Self-paced instructional materials concerning day care for 2-year-old children are provided in this staff development module, intended for the caregiver or teacher in a military child care center. The module consists of several short discussions describing what toddlers are like and suggesting how they can be helped to handle their feelings, how…

A sample of 80 families with a 2- or 3-year-old child in day care in one of four popular forms (baby sitter in the child's own home, family day care, part-time nursery program, and full-time day care center program) participated in a study of the effects of forms of care on children's development. Parents and caretakers were interviewed, and…

This longitudinal study identified hard-to-manage older toddlers and younger preschoolers, assessed the developmental course and prognostic significance of their difficult behavior, and delineated family factors possibly associated with early and persistent problems. Obtained from parents, teachers, and observers, cross-situational and…

A communicative repair has been defined as the ability to persist in communication and to modify, repeat, or revise a signal when the initial communication attempt failed. From an operant perspective, initial communicative acts and communicative repairs can be considered members of a response class in which each response produces the same outcome.…

In this study, everyday mother-to-toddler speech patterns among disadvantaged and advantaged groups were examined in the home environment. The Schachter FIS-C (Functions of Interpersonal Speech of Caretakers) language measuring instrument was applied to mother speech in three sociolinguistic urban groups: black disadvantaged, black advantaged, and…

This study investigated the child rearing environments in 8 community based day care centers and 16 family day care homes and the social competencies of the toddlers enrolled in them. Subjects were forty 19-month-old toddlers from similar backgrounds, half in each type of day care. Socially directed behaviors between the toddler and peers, and…

The goal of ensuring that all children are "ready for school" has become a national priority. As a result, programs that support children's school readiness are becoming more and more important to policy-makers, funders, and parents. It is becoming very clear that efforts to improve school success cannot begin at kindergarten, nor focus…

Each year, Early Head Start (EHS) and migrant and seasonal Head Start grantees are invited to share their experiences in providing high-quality services for expectant parents and families with infants and toddlers. This report highlights how 10 Early Head Start and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start grantees respond to mental health needs of infants,…

Early Head Start (EHS) is a comprehensive, two-generation program providing intensive services from before birth to age 3 to promote improved outcomes in children's development, family development, staff development, and community development. The second of a 3-volume series designed to share the experiences of the 17 EHS programs participating in…

Despite the plethora of new electronic media aimed at very young children, little is known about which media are available to children and whether or how children engage with them. This study reports on a nationally representative telephone survey of more than 1,000 parents of children ages 6 months through 6 years, conducted in Spring 2003. The…

This module is one of 13 in the "Grow to 5" series, which is a revised and updated version of Florida's "Model of Interdisciplinary Training for Children with Handicaps (MITCH)." This 3-hour module focuses on training educators and other service providers in principles of family functioning and coping with stress. The module…

This initial issue of "Early Edition" launches the first edition of Tennessee's newsletter dedicated to the implementation of programs and services for young children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The period of early childhood is the foundation for all future learning and achievement for…

A supportive father as well as a supportive mother may foster offspring's healthy development. But what the behavior of a supportive parent looks like may in part depend upon whether the parent is a mother or a father. From the beginnings of empirical research on fathers, the father's role in traditional western families has been conceptualized as…

This final report details the activities of the Charlotte Circle Outreach, a program designed to provide technical assistance and training to early intervention programs offering services to infants and young children with substantial disabilities, ages birth through two years. This mission was accomplished through cooperative planning with…

This book extends the discussion regarding effective early childhood teacher education in light of two contradictory public demands, day care and education. The sections of the book focus on what makes an effective beginning teacher, what is needed to move beyond initial competence, and what makes an effective early childhood teacher educator.…