Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal

Development and Interaction of Sensory Systems in Babies

Duygu Akagündüz Eğrikılınç — 2024-08-16

Sense enables babies to perceive the physical and chemical changes that occur in the external environment. It occurs as a result of the dynamic interaction of sensory stimuli with sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin. The stimuli that newborns see, touch, and hear affect their brain development. The brain develops faster in the early years than in other years. Newborns have a vestibular system, proprioceptive sense, neonatal imitation, and special senses that help them understand the world. Some babies’ senses are more sensitive than others. Each baby develops differently. The interaction that the baby will establish with his/her environment early on is invaluable for supporting its development. Their senses are stimulated from birth by the warm intimacy and contact established with the adult and the rich stimulating environment. Stimulation of the senses is critical to supporting the baby’s holistic development. This study discusses the relationship between interaction and the development of the sensory system in babies and offers suggestions for families and educators.

Mapping the Research Landscape in Malaysia: A Bibliometric Analysis of Early Childhood Education and Development Publications

Ee Lynn Cheah — 2024-08-16

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of early childhood education and development research in Malaysia, focusing on articles published in Scopus. Publications included in this study consisted of journal articles, books and book chapters, and conference papers, all of which sampled children between four to seven years old. The resulting publications were cleaned up in Open Refine, then later loaded into Excel and Harzing’s Publish or Perish for analysis. Visualisations were generated using VOSViewer. The aim was to investigate the publication patterns, citation trends, and collaboration networks of researchers in this field. A total of 250 publications from 1988 to 2022 were analyzed, with a significant increase in publication output observed in the last five years (2017-2022). The results revealed 1576 citations, an average of 46.35 citations per year, and 6.30 citations per paper. The h-index and g-index were found to be 21 and 29, respectively, indicating a growing impact of Malaysian early childhood research in the global academic community. Annual collaboration metrics revealed a diverse range of collaborative efforts among researchers, with the Degree of Collaboration and Collaborative Coefficient showing varying degrees of research partnerships. The collaboration network visualization indicated 31 clusters and 95 items, with the largest cluster containing 11 items, highlighting the potential for further interdisciplinary collaborations in the field. Despite the limitations of using a single database (Scopus) and focusing on a specific topic within the Malaysian context, this bibliometric analysis provides valuable insights into the research landscape of early childhood education and development in Malaysia. Future studies could expand the scope to include additional databases, as well as explore emerging research trends and potential areas for collaboration. This study serves as a foundation for understanding the research dynamics in the field, which could help guide future research endeavours and inform policy and practice in early childhood education in Malaysia.

Turkish Preschoolers' Question and Response Interactions During the Evaluation of the day

Dondu Neslihan Bay — 2024-08-16

Research has shown that children's responses differ depending on the questions asked. These differences alter the questions that can be posed to children in an educational environment and the expectations about their possible responses. Understanding children's questions and the abstract level of their answers is key to support their development in this direction. The current study analyzed the questions that 211 five-year-old children in kindergartens and preschools in Turkey asked during the "evaluation of the day" activity and the characteristics of their responses to these questions. Language interactions occurred between children, and 268 questions and 2,574 responses were transcribed. The analysis utilized the coding scheme developed by Bay (2020) with reference to the works of Zucker et al. (2010) and Chen and Liang (2017), which delineate various levels of abstraction. Children's questions were coded according to the four abstraction levels defined and their answers were coded according to the three abstraction levels defined on the coding scheme. The results revealed that children's questions were mainly at the recall level (45.9%), seeking direct information. Their responses to the questions were mainly at the factual level (56%), reflecting the known reality. In addition, it was also found that (a) children least preferred to ask creation questions (5.2%), which were aimed at expressing their original thoughts; (b) children mostly preferred to give realistic responses to recall, inference and creation questions, and personal preference responses to preference questions; and (c) children gave creative responses to creation questions. The research findings provide a foundation for future studies on the nature of children's questions and responses in the coming years.

Investigation of The Relationship Between Preschoolers’ Competition Styles, Anxiety Levels and Their Parents’ Parental Styles

Songül Yıldız — 2024-10-16

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between preschoolers’ competition styles, anxiety levels, and their parents’ parental styles. The sample of the study consists of 400 preschool children and their parents. The Demographic Information Form, Parenting Style Scale, Preschool Competition Questionnaire, and Anxiety Scale for Preschool Children were used as data collection tools in this quantitative survey-based study. As a result of the research, significant negative correlation was found between the task-oriented competition style of preschool children and their generalized anxiety level, separation anxiety, specific phobia anxiety and total anxiety level. A negative significant relationship was found in the other-referenced competition and separation anxiety sub-dimension. A negative significant correlation was found between the maintenance of dominance hierarchy style and specific phobia anxiety and total anxiety. A negative significant relationship was found between democratic parenting style and social anxiety sub-dimension, and total anxiety level. A positive significant relationship was found between parents' authoritarian and overprotective parenting styles and all sub-dimensions of anxiety scale and total anxiety level. There was no significant relationship between permissive parenting style and any of the sub-dimensions of the anxiety scale and total of the anxiety scale. A positive significant relationship was found between democratic parenting style and task-oriented competition style.

