This review article provides an overview of studies highlighting the importance of sleep in young children’s development and summarizes research-based strategies for implementing healthy sleep practices. Sleep problems are common among young children and is one of the most commonly expressed concerns reported by caregivers. Insufficient sleep, poor sleep quality, and irregular sleep schedules may affect children’s physical health, cognitive capacity, socioemotional processes, and behavioral functioning, with implications for children’s development and well-being. Family context and factors, confounded with cultural variables, play a critical role in children’s sleep behavior and practices. This article presents research-based recommendations to enhance knowledge about children’s sleep and to promote appropriate practices.

This case study of classroom practice examined what preservice teachers learned about young children’s metacognitive thinking processes and constructivist pedagogy through a classroom project. Thirty preservice teachers engaged in a semester-long metacognitive project in which they conducted four sessions with a group of young children. The project was designed to help preservice teachers to foster young children’s metacognitive thinking processes and to become reflective about their roles as constructivist teachers. Their final reflections on the metacognitive project experience were analyzed through the theoretical lens of Kroll and Ammon’s dimensions of constructivist teacher education. These preservice teachers demonstrated understanding of the key ideas of metacognition and constructivist teaching, including understanding the role of representation in knowledge construction process, building an autonomous learning community, articulating children’s knowledge-building processes, and engaging in the cycle of reflective teaching practices. They understood the importance of children’s metacognitive thinking in the construction of knowledge and how to adapt their roles as learning partners.

This study examined the effects of receiving multiple intervention services on the language, literacy, and general development of preschool children from low-income families. By employing a hierarchical linear model on a sample of 1436 children, developmental outcomes of four-year-old children receiving varying numbers of intervention services were compared: Pre-Kindergarten only (pre-K), pre-K + Early Reading First (ERF), and pre-K + ERF + Head Start. Results indicated that the additive ERF service was related to gains in alphabet knowledge. Being in classrooms with the three intervention programmes was negatively associated with receptive vocabulary knowledge and name writing skills. Participating in additional intervention programmes was not a significant predictor of any of the general developmental outcomes.