Written for parents, teachers and preschool personnel involved with visually handicapped children, the book provides an overview of mainstreaming procedures and implications. The first chapter provides a definition of mainstreaming and considers benefits' professional involvement, and resources available for parents and teachers. Diagnostic…

This report presents a description and evaluation of the Cognitively Oriented Urban Prekindergarten Program in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a preschool program for children from low income families and/or one-parent families. The program was designed to form a link between the Early Learning Program of the PRIDE Project and public kindergarten.…

Formerly the Responsive Environment Program for Spanish American Children, REEEP is an educational intervention program for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old "high risk" (of low birth weight and with various handicaps) Spanish American children. Goals of REEEP, an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title III program, are to: prevent school…

There is an urgent need to improve the language of the migrant children if they are to succeed in school. The child must have a solid understanding and usage of the Standard English used in the schools. This guide, developed through the efforts and cooperation of teachers of migrant preschool children, attempts to develop academic readiness…

Special Programs to Enhance the Education of Disadvantaged Youth (Project SPEEDY) was in its seventh year of Title I funding, the main thrust being in the area of corrective reading and other programs designed to promote language development. Although concentrating funds on fewer students has been made increasingly difficult by busing pupils,…

The Early Childhood Prekindergarten Assessment Instrument is a criterion referenced approach designed to help locate the child along a developmental curriculum sequence. Certain skills are analyzed according to auditory, visual, motor, and verbal learning processes, and determine what level the child has attained prior to entering school. Along…

This encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work addressed to those interested in human development from birth through adolescence, including students of child development, teachers, health care providers, child psychologists, family counselors, education professionals, academics, and parents. Signed entries in the encyclopedia were prepared by…

This study examined the effects of social class background on children's oral language development. The study focused on children's oral vocabulary knowledge because such knowledge provides a good summary of language skills, is easily measured, and is very consequential for later schooling success. Using a large national data set, the study…

Tracked one prekindergarten teacher's experience to determine whether a relationship exists between student outcomes and a teacher's ability to use sign language. Found enriching preschool curriculum with sign language improves hearing African American children's receptive English vocabulary and confirms research that simultaneously presenting…

A parent questionnaire was used to assess cognitive, linguistic, and socio-communicative skills of 48 Cherokee and 37 Caucasian children ages 3-5. Cherokee scores were significantly lower across all three areas, but differences became smaller as age increased. Lower scores may reflect cultural differences in parenting rather than a language delay…

Tested a model of individual differences in the development of emergent literacy. Focused on home environment contributions to children's emerging literacy skills and on processes relating family environment and two domains of emergent literacy (outside-in and inside-out). Found that early connections between home, language, and emergent literacy…

Research on the relationship between early childhood literacy experiences and subsequent reading acquisition is reviewed, with a focus on awareness and knowledge of print. Research studies included children, preschool age to age 7, who were identified as normally achieving, at risk, and linguistically diverse. One of the studies involved children…

This study examined whether the level of academic achievement changed when deaf pupils in Sweden were introduced to sign communication at the preschool or kindergarten level. The study compared performance of 40 deaf students, attending a school for the deaf, on a comprehensive testing program (covering Swedish language and mathematical and…

Two related studies investigated (1) the extent to which native language input to five Japanese children was varied based on the children's age, and (2) the effectiveness of adult Japanese second language input to a three-year-old American child during a one-month period in Japan. In the first study, interactions of adult-child dyads were compared…

Five papers from a conference designed to examine current and emerging practices for promoting literacy among second language learners of English are presented. The unifying theme of cultural pluralism covers a variety of topics: positive attitudes toward reading, schema theory, teachers' verbal interaction strategies, the assumption that children…