Temperament: A Grounded Theory Study On The Formatıon Of Temperament

Vakkas YALÇIN — 2024-10-21

Every baby brings its own temperament with it into the world. Although it is widely accepted by scientists that genetic factors are effective in the formation of temperament, this study aims to examine the possible effects of the pregnancy process on the temperament characteristics of children in line with the experiences of mothers and the role and effects of the father in the pregnancy process and to present a theoretical model explaining this process. The research, which was conducted in the Grounded Theory design, was conducted with a total of 237 mothers consisting of 3 different study groups. The study concluded, important evidence was found that temperament cannot be caused only by biological factors and that the mother's well-being during pregnancy also affects the child's temperament. The study also found that a father supporting the mother during pregnancy (father involvement) was the strongest factor positively influencing the mother's well-being and thus the child's temperament. Based on the research findings, Theoretical Model 1 for temperament formation and Theoretical Model 2 for the father's role in the pregnancy process were presented.

The Factors Influence Intention to Use Parental Control Software Among Malaysian Parents: The UTAUT Model

Nurul Hafizul Mohamed — 2024-10-31

Parental controls are a method of controlling who has access to smart devices because individuals may regulate who else in their family members, particularly younger ones, sees inappropriate websites. Indeed, parental control software provides the ability to select which applications are permitted on online devices, and it may also be used to see content loaded as well as the purpose of device usage among parents towards their child, particularly for educational purposes. In actuality, Malaysian parents have little desire to employ parental control software to monitor their children's gadget activities, particularly for educational purposes. Hence, the primary aim of this research is to ascertain the factors that impact the intention of Malaysian parents to utilize parental control software. The study employs four key variables: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating control. Employing a quantitative methodology, the investigation gathers 374 responses through a Google Form survey. The data is subsequently analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 4.0. The results indicate that both social influence and facilitating control significantly influence the intention to use parental control software. These findings hold the potential to inform government agencies and parental control software developers about the crucial role these two factors play in the development of effective parental control software solutions.

The Mediating Role of Preschoolers’ Reading Attitude on the Relationship Between Physical Literacy Environment and English Phonological Awareness among Private Preschoolers in Johor

Chie Ling Yeo — 2024-10-31

This study examined 374 Malaysian parent-child dyads to explore the mediating role of preschoolers’ reading attitude on the relationship between physical literacy environment and English phonological awareness. Parents provided demographic information and completed a Physical Literacy Environment and Literacy Activities Questionnaire, while children were administered a Phonological Awareness Test and Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modelling. Result from the study revealed that there is no relationship between physical literacy environment and reading attitude. Additionally, reading attitude is not the mediator between physical literacy environment and English phonological awareness. These findings suggest that while the physical literacy environment alone may not strongly influence phonological awareness, its impact can be enhanced when combined with factors like parental involvement and effective utilization of resources at home. Parents should be mindful of maintaining an enriching physical literacy environment, including accessible reading materials, appropriate reading spaces, and organized storage for literacy resources.

The Development and Effectiveness of Interactive Multimedia-Based Nutrition Education Module (IMNEM): A Concept Paper

Susheela Ismail — 2024-10-31

Globally, malnutrition is an issue that has never been overcome, even after a series of efforts by experts, which have never been impressive. The world’s malnutrition burden remains unsatisfactory since malnutrition is solely responsible for more illnesses than other reasons. Malnutrition continues to be a significant problem in Malaysia. The most common manifestation of chronic malnutrition in children is stunting, a lifetime problem for a child in Malaysia. Stunting is an irreversible condition in which a child cannot regain their height in the same way that they can regain weight. Notably, various factors have been identified associated with the risk of stunting among Malaysian children. This includes socio-demographic background, gestational characteristics, maternal and infant diet, feeding practice, illness, and infection. As discovered through the literature review, stunted children face many disabilities, such as learning deficiencies, which affect their productivity for economic prosperity, mostly falling sick more often, losing opportunities to learn, performing poorly in school and growing up to be backward, and more likely to suffer from diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Therefore, this study will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of interactive multimedia-based nutrition education on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) about nutrition, growth monitoring, breastfeeding, and child-feeding practices among mothers with stunted children using the ADDIE model. This study will employ a quasi-experimental research method consisting of control and treatment groups. The study will be conducted in maternal child health clinics in the Seberang Perai district in Pulau Pinang. The population of this study consists of mothers with stunted children under five years old. In this study, convenience sampling will be used to recruit the target population, and the sample size was determined using G*power.

Special Needs Education for The Visually Impaired in Malaysia

Azizah Awang — 2024-11-12

This study examines the development, challenges, and educational approaches for visually impaired children in Malaysia, framed within the goals of inclusive education as outlined by Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Despite progressive policies, significant challenges persist, including limited access to specialized resources, inconsistent quality across regions, and a lack of adequately trained educators. The study aims to explore the historical development of special education for visually impaired children, classify visual impairments, and examine various learning mediums. Using a qualitative literature review, data were collected from academic and government source. Findings reveal notable gaps in resource allocation and instructional frameworks, especially in rural areas, where visually impaired children face greater educational barriers. The study’s implications underscore the need for standardized frameworks and increased resource distribution to ensure equitable access to quality education. Future research should address the long-term impact of dual media learning and investigate best practices from global contexts to enhance Malaysia’s approach to visual impairment education. Aligned with SDG 4, the findings advocate for collaborative efforts between educators, policymakers, and community stakeholders to create an educational landscape where visually impaired children can fully engage and thrive academically and socially.