The initial plans for the National Institute of Education (NIE) program in early childhood education are described. The first part of the document contains a discussion of the relationship between planned NIE programs and existing early childhood federal programs. In both planned and existing programs, disadvantaged children are the primary…

This paper is concerned with issues related to reasons why some early childhood intervention programs may not have lived up to expectations. By intervention is meant the introduction of planned programing deliberately timed and arranged in order to alter the anticipated or projected course of development. Although an intervention program should be…

This updated abstract bibliography includes entries from "Research in Education" and citations of journal articles in "Current Index to Journals in Education," selected from the subject term index under Day Care Programs or Day Care Services. Topics discussed include: family day care, day care centers, child development, staff, standards,…

Senate hearings on child development and child care programs are presented. Specific subjects covered include comprehensive, family-oriented child development programs, the development of programs to eliminate racism, reordering of national priorities beginning with a guaranteed basic family income adequate for the needs of children, improving the…

Many theorists have proposed formulations to explain the development of concepts in children. One of the most seminal theories for explaining concept development as it pertains to school achievement has come from the work of Piaget. Piaget posits three stages of development. The sensorimotor stage exists from birth to about two years. In this…

In response to requests for information on a city day-care program, a demonstration project for infants and toddlers, the Demonstration Nursery Center at the University of North Carolina, is reported. Physical makeup of the facilities is described, along with daily procedures and staff activities. To study the effects of day care on babies, a…

This collection includes five papers dealing with different foci on the ecology of child development. The first presentation discusses childhood social indicators as means of monitoring the ecology of development. The second, on the social context of childhood, shows that how society treats its youngest members depends both upon its perception of…

This document brings together two preliminary reports on field research undertaken as part of the Children's Folklore Program of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. This research is an inquiry into the nature and function of the traditional, expressive activities of Black, Mexican-American and Anglo children, of both sexes, between…

This handbook is a detailed guide to more than 300 measures of child behavior and development not available from test publishers. The authors surveyed the literature over a ten-year period to find more than a thousand measures; those included here are not described in other sourcebooks and guides. Thus this book is the only guide to many of the…

This is a general evaluation and description of a museum for children ages two through 12 that was begun by a group of citizens in Denver, Colorado. The evaluation shows that the museum is serving the community successfully and has met its broad goal of giving children an opportunity to develop positive self-concepts and to grow cognitively…

Addresses issues surrounding the diminution of the American family, reviewing the consequences of this change for the well-being of children, including cognitive functioning, personal adjustment, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, antisocial behavior, and self-control. Critiques methodological and conceptual issues in assessment of children…

By perpetuating habits, values, and attitudes that successfully mediate the interaction between the individual and the social environment, the Afro-American home environment prepares children to live in a society that devalues individuals whose social and ethnic origins differ from the accepted norm. Afro-American families stress social rather…

Maintains that learning to read must take advantage of the child's natural playful tendencies. Shows how stories in widely-used school primers make use of trick themes based on puns, figures of speech, or metaphors. Concludes that such stories should be used to reinforce the relationship between reading and natural language. (JDH)

States that the Plowden Report put the child at the center of the educational process. Maintains that much good came of the humanistic philosophy of the Plowden Report; that its socio-linguistic meanings related to the report's status, power, context, and timing, were benign. (Author/JDH)

Discusses the young child's home-community links and less strong school-community links. Examines reasons for schools becoming isolated from their communities. Emphasizes importance of teachers finding ways to relate child's learning to the community and finding ways to let parents share in their children's learning at school. (LFL)