Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Family & Community Relationships
Amanda Dohms · WisTech Open · 2025
Build skills for engaging families and communities in early childhood education settings.
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Why play works: Conceptual PlayWorlds inspiring learning, imagination and creativity in education
Marilyn Fleer; Kelly-Ann Allen; Anne Clerc-Georgy; Leigh Disney · Monash University · 2024
The focus of this textbook is on play and learning through a Conceptual PlayWorld. This evidence informed model helps teachers to plan innovative practices relevant for a range of discipline concepts. The teachers and children after reading/hearing a children’s book or nursery rhyme or fairytale jump into the story as characters from the book/story, go on adventures, meet challenges that they solve and return to the real world enriched, and excited to go back in for another adventure (potentially bringing with them things they have learned to enrich their play). The 5 characteristics of planning for a Conceptual PlayWorld are: 1) Selecting a story, 2) Designing an imaginary play space; 3) Planning an exciting entry and entry into that space; 4) Planning a problem that the characters of the story (children in role) will meet and need to solve using concepts; 5) Planning the role of the adults in the imaginary play. This evidence-informed model forms the foundation of each chapter in the book. Students will learn: ● what is a Conceptual PlayWorld ● the research that underpins a Conceptual PlayWorld ● how to plan and implement a Conceptual PlayWorld ● how to contextualise a Conceptual PlayWorld for specific ages, contexts and discipline content ● how to assess and make learning visible in a Conceptual PlayWorld ● to be leaders and innovators by designing creative and imaginative programs using a Conceptual PlayWorld model of pedagogical practice ● the utility of Conceptual PlayWorlds for creativity, imagination, and wellbeing.
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Understanding the Whole Child: Prenatal Development through Adolescence
Jennifer Paris; Antoinette Ricardo; Dawn Rymond · College of the Canyons · 2021
An Open Educational Resources Publication by College of the Canyons
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The Roles and Responsibilities of the Special Educator
Paula Lombardi · University of New Hampshire · 2023
This book is evolving into a book by and for teacher candidates pursuing licensing in Elementary, General Special Education, and Early Childhood Special Education in New Hampshire and surrounding New England states. These teacher candidates share their knowledge about teaching PreK-12 learners with disabilities and the many roles and responsibilities of the case manager/special educator.
![Children, Families, Schools, and Communities [Revised Edition]](/api/files/covers/otl-1630.webp)
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Children, Families, Schools, and Communities [Revised Edition]
Joan Giovannini · ROTEL · 2023
Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an introductory text in the field of Child and Family Studies. It provides a lens for understanding the evolving definition of “family” through socially constructed and ecological theory frameworks. It promotes strategies for culturally sustaining and deeply collaborative relationships between families, schools, and communities through the use of home-grown advocacy strategies based on community-driven data. Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an adapted OER text from Rebecca Laff’s and Wendy Ruiz’s Child, Family, and Community.
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The Whole Child: Development in the Early Years
Deirdre Budzyna; Doris Buckley · ROTEL · 2023
The Whole Child is a textbook that gives an overview of development, beginning in the mother’s womb through the age of eight. It starts with a look at perspectives of early childhood, including how children have been viewed historically as well as cross-culturally. There is a complete overview of the important theorists that have helped to deepen and bring clarity to how children develop. These theories include psychodynamic, behavioral, social cognitive theory, cognitive theory, humanistic, multiple intelligence, growth mindset, and Bloom’s taxonomy. Understanding the implications of each theory is important foundational knowledge for the study of development. Developmental domains at each stage is examined alongside important milestones. The biology of the brain is given important consideration. Some of the many factors that influence a young child’s development are also included in this text.
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Early Childhood Literacy: Engaging and Empowering Emergent Readers and Writers, Birth – Age 5
Christine Pegorraro Schull; Leslie La Croix; Sara Miller; Kimberly Austin · Virginia's Academic Library Consortium (VIVA) · 2021
This textbook, Early Childhood Literacy: Engaging and Empowering Emergent Readers and Writers Birth-Age 5, outlines the connection between different areas of language and literacy and describes strategies for supporting development and promoting instruction. Early literacy includes reading, writing, and language development. Writing includes any early writing attempts and pre-writing behaviors just as reading includes any early reading attempts and recognition of symbols and sounds. Language also includes listening and speaking (oral language) and the use of gestures and signs to communicate. The term oral language is commonly used to describe early language development separately from reading and writing. This text assumes oral language is a component of language and embraces the broader term to underscore the communication practices outside of listening and speaking. For example, some children use sign language or a picture board. For these reasons, the textbook will focus on language development in its totality, including oral language. This textbook is focused on birth to age 5 because early literacy development is crucial for future learning and development.
