How can online modules be used to teach undergraduate students or pre-service teachers the principles of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) for guiding young children's behavior? To examine this overarching question, this study developed online modules with video teaching components, and conducted both formative and summative evaluations…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience significant difficulties engaging in meaningful play. Although enabling their playful engagement in social interactions is an important objective, little is known about which interventions effectively promote it. The aim of this was study to conduct a scoping study to map the breadth and…

Research Findings: The present study explored the concrete manifestations of autonomy support (AS) toward toddlers. Eight child care educators were interviewed. Based on our assessment, these educators all valued AS. A qualitative content analysis revealed 18 practices that this group of child care educators considered supportive of toddlers'…

This study examined contextually inappropriate (CI) anger in relation to emotion recognition and situation knowledge, negative social experiences, and externalizing behavior among low-income 4-year-olds attending Head Start (n = 134). Approximately 23% showed anger when presented with positive/neutral slides and videos (valence-incongruent CI…

The Maryland-Minnesota Child Care Research Partnership brought together two states committed to examining critical issues in early care and education and using research findings to inform policy with an interdisciplinary team of researchers experienced in conducting studies on (1) subsidy policy; (2) quality improvement strategies; and (3)…

Background: The assessment of victims of child sexual abuse (CSA) is now a recognized aspect of clinical work for both CAMH and adult services. As juvenile perpetrators of CSA are responsible for a significant minority of the sexual assaults on other children, CAMH services are increasingly approached to assess these oversexualized younger…

A significant number of children and adolescents engage in deliberate fire setting, beyond the scope of curiosity and experimentation. Interventions developed to respond to the needs of such fire setters generally involve educational and/or psychosocial approaches. Research evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions is dominated by…

Objective: To examine the efficacy of a developmentally appropriate parent-child cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol for anxiety disorders in children ages 4-7 years. Method: Design: Randomized wait-list controlled trial. Conduct: Sixty-four children (53% female, mean age 5.4 years, 80% European American) with anxiety disorders were…

This initial study explored the social behaviors of kindergarten children in two classrooms (one developmentally appropriate, one developmentally inappropriate) where the teacher used either positive or negative guidance strategies. Six pairs of kindergartners--three dyads (boy-boy, girl-girl, boy-girl) from a classroom in which the teacher used…

Examined the relationship between more and less developmentally appropriate learning activities (MDAP, LDAP) and stress and nonstress behaviors of first graders during a computer-based literacy laboratory. Found that children exhibited more stress behaviors during LDAP learning activities than did children during MDAP learning activities. No…

By describing the characteristics of the educational and developmental belief systems of low-income African-American parents of kindergarten children, this study extended previous research on parents' beliefs about early education and development to more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse subject groups. A sample of 115 African-American…

Ninety children from South Korea and 119 children from the United States were observed in early childhood programs, and differences in classroom environments and teachers' and children's behavior in the two countries were identified. In both countries, there was evidence that preschool education is guided by ideas about "developmentally…

Six children (5 boys, 1 girl; aged 36-60 months) participated in this qualitative study. Each child was enrolled in a different family child care facility. The authors rated the child care providers in 3 of the facilities as using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) most of the time and rated the providers in the 3 other facilities as…

A study evaluated the Early Childhood Resources Teacher Training Project (TTP). The purpose of the TTP is to train preschool and early primary grade teachers in developmentally appropriate practices. The evaluation sought to: (1) determine the extent to which teachers undergoing training were able to understand and implement the content of the…

This article summarizes findings of "What Grown-ups Understand about Child Development," a national survey to gauge America's knowledge about child development. The findings suggest a need for more and better information on topics such as expectations of young children at different ages, theories on spanking and spoiling, and choices of…