Public Law 99-457 mandates collaboration among agencies serving special needs preschoolers. A statewide survey investigated interagency collaboration, studied factors related to successful collaboration, identified factors that inhibit collaboration, and determined training needs of early childhood service providers. (BC)

This study compared three written surveys intended to help identify family strengths and needs during the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process. Subjects were 48 mothers of children enrolled in early intervention programs and 25 program providers. Mothers tended to prefer written surveys to personal interviews and rated the surveys'…

This article discusses the importance of learning to define a word. It provides a brief background on the contribution of the definitional skills to communication and school success, information on children's development of definitions, and teacher and family strategies for enhancing young children's definitions in relation to other skills.…

Eighty-seven Finnish preschoolers with deafness and hearing family members learned sign language in a 5-year project. Once weekly, children met with a teacher with deafness. Families met monthly to study sign language and all families signed together twice yearly. Families indicated they learned to sign and their social network expanded. (Contains…

Early emergent patterns of behavioral problems, social skills deficits, and language delays were examined in 259 three-year-olds enrolled in Head Start classrooms. Findings indicated the children were at elevated risk for behavioral and language problems and that children with behavioral problems were more likely to have low language scores.…

This article presents an overview of several pivotal response interventions. Areas discussed include responsivity to multiple cues, motivation to initiate and respond appropriately to social and environmental stimuli, and self-regulation of behaviors. The trend to streamline intervention by targeting behaviors that have a widespread effect on…

A study involving 6 children with autism investigated whether self-initiations might be associated with highly favorable post-intervention outcomes. Results found that children who had highly favorable outcomes exhibited more spontaneous self-initiations at pre-intervention. Further study indicated children could learn a variety of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between sex, social status and social behavior in a sample of Australian preschool-aged children. Social behavior has emerged as an important predictor of social status for children in middle childhood however, although early childhood may be an optimum period for implementation of…

Children's lives are infused with stories at home, at school or the library, and in the media. This article discusses how to harness the power of literature and use it to develop positive character traits in young children. Storytelling is a fundamental way in which human beings process and share events as well as the feelings surrounding those…

Surface similarity generally promotes reasoning by analogy and physical similarity has been shown to have a powerful positive effect on very young children's use of a scale model as a source of information about another space. The research reported here investigated 2 1/2-year-old children's performance in an object retrieval task when asked to…

Experiences with nature play a critical role in shaping lifelong attitudes, values, and patterns of behavior toward natural environments. The author explains a three-step program for an early childhood focus based on activity, wonder, and environmental education. She includes suggestions for activities possible at any preschool.

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

The role of informational text in primary-grade classrooms has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and there is converging evidence that young school children have few opportunities to engage with this genre. The studies described here expand the research base to include preschool (Study 1) and home (Study 2) exposures to…

Background: Findings are presented of the second phase of a longitudinal study of families created through surrogacy. Methods: At the time of the child's 2nd birthday, 37 surrogacy families were compared with 48 egg donation families and 68 natural conception families on standardised interview and questionnaire measures of the psychological…

In this article, the author presents the 12 benefits of playing as a reference and guide for teachers in helping young children develop their cognitive skills, motor ability, socio-emotional, and academic development during play time. The following 12 benefits are described: (1) Play Enhances Bodily Gracefulness; (2) Play Promotes Social Skills;…