Describes two American university professors' experience at a two-week workshop for preschool teachers in Ukraine. Discusses similarities between American and Ukrainian teachers, such as concern with children's health and academic welfare, their own creativity, and the worth of workshops, as well as differences, such as severe lack of material…

Five experiments examined matching to sample procedures among preschoolers. Results indicated that children selected taxonomic comparisons more often than thematic comparisons, independent of age, gender, instructions, order of trial type, specificity of feedback, presence of unrelated third comparisons, and level of taxonomy. Instructions to…

Tested hypothesized relationship between development of a theory of mind and increasing computational resources in 3- to 5-year olds. Found that the correlations between performance on theory of mind tasks and dual processing tasks were as high as r=.64, suggesting that changes in working memory capacity allow the expression of, and arguably the…

Describes the two national credentials used for U.S. early childhood paraprofessionals: (1) Child Development Associate, overseen by the Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition, in Washington DC, and recently undergoing several changes; and (2) Certified Childcare Professional, awarded by the National Child Care Association, a…

Annotates recent international documents and journal articles from the ERIC database. Document topics include racial equality, and balancing early childhood education and work. Journal article topics include foster care in Iraqi Kurdistan; child care in Sweden; teacher-child interaction in Australian centers; teacher education in Brazil, Iceland,…

An early education program for children under 5 worked on creating an environment in which fathers feel welcome and acknowledged as influences on child learning. Publicity and programs were designed to reflect gender differences in values and motivation. (SK)

Investigates the potential of 11 traditional play activities in a nursery classroom for contributing toward the development of sociability and cooperation in children. Findings suggest four elements characteristic of cooperative play: (1) communication of imaginative ideas; (2) interactive, activity-related dialog; (3) problem solving; and (4)…

Examined parental and staff perceptions of the three-part mission of university-based laboratory preschools and how this mission affects program services. Found that, although parents and staff members viewed lab school functions as having a somewhat positive or minimal impact on program quality, the two groups' perceptions showed significant…

Effects of massage on preschoolers' cognitive performance were assessed. Preschoolers were given Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised subtests before and after receiving 15-minute massage or spending 15 minutes reading stories with the experimenter. Children's performance on Block Design improved following massage, and…

Compares two views about the importance of environmental print in children's learning experiences. Assesses environmental print knowledge in non-reading preschool children and relates it to word recognition training. Finds words from the known logos were more readily learned than the matching control words, but only in Study 1 were the known logo…

Explains how Minnesota's first nature-center-based preschool supports its curriculum with a homey, child-friendly country house design. Several photos are included. (GR)

Discusses development of preschool emergent curriculum focusing on pet care. Considers the use of games, books, and veterinarian visits to the classroom to develop classroom content, and use of these activities to develop other appropriate preschool skills. Includes a bibliography of recommended children's books about dogs. (JPB)

Discusses issues of domestic violence to help child caregivers care for children more effectively. Considers the causes of domestic violence and its impact on children and families, and offers resources for more information as well as suggestions for helping an abused person get help. Includes lists of "Do's and don'ts for breaking the silence"…

Provides activities to encourage classroom play that helps preschool children learn more about place, including where they are at a particular time and how they move from one location to another. Includes separate lists of activities for children ages 2-3, 3-4, and 4 and older. (JPB)

Assessed preschoolers' perceptions of and attitudes toward time out discipline. Found that children were isolated for noncompliance more often than for aggression. Children expressed largely negative self-attributions, such as feeling alone, disliked by the teacher, and ignored by peers, indicating perception of punishment. As they were usually…