This booklet is in response to commonly asked questions from parents about preparing for, and entering kindergarten. Some questions parents ask are about district policy. Nebraska has over 200 individual school districts, each having their own board, superintendent, and policies. The Nebraska Department of Education provides guidance and…

This article begins with a review of research providing evidence that social-emotional competence is a key component of school readiness and that the foundations for social-emotional competence are laid down in the earliest years. We go on to review effective practices and specific interventions that have been found to strengthen children's…

Growth and development are frequently associated with milestones such as walking, talking in sentences, or successful toilet learning. Parents may not be aware that each milestone requires a complex balance of growth, experience, and other factors to occur--much of it without notice. There are a variety of lists of developmental milestones that…

This booklet is in response to commonly asked questions from parents about preparing for, and entering kindergarten. Some questions parents ask are about district policy. Nebraska has over 200 individual school districts, each having their own board, superintendent, and policies. The Nebraska Department of Education provides guidance and…

Increased emphasis has been placed on children's ability to enter kindergarten ready to learn, a concept referred to as "school readiness." School readiness has been defined by the Maryland State Department of Education as "the stage of human development that enables a child to engage in, and benefit from, primary learning…

Child development theorists, researchers, and educators have long known that play is one of children's most valuable resources, vital to their social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Through play children make sense of the world around them and work through new experiences, ideas, and feelings. But in recent years, a host of social forces and…

There is a growing awareness today of the critical impact of the preschool years on a child's later academic success. Some studies indicate that many children today are less well prepared for school than were children beginning school 5 years ago. This publication examines what is known about school readiness; discusses the reasons why some…

This publication is part of a package of three booklets that synthesize current knowledge about the preconditions for learning in children and discuss ways of fostering these conditions. (The other two booklets are an executive summary of this report and a collection of five vignettes on services for infants, toddlers, and families). This report…

Addressed to both professionals and parents, the handbook delineates visual impairment and discusses child growth with reference to the visually handicapped. Development in the visually impaired of self care skills and along physical, social/personal, intellectual, and emotional lines is described and contrasted to that of the normal child. Also,…

The purpose of this research study was to build and pilot a psychometric instrument, the Primary Childhood School Success Scale (PCSSS), to identify behaviors needed for children to be successful in first grade. Fifty-two teacher responses were collected. The instrument had a reliability coefficient (Alpha) of 0.95, a mean of 13.26, and a variance…

The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau has launched a five-year initiative that will support state efforts to build comprehensive early childhood service systems. This initiative--the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Initiative (SECCS)--provides two year planning grants followed by three year implementation grants to the 50 state…