Due to an increasing number of children under the age of three attending early childhood education and care (ECEC), there is an increasing need for high-quality care settings. In addition to primary caregivers, ECEC teachers are important socializers of children's emotional development and may become children's attachment figures. Early preventive…

Children face increased demands for interpersonal as well as learning-related social skills, especially by the vulnerable stage of school entry, due to the more structured setting, new academic requirements, and the fact that children are supposed to interact successfully within a larger and heterogeneous peer group. Although a plethora of…

This case study, part of a larger qualitative research project, involved 24 kindergarteners and their teacher in the design, development, and evaluation of a research project built around the I-LEARN model (Neuman, "Learning in information-rich environments: I-LEARN and the construction of knowledge in the 21st Century." Springer, New…

Graduate and professional schools are increasingly using short-term international study abroad courses as one way for internationalizing their curriculum. While international service learning can be a means for improving students' engagement in international learning experiences and providing a structure for learning, it is difficult to design…

The Iowa Prekindergarten/Kindergarten Task Force prepared this report in response to the following charges: to develop recommendations for strengthening existing kindergarten programs and to design a plan for implementing appropriate prekindergarten programs. Among the report's recommendations are that: (1) the Iowa Department of Education…

Defines the position of the Association for Childhood Education International on the role of kindergarten in a child's development. Provides specific information on the purpose of kindergarten, program goals, program content, program implementation, role of play, appropriate physical environment, textbook and material selection, kindergarten…

This article presents a model for describing the range of types of support and instruction necessary to make inclusion successful for young children with disabilities. The building blocks include a high quality early childhood program, modifications and adaptations, embedded learning opportunities, and explicit child-directed instruction.…

This summary report describes Maine's early childhood demonstration sites--three model programs within the schools which serve as demonstration and training sites for public school and preschool educators and which increase access to quality programs for four-year-old children and their families. Demonstration sites were designed to provide an…

Discusses nine common myths, which represent collective opinions based on false assumptions or are the product of fallacious reasoning, associated with developmentally appropriate programs for young children. (BB)

This report identifies and synthesizes what is known about specific program features for children and youth aged 6-17 that might be manipulated or regulated-components such as staff wages, group size, activities, and theoretical approach that make up the "how" of program implementation. The authors have culled information from the limited extant…

Argues that the secret to producing quality child care in the 1990s will be clear, innovative thinking by the center or program director, good center design, and an ability to articulate and sell a vision of quality. (BB)

Maintains that educators who are working for increased funding for early childhood services need to link the emerging vision for comprehensive services for children and their families with the principles that call for quality programs and equitable policies. (BB)

Describes successful practices and procedures for designing effective infant care programs for children born to teenage parents, including supervisory support for nurturing caregiver-child relationships, continuous staff training in infant development, low teacher-child ratios, active parent involvement, a child development curriculum, and…

Universities must be prepared to provide quality child care not only to accommodate their changing student population, but also to help attract and retain competent and dedicated employees. Campus child care programs should be: (1) models to the community, to early education specialists, to parents, and to policymakers; (2) an integral part of the…

This article describes a 4-step protocol for selecting and facilitating production of a first vocabulary in children with specific language impairment using a focused language stimulation approach. Focused language stimulation includes general language stimulation techniques and, in addition, requires frequent, highly concentrated repetitions of…