This article reviews research linking a number of temperamental vulnerabilities to the development of severe conduct problems in children. Also reviewed are 2 areas of research that focus on important developmental processes that could mediate the relation between temperament and conduct problems. These processes are the development of emotional…

Child care research during the last 20 years has made considerable progress in addressing questions about (a) the effects of child care quality, (b) the effects of amount and timing of early child care, and (c) the effects of different types of care such as centers, child care homes, and relative care. This commentary summarizes the converging…

The present concurrent study combined developmental and ecological considerations to examine the unique contribution of multiple preschool competencies to an indicator of early academic success. Participants included 195 Head Start children from 32 classrooms representative of a large, urban Head Start program. Dimensional (variable-centered)…

The construct of school readiness that focuses on children's maturation and homogeneity of their attainment at school entry has been challenged by recent research. This research indicates that there are difficulties in assessing young children's abilities, and there are limitations to the concomitant practice of retention. These challenges have…

Discusses strategies for training responsive day care staff focused on the details of class activities and individual child development. Suggests that day care center directors model narrating the details of classroom observations, researching children's use of the environment, involving children in noticing details, and strengthening…

This article describes the positive outcomes from the Philadelphia-based Educating Children for Parenting (ECP) program, founded in 1978, which aims to take advantage of children's fascination with babies and their easily triggered emotional investment in learning how to care for them. The program brings a parent and infant into the classroom…

This article re-evaluates the concept of "difficult temperament," documenting the difficulty of differentiating normal difficult behavior from difficult temperament, and difficult temperament from diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Researchers and clinicians acknowledge that childhood aggression is occurring with greater frequency and at younger…

Background: In this study we used event-related potentials (ERPs) and source localization analyses to track the time course of neural activity underlying response monitoring in children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder compared to age-matched low-risk normal controls. Methods: High-density ERPs were examined following errors on a flanker task…

Coming upon Devon McKenna's entry one might ask two questions. First, why send undergraduates, specifically potential early childhood professionals, abroad? Second, why send them to Sweden? To both, the answer drawn from a comprehensive worldwide review of early childhood program provision provides an elegant recognition: "It is said that the…

"Big Math for Little Kids," a comprehensive program for 4- and 5-year-olds, develops and expands on the mathematics that children know and are capable of doing. The program uses activities and stories to develop ideas about number, shape, pattern, logical reasoning, measurement, operations on numbers, and space. The activities introduce the…

Understanding and appreciating other cultures has long been a goal of many early childhood education programs. Yet, helping children develop an understanding and appreciation of other cultures is not easily achieved. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of fairytales and storytelling with young children to promote cultural…

The present study examined the independent and joint relations of parental self-efficacy beliefs and parent knowledge of child development to maternal behavioral competence among mothers of high-risk infants. Sixty-five mothers completed questionnaires regarding parental self-efficacy and knowledge of child development and were assessed for…

Traditional American cultural narratives about hard work, self-improvement, and "success"--moving from "rags to riches"--play a very important role in shaping the thinking of most college students, and most other Americans too, of course, regardless of age, class, ethnicity, or gender. This article presents several narratives that will help shape…

In 1992, V. Phares published an article titled "Where's Poppa?: The Relative Lack of Attention to the Role of Fathers in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology." Since that time, there have been modest gains in the research literature on clinical child issues, but there remains a wide gap between the inclusion of mothers and fathers in clinical…

This study explored infants' ability to infer communicative intent as expressed in non-linguistic gestures. Sixty children aged 14, 18 and 24 months participated. In the context of a hiding game, an adult indicated for the child the location of a hidden toy by giving a communicative cue: either pointing or ostensive gazing toward the container…