Young Children’s Home Learning Environment During COVID-19 Pandemic

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis presents tremendous challenges for early childhood education (ECE). Neither parents nor programs were prepared for these. Young children have had their daily routines disrupted at home and in nonparental ECE arrangements. Their parents face unprecedented stresses from the pandemic including working from home, travel restrictions, lost income, and difficulties providing for basic needs. In addition, many are supporting the remote learning activities that ECE programs have sponsored when classrooms are closed. These changes may have inevitable consequences for young children’s cognitive, social-emotional and physical development. Moreover, these consequences are likely to vary by child and family characteristics with the most deleterious for the most disadvantaged.

This session gathers studies that focus on pandemic-related changes in children’s home learning environments (HLE) in four countries: USA, China, Germany, and South Korea. Paper 1 reports on home learning activities for children ages 3-5 during the pandemic including the influences of remote learning supports by preschool programs when classrooms are closed in USA. Paper 2 describes the HLE of families with kindergarten children (ages 3-5) in China in the pandemic in comparison to 2019. Paper 3 explores the HLE and preschoolers’ emotional and behavioural well-being in the pandemic in Germany. Paper 4 examines the pandemic’s impact on Korean children’s preschool education and HLE. The session will allow for cross-national comparisons and contrasts that can help the field understand the consequences of the pandemic for early learning and development potentially informing best practices for family and ECE support.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Chair

• Amy Jo Dowd, LEGO Foundation

Individual Presentations

• Young Children’s Preschool Participation Experiences and Home Learning During the Pandemic in USA - Presenting Author: William S Barnett, Rutgers University - New Brunswick; Non-Presenting Author: Kwanghee Jung, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Kindergarten Children’s Home Learning During the Pandemic in China - Non-Presenting Author: Jin Huang, East China Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Zijia Li, Rutgers University - New Brunswick; Presenting Author: Lin Li, East China Normal University

• Preschoolers’ Emotional and Behavioural Wellbeing in a Pandemic and the Home Learning Environment's Role - Presenting Author: Simone Lehrl, University of Bamberg; Non-Presenting Author: Frank Niklas, LMU Munich

• Young Children’s Home Learning Activities During the Pandemic in South Korea - Presenting Author: Wonsoon Park, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education; Non-Presenting Author: Eunyoung Kim, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education; Non-Presenting Author: Eunyoung Park, Korea Institute of Child Care and Education