Executive function skills are crucial for children in the 21st century, serving as indicators of their readiness for learning. Children with well-developed executive function skills can effectively accomplish various tasks, solve problems using diverse strategies, and collaborate with others happily. This research aims to: 1. Identify the…

Parental engagement in stimulating activities and support in both formal and informal learning environments are important for early childhood development. However, little is known about how parental mental health and beliefs about early childhood development shape such investments. We draw on a sample of young children and their primary caregiver…

The author of this article implores parents to take the word "I" off the table. Instead of thinking "What can I do for my children?" consider, "What can they do for themselves?" How can one invoke children's independence and initiative? Start by inspiring them to investigate, imagine, and use their intellect.…

A robust body of research shows that the most important factor in a child's healthy development is a positive parent-child relationship, characterized by warm, loving interactions in which parents and other caregivers sensitively respond to their child's cues and provide age-appropriate activities that nurture curiosity, exploration, and learning.…

Inequality of access to educational resources by different social classes has been widely documented, and schools have instituted parent programs to ameliorate this situation. However, lacking are theoretically based studies that explain how and why a program may be effective in bringing about change. The authors studied a 12-week parent…

School-ready children are children who are prepared to learn successfully in school. These children show growth over time in their physical, social and emotional, language, and cognitive development. They also show increasing interests in new experiences and in mastering new skills. Getting "school-ready" starts long before the weeks or…

The aims of this research were to identify the ways in which parents may most constructively support their children's musical development, and to ascertain whether styles of parent-teacher and parent-pupil interaction would influence the extent to which parents engage in different types of supportive behaviours. A model of parent involvement as…

Vygotsky (1978) presented ideas influential to the "constructivist" approach to education. This approach included the "zone of proximal development," and defined what is essential for student's development of a higher cognitive ability in order to become self-motivated learners. His theory also directly relates to the research regarding the…

This document contains the three papers that comprised the Head Start Research Seminar No. 5 on Intervention in Family Life. The main thrust of this seminar is the investigation of family and parent characteristics that influence the academic performance of young children. Robert Hess, in the opening paper, summarizes the information available on…

Attempted to bridge home and school literacy contexts by involving families in literacy activities with their children to enhance children's achievement and interest in reading and writing. Activities included literacy centers in classrooms, teacher modeled literature activities, and writing and reading appreciation periods (WRAP). Results…

An evaluation of the New Parents as Teachers (NPAT) program concluded that a high quality parent education and support program conducted during a child's first three years measurably increases the child's intellectual, achievement, and language abilities. Parental involvement with parent educators during home visits is the single most important…

Few empirical studies have specifically examined antecedents and consequences of reversing childrearing roles. A sample of 59 white, intact, middle-class families with a preschool-aged child, 32 with boys and 27 with girls, was studied. Also explored were the father's sex-role orientation and selected paternal behaviors and attitudes. It was found…

This paper is a general discussion of parents-as-teachers. This topic is approached from the standpoint of natural observation studies and laboratory studies. The natural field observations have been made in homes and in other settings, in which the main analytic technique was correlation. Numerous investigators have examined relationships between…

This curriculum guide contains monthly work plans and weekly activity units for a Home Start Program. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the home, the family unit, and the education and development of young children by their own parents. Yearly goals include concern for the following: physical and dental health, nutrition, mental health and…

Discusses a questionnaire designed to measure parents' perceptions of their child's developmental and academic histories, classroom learning characteristics, and previous foreign language learning. Results suggest parents' perceptions may provide helpful screening information to foreign language teachers. (51 references) (Author/CK)