The current project evaluated the use of behavior management techniques utilized in Parent- Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in head start classrooms. The sample included seven Head Start classrooms; four classrooms receiving treatment and three classrooms receiving no treatment. Evaluation of the progress included observation of teacher and…

A variety of preschool curricula is available and in widespread use, however, there is a lack of evidence from rigorous evaluations regarding the effects of these curricula on children's school readiness. The lack of such information is important as early childhood center-based programs have been a major, sometimes the sole, component of a number…

Attendance in preschool centers can yield short-term benefits for children from poor or middle-class families. Yet debate persists in Europe and the United States over whether centers yield gains of sufficient magnitude to sustain children's cognitive or social advantages as they move through primary school. We report on child care and home…

This study was designed to assess possible interactive aspects of family size and learning patterns of preschool lower-SES black children. (Author)

A parent-resource teacher working in a public elementary school's Child Parent Center for preschool children in Chicago, Illinois, implemented a series of reading readiness training workshops for parents, preschool children, teachers, and teacher aides. These workshops were designed to increase disadvantaged black preschool children's reading…

The effectiveness of the verbal plan and review training (VPRT) program in enhancing the reflectivity of 115 economically disadvantaged preschoolers who qualified for a Head Start program but were enrolled at the University of Southern California School for Early Childhood Education was evaluated. Adapted from the curriculum model of Weikart,…

A practicum designed to facilitate the transition of Head Start children to kindergarten was implemented by the education coordinator of a Head Start program. The program served 945 poverty-level children in 35 classrooms and 20 home-based sites in 35 school districts in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Practicum goals were to prepare children for…

A study was undertaken to determine whether four commercially prepared language programs would bring about better gains in the language achievement of disadvantaged preschool children than would activities planned by teachers themselves. The four commercial programs included the Peabody Language Development Kit: Preschool (PLDK-P); the Ginn…

This study attempted to determine if 3-year-old low socioeconomic status children possessed a generalizable concept of circle/round, and examined two methods of teaching to those children who did not already possess it. Twenty 3-year-old children were first presented with training sets consisting of 12 pairs of stimuli: six pairs of objects…

Concern over the nutritional status of the disadvantaged in America led to this study describing the prevalence of anemia among Head Start children in Pontiac, Michigan. Hemoglobin and hematocrit determinations, along with measurements of height and weight, were performed on 77 children, 4 to 6 years old, enrolled in Head Start classes. These…

This document contains nine research abstracts and five progress reports of projects, complete and incomplete, initiated in 1967-1968 by the Michigan State University Head Start and Evaluation Center. The table of contents lists 14 projects under two subheadings (1) Research Abstracts, 1967-1968 Report, and (2) Progress Reports, 1967-1968 Research…

Three studies of preschool children's interpersonal speech usage were formulated in an attempt to understand this aspect of language development. First, a methodological study was designed to develop an instrument for assessing spontaneous interpersonal speech; second, a developmental study was aimed at identifying developmental changes in the…

A curriculum was devised by working backward from Stanford-Binet items to specification of a universe of content for which the Stanford-Binet could serve as a content-valid achievement test. It was reasoned that this curriculum should home. This curriculum was tested on 20 4-year-old disadvantaged children in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The…

Ninety preschool disadvantaged children participated in a study investigating the effect of instruction using the Language Master machine, a device which uses selected word cards to teach basic language skills (e.g., completing verbal analogies, expressing ideas orally, relating perceptually similar pictures, and increasing hearing vocabulary.)…

Described is the special education component of an early childhood education project for culturally disadvantaged preschool children. The component's purpose was to determine if children deviating from their peers could be educated as an integral part of the regular class. Children with an IQ under 80 were provided individual prescriptions in the…