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…

Examined aspects of early childhood environment related to developing mathematical concepts in three studies. Found that family day care providers rated math skills as less important than others, but believed skills were acquired the same way. Parents and providers reported similar frequencies for engaging children in math activities. Activity…

Explored possible antecedents of paternal child rearing in middle-class, two-parent, Korean families. Found that fathers reported disciplinary practices similar to those of their own fathers. Fathers reported more nurturance and acceptance/flexibility than grandfathers. Paternal job satisfaction, relationship with own mother, and educational…

Used focus group discussion and classroom observations to compare whether early childhood teachers' reported use of timeout as a discipline method was congruent with classroom behavior. Found that the verbal responses of the five teachers observed were very congruent with what they carried out while teaching. (Author/KB)

Provides impressionistic reflection of how human service agencies in San Jose, California have helped refugee families from war-torn Cambodia and Bosnia. Summarizes some of the lessons learned from working with refugee families. Notes that the experiences have influenced the capacity- building, empowering, and mentoring aspects of a new…

Reports preliminary findings of the first national survey of services to identify and provide specialist support to profoundly deaf infants and young children in England and Wales. Notes that the resources available for early identification of deaf infants and the quality of professional support to promote habilitation is quite variable.…

Investigated possible priming effect of two neuropsychological tests, the Booklet Category Test (BCT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Obtained counterbalanced order effects on like-aged sample of 63 South African elementary school students (normally- achieving, low-functioning, learning-disabled). Found a significant effect of set-shifting…

Presents model for major influences on children's gender role socialization: parents, media, school, and peers. Reviews literature on role of peer relationships in development of self concept and perpetuation of gender biases and stereotypes. Concludes that parents should set a positive example of gender fair behavior because children will…