Discusses ways for early childhood professionals to meet the objectives contained in the first of the National Education Goals for the Year 2000: the goal concerning readiness for school. (BB)

Examined role of home social relationships as predictors of social functioning in first years of school. Found that the quality of different family relationships provided relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.…

Describes development and implementation of a home-based intensive applied behavioral analysis program based on the Lovaas method for a young child. Describes creation of the home-based program, lack of support from the child's school program, the child's progress, and the opening of a pilot school and resource center that serves seven children…

This article discusses attachment problems and disorders among infants and young children, the consequences of attachment problems in child development, and factors leading to attachment problems. It provides the current status of diagnostic criteria and classification systems means of assessment and available empirically supported interventions.…

Research findings: Growth across 6 months to 8 years of age, assessed at seven time points, for daily living and cognitive skills was compared for term (n = 122), very low birth weight (VLBW) children of low (n = 114) and high (n = 73) medical risk and lower socioeconomic status (SES). Dramatic declines in daily living skills were found for all…

This study examined maternal racial identity and its relations to maternal depression, maternal age, maternal parenting behavior, and 5-year-old children's social and cognitive outcomes. Participants included 62 African American mother-child dyads enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Mothers completed measures on their…

Noting the scientifically substantiated link between children's early family experience and their later intellectual growth, this book describes a longitudinal study of the circumstances of early language learning and the central role of home and family in the emergence of language and word learning. The vocabularies of 42 children were studied…

This study examined effects of participation by single mothers (n=23) of young children with multiple disabilities in an early intervention program. It evaluated the mothers' perceived stress in child rearing, perceived ability to teach their children, and any correlation between parental stress and teaching capability. The mothers in the program…

This paper discusses: (1) the importance of building a comprehensive web of support for families in family literacy programs (such as Even Start) that communicate consistent values and messages essential for educational success; and (2) how integration of program components can be developed and strengthened. The paper is organized around four…

In an effort to compare the socialization of Latino and White children with regard to health, a study was undertaken of 94 Latino and White mothers, 75 Latino and White fathers, and their fourth-grade children attending Catholic schools in a mid-sized west coast city. A questionnaire was administered to the children, assessing their locus of…

This booklet for parents of young children with special needs provides a variety of child-rearing suggestions as well as an updated listing of resources. After an introduction which defines special needs and summarizes basic principles, the following chapters address: (1) the family as the most important support for a child; (2) the evaluation…

This paper discusses major issues having to do with definition of terms and implementation strategies implicit in the first national education goal, which states: "By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn." The principles articulated in the paper by a collaboration of agencies and the private sector are…

Experiences in prenatal life and early childhood that may cause personality disorders of criminal behavior in later life are examined in these proceedings of the Subcommittee on Childhood Experience as Causes of Criminal Behavior of the Standing Committee on Health, Welfare and Science. This issue, the thirteenth in a series of 19 hearings dating…

The nature, origin, and treatment of infantile autism are explored with a consideration of the child's world of encounter and case histories. The beginning of life, called the region of shadows, is mentioned; and the world of the newborn, body language, mutuality, autonomy, the autistic anlage, and the right side of time are examined for the…

This document presents some of the major challenges facing Developmental Psychologists. Research revealed that middle class children tended to respond in classification tasks to objects and pictures as equivalents, whereas low class black children tended not to do so. The reason for this was investigated. This investigation of the course of…