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Mathematics Methods for Early Childhood
Janet Stramel · Fort Hays State University · 2021
Welcome to Early Childhood Mathematics! This course satisfies the Early Childhood Unified requirements in the state of Kansas for a teaching license Birth to Grade 3. Most people agree that early childhood includes the period from infancy until eight years of age, characterized by rapid and complex growth in physical, cognitive, and social domains. Math skills must be taught in early childhood. Children should be provided a foundation to succeed in elementary school and beyond. Teachers should focus lessons in early childhood around the basic skills that will help to advance future mathematics. From preschool to the end of elementary school, children are setting the foundation for future life skills. Learning mathematics is “a ‘natural’ and developmentally appropriate activity for young children” (Ginsberg, Lee, and Boyd, 2008). Through their everyday interactions with the world, many children develop informal concepts about space, quantity, size, patterns, and operations. Unfortunately, not all children have the same opportunities to build these informal and foundational concepts of mathematics in their day-to-day lives (Sherman-LeVos, 2010). Young children are naturally curious, and the best time to begin mathematics is at a time while the young child’s brain is rapidly developing. Mathematics in early childhood helps children develop critical thinking and reasoning skills early on and it’s the key to the foundation for success in their formal schooling years.
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Teaching Early and Elementary STEM
Alissa Lange; Laura Robertson; Jamie Price; Amie Craven · East Tennessee State University · 2021
This Open Access Educational textbook, "Teaching Early and Elementary STEM", was written to support pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in their journey to become facilitators of science, technology, engineering, and math, or “STEM,” and "integrated STEM" in their future classrooms. Students who read and use this text will deepen their understanding of “STEM” and “integrated STEM,” learn what early childhood and elementary students need to know and be able to do in relation to STEM, and understand ways to create activity plans and implement current research-based approaches to teaching and pedagogy. This text arose out of our Early/Elementary STEM Collaboration project, which started in 2017 with the intention of increasing the quality of teacher preparation in STEM across early childhood and elementary education. The team is composed of math and science education professors, classroom in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers in pre-school through fifth grade. We are driven by the values of collaboration, strengths-based approaches to teaching and learning, constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning, and applied STEM experiences to increase access and equity. Our model of preparing pre-service teachers has been published elsewhere in more detail (Robertson, Nivens, & Lange, 2019). We built this open access product to include the following: 1) completely new content that includes input from our team as well as examples of integrated STEM learning experiences; 2) adaptations of existing resources, and; 3) compilations of existing free resources (e.g., Next Generation Science Standards).
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Trauma Informed Behaviour Support: A Practical Guide to Developing Resilient Learners
Kay Ayre; Govind Krishnamoorthy · University of Southern Queensland · 2020
If we want to impact the world of children who have experienced trauma then we must change not only ourselves and our classroom, but we must change our schools, our organisations, and our systems of care for children. We must all speak out for these children who have no voice to bring awareness of new educational and mental health approaches to children who will become tomorrow’s failed adults unless they receive our understanding and our help. For whatever reason you have been attracted to this book, you have come to the right place. You may at times put it down and wonder if the challenge is too great, but trust me it is not. If you stay engaged with this book and with a child who has experienced trauma then you will learn new understandings, new ideas and new ways to reach the mind, the heart and the soul of young people who need our support and our love.
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Parenting and Family Diversity Issues
Diana Lang · Iowa State University · 2020
This book has been created for students and all individuals who work with children and families (e.g., educators, parents, caregivers, direct support workers, etc.) in diverse contexts. It is imperative to understand how and what factors may influence child outcomes across the lifespan. Therefore, key concepts related to parenting, child-rearing, care-giving, and parenting education are outlined in this textbook to provide historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives across vast settings and developmental domains.
