The Central Texas Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Middle School Project is a 3.5-year school-based project aimed at promoting physical activity (PA), healthy eating, and obesity prevention among public middle school students in Texas. This article describes the CATCH intervention model and presents baseline findings from spring 2009.…

Reading and writing are necessary prerequisites for a successful school career. Therefore it is important to identify precursor variables which predict these abilities early in order to identify children possibly at risk of developing reading or spelling difficulties. Relevant precursors include letter knowledge, phonological awareness (PA),…

Analyzing data from a probability sample representative of secondary school students in Singapore (N = 1,599), this study examined the independent impact between the quality of mother-child relationship, the quality of father-child relationship and family conflict on the frequency of drinking and drunkenness, and whether each dyadic parent-child…

This paper investigates the mechanisms by which a health-promotion intervention might influence the health-promoting behaviours of staff members working in early childhood centres. The intervention was an ecological health-promotion initiative that was implemented within four early childhood centres in South-East Queensland, Australia. In-depth,…

God considers parents the primary disciplers of their children. He created the family to be the incubator of a teenager's spiritual growth. God has given parents the responsibility of creating an environment suitable for their teen to become a follower of Christ. He also expects parents to maintain the maturation process while their children still…

Abused and neglected children live in a world that usually includes some sort of violence, chaos, and tremendous physical and mental stress. This toxic environment wreaks havoc on a child's developing brain. This article discusses how to use early childhood education to heal trauma from abuse and neglect. It shares the story of two children, Bryce…

This study examines the relationship between opportunity-to-learn (OTL) at home and students' attainment of science proficiency. The data set used was the 2006 PISA science US national sample. Data mining was used to create patterns of association between home OTL variables and student attainment of science proficiency. It was found that students…

The sexual development of young people with intellectual disabilities is a marker of their transition to adulthood and affects their sense of well being and identity. Cognitive impairments and a socially marginalized position increase dependence on their families to assist with sexual matters. In this study, the authors adopted a novel…

Background: The present study examined home literacy environments, children's interest in reading and emergent literacy skills of pre-school-aged children with Down syndrome (DS; n = 20), school-aged children with DS (n = 17) and typically developing children (n = 18) matched on chronological age with the younger DS group and mental age (MA) with…

This article examines children's (8-9 years) and young people's (14-15 years) views about their own participation in decision-making processes with adults, within the context of home and school in Norway. A difference-centred theoretical perspective is used to identify children's participation as expressions of agency embedded in intricate…

The purpose of the study was to examine the differential relations between mother-child reminiscing about a positive emotional event vs. a negative emotional event and attachment security, family climate, and young children's socioemotional development. Fifty preschool children (M age = 50.69 months, SD = 4.64) and their mothers completed two…

The restricted and repetitive behaviors of children with autism can interfere with family functioning as well as learning and socialization opportunities for the child. To date, neither pharmacological nor comprehensive behavioral treatments have been found to be consistently effective at significantly reducing children's engagement in repetitive…

Jean Marzollo creates two beautiful texts using a child's first words, "Mama, Mama" and "Papa, Papa" as a recurring theme. Wildlife artist, Laura Regan, illustrates Marzollo's poetry with loving images of parents and children in the animal kingdom. Poetry and illustrations highlight the tenderness and care of Mama and Papa as they bond with their…

This review considers the effectiveness of interventions to encourage the establishment of smoke-free homes during pregnancy and the neonatal period. A comprehensive search of the literature was undertaken to find relevant studies via electronic databases, citations and reference lists of included studies. The searches identified 17 papers that…

Many factors influence education nowadays. Educational institutions are faced with budget cuttings, outdated IT, data security management and the willingness to integrate remote learning at home. Virtualization technologies provide innovative solutions to the problems. The paper presents an original educational infrastructure using virtualization…