Examined performance of Canadian French- and English-speaking preschoolers on four number tasks. Found that French-speaking preschoolers performed more poorly on rote-counting and number-recognition than English-speaking preschoolers. Found no difference between groups on counting objects. Variability in counting and number recognition was…

Reviews research on home literacy experiences of nonmainstream families, and challenges traditional views of what constitutes a rich literacy environment. Discusses efforts at home-school collaboration to help children grow in writing ability. (PCB)

Presents conversations from three seven-year olds talking with their teacher, drawn from a longitudinal study of primary school students. Examines the conversations as a piece of scripted drama to highlight the implications of classroom dialogue for teaching and learning. (HTH)

Investigated Swedish parents' conceptions of day-care center quality and the relation between Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and parents' ratings of day-care centers. Found that for parents, main functions of day care were education and social development, rather than convenience to family. Found moderate but statistically…

Reports a longitudinal study comparing 211 male inpatients in Stockholm, Sweden, alcohol clinic with a random sample of 200 men from Stockholm's general population. Random sample and inpatient males who also reported drug use had more psychosocial problems and had grown up in families with more abuse of alcohol and drugs than those who did not…

Compared characteristics and behaviors of 211 male inpatients of an alcohol clinic and a random sample of 200 men from the greater Stockholm area. Those individuals from both groups who used alcohol and hepatotoxic drugs were equally likely to develop social maladjustment problems, including abuse of alcohol and drugs, while they were growing up.…

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…

Studied effects of care-oriented, educationally oriented, and home preschool settings in Bahrain on 140 children's cognitive and socioemotional performance. Found significant advantage in language, memory, vocabulary, counting, and conceptual maturity for preschool care; and for children's self-esteem, self-confidence, and emotional conduct in…

Examines the effects of socialization on the size of Yoruba children's drawings of a man and a woman through use of the Draw a Person test. Findings support the prediction that male figures were drawn relatively larger than female figures only in the low income group, reflecting the gender inequality that appears typical of the Yoruba social…

Claims that incorporating children's native language into school curriculum can make these languages integral to the learning process. Suggests that a responsive, language-rich curriculum encourages creative and effective communication and learning. Emphasizes that language learning and sharing are the essence of the additive model as opposed to…

Challenges teachers to question their teaching practices and views regarding children's learning. Discusses issues related to curriculum design to ensure a wide range of open-ended activities; to manage and organize the environment to meet individual interests and needs; and to assess, record, and report on real-life contexts and their learning…

Claims that creativity can be nurtured in young children using the appropriate creative environment, such as schools with creative programs, continuous enrichment of the environment, and creative teachers and creative ways of teaching. Concludes that the most powerful possibility of nurturing creativity in an individual lies in interaction with…

This article recounts observations of the use of texts in the preschool, to document the interaction between the child, the teacher, and the environment, and the emergent literacy in the daily practices. Presentation of the findings is a description of two different textual environments: the narrative and the passive. (Author)

Investigated the relationship between selected family factors and quality of children's home environment, and their predictive value for cognitive competence. Results indicated a positive relationship between mothers' education, fathers' occupation, and mothers' work satisfaction and quality of home environment. Quality of home environment related…

Examined relationships between adjustment and academic achievement and effects of sociocultural background on parental expectations for primary school students in Italy. Found a significant relationship between adjustment and achievement. Parents were more willing than teachers to excuse poor adjustment or behavior in a high-achieving child.…