This initial issue of "Early Edition" launches the first edition of Tennessee's newsletter dedicated to the implementation of programs and services for young children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The period of early childhood is the foundation for all future learning and achievement for…

This paper explores the Counting development of Australian children participating in the Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP) who were identified as low-attaining using an individually administered assessment interview and a research informed framework of growth-points. The progress of Grade 1 and Grade 2 children who participated in an…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

This document is a report on a 6-week course on science education in early childhood programs. Attending the conference in Israel were 30 participants representing 21 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. Teaching methods included lectures, workshops, small group activities, professional study visits, and a re-entry workshop to…

This book reviews the current state of research and practice in intervention for children with autism. The 10 chapters are organized into three parts, on the nature of autism, treatment of autism, and possibilities for a cure and recovery from autism. Chapter 1 introduces definitions and characteristics of autism. Chapter 2 considers what it is…

A supportive father as well as a supportive mother may foster offspring's healthy development. But what the behavior of a supportive parent looks like may in part depend upon whether the parent is a mother or a father. From the beginnings of empirical research on fathers, the father's role in traditional western families has been conceptualized as…

These stories, with accompanying photographs, were collected during 40 years of teaching preschoolers, directing child care centers, sharing with parents, and working with teachers and teachers-to-be. The anecdotes illustrate the fresh and amusing ways children look at the world; reveal thoughts and feelings that help adults understand better what…

This study evaluated the communicative, social, and emotional development of 22 deaf Swedish pre-school children with cochlear implants over a 2-year period. Video-recordings (every 3 months) and observations of the children in natural interactional settings at home and school as well as interviews with parents and teachers provided the study…

Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) provides an integrated system of child-centered, family-focused, and community-based services targeted to at-risk children from birth to age seven at twelve sites across the country. To access families that are often not in the mainstream of service access and use, SESS programs partner with primary care…

Noting that our ability to incorporate the cultural strengths and the distinctive ways that families, specifically fathers, contribute to educational accomplishments of preschool children is severely constrained by major gaps and inadequacy in the research literature, this Digest explores what is known about the role of fathers in young children's…

National Education Goal One, "All children in America will start school ready to learn," seems simple, but being ready for school requires meeting certain needs related to physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development. Families, schools, and communities each have responsibilities in these areas. Families in…

The Michigan School Readiness Program (MSRP) is the state's early childhood education program for 4-year-olds at risk of school failure. This report details previous findings from the longitudinal study of two cohorts of MSRP children from kindergarten through the primary grades, current findings from the 1998-99 school year, program quality and…

This paper discusses shortfalls in teacher preparation and the programs that launch prospective teachers toward careers in education. It examines the state's role in connecting that preparation to a career that fulfills the purposes of public education. In too many cases, institutions of higher education have given responsibility for preparing…

The Step by Step program was begun in 1994 as an experiment linking sound early childhood educational practice with concepts of democracy to create learning environments in which children practice choice and learn critical thinking skills, and in which parents actively participate in their child's education. This manual expands the program to…

The decline in civility, social responsibility, and institutional affiliation challenges the nature of schooling. Child development in the 1990s family is under pressure from changes that deny children the three basic essentials (nurture, structure, and latitude) for psychological health, effective learning, and civility, and that require children…