Consistent, prolonged, and nurturing interactions of a primary caregiver with an infant is necessary for optimal development of the infant. Lowering parental stress can promote positive caregiver-infant social interaction behaviors. Studies show that when caregivers use rhythm-based music and movement strategies during interactions with their infants, non-verbal communication, mutual attunement, and self-reported stress levels improve. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine caregiver benefits (stress hormones and positive interaction behaviors) when learning rhythm-based music with movement strategies while interacting with their infant. This was achieved through randomization of caregiver/infant dyads to a treatment (instructional intervention) or control condition with no instruction. Significantly lower salivary cortisol levels and lower salivary cortisol/DHEA ratio values pre-post were observed for the treatment condition as compared to control. These findings suggest that learning and using rhythm-based music and movement interventions are promising for lowering stress in caregivers. The impact of the intervention with families at risk due to stress-related environmental factors should be further investigated. In addition, observing social emotional behaviors and stress hormone levels of the infant is suggested.

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, research is suggesting that children are not only dealing a great deal of anxiety caused directly by school (ref). Academic anxiety related to learning is increasing due to highly stressful teaching methods, reduction of recess, too much homework and an over reliance on testing [1,2].

Today's children need learning opportunities from cradle to career that build the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in our interconnected and constantly changing world. This means putting 21st century skills, including creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem solving, at the center of learning, both in and out of school. As every parent who has seen their young child quickly and adeptly learn to operate a smartphone would undoubtedly agree, no age is too early to begin fostering these skills. Eugene Geist explores how developmentally appropriate coding and programming activities can serve as a vehicle for the exploration, discovery, and innovation that are central to 21st century skill building and essential when preparing children for the jobs of the future.

This article addresses the current state of the mathematics education system in the United States and provides a possible solution to the contributing issues. As a result of lower performance in primary mathematics, American students are not acquiring the necessary quantitative literacy skills to become successful adults. This study analyzed the impact of the FoodMASTER Intermediate curriculum on fourth-grade student's mathematics knowledge. The curriculum is a part of the FoodMASTER Initiative, which is a compilation of programs utilizing food, a familiar and necessary part of everyday life, as a tool to teach mathematics and science. Students exposed to the curriculum completed a 20-item researcher-developed mathematics knowledge exam (Intervention n=288; Control n=194). Overall, the results showed a significant increase in mathematics knowledge from pre- to post-test. These findings suggest that students engaged in food-based science activities provided them with the context in which to apply mathematical concepts to an everyday experience. Therefore, the FoodMASTER approach was successful at improving students' mathematics knowledge while building a foundation for becoming quantitatively literate adults.

