Examined parents' perceptions of and satisfaction with the eligibility assessment of their 4- to 5-year-olds with special needs for special education services. Found that parents thought the activity-based assessment provided more information about their child's typical performance and functional skills, and addressed more of their concerns than…

This study examined the impact of an intervention for primary school students and their family adults that involved two science meetings at school and home-based project work in astronomy. Results in terms of enhanced interest and enjoyment of astronomy were very positive. Assessing precise learning gains posed difficulties. (Author/KB)

Examined 188 preschool teachers' perceived control over child behavior. Found that high perceived control was related to teachers' high intentions for action in child behavior problems. Job satisfaction, center quality, social recognition, and satisfaction with education were related to perceived control. Perceived control mediated relationship…

Explores recent policy initiatives in England and Wales that affect the character of day care and early education and their implications for practice. Focuses on parental involvement in early reading in the new policy context. Presents results from the pilot phase of the National Literacy Project, including impact on the context of home reading,…

Presents a proposal for professionals in family counseling and family assessment to use sibling interaction as a source of stimulation to improve developmental processes. Includes a reference guide for dealing with everyday problems in sibling relationships. Contains a questionnaire to obtain information about parents' thoughts and actions…

Examined impact of cooperative and competitive games on 4-year-olds' behavior over 6 weeks. Found that more positive behaviors were observed during cooperative games than competitive games, and more negative behaviors were observed during competitive games, but only during the first week of competitive games. Found that teachers' warmth and…

Examined the impact of fathers giving massages to their infants, ages 3 to 14 months, for 15 minutes prior to their daily bedtime for 1 month. Found that fathers who had massaged their infants were more expressive and showed more enjoyment and more warmth during floor-play interactions with their infants than did fathers in the wait-list control…

Examined relation of maternal age to 4-year-olds' verbal comprehension and mother-child interactions on a book-sharing task. Found children of mothers ages 35 and over at child's birth scored significantly higher on verbal comprehension than children of younger mothers. Found no maternal age differences on the book-sharing task. Findings pose…

Compared self-evaluation of quality of preschool teachers in Sweden to the evaluation by an external evaluator using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. Found moderately high percent agreement between teachers and evaluator and among teachers at the same unit. Found highest agreement among teachers on socialization and communication.…

Examined effects of divorce and custody arrangements on Taiwanese preschoolers' emotional adjustment and gender role development 2 years after divorce. Found no differences in maladjustment of children from divorced versus two-parent families. Found children with same-sex custodial parents were better adjusted than children in custody with…

Used multiple-baseline design to assess the utility of presenting three types of cues when teaching an abstract concept such as colors to three children with autism: plain, label, and symbol. Found colors presented with cues were easier to learn than color without cues. Findings support the need for sensitivity for the highly individualized…

Examined whether emotion labels could be taught to a low-functioning, nonverbal autistic child. Introduced four emotions (happy, angry, sad, surprised) over 6 months through visual cues (photographs of known people) within an existing home-based behavioral intervention program. Using novel photographs of familiar and unfamiliar people, showed that…

Observed in a preschool classroom adult-child and child-child interaction normally considered pre- or early-gender segregation (30-42 months) to explore possible root causes of gender segregation during childhood. Found that adult-child social interactions initiated by female children were very different from those initiated by male children.…

Examines some of the obstacles that prevent men from working in child care centers. Presents one man's story about how he came to work in a child care facility. Suggests ways men could be encouraged to enter and stay in the field of early childhood education. (Author/KB)

A pilot study examined the reliability and predictive validity of a screening instrument for Dutch kindergartners. Findings indicated acceptable reliability and predictive validity. Parents could accurately screen their child's language proficiency level, pre-arithmetic level, and degree of extraversion at school entry. Teachers could predict…