Describes how three principles of leadership presented by Heifetz (1994) in "Leadership Without Easy Answers" can be translated into the leadership parenting of young children. Focuses on distinguishing between child-rearing issues that require parents to act as trainers versus those demanding a problem-solving role, on responding to…

This article recounts the experiences of a family with a son with autism. Jean-Paul's two sisters, his brother, cousin, grandmother, father, and mother contribute their perspectives. Jean-Paul also speaks for himself. This account traces his life from his early childhood to independent adulthood. (Author/CR)

In this article, the mother of a son with autism shares her struggle to get a diagnosis, choose the right treatment, and face an unknown future for her son Luke, now age 5. Her worries about discrimination, neighborhood acceptance, and the effects of Luke's autism on his siblings are discussed. (CR)

Examines the changing images of childhood throughout history, focusing on how changes are reflected in beliefs and educational and social practices toward children with special needs. Describes impact of a painful childhood on Friedrich Froebel and actor Cary Grant. Suggests ways to enhance children's lives, including government subsidized…

A mother of a son with Down syndrome discusses how her family and child care providers work with him in natural environments to support his learning in daily activities. She urges other parents to keep trying until they find the right match that works for their family. (CR)

Describes the dispositions comprising decency. Discusses how children acquire a sense of decency through the learning cycle of caring and serving, and describes how serving and caring strategies in family and school can promote decency through caring for self, others, the environment, and through service to others. Emphasizes the importance of…

Discusses parental guilt, fear, and lack of confidence eroding parents' ability to create a healthy balance between career and family. Maintains that the amount of time employed parents spend with children is not the problem, but that parental fatigue and stress spill into the home environment. Suggests ways parents can improve their confidence…

Outlines new directions for research on parents' contributions to children's values. Advocates research that demonstrates that parental understanding of a particular child's characteristics and situation is the mark of effective parenting, traces differential impact of varieties of parent responsiveness, assesses conditions surrounding the fact…

Highlights the value of resilience as a key concept in work with young people in need and considers implications of a resilience-led approach for policy and practice. Discusses social and developmental factors influencing a child or young person's degree of resilience, with particular reference to the resilience enhancing potential of school…

For adults, fear of death is universal, but young children are exposed to realities of death only infrequently and are often shielded from it by parents. Because parents realize the extent of a child's fear of losing a parent, parents sometimes take precautionary steps, such as avoiding both parents' travelling on the same airplane or designating…

This study examined techniques which facilitate children's separation from their mothers and their move into a novel situation. Subjects were 32 male and 32 female 40- to 48-month-old children. Some children were visited in their homes the night before the experiment. Subjects remained with their mothers in a waiting room for 10 minutes. A…

It is important for parents to teach their children to associate learning with sweetness, enjoyment, and pleasure. Suggestions to help parents make reading to their children a special time are: (1) make reading a "snuggle time"; (2) visit the library once a week; (3) develop a regular reading time with children; (4) select appropriate…

Emotional child abuse is virtually inevitable in the context of the traditional nuclear family and often has a more detrimental effect on children than other, more widely publicized forms of maltreatment. This paper documents clinical, statistical, and empirical evidence showing that "normative" child-rearing practices in our culture have…

There are many reasons for implementing a course in parenting education in the schools. Among them are: (1) In the past decade, premarital sex among teenage girls has risen from 30 to 50 percent; (2) One child of every five is born to teenage parents and 94 percent of these teenagers keep their babies; and (3) 90 percent of teenage mothers drop…

Stereotypically masculine men tend to adopt family roles in which they are more important symbolically, as models for power and authority, than realistically, as teachers, care takers and nurturers. For these men, nurturant-expressive involvement with their children is still the exclusive domain of women. Men who have integrated affective…