Introduction Achievement in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines is receiving a great deal of attention in research, politics and education recently (Latterell, 2005; NAEYC, 2004; National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, 2006; Sarama & Clements, 2004). There is a general consensus on the importance of the STEM disciplines to a person's future employment possibilities, higher education potential and for improving our national economy. According to the National Research Councils report Adding It Up (Kilpatrick, Swafford, & Findell, 2001): ... Today's students ... will face new demands for mathematical proficiency that school mathematics should attempt to anticipate. Moreover, mathematics is a realm no longer restricted to a select few. All young Americans must learn to think mathematically, and they must think mathematically to learn (p.1). Other emerging research is demonstrating that early experiences and education both at home and at school greatly impact on later achievement (Duncan, Ludwig, & Magnuson, 2007; Hoekstra, Brekelmans, Beijaard, & Korthagen, 2009). The experiences of children even before they enter Kindergarten can effect their achievement in mathematics (Roberts, Vukovic, & Society for Research on, Educational Effectiveness, 2011). Head Start programs were designed to give children from lower socioeconomic status families a more stimulating early childhood environment, which they were likely not receiving in the home environment (Ludwig & Phillips, 2007). The general aim was provide stimulating preschool experiences to allow for children from ages 3-5 to enter Kindergarten on a more equal footing to their more economically advantaged peers (Ludwig & Phillips, 2007). However, with regards to mathematics achievement, attitudes towards mathematics can have a huge impact on their ability to offer stimulating environments that can help children to succeed in mathematics (Sloan, 2010). In this current study, 31 head start teachers were surveyed about their attitudes toward mathematics and their classroom practices to see how their attitude toward mathematics effected their decisions to teach mathematics to their students. Beginnings of Math Anxiety Math anxiety begins early and it caused by a number of intertwining influences (Lyons & Beilock, 2012a; Mattarella-Micke, Mateo, Kozak, Foster, & Beilock, 2011). Wu, Barth, Amin, Malcame, & Menon (2012) demonstrated that math anxiety in primary grade children was not only present as early as 2nd grade, but that it had a marked detrimental effect on the subjects achievement in mathematics. Additionally, the study showed that math anxiety has a more pronounced effect on tasks that require complex verbal reasoning and problem solving rather than numerical operations that require basic fact retrieval. Krinzinger, Kaufmann, & Willmes (2009) also found a close relationship between math anxiety and math ability in 1st through 3rd graders and postulated that this is the time when Math anxiety seems to first occur. Maloney & Beilock(2012) put the problem very clearly when they stated: Not only is math anxiety present at the beginning of formal schooling, which is much younger than was previously assumed, but its development is also probably tied to both social factors (e.g. a teacher's anxiety about her own math ability) and a student's own basic numerical and spatial competencies --where deficiencies may predispose students to pick up on negative environmental cues about math. If these Head Start teachers are, as the parents seem to be, math anxious and less comfortable with mathematics, this could effect their students' achievement. It can also affect teachers' classroom planning and amount of mathematics content that they include in their curriculum (Maloney & Beilock 2012). …

Mobile devices pose a challenge for most faculty members in higher education as they view the device as disruptive and in competition with the work to be completed in the classroom. The goal of this chapter is to examine the implementation of HTC tablet devices and the changing roles of the faculty instructor and learners when using this device in an undergraduate business management course in a business college and a graduate course in early childhood in a college of education in a large Midwestern university. The chapter describes the classroom setting, instructor and student perspectives of the implementation, and the use of the tablet both in class and out of class as well as the barriers associated with tablet use when embedded in a higher education course.

Young Children • January 2012 ® 2, 3 Research on music and music therapy suggests that math and music are related in the brain from very early in life (Burack 2005). Musical elements such as steady beat, rhythm, melody, and tempo possess inherent mathematical principles such as spatial properties, sequencing, counting, patterning, and one-to-one correspondence. Music also seems to be related to very primal parts of the brain (Hudson 2011). Our bodies cannot help but react physiologically to musical input (Thaut & Kenyon 2003; Hasan & Thaut 2004). This implies that even the youngest children have the potential to inherently respond to music and the mathematical constructs it contains. Recent music neuroscience research indicates that steady beat does affect attention behaviors in humans. We typically process steady beat in the premotor cortex of the brain, an area also related to attention (Bengtsson et al. 2008). Zentner and Eerola (2010) found that 120 infants, ages 5–24 months, were more engaged with rhythm-only stimuli (for example, a steady drum beat) than with speech-only stimuli. The results of this study indicate that children have the potential to be more engaged when listening to steady beats than when listening to verbal-only instructions. Therefore, it is conceivable that listening to a steady beat pattern during mathematics teaching activities in the early childhood classroom could promote better attention and increased engagement in young children. Everyday learning experiences, such as listening to music, are especially important in supporting developing mathematics concepts in children from infancy to 5 years old (Linder, Powers-Costello, & Stegelin 2011). Music is made up of rhythmic patterns and can be structured to make the patterning simple or complex, depending on the activity. Zentner and Eerola (2010) suggest that infants and toddlers have an innate capability to not only see patterns but also hear them in music. Reinforcing these capabilities by teaching patterns through music at an early age may benefit children’s cognitive abilities (Bell et al. 2009; Meltzoff et al. 2009). Teaching patterns to very young children is also a key to the concept of emergent mathematics, which parallels the idea of emergent literacy. As with literacy, emergent mathematics suggests the following:

Recent research efforts in music neuroscience indicate that rhythm can have an effect on attention in adults and engagement in young children. Research in clinical music therapy and on music enrichment also shows that music affects attention and learning in the early childhood classroom. The authors suggest that findings from the research in music neuroscience can be applied when exploring the effect of rhythm on learning in early childhood classroom settings. Forging a new line of research in which defined rhythm-based protocols are tested has important implications for both early childhood music therapy and education.

