The hypothesis that children develop an understanding of causal mechanisms was tested across 3 experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), preschoolers had to choose as efficacious either a cause that had worked in the past, but was now disconnected from its effect, or a cause that had failed to work previously, but was now connected. Four-year-olds…

This qualitative, longitudinal, single-case study analyzes naturalistic interactions in Swedish Sign Language. Multiple interactions took place mainly between a mother and a deaf twin on twelve occasions. The participants' actions and language structure are examined as the child progressed from ten to forty months of age. The results are presented…

The legacy of slavery in the United States has impacted generations of African Americans, especially parents who must prepare their children to face the challenges associated with being a person of color in this country. The authors explore aspects of racism, White privilege, racial socialization, and African American parents' fears as they equip…

Can parents identify leadership lessons in children's media and use them to teach their children leadership? Thirty participants were asked to answer questions about leadership in children's media before and after watching clips of a popular G-rated children's movie. The results from the questionnaire indicated that parents do recognize leadership…

This study examines relations among Chinese parents' expectations for children's development of social-emotional skills, parenting styles, and child social competence. A total of 154 parents with preschool-aged children from mainland China completed questionnaires measuring their timing of expectations for children's mastery of social-emotional…

Marriage between two parents, compared with other family living arrangements, appears, on average, to enhance children's wellbeing and development. Some of the positive association between marriage and children's wellbeing comes from positive associations between marriage and other things that also contribute to children's wellbeing. David Ribar…

A systemic analysis of early childhood development factors explains the variance in school readiness among representative U.S. 5-year-olds. The underlying theory incorporates a set of causally interactive endogenous variables that are hypothesized to be driven by the effects of three exogenous variables: parental education, immigrant status and…

Joen Bettmann's depiction of practical life exercises as character-building reveals how caring, careful, and independent work leads to higher self-esteem, more concern for others, better understanding for academic learning, and a self-nurturing, respectful classroom community. Particular aspects of movement and silence exercises bring out what…

Researchers into moral education, and ethics educators too, often find themselves between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, we wish to know what the child will do beyond the narrow range of communicative functions carried out in a classroom, and to do this, we employ purely hypothetical problems, that is, problems that from the child's…

The social situation of development (SSD) specific to each age determines regularly the whole picture of the child's life. Therefore, we need to learn about the whole context surrounding children relevant to their development. The focus of the study is to understand parent's views on infant-toddler's science concept formation in the family…

The purpose of the current study was to examine how maternal reading strategies and book type would impact on toddlers' responsiveness as they became familiar with three books. Eleven mothers and their 2- to 3-year-olds were recorded reading the same set of three different books (i.e. word book, narrative book and no narrative book) on four…

"Head Start" is a national, federally funded program that provides services to promote school readiness for children from birth to age 5 from predominantly low-income families. Based on a review of the research, the WWC found "Head Start" to have potentially positive effects on general reading achievement and no discernible…

The perspective of "children as social actors" has created a field with new ethical dilemmas and responsibilities for researchers within the social study of childhood. According to experiences of conducting ethnographic video studies in mixed age kindergarten groups, this paper reflects on the processes of negotiating initial and ongoing…

Variability in the quality of adult-child interactions among caregivers of young children can be problematic for children's development. However, professional development has been successful in improving caregivers' positive interactions with children. Blending principles of adult learning theory with technology-based coaching can provide a…

This volume focuses on how family-school partnerships are conceptualized, defined, and operationalized as well as the research that is needed to advance these foundational issues. Each chapter integrates prevailing approaches into a research-based framework for supporting learning from pre-K through high school. The book incorporates structural…