Initiating change in preschool and elementary schools could enhance childrens' present physical fitness and help them understand and achieve physical fitness in adulthood. Mastering motor skills and locomotor patterns in early childhood is important to future physical development. A new direction for physical activity programs is offered. (DF)

Parents have an important role in their child's early preparation for reading. To help children develop positive attitudes towards reading, parents can read aloud, talk and listen to their children, show good reading habits, play with their children, and take field trips. (DF)

This article offers suggestions on planning field trip experiences for young children. Rules should be set and enforced, strollers available, and enough care givers present to manage the group. Grocery stores, fire stations, bookstores, and barbershops are some of the places children enjoy. (DF)

The article considers how three types of language skills (receptive, functional expressive, and descriptive expressive) can be integrated into typical gross and fine motor activities for language delayed preschoolers. (Author/CL)

This curriculum guide for preschool teachers was designed for use with wooden unit and hollow blocks to foster a variety of math, science, language, and social skills. Following an introduction to the curriculum and a discussion of cooperative learning and stages of block building, the guide is divided into three parts. Part 1 of the guide,…

This document presents a self-assessment instrument for early childhood programs serving 3- and 4-year-olds in Massachusetts. The self-assessment is intended to provide guidance to program personnel, local early childhood advisory council members, and parents as they evaluate their programs and identify areas for improvement. The instrument also…

Dance for preschool children can be a vehicle for self-expression and for learning, but teachers must present material in the form of play. Ideas for teaching dance to three- to five-year-old children, such as the proper way to jump and skip, are presented, along with a sample lesson. (PP)

The article defines and describes coping and stress, their relationship to learning, and how they are assessed for educational planning for preschool handicapped children. The Coping Inventory, an observation assessment instrument, is used to show how the teaching and learning of coping behavior can be part of each child's educational plan.…

Thirteen programmatic factors are identified and considered for their role in fostering social integration in mainstreamed settings. (CL)

Reponses to four letters from parents and a teacher of gifted children, relating to truancy in a gifted teenager; development of a regional gifted program; strategies appropriate for a primary gifted program; and instructional activities for a parent to use with her preschool age gifted child. (SBH)

This article offers both a rationale and method for the implementation of a natural literacy program for preschool children with language disabilities. It reviews research on development of fundamental literacy skills and briefly describes extant approaches to facilitating literacy skills. Tenets of the natural literacy perspective are explained…

The teacher of a preschool class for deaf and hearing impaired children describes a project that used videotape recordings to increase parental involvement. Videotapes containing the sign vocabulary of upcoming teaching units as well as videoclips of various portions of the children's day in school were produced in the classroom and sent home to…

This brief article describes a children's story, "Rosie's Walk," which has been made fully accessible for deaf children in CD-ROM through inclusion of more than 120 sign language sequences (American Sign Language and Signed English), as well as voice and written text. The disk also includes six educational games. (DB)

Urges more communication between practitioners and researchers in the field of severe disabilities. Describes the practical implications of current research in determining what, where, and how to teach students with severe disabilities. Questions for future research with direct impact on these students' classroom experiences are raised, including…

A familial basis for phonological disorders was suggested in this study which found that siblings of 20 preschool children with severe phonological disorders performed more poorly than siblings of 20 normally developing children on measures of phonology and reading. No significant differences were found on measures of language and motor ability.…