Education policy makers identify access to quality pre-Kindergarten programs as a critical step in early childhood development. While most agree on access, definitions of quality vary widely. A new study by the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) finds that families define quality in broader terms than educators, researchers…

Twenty early childhood practitioners (ECPs) and final-year Bachelor of Early Childhood Studies students completed a questionnaire about their use (or planned use) of formal and informal child development assessment instruments, their choice of specific instruments, and factors influencing decisions to conduct child development assessments within…

This "snapshot" presents a review of a new family literacy handbook. Edited by Dr. Barbara Wasik of the FPG Child Development Institute, "The Handbook of Family Literacy" provides scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners (both inside and outside the field) with a valuable snapshot of its current boundaries and rapidly growing content.…

Presents descriptions of play reflecting recent theories, including the psychoanalytic works of Freud, Erikson, and Peller; Piaget's developmental theory (with discussion of Sutton-Smith); and the views of Smilansky and Parten. (AS)

Elaborates classroom work skills and the play curriculum. Reviews play's relationship to learning and to the role of the adult. The implications of the American work ethic for play curricula and play training for teachers are discussed. (AS)

Describes and provides a list of materials for sensorimotor, symbolic, and construction play. Benefits of arranging the playground with a variety of materials are also discussed. (AS)

Describes materials mastery and symbolic development as two discrete but related processes that preschool children learn. Uses the preschool setting to identify the developmental stages of construction play. (AS)

Reviews literature about play to examine the use of language to facilitate play, play with language as an object, and egocentric speech in play situations. Finds a definite link between language and play. (Author/AS)

Describes kindergarten children's oral and written language behaviors while operating a computer. Stages of computer language play and children's experimentation with speech and writing specific to the computer also are discussed. (AS)