Emphasizing that beginning literacy consists of experiences during the first years of life that lead to reading and writing, this booklet offers practical tips for parents who wish to create a literate home environment for their young children. The booklet discusses reading with the child, listening and talking to the child, going to the library…

It is apparent that the family, and the parents in particular, are powerful influences on the child's learning, even before the child reaches school. The home is the place where children learn first, and the extent to which they learn later in life is determined greatly by what goes on at home. The Affective Education Program, a Title I funded…

Permissive, indulgent home environments (characterized by low disciplinarian, high indulgent, and high protective child-rearing attitudes) were positively associated with superior throwing skill, while increased jumping skill was associated with higher maternal discipline. (MB)

The Family Environment Scale was used to measure perceptions of home environments of 76 students attending a leadership training program and those of their parents. Significant differences were found on the Independence, Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, and Expressiveness Scales, with students scoring home environments notably lower than their…

Measures family environments, cognitive performance, and attitudes toward school among 700 11-year-old Australian children and their parents. Examines relationships between social categories, defined by ethnicity, gender, and social status. Finds differences in family environment and children's cognitive performance related more to ethnicity than…

Describes research designed to address questions about relationships between music instruction and academic performance and the role of private piano education in these relationships. Discusses the family and social background of private piano students, attitudes of students toward lessons, students' participation in other activities, and…

Background: Prenatal problems are among theorized etiologies for child disruptive behavior problems. A key question concerns whether etiological contributors are shared across the broad range of disruptive psychopathology or are partially or largely distinct. Method: We examined prenatal smoking exposure and low birth weight as risk factors for…

This qualitative study explores the impact of childhood themes on women's aspirations toward leadership as suggested by the Eccles Model of Achievement Related Choices. Using intensity sampling, the research solicits childhood gender-related experiences of women in leadership and non-leadership roles through interviews, focus groups, check lists,…

Using longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, this study explored conditions under which the effects of risk factors for low educational attainment might be moderated. Two different risk factors, hyperactivity and maternal authoritarian parenting attitudes, were studied. The results showed that on the whole these two risk factors…

Background: In this study, we tested the effects of three different coping strategies (i.e. problem-focused, emotion-focused and relationship-focused coping) on both positive and negative caregiving perceptions. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and twelve Chinese mothers of children with intellectual disability from a major non-governmental…

In order for the sociological study of disability to enable, then it must be ready to conceptualize complex terrains of knowledge and activism. Research has to work alongside disabled people, their allies, their practices, their resistances and their theorizing. This paper makes a case for a framework of understanding that situates such work.…

The furnishings and toys of boys' and girls' rooms were canvassed on the assumption that differences, if found, would indicate parental ideas about sex-appropriateness. The children were 48 boys and 48 girls under 6 years of age; each child had his own room. (Author/CS)

Assumptions were made that children differ in production of imaginative behavior and speech-to-self or private speech. Three-, four-, and five-year-old children were observed with fantasy materials. Verbal fantasy play was assessed in relation to other individual characteristics of children. Results are reported. (JS)

The presence or absence of a diagnosed handicap in the child proved to be a critical factor in determining mothers' hierarchy of values for their preschoolers. Value areas assessed in two studies were physical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and sociocultural. (Author/RH)

A study of the utility of occupational situs categories in educational research that investigated relationships between occupational status, family learning environments, and children's academic achievement revealed that the type of family learning environment is related to parents' occupational status and to the meaning that persons attach to…