Holiday Gifts for Imaginative Play
December 5, 2025
During the holiday season, parents and caregivers are bombarded with flashy advertisements for the “best” or most “educational” toys for their children. By the time they sit down to wrap presents, some feel drained by the season’s commercialism, doubting whether they made the right choices. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff is Unidel …
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Celebrating Children’s Book Week
November 10, 2025
In celebration of National Children’s Book Week from November 3 to 10, University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) engaged in several early literacy initiatives and events for children, families and early education providers across Delaware. Hallam (right) with Michelle Semonelle (left), director of Kirkwood Early Education …
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Let’s Grow Outside!
October 30, 2025
When Diana Mercado applied to the University of Delaware’s Let’s Grow Outside! initiative, she saw a great opportunity for the children she serves at Pirulo’s Child Care and Learning Center in Newark, Delaware. The garden she planned to create would become a place for them to explore, learn about nature …
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Swimming With Sharks
June 30, 2025
Wading in the creek behind University of Delaware’s The College School, elementary students laughed and cheered as they met a challenge their teacher Laurie Drumm posed only a few months prior: build a robot that travels through water, mimics the characteristics of underwater animals and doesn’t scare the other fish. Through …
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Outstanding Dissertation Contributions During Women’s History Month
March 27, 2025
It’s been less than a year since Cara Kelly, EHD24PhD, graduated from University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development, but she’s already making a difference with her research in early care and education. She has published articles on early care and education quality, received a national research grant …
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Recognizing the value of play
March 25, 2025
With the help of their stuffed animals or figurines, many toddlers and preschoolers play “teacher,” “doctor” or “firefighter,” drawing early inspiration from the careers they observe in their communities. For Myae Han, professor in University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), it was play itself that set the …
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High Quality Early Care and Education
August 22, 2023
By the end of their first year, an infant’s brain will double in size, and by the age of five, their brain will reach about 90% of its full development. The first five years of a child’s life are a critical time for building the foundations for lifelong academic and …
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In the News: Allison Karpyn on Accessing Healthy Food through WIC
December 12, 2022
Allison Karpyn, associate professor in CEHD’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, offers new insight into how state regulations affect families’ access to healthy food. In “USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of U.S. Administrative Agency Variations,” Karpyn and …
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Carol Vukelich Leading Education Project in the West Bank and Gaza
March 7, 2022
Carol Vukelich, professor emeritus in the School of Education and former dean of the College of Education and Human Development, is leading a project to develop a Kindergarten Professional Development Diploma for early childhood educators in the West Bank and Gaza. The overall goal of this project, titled “Enhancing the …
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Suspended Justice
September 3, 2021
When you hear about kids getting kicked out of class or school, you likely picture the student who spiked the punch bowl at your senior prom or the bully who spent third period administering wedgies to the debate team. In other words, you imagine trouble-making teens. But the apple-cheeked kiddos …
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Child’s Play
August 13, 2021
When you are a child, you are not really a child — at least not all the time. You are also a dinosaur. A wizard. A hot air balloon operator crash-landing into a dodo bird colony off the coast of Madagascar. In other words, playtime is fun. And imaginative. And, …
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Myae Han Publishes Book on Play and Literacy
February 1, 2021
Myae Han, Professor at the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, recently published a co-edited book, Play and Literacy, as part of the Play and Culture Studies book series with James Johnson from Penn State University. This book provides theoretical and historical foundation of connection between play and literacy, …
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