Research Findings: The home literacy environment and particularly shared reading are central determinants of children's emergent literacy skills and predictors of their later reading development. Although the importance of frequent shared reading is well established, there is little knowledge about the age at which reading to children starts…

Head Start is a national program that aims to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services to enrolled children and families. The program places special emphasis on helping preschoolers develop the reading, language,…

Approximately 225,000 children from birth to age three are affected by developmental delays, and additionally, 49,000 are affected by a physical disability (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Fortunately there are policies and programs that help young children with disabilities achieve positive outcomes in school and live independent lives in the future.…

Mothers and caregivers of 28 preschoolers were trained to facilitate children's play. Play training of adults was shown to be an effective mechanism for enhancing preschoolers' verbal cognition. Training of mothers and caregivers was more effective than training of caregivers only. (CB)

The kindergarten Learning to Learn Program was designed to help children acquire flexible strategies for dealing with challenges and problems. The pupils in both experimental and control groups were from a low income black neighborhood. The program was organized around a carefully planned sequence of language and mathematical games and game-like…

Reported are findings from the first year's field test of the home-oriented Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) Early Childhood Education Program for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. The program consists of a 30-minute daily television lesson, a weekly home visit by a paraprofessional, and group instruction once a week in a mobile classroom. The…

The Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), was first launched in 1997 as a periodic longitudinal study of program performance. This report is the fourth in a series that uses data from the FACES 2006 cohort to describe…

In order to expose disadvantaged preschool children to a variety of educational experiences and to health and social services, the New York State Legislature funded the State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK). In 1975, a five-year longitudinal evaluation study was begun. The study has two major parts: (1) a general study of 5,800…