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The field of special education has come a long way with regard to providing services for young children with disabilities; but, more investigative research is needed. From the very beginning, young children with disabilities were not served in our public schools. This created turmoil for families and parents, and advocacy groups then got involved to spearhead the development of federal laws to support these young children. Through these federal laws and with the help of teachers, researchers, and other key professionals, young children with disabilities were more openly identified, assessments were created and evaluated, and interventions for their success were created and measured. Family-centered services were created so that parents could be involved with the development of their children. In the same vein, evidence-based practices were developed and enacted. Another area that has helped these children is assistive technology with a focus on literacy, communication, and other educational areas. While the field of special education has come a long way, there is more to do. This chapter and volume highlight what has been done and what can be done to enhance the education of young children with an array of disabilities.

Globalization of the media communications progressed rapidly during the twentieth century thanks to innumerable innovation within information technologies particularly communications satellites, digitalization and advances in computer technology. Today we can utilize new communication systems that allow a worldwide distribution of messages from one place to another. In the middle of the global development of mass media we can find many children and young people. With their engaging, interactive properties, the new digital media are suggested to have more impact on how children grow and learn, what they value, and ultimately who they become than any other medium that has come before (Montgomery, 2002). New media technology influences the life and culture of young people. What is the nature of the content in it and whose values and judgments does it represent is a fatal question for educational researchers today.

This research aims to explore childhood construction in the Afghan refugee community living in Pakistan. Young Afghan people aged 12–18 who were working on the streets participated in the generation of data for this study in 2019. Ethnographic research approaches with semi-structured in-depth interviews and field observations were used to obtain real insights. Young Afghan refugees have been a constant phenomenon on the streets for decades in the twin cities of Pakistan – Rawalpindi and Islamabad – where this research was conducted and are involved in different street-based casual activities. The findings show that young people face discrimination and exclusion from the mainstream of society due to their undefined citizenship status and poverty. Parents see their children as dependents and as assets for their old age, and children and young people need to work to support their families who live in poverty. In fulfilling their filial responsibilities, young people sacrifice their schooling and have limited opportunities to learn new skills. It is concluded that the government and other international institutions with responsibility for setting policies and creating programs for young Afghan refugees need to understand the dynamics of the families in which the young people live and how these families inculcate them with their generational values.

Children experience toxic stress if there is pronounced activation of their stress-response systems, in situations in which they do not have stable caregiving. Due to their exposure to multiple poverty-related risks, African American children may be more susceptible to exposure to toxic stress. Toxic stress affects young children’s brain and neurophysiologic functioning, which leads to a wide range of deleterious health, developmental, and mental health outcomes. Given the benefits of early care and education (ECE) for African American young children, ECE may represent a compensating experience for this group of children, and promote their positive development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the narratives that construct the practice and regulation of ‘sexting’, the sending of sexualised images via text message, when engaged in by young people. The aim of this discussion is to better understand the extent to which those narratives recognise young people’s agency in relation to their sexuality and the role that new media plays in enabling youth to explore their sexual identity.

The methodology employed is that of discourse analysis. This approach is used to deconstruct the dominant narrative of sexting contained in the literature, a narrative that constructs it as a problem to be contained and controlled, either through the application of the criminal law or through education and guidance approaches. This paper then investigates an emerging counter narrative that gives greater emphasis to the autonomy rights of youth. A case study involving a Parliamentary Inquiry in one Australian State into sexting is also employed to further this analysis.

This paper concludes that the dominant narrative remains the strongest influence in the shaping of law and the practice of sexting, but that young people may be better served by the counter narrative that recognises their agency in ways that may empower and grant them more control over their bodies.

The paper thus provides an alternative approach to developing new law and policy with respect to the regulation of sexting by youth that should be of value to lawmakers and child and youth advocates.

Whilst there is growing awareness of the case for children and young people's participation in health services and health service research, there is limited evidence on how this apparent commitment to children's right to participate translates into practice.

The chapter, co-authored with and young people, draws on examples from the authors' original research and lived experience to consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people's participation in the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS). There is evidence of children and young people in the UK becoming more reliant on parents and carers as conduits for engagement and as sources of information during the pandemic. Additionally, some children and young people with special educational needs and disability and other potentially vulnerable groups have engaged less with health services and have been excluded from participating by a move to digital platforms. Conversely online and phone involvement and consultations have led to higher inclusion for others. Adapting by necessity to COVID-19 has highlighted the potential for doing things differently and developing more participatory and inclusive practice in collaboration with children, in the UK and elsewhere. It is critical that children are involved in shaping the development of participation practice which challenges and reshapes institutional practices in health services and beyond.

In this chapter we reinvigorate socialization as a theoretical framework for studying gender and sexuality, and we do so by focusing attention on the sexual socialization of young children. We provide an overview of the literature on the sexual socialization of young children. We discuss why researchers should be interested in childhood sexuality, and the role of parents, peers and schools, and the media in sexual socialization. We also address three overarching issues: methodology, the hegemony of heterosexuality, and child sexual abuse. Throughout, we suggest and organize some of the empirical questions that form a research agenda for those interested in this topic.

This chapter discusses how to involve children and young people in decisions and encourage them to express their needs and participate in the decision-making process to develop a quality intervention. By describing the different aspects of projects involving a participatory approach, it shows how giving voice to children and young people unlocked new perspectives regarding the Hungarian child protection system. Participation of children in research is limited in Hungary, partly due to the challenging legislation and authorisation process. This chapter shows how research to develop child-friendly digital tools can contribute to collecting children's views on their needs related to child protection support, and how the process of listening to children can improve parenting and caregiving responses to the needs of younger and older children living with their families or in the child protection system. The chapter analyses the effect of digital applications on children's and young people's capacity to advance towards autonomy, including applications and a video campaign with short video clips created by young people. These projects gave an opportunity for children and youth in the public care system to describe their lives and wishes for the future. The analysis found: (a) for a functional child protection system and to promote development for children and young people, children's voices need to be amplified; (b) by expressing their voices, children become more autonomous; (c) children's voices contribute to decreasing social prejudices against children and young people in public care; and (d) listening to children and youth who age out of care can help professionals working in the child protection system better understand their beneficiaries.

The Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI) is a UNICEF-led collective impact intervention aimed at promoting children’s rights at the city and community levels. The CFCI operationalizes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for local governments through a framework for action aimed at realizing the rights of young people under 18 years of age: (1) to be valued, respected and treated fairly; (2) to be heard; (3) to access social services; (4) to be safe; and (5) to participate in family, life, play and leisure. This chapter provides an historical analysis of the CFCI globally and in the United States, and how this intervention draws upon and advances sociological research on young people’s meaningful participation. We present three case studies to analyze young people’s participation in CFCIs and the lessons learned from Houston, Texas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Francisco, California.