The present study was designed to find whether evaluations of maternal competence are linked to mothers' employment status and the quality of maternal care. Participants rated videotaped vignettes, depicting either high-quality or low-quality mother-infant interactions, on various dimensions of care quality. The videotaped mothers were described…

We studied the long-term cumulative effects of two common indices of childcare--the total number of hours of non-maternal care and the mean hour-weighted child-to-caregiver ratio per caregiving situation--on mental development and socioemotional adjustment from birth to 4.5 years old in a non-risk middle-class sample of girls and boys after taking…

The importance of early childhood intervention in a developing country is indisputable. Even though we have a relatively clear idea of what effective early childhood intervention (ECI) means, there are still uncertainties about the roles of professionals in this ever-changing field. In South Africa we face particular challenges because of huge…

This article presents the results of two ethnographic studies that explored the language and literacy practices present in the everyday lives of seven Dominican families living in the New York City metropolitan area. The families engaged in literacy practices that were embedded in their daily lives and often depended on the practical problems that…

High-quality care is essential to the optimal development of young children. While many children attend childcare away from the home for an average of six hours per day, the environment is not necessarily of the highest quality. An assessment of the indoor and outdoor space, curriculum and activities, teacher and child interactions, materials,…

This study examined the relationship between maternal expressed emotion (EE) and children's perceived self-competence, behavior and intelligence in a community sample of 190 urban, African American children ages 6-7. Maternal EE was measured by the Five Minute Speech Sample. Self reports and standardized measures were used to examine other mother…

The purpose of this project was to examine the effectiveness of a fitness infusion instructional strategy (FI) on children's activity levels and skill performance scores. This strategy included aerobic activity within the skill practice tasks and game play. In other words, students performed short bouts of activity between the practice and…

Language, as is known, is acquired under certain conditions: rapid and sequential brain maturation and cognitive development, the need to exchange information and to control others' actions, and an exposure to appropriate speech input. This research aims at analyzing preschoolers' overgeneralizations of the object labeling process in different…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between parenting attitudes of Asian Indian mothers living in the United States and their preschool children's perception of self-competence. Twenty-eight Asian Indian mothers and their preschool-aged children living in the United States participated in the study. The parenting…

The purpose of this article is to report findings regarding the needs of parents for information on communication development, to review the range of professionals whom parents frequently consult regarding communication development, to discuss the frequency with which professionals provide information on communication development to parents and to…

Studies indicate that young children's literacy learning can be promoted in a play setting. Literacy interactions, strategies, and activities in the children's play environment can facilitate their acquisition of literacy. In literacy-related play experiences, children select and utilize their abilities that are essential for literacy learning in…

This study examined the effects of different recess timing regimens on preschoolers classroom attention. Using cognitive immaturity theory, we predicted that attention to a classroom task would be greater after a recess break. We also examined the extent to which different recess timing regimens related to post-recess attention. Participants were…

Two groups of Chinese four-year-olds and their parents' interaction in joint activities were analyzed and compared. The children in Group 1 were high scorers in written number skills and the children in Group 2 were low scorers. Eighty-five dyads participated in four separate 15-minute joint activities such as book reading, mathematical work…

The purpose of the present study was to identify variables (maternal knowledge and problem-solving ability) associated with the early introduction of complementary foods (i.e. foods other than breastmilk or formula) into infants diets. Ninety-eight primarily African-American mothers who presented to an urban, ambulatory care clinic in the Midwest…

The present study was designed to examine the relations between parental pessimism and peer relations and health in preschool children and to examine the role that child positive and negative affect played within this relationship. Thirty-seven mothers and their children (mean age = 48.1 months) volunteered from local preschools and daycares…