Young children with developmental disabilities may be at heightened risk for experiencing problem behavior. Evidence suggests that inappropriate behavior in young children may be related to negative parent-child interactions. Parent education and support programs have a long history of utility and effectiveness in reducing negative parent-child…

This longitudinal project identified young children at risk of literacy difficulties and asked why some of these children fail to benefit from phonologically based intervention. Reception class children were screened to identify a group at risk of literacy difficulties and a matched group of children not at risk. Profiles were compiled for each…

This study is unique in addressing developmental correlates of direct social support for young children in a high risk sample, in contrast to previous studies addressing social support for caregivers. Participants were drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study of at-risk children. Social support was rated from maternal interviews throughout…

This article, the second in a two-part series, provides guidance to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) for implementing the explicit component of the embedded-explicit emergent literacy intervention model for at-risk preschool and kindergarten children. The explicit component refers to the provision of regular structured therapeutic interactions…

Kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties who received beginning reading instruction in Spanish demonstrated mixed results following supplemental instruction from their classroom teachers when compared to two other groups: typically achieving peers in the same school and at-risk students in a control school. Following the…

Background: Children who have poor vocabulary knowledge are at risk of wider language weaknesses and reading comprehension difficulties, which will impact upon their educational achievement. The central question addressed in this paper is how best to teach new vocabulary items to these children. Aims: To investigate the effects of two different…

Summarizes recent ERIC documents on at-risk children. (Author/BB)

This study investigated the contributions of initial literacy, oral language, and social adjustment to literacy achievement at the end of the kindergarten year. Data were collected across the kindergarten year from 48 children attending a school serving primarily children from low-income households with research-based curriculum and intervention…

Aims to foster scrupulous use of the "at-risk" label for young children by advocating clarification of the term. Proposes caveats educators should consider before applying the label. Among these are (1) risk is not static; (2) standardized test scores are not effective predictors of risk for young children; and (3) children develop in an…

Reports one child-care teacher's experiences in helping troubled young children. Discusses the techniques she uses to reach the children and engage them in play, her attitudes and beliefs concerning children, and her stress on working with the children's parents. (BB)