This report is the first annual report under the Nebraska legislature's Quality Child Care Act; it provides information on more than the past year to place the programs and services described in context. The report sought to determine the status of child care and early childhood education in Nebraska, recognizing that the younger the child, the…

This primer on youth development is intended to help communities rethink youth services in the context of the larger community. It offers guidance about the changes necessary to plan for and accept new ideas. The youth development approach advocated by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) suggests that helping young people achieve their…

This booklet for caregivers of infants and toddlers with disabilities is intended to provide an overview of early childhood development, from birth to 36 months of age. The booklet is organized into 3-month age spans for the first year, 6-month age spans for the second year, and a 12-month age span for the third year. For each level, typical…

The Parent 'N' Me course at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, is for parents who wish to observe the competency of their 2- to 6-month-old infants, encouraging an infant-oriented environment that allows the infants to become attentive, active, exploring individuals who reward themselves in the mastery of new tasks. The course…

These three newsletter issues present scholarly developmental research results pertaining to social and public policies that affect children. The first 1995 issue, "Escaping Poverty: The Promise of Higher Education" (Erika Kates), discusses results of a study that explored the ways in which institutions of higher education provide a…

This paper discusses the impact of Follow Through, a comprehensive program for low-income children in grades 1-3 and their parents previously enrolled in Head Start programs. The program was designed to help families make the transition from preschool to early elementary school. The paper notes that the longevity of Follow Through (over 25 years)…

A study compared the informal theories about the child held by 10 preservice education students with those held by 8 educational leaders with experience in the elementary grades. During interviews, students and educators were asked to define "the child" in everyday terms. They were also asked to categorize and respond to 32 statements…

This book was written for elementary school counselors, teachers, and administrators to assist them with the development and management of new elementary school counseling programs and with the renewal and revitalization of existing programs. It may also be useful for counselor educators in preparing counselors in training for their role as future…

The belief that gifted children are more likely to have personality problems than "normal" individuals is not supported by research, but the image of the disturbed gifted child persists. This paper reviews research from a life-span developmental perspective to examine why this image persists. The paper critically examines the research of L.…

This guide for parents and teachers encourages the use of foods in children's learning activities, especially foods that are harvested in the Northwest Territories of Canada and that play a role in health maintenance. The activities also provide an opportunity for children to experience new foods. Sections in the guide discuss: (1) nutrition,…

Assumptions of strong, causal relations between cognition, language, and affection are often made in general and in bilingualism in particular. This paper presents first a set of hypotheses concerning the relation between affection and language in bilingualism. One subset is concerned with language learning, language maintenance, and mental health…

This paper describes how the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is using constructivist theory and research to inform educational policy and practice. The state's most concentrated and comprehensive effort in this direction is Project Construct, a unified instructional approach for children ages 3-7. The project consists of…

This study examined infants' change in visual information pick-up, from an infant-like stimulus-locked visual scanning pattern to an adult-like cognitive control of visual information pick-up. Subjects were 21 children between 25 and 42 months of age. Eye movements were videotaped in a preferential looking situation and later analyzed as still…

"Learning Readiness" is a public school initiative for all 3-4 year old children and their families in Minnesota. The purpose of the Learning Readiness programs is to provide all eligible children with adequate opportunities to participate in child development programs that enable them to enter school with the necessary skills and…

From its inception, Head Start's legislative mandate called for "maximum feasible participation" of parents in all programmatic efforts and policy decisions. Nevertheless, there has been little research done on the benefits of Head Start to parents and on the role of parents as mediators of child and family outcomes. The Head Start…