Presents suggestions for organizing the early childhood classroom, focusing on play unit assessment and creating accessible areas that hold children's interest. Discusses how classroom design influences teacher behavior, children's independence, and social interaction. Examines the connection between classroom design and developmental and program…

Two studies examined children's and adolescents' attitudes toward aggression. Found that boys viewed physical aggression as more hurtful than social aggression and girls rated social aggression as more hurtful. Girls rated an aggressor as more angry than did boys. Middle and high school participants viewed social aggression as indicating more…

Investigated relationship between children's behavior and the child-rearing climate (future-focused, present-focused, combined) and work climate (relaxed, strained, mixed) at day care centers. Found differences in children's prosocial and collaborative behaviors in centers with future-focused or combined rearing climates and relaxed work climates…

This study examined the psychometric and normative properties of the ADHD-Symptoms Rating Scale with preschool children. Results shed light on normative levels of ADHD behaviors and preschool children and suggested that preschoolers may present with a somewhat different symptom pattern than school-age children. Parents were more likely to endorse…

Data on black children and white children over age six and their mothers (from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth) indicate no racial differences in total effects of poverty and single parenthood on parenting practices (affection and spanking). Parenting practices were reciprocally related to child's antisocial behavior for whites, but did not…

Reviews research assessing the mother's contribution to children's early symbolic play competence, focusing on children ages 12-36 months. Finds that, as with other family members, mothers can encourage pretend play, but perhaps there is no special maternal role in the process. The quality and quantity of sophisticated play might be affected by…

Reviews attachment research based on narrative assessments, noting that these assessments rely on subjective variables as well as working models as determinants of children's narrative productions. Reviews John Bowlby's ideas regarding the importance of parent-child verbal communications in attachment security. Reviews recent cognitive research…

Summarizes 16 recent ERIC documents and journal articles on children's social difficulties. Topics of the articles include social-cognitive processes of withdrawn children; genetic and environmental influences on inhibition; anxious-withdrawn preschoolers; helping children grow up in the 1990s; development of inhibition; behaviors of parents of…

Notes that with safe and developmentally appropriate equipment, outdoor play can be a significant part of high-quality early child care. Highlights 10 suggestions for safe outdoor play. Knowledgeable teachers and appropriate child-caregiver ratio are needed for safe play. (JW)

Evaluated hypotheses examining the role of family characteristics prior to child-care placement in determining child-care use and later child adjustment with a sample of 189 infants and toddlers and their parents. Results provided preliminary support for the hypothesis that parent and child psychological, social, and health characteristics may…

Argues against using punishment and rewards to motivate children, maintaining that, although penalties and prizes may change behavior in the short term, they do not help children become responsible decision makers in the long term. (MDM)

Examined communication in the family and peer systems in relation to children's sociometric status, measuring turn-taking skills and utterance types for 43 preschoolers during interactions with mothers, fathers, and peers. Rejected-status children demonstrated turn-taking styles that included irrelevant turns, interruptions, simultaneous talking,…

Evaluated the hypothesis that the apparent superiority of behavioral interventions among children is due to differences in the methodological quality of studies of behavioral and nonbehavioral treatments. Meta-analytic results found little support for this hypothesis. Because meta-analysis is a correlational technique, these results should be…

Provides a review of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC). Presents a description of the test and analysis of its administration, scoring, and psychometric properties. Argues that the BASC is an improvement over other objective personality measures used by school psychologists. Discusses other aspects of the test. (RJM)

The development of pointing, reaching, and other communicative gestures in 22 preverbal children with Down syndrome, ages 21 to 47 months, was studied in two contexts (referential/declarative versus instrumental/imperative) and with mothers versus agemates with Down syndrome. Considerations relating to delayed language development with this…