Presents strategies to make planning-through-play activities a fun and integral part of the preschool developmental curriculum. Strategies are influenced by a Piagetian approach and an information processing approach that focuses on development of decision making. Specific suggestions are based on a model preschool program in Brookline,…

Describes a preschool curriculum unit that includes activities designed to help prepare young children for medical treatment, visits to hospitals, and health care. (BB)

Offers a report on Visions for Children--an early childhood demonstration program with the goal of facilitating intellectual development and academic achievement and enhancing self-concepts of African-American preschoolers. Base-line data from the first two phases of child testing comparing program participants and control group children is…

Examined attitudes of 186 early childhood educators regarding the "Desirable Outcomes for Children's Learning on Entering Compulsory Education" survey in the United Kingdom. Found that, although there is some consensus among preschool workers in different settings concerning early-years curriculum priorities, those within an education…

Awareness of issues of social competence and challenging behavior related to childhood language and communication disorders has been increasing. The purpose of this clinical exchange is to provide speech-language pathologists with basic information on communication disorders and challenging behaviors, as well as with insights into ways to support…

This study explored how background factors are related to teachers' behaviors. Currently, it is unclear what variable most accurately predicts teaching behaviors; experience, general education, or specialized training. The participants in this study were 47 early childhood educators. Teachers were primarily female and all worked with children aged…

A practicum was conducted at a rural hospital-subsidized child development center to reduce the inappropriate responses of teachers in meeting the needs of children from 6 weeks to 6 years of age. Informal observations indicated that staff members of the center were not using child development knowledge in guiding and responding to children. The…

This foundation guide is addressed to Head Start staff, parents, and consultants to help them develop a broader view of their roles and to support the program's efforts to include children with disabilities in the various worlds around them. The guide includes the following sections: (1) "Module 1: There's Room for All of Us," which…

This training guide is designed to build the capacity of Head Start staff to make the program's renewed vision for parent involvement a reality for every parent and program. The guide contains three modules, each with two activities designed for workshop presentation, followed by two or more coaching activities. Module 1 defines parent involvement…

The New Canaan Public Schools reduced its extended-day (21 hours per week) kindergarten program to half-day sessions (15 hours per week) in an interim program during a 2-year school construction-expansion phase. During a 9-month planning process, an ad hoc committee representing equal membership of teachers and parents from three elementary…

This monograph consists of seven papers that discuss issues related to the teaching approach used in the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. The papers are: (1) "Images from the World: Study Seminar on the Experience of the Municipal Infant-Toddler Centers and the Preprimary Schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy" (Lilian G. Katz), which…

Psychosexual development in young children is a topic that early childhood educators often ignore in the belief that children are not sexual beings. This paper discusses psychosexual development in young children, noting that preschoolers are often puzzled by sexual anatomical differences, that children need names for sexual body parts, and that…

This paper describes a study of the socioemotional functioning of middle-class male and female preschoolers who had experienced varying degrees of nonparental care during the infant/toddler period. A review of the literature revealed that previous research findings from child care programs were inconclusive about potential differential effects on…

This article is concerned with parental involvement and participation in preschool education in Hong Kong. Based on the experience gained from a parental education programme, it is argued that three issues are crucial in the development of parental education: (1) an ecological approach to recognise the nature of parental education; (2) parental…

This yearly evaluation report of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program in Dayton, Ohio, presents research results for five areas of program assessment. These areas are (1) measurement of four- and five-year-olds' educational experiences and development in areas such as cognitive skills and personal-social responsiveness, using the Caldwell…