Presented is a parent's viewpoint that criticizes assessment methods that diminish appreciation for diverse ways of knowing, discourage discovery and project-based learning, diminish the natural problem-solving aspects of play, and perpetuate the single right answer form of assessment. Assessment that values the child, includes all interested…

This paper describes the Early Childhood Social Skills Program developed at the University of Pittsburgh's Early Childhood Research Institute. The paper discusses specific social skill strategies as well as steps for implementing the peer-mediated social skill program in an integrated preschool setting. (JDD)

Improvisational role-play is presented as a teaching strategy that can help students with hearing impairments learn to use a variety of language forms while growing in literature appreciation. The teacher develops lesson plans around a story the children are reading, and students enter into the characters' roles, exploring the situations that…

Professionals (n=201) working with child sexual abuse victims rated the normalcy of various behaviors with anatomical dolls for children ages two to five. Respondents agreed that overtly sexual behaviors were abnormal for nonabused children, but ratings of ambiguous behaviors varied depending on respondent's profession, gender, and years of…

Parents play a role in their children's consumer education by helping them distinguish between consumer necessities and digressionary consumption practices. Strategies for children's consumer education are outlined, and programs for money management are described. (LB)

Describes one teacher's efforts to understand children's aggressive play by reading literature that suggests children use play to construct meaning, viewing the Ninja Turtle cartoon show, and interviewing children about their superhero play. Male and female roles in play, aggression and violence, and television commercialism are discussed. (LB)

Children were tested at ages four and six for recall of clusterable objects under play and sort conditions. Conceptual clustering predicted recall performance of six-year olds in both conditions and of four-year olds in the sort condition. The stability of memory variables was low with the exception of free recall. (BC)

This study examined the strategies teachers use to promote social play in a mainstreamed early childhood program that included five children with special needs and five nonhandicapped peers. Results indicated that teachers can successfully facilitate peer play through initiation of play, participation in group play, elaboration of group play, and…

Argues for an understanding of play as a flux between the imagination and attempts to test consequences of "what if" questions. Discusses leading educational theorists' views of the role of play. Suggests that school authority which reduces creative play closes off children's means of finding answers to some vocational questions. (SG)

Compared social interactions of persuasive preschoolers to those of dominant and less persuasive peers. In comparison to other children, persuasive children made more attempts to persuade, used a moderate number of extremely friendly or aggressive strategies, and had a lower rate of compliance. (GLR)

Examined the possibility that relations in the family system are affected when infants begin to crawl. Parents' expressions of prohibition and anger, and their use of physical punishment, increased after infants began to crawl. (BG)

Examined the question of whether the child-rearing beliefs and strategies of mothers predict their preschoolers' social competence with peers. Mothers of children rejected by peers were less likely to teach their children about social skills, spent less time in child-centered activities, and used more punishment than did other mothers. (GLR)

Forty preschool children were observed in outdoor play areas and interviewed about their perceptions of the observed play. The children's teachers were also interviewed. It was found that a significant negative correlation existed between physical play and creative play and that the majority of children perceived that outdoor play was independent…

Discusses the need for those involved in the education of young children to adopt a reflective stance toward their work. Considers the value, in research done by practitioners, of making observations and keeping records, studying unfamiliar topics, doing background reading, and interpreting and communicating research results. Applies these…

Reports results from a study of 45 playgroups and interviews with 435 mothers in England. Extent and nature of parent involvement, including that of fathers, and relations between involvement and socioeconomic characteristics of parents were studied. Involvement by mothers is substantial but not universal, and participation by fathers is rare.…