The purpose of this study was to observe children naturally interacting with these touch screen devices. Little direct instruction was given to the children on the use of the devices however an adult did assist when needed. The device was introduced to the children as would be any other educational material such as play-dough, new items in the dramatic play center, or new media in the sensory table. Teachers assisted children when needed, but facilitated and promoted the use of exploratory behavior to learn about and use these devices. The findings from the collected data for part 1 and part 2 of this study were surprisingly consistent. The themes and trends that were observed in the participant observation single subject case study were also evident in the group setting. ********** Young children today will not remember a time when there was not an Internet, laptops and pad-based computers. It is a part of their life experience. Many of the adults who teach them, however, grew up when none of this was available. This leads to a generational gap. This is a generation that expects to actively participate in and through their media, hence the decrease in time spent by teens in viewing television and the corresponding increase in time spent on computers, gaming, and the Internet (Beyers, 2009). The use of a traditional keyboard based devices such as a computer or laptop requires a certain level of physical and motor development to use a keyboard and/or a mouse. Use of keyboard-based devices also requires a level of cognitive development to understand the symbols on the keyboard. Therefore, for a child to make a keyboard based device do what they want to do; they first need to decipher the interface. The advent of touch screen devices removes this barrier and allows children as young as two years old (perhaps younger) to easily interact with these devices in a productive manner. Being productive on any device means that the child understands what is asked of them, understands how to interface with the device and understands the action needed to produce a response from the device (Couse & Chen, 2010). Here is an example of a child in the current study aged 2 years 2 months using an Apple iPad: Mike (2y2m) comes to the iPad, which is turned off Mike approaches the adult: MIKE: Michael want shapes Mike has interacted with this game before. He was introduced to the game at 2 years of age, but was not coerced or forced to use the program by an adult. All of his interactions with the device were instigated by his choice. The adult finds the icon and taps it as Mike watches. The game starts. GAME: the Circle MIKE: Michael touch the circle! GAME: You touched the circle! [applause] MIKE: Michael want a GAME: the MIKE: Semi-circle Mike touches the semi-circle GAME: That's a semi-circle. Try again! Touch the MIKE: Mike touches the triangle GAME: You found the triangle! [applause]. You earned a MIKE Michael want the bus [selects the bus] GAME Put the sticker on the page MIKE: Michael put it right here GAME: [applause] MIKE: [Claps] YAAAAY [Insert Video About here] This interaction is natural to the toddler. The machine asks for an action (touch) and the child makes a cognitive decision and acts by touching a selection. The child did not have to manipulate a mouse around a screen or decipher a keyboard to enter commands. The child simply interacted in a very natural and developmentally appropriate way with the device. This is the real innovation of these devices. Their interface is intuitive so that little or no instruction is needed for even the youngest children to use them. The purpose of this study was to observe children naturally interacting with these touch screen devices. …

