A model of family, child, and parental childrearing characteristics was developed and tested for predicting the cognitive competence in a sample of 10,774 six-year-olds from The Netherlands. Results of LISREL analyses showed that parent education level played a central role in explaining differences in children's cognitive competence. Family…

Interviewed parents of children with dyslexia to determine principal reasons for attending support groups. Identified: (1) information seekers attending support groups for education and research on their child's learning difficulties who integrated advice/information to offer educational/emotional support to their children; (2) parents attending…

Examined attitudes toward smoking, current smoking behavior, mental health difficulties, and nicotine addiction among 38 pregnant women, mothers of young children, and their partners in East Surrey, England. Found that 11 female respondents presented symptoms of depression, anxiety, or social dysfunction. Smokers did not differ from ex-smokers or…

This study examined factors related to authoritarian and authoritative parenting practices among 463 Chinese mothers with preschoolers in Taiwan. Questionnaire findings suggested that maternal depression, child temperament, and degree of parenting daily hassles might have cross-culturally universal influence on parenting practices. Chinese…

This article discusses commonalities among experts' descriptions of creative individuals, including rational thinking, high levels of emotional development, talent, and higher levels of consciousness. Maintains that creativity studies justify the development of educational creativity training programs. Asserts that teachers can promote children's…

This study examined factors contributing to poor literacy and numeracy development among black South African children ages 5.5 to 7 years. Findings pointed to a conglomerate of factors, namely inadequate visual-motor integration, poor visual analysis and synthesis, poor fine motor development, and inadequate exposure to mediated reading and…

Examined relationships among child-mother attachment when children were age 3; family stress when children were 3, 4, and 5; and social-emotional outcomes in kindergarten. Found that less secure kindergartners were more aggressive and less socially competent than secure peers, and kindergartners who had experienced more family stress in preschool…

Discusses the use of a new technique, video-stimulated reflective dialogue, in which practitioners reveal their in-depth knowledge of their pedagogical practices when stimulated by a videotape of an episode of effective teaching. Details the challenge experienced by preschool teachers in articulating tacit/intuitive knowledge of their own…

Examined child caregivers' use of various HIV/AIDS information resources in relation to professional background and attitudes. Found that providers' education level, child care experience, and the age group for which they were responsible correlated with use of newspaper/magazine articles, pamphlets, and educational workshops. Use of…

Used the Activity Apperception Story Procedure to elicit perceptions of play, work, and learning from 3- to 6-year-olds. Found that children could distinguish play/work and learning/not learning using photographs. While children attended to anticipated cues for justifying their classification of photos, the justification data suggested that the…

Examined the beliefs about knowing and learning among six toddler caregivers as well as their conceptions of good caregiving. Found that two caregivers held relativistic epistemological beliefs and four held multiplistic and mixed epistemological beliefs. The latter group lacked the same degree of reflectivity as the former group. Caregivers with…

This study examined immigrant parents' role in young children's language learning in various linguistic contexts, focusing on how parents helped their children learn English while maintaining their mother tongue. Findings of questionnaires, observations, and interviews indicated factors supporting children's learning, including parents' interest…

Examines the physical demands and ergonomic concerns within child care settings. Discusses problem areas and ergonomic recommendations for room design and staff training. Presents important implications for writing job descriptions, determining essential job functions, orienting and training staff, and committing to improving the child care work…

Interviewed depressed and non-depressed mothers on their breastfeeding practices and perceptions of their infants' feeding behavior. Found that, compared to non-depressed mothers, depressed mothers breast fed less often, stopped breastfeeding earlier, and scored lower on a breastfeeding confidence scale. Mothers who breastfed rather than bottle…

Observations of spontaneous behaviors and comments of one child pertinent to emergent literacy are reported. The following areas are addressed: letter/numeral naming; the meaning of print; the communicative function of print; conception of meaning-units or words; language games; awareness of the sound of language; and the relationship between…