Describes three projects that use technology to adapt curriculum to a global approach: (1) kindergartners using a videotape to see a Japanese child; (2) eighth graders using Macintosh networked workstations to produce hypermedia presentations on community issues; and (3) a high school class using a computer-based telecommunications system to…

Defines UNESCO's place in the United Nations system. Outlines new situations that have arisen in recent years for the world's children, noting that the major problem for international organizations is not children's survival but their development. Presents an early childhood development programing model which takes into account research and the…

The Multidisciplinary Faculty Training Institute sought to increase the capacity of institutions of higher education to refine or develop coursework, practica, and course sequences in early intervention. The project trained small groups of faculty from colleges and universities in the New York Metropolitan area and provided follow-up technical…

Discusses difficulties parents encounter when they play with their disabled child and the inappropriateness of some commercial toys for disabled children. Also describes the development of adapted toys and of toy lending libraries for young disabled children. (BB)

Author Joseph Chilton discusses parents' roles in child rearing, the importance of nurturing, and how negative and positive childhood experiences affect one's emotional and physical health throughout life. Describes neurocardiology, which is documenting the biological connections between the brain and heart and lifting the wisdom and intelligence…

The Road to Readiness component of the Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning focused on individual, family, and community supports and obstacles to school readiness. Several projects of the initiative are described, focusing on a chart developed to help parents encourage a child's early speech. (SLD)

Reports on the challenges in designing and developing a series of videotaped sequences and original music for dance on a compact disc/audiotape and a self-instructional study guide for use by early childhood/primary students studying via a distance education model. Resources were designed to be used in preservice and inservice teacher training…

This article discusses results of two recent surveys in Taiwan. Survey results indicate 99 percent of preschool program directors (n=134) believe they cannot provide services to certain children because of inadequate qualified personnel or lack of appropriate facilities and parents (n=109) of young children with disabilities face many problems.…

Identifies benefits of family involvement in the early childhood classroom for the child, parents, and teacher. Describes barriers to parent involvement: parent availability, parent and teacher awkwardness, schedule conflicts, and school resistance to full parent inclusion. Provides six principles for involving parents in their children's…

This article provides an introduction to the Mexican American culture, describing (a) cultural diversity and linguistic policies in the United States; (b) cultural and linguistic studies that have examined the backgrounds of Mexican American individuals; (c) the characteristics of this population; (d) discrimination and human relations issues; (e)…

The PLS-4 (Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition) is a psychometrically sound instrument constructed to assess language skills in children from birth to 6 years 11 months. It is a useful diagnostic and research tool that can be used to identify current comprehension and expressive language skills and can measure changes in language skills over…

This article describes the ScienceStart! Curriculum, an early childhood curriculum that takes coherently organized science content as the hub of an integrated approach. ScienceStart! maps onto the typical preschool day and may be adapted for use in full-day or half-day preschool programs. It is designed to support the important developmental…

Early literacy experiences play an important role in later literacy skills and school achievement. Communities offer early literacy experiences in a variety of venues to meet the diverse needs of families. The author of this article provides four vignettes illustrating community-based early literacy activities: (1) private group classes such as…

This paper describes the development, administration, and scoring of the Pictorial Measure of School Stress (PMSS). This instrument was designed to describe individual differences in children's feelings about everyday school situations and their coping strategies for dealing with these. The PMSS uses a semi-structured interview to present specific…

Boys' underachievement has to some extent been attributed to the feminisation of the teaching profession. The authors understand the concept of feminisation to mean in the first instance an increase in the number of women teachers in primary schools as a proportion of the total work force. The evidence the authors have for this pragmatic…