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El Niño Entero: Desarrollo en los Primeros Años — Translation of The Whole Child
Deirdre Budzyna; Doris Buckley; Sharline Del Rosario · ROTEL · 2024
El Niño Entero es un libro de texto de Psicología Infantil o Crecimiento y Desarrollo Infantil que es a la vez completo y conciso. Los estudiantes no necesitan un volumen extenso para digerir, pero sí necesitan una comprensión sólida de cómo se desarrolla un niño pequeño. Sólo con esta comprensión pueden surgir prácticas apropiadas para el desarrollo en el aula y en otros lugares que sean espacios de amor y cuidado para los niños pequeños. Con el costo creciente de los libros de texto, este libro de texto es un recurso para los instructores que buscan encontrar materiales accesibles y de calidad para nuestros estudiantes.The Whole Child is a textbook for Child Psychology or Child Growth and Development that is both comprehensive and concise. Students do not need a lengthy volume to digest, but they do need a strong understanding of how a young child develops. Only with this understanding can developmentally appropriate practice emerge in the classroom and in other places that are loving and caring spaces for young children. With the rising cost of textbooks, this textbook is a resource for instructors looking to find quality, accessible materials for our students.
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Habilidades Perceptivas: Mejorando el Aprendizaje Remoto en Estudiantes de 5 años
Esther Glory Terrazo-Luna; Daker Riveros-Anccasi; Christian Luis Torres-Acevedo; Angel Epifanio Rojas-Quispe · Editorial Grupo AEA · 2023
La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo determinar el nivel de relación entre las habilidades perceptivas y el aprendizaje de la matemática de los niños y las niñas de 5 años de una Institución Educativa de Huancavelica, en la educación remota. El diseño empleado fue el correlacional y la muestra lo conformaron 46 estudiantes de 5 años de una institución de educación inicial de Huancavelica. Los instrumentos empleados fueron, la lista de cotejo para cada variable con 30 ítems. Los resultados evidencian que existe relación estadísticamente significativa entre las habilidades perceptivas y el aprendizaje de la matemática en los estudiantes de 5 años de una institución educativa de Huancavelica, en la educación remota. Estos resultados cuantitativos, con un r=0.75, representan una correlación positiva moderada, según el cuadro de índices de correlación de Hernández, Fernández y Baptista (2018)
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Desarrollo del Pensamiento Creativo: mediante Juegos Libres para Niños
Esther Glory Terrazo-Luna; Daker Riveros-Anccasi; Abel Gonzales-Castro; Juan José Oré-Rojas · Editorial Grupo AEA · 2023
Este trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo evaluar la eficacia de los juegos libres en el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo en los estudiantes de 5 años de la Institución Educativa Nº 329 de Huancavelica. La metodología de los juegos libres ofrece una educación dinámica y activa en los estudiantes, la cual incentiva el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo en los estudiantes de 5 años, a través de un mayor sentido de seguridad y confianza en sí mismos. Esta metodología se realizó en un ambiente motivador y áreas libres, centrándose en la participación dinámica y motivadora, con el fin de fortalecer sus capacidades y habilidades, buscando que ellos desarrollen un aprendizaje autónomo. Con los resultados obtenidos se puede afirmar que los juegos libres favorecen directamente en el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo en los niños de 5 años, toda vez que t de Student con 53 grados de libertad, para muestras independientes, con una significancia del 5%, muestra un valor de 0.038 el cual es inferior al valor planteado, aceptando la hipótesis alternativa como válida.
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Public Health 101
Erin Calderone · Glendale Community College
In the contents: 3.02: Early Community Health Measures · 8.05: Educational Access and Quality · 8.5.01: Early Childhood Development and Education
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Children's Programs Administration
Jennifer Marta & Hannah Knott · Coalinga College
In the contents: 1.10.03: Educational Philosophy · 1.10.25: Staff Member Knowledge and Education · 1.15: Early Childhood Skill Checklist
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Lifespan Development A Psychological Perspective 4e
Martha Lally & Suzanne Valentine-French · College of Lake County
In the contents: 04: Early Childhood · 4.01: Prelude to Early Childhood · 4.08: Cognitive Development in Early Childhood
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ECD Principles and Practices
Alice Hale · Chabot College
In the contents: 1.01: Chabot's Course of Study in Early Childhood Development · 1.04: NAEYC Standards of Early Childhood Professional Preparation · 02: The Early Childhood Teacher
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CH DEV 034 Observing And Recording Children's Behavior
Ancelma Sanchez · East Los Angeles College
In the contents: 01: Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education (Peterson and Elam) · 1.2.07: Measuring High-Quality in Early Care and Education Classrooms · 2.07: Measuring High-Quality in Early Care and Education Classrooms
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Infant and Toddler Care and Development
Kim Laplante · Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
In the contents: 1.03: What does Care and Education of Infants and Toddlers mean · 1.04: Guiding Principles of Infant and Toddler Care and Education · 1.05: Why is Care and Education with Infants and Toddlers Important