication that must be satisfied for healthy development. If their feelings, agency, and motivations are met with affection, if they are respected and nurtured, then children will respond creatively and that inherent desire for companionship will flourish. However, with the recent changes in political and educational systems, early years education has seen a decline in focus on the emotional wellbeing of children and the development of their creativity. Those systems need to adapt if educators are to bring out the best in our future generations. By nurturing creativity and emotional wellbeing in the first five years of life, long term social benefits can be wrought. The book focusses on children's readiness for learning. It addresses the natural joy explicit in children's early conversations and engagement with music and their development through play with both adults and other children. This kind of education allows children to develop their bodies and skills, accept and understand their feelings, build relationships, and progress both their imagination and their problem solving skills. In this way, play with others drives development.With contributors from the fields of psychological, educational, and political spheres, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned for the future of our children.

An increased emphasis on an early start in group day care and educational settings for young children means that by the time children enter statutory education, they may already have had several transitional experiences: each will have an impact.

This book explores early transitions from a variety of international perspectives. Each chapter is informed by rigorous research and makes recommendations on how education professionals can better understand and support transitions in the early years. Contributors examine issues such as:

Parental involvement in the transition to schoolChildren's voices on the transition to primary schoolThe construction of identity in the early yearsReaders will be able to draw support, guidance and inspiration from the different writers to scaffold their own thinking and development in relation to children’s transitions. Ample opportunities are offered for readers to gain confidence and competence in dealing with the range of people involved in transitions, and to the benefit of everyone, not least the children, whose ‘transitions capital’ will grow.

Informing Transitions in the Early Years is essential reading for early years students, practitioners, policy makers and researchers.

By the time young children enter statutory education, they may have already attended a number of different educational settings, from entry to group settings outside home, to joining playgroup or nursery school. Each of these experiences is likely to affect children's capacity to adjust and to learn.This book focuses on children's experiences of personal and curricular transitions in early childhood. The authors are all academics with international reputations in the field of early childhood education. They draw on their research in Europe, Australasia and the USA to consider issues such as:*the optimum environment and appropriate pedagogy for young children's learning*how children, parents and educators cope with the transition from home to the first educational settings*the ways in which professionals can better support and empower children in transitionThe perspectives of children, parents and early years educators are all considered and case study examples are used throughout.This book will be essential reading for anyone involved in working with young children and their families, including students on early years courses, early years practitioners and early years policy makers.

By the time young children enter statutory education, they may have already attended a number of different educational settings, from entry to group settings outside home, to joining playgroup or nursery school. Each of these experiences is likely to affect children's capacity to adjust and to learn.This book focuses on children's experiences of personal and curricular transitions in early childhood. The authors are all academics with international reputations in the field of early childhood education. They draw on their research in Europe, Australasia and the USA to consider issues such as:*the optimum environment and appropriate pedagogy for young children's learning*how children, parents and educators cope with the transition from home to the first educational settings*the ways in which professionals can better support and empower children in transitionThe perspectives of children, parents and early years educators are all considered and case study examples are used throughout.This book will be essential reading for anyone involved in working with young children and their families, including students on early years courses, early years practitioners and early years policy makers.

Research into early childhood transitions has become a field in its own right. It is increasingly understood that a positive start in any new setting can influence the child’s engagement, sense of belonging, well-being, progression in learning, and agency, and may be dependent on the insight of educators and families, and yet there is no research methodology or research methods book dedicated to this growing field of study. Including 27 chapters written by researchers from the UK, New Zealand, the USA, Sweden, Iceland, Australia and Canada this handbook presents an overview of the field exploring its current debates, reflects on its history, and offers suggestions for the future of the field. This book is an essential reference point for anyone studying or undertaking research into transitions in early childhood.