This paper, drawing on work with three integrated early years centres, designated as centres of excellence in the north of England, addresses issues arising from the evaluation of a government initiative in funding models of integrated services and good educare practice. Issues concerned with evaluation work and the difficulties in investigating…

This study examined the idea that toddlers in some communities are accorded a privileged status in which they are allowed what they want, assumed not yet to "understand" how to cooperate. U.S. middle-class and Guatemalan Mayan mothers and 3- to 5-year-old siblings were observed while the siblings and toddlers (14-20 months) both sought…

Concepts and methods in the field of child development are understood better when observed or experienced, as opposed to described in a standard textbook or lecture format. We describe a live demonstration ill which commonly-taught developmental phenomena (e.g., Piagetian concepts, gender understanding, theory-of-mind abilities) are performed in…

Since the 1960s, researchers, legislators, advocacy groups, and social partners have examined, analysed, and written articles on the effects of early childhood care outside the family context on children's development and capacity for adaptation. Since the availability of non-parental care for children is often considered essential for women…

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which dimensions of infant negative temperament in the first year predicted IQ at age 3, and whether these associations depended on the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship. In a sample of 63 infant-mother dyads, mothers completed Rothbart's (1981) IBQ when infants were 4 and 12…

Twenty-nine years ago Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (MLSPC) was launched at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. It was one of the first prospective longitudinal studies of how parent-infant attachment develops, how it changes over time, and how the quality of attachment in infancy influences…

This paper presents the main results of a comparative study carried out by a French-Japanese research team. Its focus is the daily life of under-ones in day care centres in two cultural contexts--France and Japan. Based on three kinds of data--official texts, videotaped observations and caregivers' discourses--the study highlights the links…

This paper highlights the main issues that are present in the field of child and adolescent mental health services with regard to strategic development. It identifies the major themes that have emerged concerning the commissioning and delivery of services, and also highlights the difficulties faced by particular groups of children. The authors…

This study examined direct and indirect influences of fathers' reported parenting beliefs and practices on children's development. Participants included 525 fathers and mothers of toddlers enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project in 14 communities across the United States. Results show that fathers' modernity defined as…

There is an increasing interest in linking character education programs with social and academic outcomes. The Child Development Project (CDP) is a character education program that promotes academic and social growth in teachers and students. This theory-driven evaluation employed a quasi-experimental design with matched control schools. School…

This article outlines six primary stages of a child's development. These basic functions show the way mental capacities work together as a team. Cognitive, motor, language, emotional, and social skills act together to help the child learn to deal with the world. Helping a child through these stages and fostering these core capacities requires a…

Although the nature of the relationship of music on students' emotional development remains an issue for continued research, my overall purpose is to provide adults with research-based methods to help children become better consumers of hip-hop music. First, I identify research-based recommendations to prepare adults as facilitators of children's…

Field trips provide active learning as children have firsthand experience with information they had previously encountered only in textbooks. In this article, the author describes how she used an interesting textbook to plan a field trip for her elementary social studies methods class to Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery (Alabama). The textbook,…

Peer relationships play an important role in socialization during childhood and young adolescence. Negative relationships may pose multiple difficulties for children related to their development that can have lifelong influences. Research indicates that the quality of peer relationships is associated with a variety of outcomes, such as social…

Although research indicates that early childhood literacy programs can be effective for preschoolers, little is known about the effects of programs on college student mentors. This study explored the beliefs of college students about literacy development in preschool children and whether these beliefs change after their involvement in a yearlong,…