This study focuses on the language and literacy worlds of three profoundly deaf preschool children, whose lack of a strong spoken English base provided an opportunity to explore the relationship between spoken language development and written language development and to investigate young children's written language development in light of the…

A practicum addressed the emergent literacy needs of preschoolers at a daycare center. Goals were to increase: (1) the amount of time parents read aloud to their children to 15 minutes a day; (2) the number of library books at the daycare center from 40 to 200; and (3) the number of volunteers at the center from none to 4 who would read aloud to…

A manual for training paraprofessionals to provide home intervention and instruction to mothers of handicapped infants and preschool children is presented. The following objectives of the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, project are described: teaching mothers about child development; obtaining information about each child and the child's environment; and…

This study sought to find a way to help children from educationally disadvantaged families to improve their cognitive and language abilities and thus improve their achievement in school. Specifically the study investigated the effectiveness of guided experiences with clay in promoting cognitive, affective, and language growth of educationally…

Noting that young children's initial writing efforts are often dismissed as insignificant scribbling, a study explored children's emerging understandings about written language as indicated by the changes in 47 preschool children's autographs. Throughout a school year children were asked to write their names and draw pictures of themselves.…

A brief overview of the development of Polish education since the Second World War precedes a discussion of preschool education in Poland. The education of very young children is viewed seriously in Poland and has become a socially approved part of the system of education. Discussion focuses on the structure of preschool education, financing, and…

Project CHIME (Children with Hearing Impairments in Mainstreamed Environments) was developed to create a curriculum for use by professionals who are providing mainstreaming opportunities for hearing-impaired preschoolers. The CHIME curriculum is divided into five activity areas that are part of the growth and development process for all…

A nationwide survey was conducted to determine what skills and knowledge kindergarten teachers consider important for preschoolers to have upon entering kindergarten. A sample of 400 randomly selected school districts were invited to contribute kindergarten readiness guidelines and report cards; 78 schools and school districts from the United…

Begun in December, 1988, the Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool (MECEP) program for high-risk 4-year-old children was serving 136 pupils by February, 1989. A process evaluation focused on cognitive, psychomotor, parent participation, education, and language development objectives and on the scheduling of class activities. The evaluation…

Between 1976 and 1979, Head Start, as part of its strategy for Spanish-speaking children, funded four institutions for the purpose of developing and implementing four distinct bilingual bicultural preschool curriculum models for use with Spanish-speaking children. In 1977, the Research, Demonstration, and Evaluation Division of the Administration…

This paper examines issues related to the role of preschool education in Norway. Two dominant philosophies of preschool education are identified, the first emphasizing the importance of play opportunities and the social environment of the preschool, and the second focusing on the importance of adequate pedagogical programs for optimum cognitive…

A bulletin consists of two articles on the language development of disadvantaged children. The opposing positions of language teachers on the "correct" approach to teaching standard English are outlined in one of the articles. On one side are those who favor creativity and freedom of expression while on the other side are the "purists" who are…

This report describes a comparative study of methods of home-based infant and parent education. The study involved 108 children, aged 1 to 2 1/2 years, in six groups of 18 each. In three groups a home visitor worked with the children and their mothers using a curriculum which focused on either play, language, or social development. In a fourth…

The overall purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and practicability of a home-centered preschool intervention program for cognitive, language, and personality development of mother and child, based upon the use of paraprofessional educators who are themselves members of the population served. One question considered was…

The significance of three mothers' speech for their infants' language development is considered in a continuing longitudinal study. The study began when the children (two females and one male) were 5 and 6 months of age and will continue until the subjects are 3 years old. In the speech data reported the children were from 6 to 18 months of age.…