Since the mid-1980s when computers began to be introduced into classrooms, there have been dramatic changes in education. Increasing numbers of teachers use computers to facilitate their curriculum and classroom activities (Macaruso & Walker, 2008; Zevenbergen, 2007; Spooner, 2004; Stephen & Plowman, 2008). With the advent of social media, smart boards and pad based this trend is expected to increase. Some researchers and teachers have debated the appropriate age at which children should be introduced to computers (ABC News, 2010). Some research has demonstrated that preschoolers can benefit if using computers in developmentally appropriate ways (Schmid, Miodrag, & Di Francesco, 2008; Stephen & Plowman, 2008; Buckleitner, 2007). Other research researchers either claim that there is simply not enough research detailing the impact that computers have on the development of young children's minds and bodies or claim that computers can have an outright negative effect on development (Ferguson, 2005; Klerfelt, 2004; Elkind 1996). Elkind (1987) even stated that the use of computers in preschool ... is a good example of miseducation (p. 87). One of the concerns is that computers may lead to isolation, diminished social interaction, and deficiencies in language (Barnes & Hill, 1983). Healy (1998) is concerned that when young children spend an overabundance of time with computers,the development of the child's brain may be impeded by a lack of social interaction with others. Anecdotally, the researchers have noticed that many parents feel the same way about the use of computers and video games with their own children. On the other side of the debate, research has demonstrated that preschoolers can benefit if using computers in developmentally appropriate ways (Macaruso & Walker, 2008; Sarama & Clements, 2007; Schwall, 2005). The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC),has endorsed the importance of computers for children in preschool (NAEYC, 1996). According to NAEYC, computers can be an integral and inevitable component in the early childhood classroom if used in a developmentally appropriate manner. Many researchers are finding that a new generation of children is interacting with computers in very different ways than in the past. This is also aided by a new generation of touch screen and hand held devices that actually promote interaction in the same way that reading a book can. This evidence suggests that computers have been found to help children with cognitive, verbal skills, concrete experiences, long-term memory, and social-emotional growth when successfully applied in developmentally appropriate classrooms (Papert, 1998 Ljung-Djarf, 2008; Macaruso & Walker, 2008; Stephen & Plowman, 2008). The present study attempts to study the types of social interactions that take place when preschool children interact with computers. The conventional wisdom is that computer play is solitary or parallel play at best and discourages social interaction and interaction amongst peers. An opposing view contends that computers stimulate discussion and social play using new media, and while a different paradigm from traditional play, the benefits are the same. This study attempts to address the following questions: 1. What kind of social interaction occurs when children are using the computers for play or work? 2. What are the patterns of collaborative interaction when children are engaged collaboratively with the computer? 3. How is the activity on the computer influencing the children's social-emotional development? Methodology This research study was conducted at a University laboratory school. The participants are 52 children (31 boys and 21 girls) ages of subjects were from 3 to 5. They were exposed to play on computers for at least 6 months before this study began. A pre-observational parent survey showed that 95% of the children have computers at home and 100% of parents report that their children have experiences with playing on the computer. …

Young children regularly learn important math concepts from examining the world around them. As a matter of fact, for the first five years of life, they construct math through everyday interactions with parents and care givers (Geist 2008). Daily activities, such as snack time and lunch, can serve as mathematical opportunities. When children distribute plates or crackers, they learn oneto- one correspondence. When they have a bowl of raisins, a parent can ask, How many? and count them with the child. And when cooking food, the mathematical opportunities increase exponentially.

This article reports findings of a study to examine practicality and efficacy of using tablet computers in Higher Education classroom. Students in a senior level teacher preparation class were provided with Apple iPads for 10 weeks to aid in their studies. iPads were preloaded with selected software but students were encouraged to use them in way that felt most natural and beneficial to them. Results indicated that students thought that device was most beneficial as an e-reader and a way to have instant access to information while instructor was lecturing. They also found it to be beneficial in their clinical work in elementary school classrooms. Introduction The individual learning model is foreign territory for most Net Geners, who have grown up collaborating, sharing and creating together online. Tapscott (2008) Just as college students of 2010 do not remember a time in their lives when internet did not exist, young children of today and future college students of 2025 will not remember a time when there was not pad-based devices and smart phones. Many refer to current generation of college students net generation. Perhaps college students of 2025 will be known as mobile generation. Mobile technology, internet, social media and a slew of future developments that we currently can't even predict, are and will be a part of their life experience and will impact way they learn and access information. This means that these student's fundamental view of learning, communicating and interacting will be very different from their educator's own experience (Tapscott, 2009). Many of adults who teach them grew up when little of this was available. This is a generation that expects to actively participate in and through their media, hence decrease in time spent by teens in viewing television and corresponding increase in time spent on computers, gaming, and Internet (Beyers, 2009). advent of devices will continue to change how students access their media. They no longer need to sit in from of televisions to watch their favorite shows, nor are they restricted by when show is broadcast. Streaming media has ensured that media and information are available when individual wants or needs it. This perception will also influence how this generation approaches education process. Don Tapscott (2008) in a series for Business Week on Net Generation wrote that old model of pedagogy that is teacher-focused, one-way, and one-size-fits-all, makes no sense to young people who have grown up in a digital world. He argues that members of Net Generation have different mental habits than their Boomer parents. They expect a conversation, rather than a lecture, and they're used to working in groups, rather than working alone and, he argues, digital immersion has even affected way they absorb information. They don't necessarily read a page in a textbook from left to right and from top to bottom. They might instead skip around page, scanning for pertinent information of interest (Tapscott, 2008). He also points out that universities need to understand this change in order to keep pace with a changing educational landscape. In universities across country, smartest students often don't go to lectures. One Stanford student said to me recently: The thing around here is to get an A without ever attending a lecture. This shakes up such old style professors as Mark Bauerlein, who wrote book, Dumbest Generation, arguing that the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes out future. Educators like Beuerlein are uneasy with change in power reflected in how information is dispensed and knowledge is obtained. Sadly, these old-style educators--locked into models that go back centuries---end up heaping abuse on students who are revolutionizing model of pedagogy (Tapscott, 2008). …

