Pre-Primary Sources

This is technically part 2 of a conversation about toilet learning-- check That Early Childhood Nerd # 418 for the companion episode.   References: Aggelpol, T. Information as a crucial factor for toilet training by parents Al-Hazmi, H. H. Age of Initiation and the Factors Associated with Toilet Training in Healthy Saudi Children Axelrod, M. I. Psychological differences between toilet trained and...

Bloom's Taxonomy-- Lisa felt like she discovered fire, Tiffany thought it was ... and who said you have to Maslow before you can Bloom first? We talk about classifying knowledge, seeing people learning, and what it means to learn.   Sources: Benjamin, L. J., 2006 American psychology’s struggles with its curriculum: Should a thousand flowers Bloom? Training and education in professional psychology,...

Richard Cohen from Zen and the Art of Early Childhood joins Lizz Nolasco to talk about what egocentrism really means, and how it impacts practice in early childhood settings. See the Mountains Task here: Piaget's Mountains Task - YouTube Talk nerdy with all of That Early Childhood Nerdwork! Get access to the Discord and more at https://patreon.com/EarlyChildhoodNerdworkbyThatEarlyChildhoodNerd  

Em Clark, from Liberating Childhood, is on to talk about reading research-- who can do it (everyone!), why it's important, and how to get started. Get started at liberatingchildhood.org!   Did you know you can support the hosting costs of The Early Childhood Nerdwork on Patreon, and get Discord access to talk nerdy with like-minded folks too? https://patreon.com/EarlyChildhoodNerdworkbyThatEarlyCh...

If you spend time with young children, invariably you will at some point get into conversations about screen time-- the detriments, maybe some benefits, and definitely some judgements, no matter where you land. In this episode, Bethany and I discuss our own experiences with digital media as educators and parents, and some perhaps surprising information that may influence how we're looking at the h...

We're back with Tiffany Pearsall! In part one, we talked about creativity; but a lot of the information out there is really about coloring pages and mental health. Where does using this research fit in with ethical practice in early childhood settings? What are our responsibilities and professional scope of practice? And of course, where do coloring pages fit in a setting that wants to offer child...

Dr. Denisha Jones, of Defending the Early Years (DEY) and I discuss the 2024 publication from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine called A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum; in particular, we look at Chapter 4: Developing High-Quality, Equitable Preschool Curricula, and discuss what real commitment to equitable education looks like, and who should be developi...

In the enormous child care care ecosystem conversation, there is an idea that one to one care, like a nanny, parent, or grandparent, is ideal until a child is three years old, at which point they are able to "benefit" from being in a group with other children. We look at this claim, the idea that group care is either not beneficial or actively detrimental, and talk about what quality of care reall...

While there isn't often a hard and fast rule, coloring pages are often looked at as "busy work" or as having no place in a child led classroom, with beliefs about the potential for negative impact on children's creativity and discovery. Why would a child want to learn to draw independently if we have pages already made with all of the pictures they could want to draw! Surprisingly, there's very li...

The Reggio Emilia approach values the idea of the teacher as researcher; program director Alexandra Dutton, of Old Firehouse School, has nearly 20 years of experience supporting educators in their role as researcher of their own group of children.    Find Fireside Chats on the Young Mind wherever you get your podcasts!

Before we talk about specific research in early childhood, I wanted to talk about the history of the institution of science-- how it has served to both expand human knowledge and block out those it has deemed "unfit" to be in its halls, how unintentional bias and purposeful bigotry have made and maintained their way in, and how modern scholars can work to expand the canon of what we know and how w...

Coming soon: Pre-Primary Sources!