Kate E Williams

Self-regulation is arguably the most critical predictor of school readiness, academic achievement, and lifelong well-being. Large-scale longitudinal studies have shown that stronger self-regulation acts as a buffer against adverse development. It is therefore essential to identify effective strategies and interventions that focus on enhancing self-regulation in young children. In this chapter, we introduce a classroom intervention named Rhythm and Movement for Self-Regulation (RAMSR). Drawing on rhythmic movement activities, this innovative program has been proven effective in fostering emotional, behavioral, and cognitive self-regulation in preschool-aged children. The chapter is divided into seven sections. First, we define the notion of self-regulation, its various components, and justify its crucial role during early childhood education. Second, we describe the rationale and inspiration behind RAMSR, drawing from the experience of its designer. The third session provides a detailed overview of the structure and four lesson plans of RAMSR. In the fourth session, we briefly review studies focusing on the development, implementation, and evaluation of RAMSR, and describe how it has been tailored to Asian contexts. Our team in Hong Kong designed an online professional development (PD) course, with the RAMSR intervention materials translated into Chinese, and trained teachers from seven kindergartens, who implemented RAMSR as part of an experimental study. We conducted individual interviews with several teachers to gain insights into various aspects of children’s progress, including their reactions, development in self-regulation, and their overall learning and development. In the fifth section, we synthesize teachers’ perspectives on RAMSR as a music and movement resource and its impact on children. In the sixth section, we justify the reasons why RAMSR is particularly suitable in preschools across East and Southeast Asian countries and recommend preschool teachers implement it in their classrooms. Finally, the seventh section provides practical tips to allow partitioners to implement RAMSR.

Sleep and temperament represent key behaviours in early childhood that reflect underlying individual constitutional differences and influence each other, and many developmental processes over time. This chapter aims to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the early childhood temperament field including definitions, history, and measurement issues. An overview of the key findings in regards to early sleep behaviours and temperament interactions across the first 5 years of life is provided, and the important role of the parenting environment is briefly explained. While there remain a number of challenges to overcome in the field, two key areas are further developed here. Future work should aim to increase our understanding about why early sleep and temperament are linked, and about the mechanisms involved in transactional developmental systems involving sleep, temperament, genes, and the parenting environment. Multi-disciplinary and creative modelling approaches will be needed to advance the field which should seek to create translatable research findings for the early childhood health and education sectors. Research should contribute to identifying children at the highest risk of ongoing sleep and social-emotional adjustment problems, and address these with appropriately targeted prevention and intervention strategies that support parents, educators, and health practitioners in their roles.

Sing & Grow is an early intervention music therapy programme for families with children from birth to 3 years of age, who are socially, economically, or physically disadvantaged. It aims to improve parenting skills and confidence, promote positive parent–child interactions, stimulate child development, and provide social networking opportunities. Music and song activities are used in a therapeutic context to enhance parenting skills, improve parent–child interactions, provide essential developmental stimulation for children, promote social support for parenting, and strengthen links between parents and community services.