A lead teacher in a privately-owned preschool designed and implemented a peace education program. Primary goals of the practicum used were to provide developmentally appropriate experiences for: (1) increasing understanding of being a peacemaker; (2) gaining respect for nature and the environment; (3) showing compassion toward the exceptional…

The project was designed to develop, implement, and evaluate an effective management system to modify and reduce inappropriate behaviors exhibited by preschool handicapped children. The writer (1) provided in-service training to school personnel to increase their expertise and skills in changing behavior, (2) encouraged parent education and…

A preschool director designed and implemented a classroom safety curriculum plan to increase the safety knowledge of preschool children. Implemented for 10 weeks, the plan consisted of classroom lessons, hands on practice, and activities for music, art, and language development. Parent education articles were sent home to reinforce what the…

An educational specialist employed as a learning consultant to schools in a seashore resort community planned and implemented a practicum study intended to address problems in the prekindergarten screening process of the community's primary school. Practicum goals were to: (1) identify children who would benefit from prekindergarten intervention;…

The director of a child care facility implemented a practicum designed to assist preschool children with coping strategies. Of a class of 26 children, 8 males and 5 females were physically aggressive; 9 males and 5 females were verbally aggressive; and several children were antisocial, or exhibited withdrawal, disturbed, or immature behaviors. The…

This practicum was designed to give parents of preschool children with autism an understanding of the disorder and appropriate skills to manage their children's challenging behaviors. A curriculum-based training series involving weekly 2-hour sessions was implemented during a 12-week period for 25 participants. Goals included increasing the…

The director of an Early Childhood Development Center located in the Southeast United States developed a practicum to provide Spanish instruction for preschool children. The main goal of the practicum intervention was to increase the Spanish vocabulary of 18 children of 5 years of age by 30 words over a 10-week period. Spanish words were presented…

A practicum was designed to increase the lines of positive and effective communication between parents and teachers in a preschool setting. Poor parent-teacher communication (due to lack of knowledge or experience) was documented. The program sought to improve communication regarding the child's developmental and personal progress. The 8-month…

An experienced teacher, certified in the education of the gifted, designed and implemented a practicum that offered opportunities for enhancing the cultural literacy and creative play of preschool children who received little individual, reading-related attention from their working parents and caregivers. Play that enriched the imaginative…

This practicum project sought to improve nutrition in a day care program serving children ages 2 through 14 years by increasing staff, student, and parent knowledge about nutrition. The primary goal was to increase knowledge and interest in nutrition and its relation to wellness of students, staff, and parents. The second goal was to provide…

Daycare directors in northern Canada, with little or no post-secondary education, face the difficulties of programming for children from diverse cultures. Directors often feel isolated in their small communities, and a lack of programming expertise and early childhood development training for them has become a concern. This practicum designed,…

This practicum identified the problem of inconsistent use of developmentally appropriate practices by staff in an early childhood center and implemented an inservice program to increase the use of activities based on individual appropriateness rather than on age alone. The solution strategy utilized a self-assessment survey of classroom practices…

Noting that many early childhood practitioners have difficulty understanding and articulating how developmentally appropriate practices in their programs contribute to students' kindergarten readiness, this report details the implementation and evaluation of practicum experiences designed to improve preschool teachers' developmentally appropriate…