Early Child Development and Care

This Call for Manuscripts pertains to the effects of the global pandemic and digitalization on the learning and development of young children. The context and the objective of this call are briefly explained below.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been ongoing worldwide for approximately three years, during which time it has been particularly challenging for children. Over this time, many children have missed out on normal learning and developmental opportunities, and their education, well-being, and social development have been at risk (UNICEF, 2023). However,  digital media has been widely used to support early learning, play, and other developmental processes during school closures. While this has mitigated the loss caused by lockdowns to some extent, the pandemic has still brought significant changes and disruptions to the lives of young children worldwide, with lasting effects on them (OECD, 2020). Furthermore,  the pandemic has put many parents at a higher risk of experiencing psychological distress, which could impair the quality of parenting (Dong et al., 2020, Cluver et al., 2020). This, in turn, has led to increased screen time and behavioral, health, and emotional problems in children (Spinelli et al., 2020). However, the profound effects and continuing changes resulting from the pandemic and digitalization have not been fully and systematically investigated through empirical research. Therefore, it is essential to understand how young children have adapted, learned, and developed under these circumstances.

This special issue aims to bring together the most recent studies on young children's play, learning, and development across home, early educational settings, and communities during and after these unprecedented times. We welcome papers that report not only primary data but also work based on secondary data analyses and systematic reviews of published work. In addition, we encourage future-oriented pieces that consider how the lessons learned during this pandemic can impact children’s learning and development.

The knowledge we gain from exploring the complex impact of digital use and the pandemic on young children in the early years will inform educational policies and practices. More importantly, this knowledge can help us rethink our early childhood practices to address the challenges in the future.

Types of manuscripts sought

In this special issue, we are seeking contributions that explore the unique and interactive ways in which digital technologies and the pandemic have influenced the play, learning, and development of young children, and the lasting effects thereof.

Specifically, we are interested in papers that address the following issues: a) the use of digital technologies for raising and educating young children in diverse sociocultural contexts during and after the pandemic;  b) the impact of various digital environments on the play, learning, and development of young children; c) the effects of digital use on early learning and development during and after the pandemic; and d) how these insights can inform and enhance family support and early childhood educational practices. We also welcome contributions that examine the complex ways in which the pandemic and digital use have affected young children's play, learning, and development.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Young children’s digital practices and their effects during and after the pandemic
• Digital parenting and parental mediation practices during and after the pandemic
• The impact of digital use on young children’s play, learning, and development during and after the pandemic
• Educational experiences and approaches that support young children’s digital learning during and after the pandemic
• Teachers’ digital literacy under the background of digital transformation
• The development and learning of young children under the context of digitalization.

Deadline for submissions

Please e-mail proposals for articles to [email protected]. In your proposal, include the following information:

1. the proposed title,
2. a brief abstract (maximum word count of 350 words),
3. your name, affiliations, and contact details.

Proposals should be submitted by no later than 1 August 2023. All proposals will be considered, and you will be notified about the outcome as soon as possible. If your proposal is accepted, we will e-mail you the author guidelines and additional details. Completed manuscripts should be submitted for review before 1 November 2023, and submissions made online through the ECDC website. The journal’s publishers are Taylor and Francis who use the Scholar One management system. In exceptional circumstances, manuscripts may be submitted as e-mail attachments to the guest editor Professor Yan Li ([email protected]) or the chief editor Roy Evans ([email protected]).

Submitted manuscripts will undergo peer review, and authors will normally receive the results of the review within eight weeks of the submission of their manuscripts (the review process should be complete by end of December 2023). We hope to complete the proofreading and editing of this special issue by January 2024. The issue will be published online in a form that is fully citable. Hard copy publication will be available early 2025.

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