A residential school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students developed family living units for some students. Program features include student diversity as a selection factor, a teaching-parent couple in each unit, food acquired from the school kitchen but prepared and eaten in the unit, and close communication between teachers and teaching parents.…

Summarizes the reflections of the developers of the Literacy Outreach Program (LOP) about how they might better support at-risk students' learning through attempting to build bridges between the home and the program. Notes the importance of inviting (instead of mandating) parents to participate, as well as modeling for parents appropriate…

Describes a study involving 29 low-income parents with learning difficulties that validated a prescriptive home-danger and safety-precaution instrument containing 14 epidemiological categories to be used in the design and evaluation of family-tailored injury prevention and safety interventions. (Author/CR)

Describes the development of the Classroom Systems Observation Scale (CSOS), which assesses preschool through sixth grade classroom functioning from a systems perspective using a theoretical framework based on the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Discusses influences of home environment and parental support on learning; and…

Because more than 3.75 million children are being raised in households headed by a grandparent, this article attempts to describe contextual aspects of custodial grandparent families. Implications for working with custodial grandparent families, as well as suggested strategies for building close collaborations, are also provided. (Author/DB)

Describes the concept of a kid-friendly home environment that attracts and welcomes children into the home. Provides a series of simple steps leading to positive relations with children and their friends to create an "open house," as well as a description of the positive effects such an environment has on children. (SD)

Discusses the role of caring and inquiry processes in parenting and family functioning and how these processes affect the lives of children. Formulates strategies within a caring inquiry approach that early childhood professionals can use to promote parental competence and confidence in using their personal-social inquiry skills. (JPB)

This ethnographic study explores the contradictory literacy practices of 10 high school students of Mexican background from the rural Midwest. The author uses the term "Mexican background" to encompass both settled Mexican Americans and recent-immigrant Mexicanos. Literacy is investigated through English and Spanish in a sociocultural…

For many children and their families, the period of time between Thanksgiving and the New Year is marked with great cheer, delicious home-cooked meals and exciting road trips to visit family and friends. But families affected by attention deficit disorder (ADD) can often miss out on the joys of the holiday season if the condition is not managed…

Cognitive-behavior therapists define schemas as cognitive structures that organize thought and perception. Schemas are also viewed as having an integral influence on emotion and behavior. In this article, I examine the role of schema in family conflict and the specific interventions used in restructuring them during the course of family therapy.…

This report introduces the concept of syncretic literacy by examining an exchange in which a 6-year-old Samoan-American boy, in his urban Los Angeles (California) home, involves members of his extended family to complete homework. The study illustrates how English is sometimes used in ways that are consistent with the socialization practices…

The project described in this paper, called Talking to Literacy Learners or TTALL, was designed to improve the quality of parent child interaction involving reading and writing, to promote gains in literacy standards, and to engender a more positive attitude toward schooling. Designed for an urban community in New South Wales where adult and youth…

Children with osteogenesis imperfecta form a small and relatively unknown group, with 5 to 10 children diagnosed in Sweden each year and a total of around 200 people under the age of 17 having the condition. A questionnaire was completed by families of 24 Swedish children with osteogenesis imperfecta, and three families were interviewed. The…

A follow-up study of 15 gifted individuals in England and Canada over a period of 10 years following their college graduation explored the following areas: family background; preceptions of school and college experiences; career choices; persistence of creative activities in adulthood; religious and political affiliations; personal relationships;…

The Bar-Ilan Picture Test for Young Children is a semi-projective device which was designed to fill a gap in the local diagnostic battery of the educational system. The test depicts realistic and meaningful situations which focus upon issues generally encountered in the educational environment of the young child. The demand characteristics of…