Negative attitudes toward mathematics and what has come to be know as are serious obstacles for children in all levels of schooling today. In this paper, the literature is reviewed and critically assessed in regards to the roots of math and its especially detrimental effect on children in at-risk populations such as low socioeconomic status and females. The effects of teachers' and parents' assumptions, family support, and parents' level of educational attainment will be addressed. The paper also addresses the curricular issues that may lead to math such as high stress instructional methods and testing. ********** A negative attitude toward mathematics is a growing barrier for many children to mathematics (Ashcraft, 2002; Popham, 2008; Rameau & Louime, 2007). For many children, negative attitudes toward mathematics begin early in life, sometimes even before they enter kindergarten (Arnold, Fisher, Doctoroff, & Dobbs, 2002). The child's educational context at home and at school can affect this attitude (Scarpello, 2007). Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds often have parents with less educational background and who often have negative attitudes toward mathematics themselves. Females are also often overlooked or socialized to dislike mathematics (Geist & King 2008; Titu, Gallian, Kane, & Mertz, 2008). While research supports that girls have the similar aptitude for mathematics, they are more susceptible to math due to their aversion to high stakes testing and social comparison (Haynes, Mullins, & Stein, 2004; Miller & Bichsel, 2004; Miller & Mitchell, 1994). For these groups and many other children, a fear of mathematics or what is commonly known a anxiety it creating a disparity between levels of mathematics achievement. In some cases, the gap in achievement is not brought about by differing levels of potential and ability, but the chances of developing math or a negative attitude toward mathematics (Ashcraft, 2002; Hopko et al., 2003). Children begin to construct the foundations for future mathematical concepts during the first few months of life (Geist, 2003a; Geist, 2003b). Before a child can add or even count, they must construct ideas about mathematics that cannot be directly taught. Many of these basic ideas are constructed through interaction with the surrounding environment and the adults in that environment. Ideas that will support formal mathematics later in life such as order and sequence, seriation, comparisons, classifying, addition and other more advanced mathematical skills have their genesis before the age of five. The seemingly simple understanding that numbers have a quantity attached to them is actually a complex relationship that children must construct. As children enter formal schooling, the constructive process sometimes takes a turn for the worse, especially for girls and minorities (Ma, 2003; Scarpello, 2007; Turner et al., 2002). Studies have shown that at this time in children's learning of mathematics, textbooks take over the process of teaching and the focus on shifts from construction of concepts using children's own mathematical thinking to teacher imposed methods of getting the correct answer (Geist, 2000). Teachers begin to focus on repetition and speed or as important tools for improving mathematical prowess and skill which can undermine the child's natural thinking process and lead to a negative attitude toward mathematics (Popham, 2008; Scarpello, 2007; Thilmany, 2004; Tsui & Mazzocco, 2007). This overreliance on timed tests and other high stakes approaches to teaching mathematics reinforce the negative attitude toward mathematics that many children have developed in the early years of life (Scarpello, 2007). For those children who had a positive mathematical experience in the early years, this new approach to learning mathematics is often very different from what they are used to (Popham, 2008). …