Vplivi na obisk gozda v splošnih in gozdnih vrtcih

Preschool children spend a large part of their everyday life in kindergartens, so it is necessary to include visits to the forest, which is the most extensive natural environment in Slovenia, in preschool childcare programs. Based on surveys with preschool teachers of public kindergartens in Slovenia (N = 133), we analysed the habits, purposes, barriers and concerns associated with visiting the forest. The frequency and duration of forest visits largely depend on the distance of the forest from the kindergarten. The habits of forest visits among forest kindergartens which are included in the Network of Forest Kindergartens organized by the Institute of Forest Pedagogy do not differ significantly from that of general public kindergartens. They differ mainly with respect to the frequency of visitation in bad weather and the purpose of visitation. The main concerns when visiting the forest are ticks, fear of injury, and the children having inappropriate equipment. The reasons for less frequent forest visitation include different pedagogical priorities of the kindergartens and lack of support from the management and parents, which highlight the need for the strategic promotion and implementation of forest visitation in preschool education.

Fostering the Emotional Well-Being of our Youth

Fostering the Emotional Well-Being of Our Youth: A School-Based Approach is an edited work that details best practices in comprehensive school mental health services based upon a dual-factor model of mental health that considers both psychological wellness and mental illness. In the introduction, the editors respond to the question: Are our students all right? Then, each of the text’s 24 chapters (five sections) describes empirically sound and practical ways that professionals can foster supportive school climates and implement evidence-based universal interventions to promote well-being and prevent and reduce mental health problems in young people. Topics include conceptualizing and framing youth mental health through a dual-factor model; building culturally responsive schools; implementing positive behavior interventions and supports; inculcating social-emotional learning within schools impacted by trauma; creating a multidisciplinary approach to foster a positive school culture and promote students’ mental health; preventing school violence and advancing school safety; cultivating student engagement and connectedness; creating resilient classrooms and schools; strengthening preschool, childcare and parenting practices; building family–school partnerships; promoting physical activity, nutrition, and sleep; teaching emotional self-regulation; promoting students’ positive emotions, character, and purpose; building a foundation for trauma-informed schools; preventing bullying; supporting highly mobile students; enfranchising socially marginalized students; preventing school failure and school dropout; providing evidence-based supports in the aftermath of a crisis; raising the emotional well-being of students with anxiety and depression; implementing state-wide practices that promote student wellness and resilience; screening for academic, behavioral, and emotional health; and accessing targeted and intensive mental health services.

Strengthening the Quality of Preschool, Childcare, and Parenting

Early childhood is a critical period during which children learn to regulate and manage emotions and behaviors, develop and maintain social relationships, and interact effectively with others. In this chapter, the authors describe research-based supports for young children’s emotional well-being and positive behavior, promising strategies and interventions used in early care and education settings, the well-being of early childhood educators that impacts children’s emotional competence, and the importance of engaging families in promoting children’s emotional well-being and positive behavior. This chapter uses a systemic lens and emphasizes the importance of collaborative partnerships between parents and early childhood educators in supporting young children’s emotional well-being and positive behavior.

Teacher compassionate touch in a Japanese preschool

This paper examines the discursive, embodied, and sequential organization of preschool teachers’ compassionate touch in interaction: physically touching a child so as to soothe and relieve the child’s distress. Utilizing multimodal conversation analysis, episodes of compassionate touch were identified and transcribed from a corpus of 48 hours of audio-visual recordings in a Japanese preschool. The analysis focuses on such touch within situations of peer conflict and accidents during play. It shows how compassionate touch was used with verbal resources and communicative practices, examines their positioning within sequences of interaction, and discusses children’s responses. The findings attempt to further our understanding of affective touch in children’s sociality and preschool childcare.

Early Childhood Care and Education Policies that Make a Difference

In split systems, where childcare has historically been separated from preschool, childcare has only recently been recognized for its educational potential. Paradoxically, now that its potential for children, parents, and communities is widely recognized, accessibility, affordability and quality are under pressure. Based on—mostly European—research, we analyse structural barriers that explain unequal take-up of childcare. We look, among others, at issues of lack of places, geographical disparities, and costs. We also look at educational process quality, especially for the youngest children. In so doing, we analyze how policies affect these issues and find that policies that consider childcare as an integral part of public early childhood care and education yield better results. In contrast, the commodification (privatisation) of childcare with its shift from supply side to demand-side funding risks to hinder accessibility and to lower quality.