This presentation reports the results of a national assessment study of parenting skills. The aim of this study was to provide direction for the development of a television series to improve and increase awareness of parenting skills among parents of young children and prospective parents. Over 200 existing media items were located and evaluated;…

This paper presents a psychodynamic approach to helping children who have been emotionally, socially, economically and perhaps affectively deprived. A methodology to understand and teach these children is presented so that they learn ways of coping in our increasingly complex society. (Editor)

Two types of information that should condition federal decisions about day care are summarized. These include data concerning the supply and demand for day care and the effects of day care on children's development. (Author)

The proliferation of State offices of child development and the advent of Social Security Title XX funds have been accompanied by confusion at every level of government and in the black community. The impact of these developments on availability of good day care for children is examined and recommendations are made. (Author/AM)

This study was designed as a pilot effort to generate hypotheses for future investigations of continuities and discontinuities in socialization role perceptions of Mexican American families and their schools. (Author/NCR)

Schools can play an important role in preventing psychological maltreatment of children in the home and community. They can monitor the mental health of students, provide a psychologically positive climate, and act as therapeutic/rehabilitative agents. School-based programming for prevention and intervention is illustrated using case studies. (JAZ)

Summarizes beliefs and values about child rearing from documents written by experts on the mid-17th to mid-19th centuries. The experts argued that children are innately good rather than evil; environmental factors accounted for differences among children rather than innate factors; and children were autonomous rather than passive learners. (HOD)

Analysis of the free speech of one- to three-year-olds (N=21) found that measures of mean length of utterance (MLU) are positively related to age, are reliable, and can predict grammatical development, although there are identifiable points in the developmental evolution of MLU and MLU-like indices beyond which their reliability and validity have…

This article examines the interactions which occur during several curricular activities to reveal the role expectations children develop. The ordinary social processes of the classroom through which the academic agenda is accomplished are examined. The meaning children and teachers ascribe to various activities is discussed. (JL)

Kindergarten practices should reflect the best of what we know about how young children learn and develop. Discusses the following aspects of kindergarten: (1) learning knowledge, skills, dispositions, and feelings; (2) risks of academic pressures on young children; (3) development of interest, communicative competence, and social competence; (4)…

Study of kindergarten retention in Colorado reveals the following: (1) kindergarten retention does nothing to boost subsequent academic achievement; (2) regardless of what it is called, kindergarten retention creates a social stigma; and (3) kindergarten retention feeds the escalation of inappropriate academic demand in first grade. Policy…

Discusses the Early Childhood Services (E.C.S.) Interface Project in Calgary, Canada, which emphasizes learning centers and team teaching to enhance the transition into first grade. Evaluates the program's effectiveness, concluding that E.C.S. and first grade students can be successfully taught as a group. (MM)

The Transactional Intervention Program was designed to modify interaction patterns between parents and their handicapped children, aged zero to three, in a home-based intervention program. Results of program implementation with 41 children showed decreases in parents' interactional dominance and frequency of directives, increases in…

Summarizes the results of a study that examined the importance of selecting suitable learning tasks for individual children and the role computers might play in this matching process. The discussion covers both programs that aid teachers in task selection and programs that allow children to choose their own tasks. (2 references) (CLB)

Reviews Jay Belsky's "The 'Effects' of Infant Day Care Reconsidered," and offers a different conclusion: that the mother's attitudes toward the infant and toward her employment status may mediate day care effects on attachment and aggression. (SKC)