Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, was launched in Ireland in 2009. The framework is applicable in all settings where children in the 0-6-year range are present; this includes all early years settings and the first two years of primary schools, referred to as "infant classes" in the Irish context. This article shares the…

Research documents that young children in high-quality teacher-child relationships experience better school adjustment and are more engaged in learning. Yet, many American kindergarten (age 5) teachers report spending less time on relationship building and children's social and emotional development given pressure to have students reading and…

Head Start, the largest federally funded early childhood education program in the United States, provides comprehensive services to low-income children and their families. These services historically have a whole child approach, fostering social-emotional well-being, physical and mental health, and cognitive and language development, as well as…

Nearly every group of children includes at least one exceptionally bright child. From the especially creative child to the child who has already mastered learning outcomes to the "twice exceptional" child, exceptionally bright children have a wide range of talents and behaviors. This book will help you understand what it means to be…

Describes a study that supports the idea that participation in sociodramatic play builds the language competence of young children and that play is vital part of good preschool programs. (HOD)

This document is a compilation of weekly reports written by the unit-based teachers in the Ypsilanti Preschool Demonstration Project. The purpose of the unit-based program is to supply preschoolers with the necessary educational and social skills to adapt readily to a kindergarten curriculum. The success of the program depends almost entirely upon…

In a prekindergarten program in the economically disadvantaged area of Harlem, the teacher, curriculum, daily activities, behavior, school, and parents of the 15 enrolled children were studied. Evaluations emphasized the outcomes of learning rather than the social, emotional, and intellectual processes of learning. The following conclusions were…

A Piagetian preschool emphasizes the child's active construction of mental images rather than passive association of words and pictures with real objects. The role of the teacher is neither to dictate good behavior nor to transmit ready-made predigested knowledge. Her role is to help the child to control his own behavior and to find things out as…

This report presents a description of the Structure-Process approach to cognition and literacy, suggests techniques for implementation of the model, and assesses the effects of the model on a specific population. The Structure-Process approach assumes that intelligence develops cumulatively. The model was used for curriculum development in four…

An evaluation of the Pittsburgh Public Schools preprimary program for 2,000 disadvantaged children concluded that the program contributed to the socioemotional maturation of the children involved but did not affect their reading readiness or first grade reading test scores. This finding may be explained in part by a lack of specific academic…

An observational study of classroom behavior was made to identify competencies and contexts of social interaction influencing the development of friendship among preschool children attending an integrated special education classroom. Subjects were six boys and four girls whose ages ranged from 3 to 6 years. Two of the children, a 4-year-old girl…

The purposes of the Huntsville-Madison County Education Improvement Program were: (1) to develop and demonstrate a curriculum that would improve and enrich the skills, attitudes and thinking processes of the disadvantaged preschool child; (2) to develop in-service programs that would afford teachers and other personnel better understanding of the…

Incorporating information and perspectives from national and state preschool education standards and other resources, this document presents the guiding principles, program goals, content standards and performance standards for domains of development for preschool children in Connecticut. The four domains are: (1) personal and social development;…

This technical assistance paper provides preschool planners and staff with information on developmental characteristics of preschool children relevant to planning and providing a quality preschool program. Following a case scenario underscoring the need for understanding child development, a theoretical framework concerning child development is…