Noting that we are raising our children in a morally ambiguous world and we have to do more than just discipline them and hope for the best, this book is a manual for raising children who are emotionally and intellectually capable and confident, by means of play activities that imbue a sense of right and wrong. Each chapter of the manual begins…

This document reports on the activities and achievements of a federally supported project in Arizona to provide inservice early childhood personnel with the necessary competencies and strategies to facilitate the inclusion of assistive technology for young children with disabilities. The 5-year project focused on three major assistive technology…

Stemming from the core idea that infant and toddler care should be based on building relationships, this curriculum in Spanish-language version provides a foundation for staff development. Section 1, "Why a Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers?" examines key quality indicators, discusses curriculum components, describes how to use the…

Recommends that drama be included in early childhood education, emphasizing preschool education. Cites research linking drama with enhanced language acquisition in children, ages 3-8. Emphasizes drama's effectiveness as a multisensory learning medium. Notes programs offering drama training for teachers. Suggests changes in teacher education and…

This paper reports on an investigation into the quality of the learning experiences for 4-5-year-old children in Northern Ireland schools in the context of the debate about play-based and formal approaches to learning and teaching. Detailed observations were carried out in 70 Year 1 classes: 38 in traditional Year 1 classes where the Northern…

This practicum was designed to increase parent awareness of the importance of family play interaction and to foster parents' ability to demonstrate these playskills as a couple and within the family. Questionnaires and personal interviews confirmed the need for more information on the importance of play and of age-appropriate play skills. A…

Noting that the preschool years play a crucial role in cognitive development, this book offers Piagetian-based educational activities for parents or teachers and preschool children that can be integrated into daily routines in a variety of everyday settings. The book is divided into two parts, the first describing cognitive development from a…

Play, possibly the dominant socializing agent for children's social competence and identity development, is heavily influenced by media-defined images. It is important for media images of minority cultures to be filtered by parents' reactions and comments in order to counter prevalent negative images. Children's interaction with the media is…

Parenting is a journey, in which the parent grows and develops along with the child. Effective parents are competent, motivated learners who actively participate in the development of their parenting philosophy. By understanding themselves as individuals and as a team, and by patiently learning about their children through observing their…

This qualitative and quantitative study focused on two groups of preschoolers (ages 4-6) enrolled in rural special education classes. The study specifically examined children's planful behaviors and the relationship of planfulness to learning as exhibited through play. Also examined were children's planning levels when planning was explicitly…

This booklet introduces Project Prepare, a competency-based model for inservice or preservice personnel preparation in early childhood special education. Each of the nine Project Prepare modules focuses upon a cluster of competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes/values) needed by personnel working with young children who have disabilities.…

In a study of gender equity issues in early childhood services, questionnaires were sent to staff and parents associated with five early childhood services in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Data were also obtained from observations of interactions between 3- to 5-year-olds and regular staff in the services. Other areas examined in the study…

The first part of this two-part book on play in public education, contains chapters authored by 23 educators, most of whom had been colleagues or students of Professor Margaret B. McFarland to whose memory the book is dedicated, addresses the need to integrate child development research with classroom practice in order to provide developmentally…

This binder includes 102 reproducible articles written specifically for the parents of children, ages 3 and younger, who have been diagnosed with physical disabilities and delays. Practitioners are encouraged to select appropriate articles and: distribute them at parent-clinician conferences; send them home with any parent communication, report…

Down Syndrome children exhibit language delays, particularly in expressive abilities, more severe than would be anticipated from their cognitive level alone. This research project sought to develop a procedure for introducing total communication into the home environment of prelinguistic Down Syndrome infants and for comparing the relative…