This issue of the Coordinator's Notebook focuses on the quality of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs. The bulk of the issue is devoted to an article "Quality in ECCD: Everyone's Concern" (Judith Evans), which reviews the need for a definition of high quality in ECCD programs and discusses how diverse stakeholders…

The School Development Program (SDP), initiated 25 years ago by Dr. James Comer, is described, with focus on the need for knowledge about its child development component and the implications of this lack for program implementation and impact. The SDP program is recognized for its primary focus on child development and human relationships as its…

This report is a summary of a December, 1994 research briefing presented by the Board on Children and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, and the Family and Child Well-Being Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This…

Despite U.S. world leadership in research in child healthcare and development, in all the statistical indicators of children's well-being the United States lags well behind most advanced industrialized societies. This book discusses U.S. public policy issues concerning the healthcare and development of children under age three. Studies are cited…

Effective discipline methods help children become considerate and responsible human beings. This book describes a way to discipline children without using force, fear, or punishment. Following an introduction, the book's seven chapters are: (1) "Learning How To Be Parents," which discusses the difficulties of parenting and the lack of…

An individualized infant screening/parent education program using the Kent Infant Development (KID) Scale to identify infants at risk for developmental delay and to provide parent education and counseling about infant behavioral development is examined here. The screening was integrated into established community agencies, utilizing current agency…

This paper examines mastery motivation in infants from birth to 3 years of age and outlines critical areas for parent and teacher involvement in the development of motivation, including recommended activities at each level. It asserts that from birth, children have an innate desire to learn about their world, quickly learning that they can control…

This guide offers Spanish-speaking parents ways in which they can help their children learn about science at home and in the community. Science is a way of looking at the world. It uses everyday techniques such as observation and classification to give us information about things and how they work. Advice to parents that want to support their…

This study examined parent-child relationships during intervention with 25 preschoolers having developmental disabilities. Both parent and child performances were analyzed on a series of behavioral attributes reflecting developmentally appropriate child goals, adult strategies, partnership goals, and potential interactive problems. Videotaped…

Information is provided about the legal developments affecting the educational rights of homeless students that were made by the McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-645). Presented in three parts, Part 1 gives an overview of some of the problems that keep homeless children from attending school or hindering their…

Examining over 20 years of research findings, including the most recent research on child care and child development, this book attempts to answer the three most important questions parents have about day care: Is day care harmful? Are babies damaged by the fact that their mothers work? and, Are working parents, by being absent during most of the…

This study explored relationships between intelligence and visual motor ability and patterns of impairment of visual motor ability in children prenatally affected by alcohol. Fourteen children (mean age 8.2 years) diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and 50 children with possible fetal alcohol effects (FAE) were assessed with the Bender…

This paper presents information to assist in the planning and development of policy related to the education of very young children with disabilities. The paper first considers research-supported reasons for providing early childhood intervention services based on effectiveness data from many sources. Subsequent sections examine: (1)…

As part of a longitudinal study of postpartum adjustment and infant development, this study examined whether securely attached 12-month-old infants show greater object mastery motivation and social-object mastery motivation than do insecurely attached infants. Object mastery relates to infants' goal-directed behavior that is oriented toward…

This document describes first-year outcomes of the Arizona Transition Project, which is part of the National Head Start-Public School Transition Project. The project seeks to maintain the early benefits of Head Start through the primary grades and beyond. Outcomes for 1992-93 relating to children, families, system, and policy for the years K-3…