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Research on children's peer interactions shows many benefits for children's development especially in developing children's social competence. Drawing on a case study data from a study that investigated peer interactions among under-three year old children in three Malaysian childcare centers, this paper provides a picture of how the children's peer interactions was understood by largely untrained practitioners at the start of the project, and how the complexity of children's lived experiences remained hidden to the practitioners until they took part in the video-stimulated recall (VSR) interviews based on children's peer interactions, and focus group discussions. The latter provided practitioners with an opportunity to deepen their thinking about children's peer interactions and to begin to see them as linked with learning. In particular, the practitioners perceived that (i) play; (ii) familiarity; and (iii) having friends constituted important learning for children during peer interactions at their early childcare centres. This has implications for understanding the roles of early childhood education practitioners to children's peer interactions as well as how practitioners can help support children's learning to make a social difference.

Research on the role of daycare in children's lives shows many benefits for children's social competence. In the Malaysian context, where the number of childcare settings is growing rapidly, early childhood education research remains limited within the field of understanding the complexity of young children's social competence. This study opens up this under-researched field in Malaysia through qualitative case studies in three early childhood centers. Each case study involved video-recorded observations of the children's interactions with peers. The aim of the study was to examine how children create a sense of togetherness and exercise social competence among themselves at their daycare centers. The observations of children's peer interactions revealed complex negotiations by the children who were actively creating a sense of togetherness at their daycare centers through humor and laughter. In the process of these interactions, children exercised the skills of becoming socially competent participants in their center. Considering data from the perspective of Loizou's theory of the absurd, instances of humor and laughter were classified around two very similar themes--incongruous use of objects and making funny sounds. The findings provide a picture of how these humorous acts not only created feeling of amusement and joy in children but also constructed a sense of togetherness. This has implications for understanding the roles of daycare regarding children's peer interactions and social competence as well as how caregivers can enhance children's learning to make a social difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of sports are important because it will help the players to perform their best in games and events. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of shoulder flexibility on the golfers' performance. The participants of this study were 30 golfers; these were the people who got their handicap cut or license to play golf at the golf course. The researchers employed the experimental method to gather relevant data. The test performed included shoulder rotation test and driving range test. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inference statistics to investigate the relationship between shoulder flexibility and the golfers' performance. The findings of the study revealed that there are strong relationships between shoulder flexibility and golfers' performance. Apart from that, shoulder flexibility was found to be not affected by the age of the golfers and that the performance of the golfers would only be known by their handicap. It is hoped that this new knowledge will be beneficial to all golfers and instructors. It is also suggested that future studies include respondents' motivation and cooperation so as to attract their interest in the study. The subjects also need to be clarified of the objectives and the purpose of the study in relation to their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]