Through play children develop the basic skills needed to make choices in life and to tolerate ambiguity and the unexpected in a fast-changing world. To teach young children effective play skills, teachers must be skillful co-players and observers, not mere implementers of standardized curricula. Vignettes illustrate children's learning through…

The article discusses child development in the context of child life in day care. It traces children's development of an independent, autonomous life and their creation of culture where play is a central feature. The culture produced by the children is analysed on the basis of classical notions of culture. Furthermore the emergence and development…

Promoting the development of early literacy skills might prevent later reading achievement problems. This longitudinal study investigated rates of early literacy growth using Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) for 69 preschool children classified as belonging to 1 of 4 groups with or without risk for developing early literacy…

The author presents a number of factors that underscore the educational advantages of focusing on a Pre-K-3 school configuration, including the need for less remediation and more productive learning in the upper elementary and secondary grades. He describes a self-contained Pre-K-3 continuum, including universal pre-kindergarten and full-day…

Difficulties are outlined in how to consider whether boys and girls have distinctive approaches and needs in relation to spiritual development, especially the lack of any agreed definition of spiritual development and the nature of the research literature relating to gender. I explore this without presupposing, or excluding, any particular…

Concern about the growth in adolescent problem behaviours (e.g. delinquency, drug use) has led to increased interest in positive youth development, and a surge in funding for "after school programs." We evaluate the potential of youth sport programs to foster positive development, while decreasing the risk of problem behaviours.…

Although adult education leads to a moderation of racist or authoritarian attitudes amongst the general population, little is known concerning the impact of adult education on individuals with extremist racist-authoritarian views. In this paper we group individuals from the NCDS (National Child Development Study) into various racist-authoritarian…

Inclusive programs and community settings are important contexts to help foster acceptance and understanding among all children. Research has shown that children enrolled in inclusive programs become more accepting of people who are different from them. Inclusion of children with disabilities in classroom activities requires the involvement of…

Background: Previous research has emphasized the importance of gesture in early communicative development. These studies have reported that gestures are used frequently during the first two years of life and may play a transitional role in the language acquisition process. Although there are now numerous descriptions of the relationship between…

This paper presents how the medico-hygienist model of childhood, which had prevailed throughout the nineteenth century, was replaced at the turn of the twentieth century by the novel developmental model, which arose in the first decades of the 1900s and was later systematised by Piaget, Spock, etc. The medico-hygienist model revolved around core…

In this article, the author features the Children's Support Services (CSS) project in Lowell, Massachusetts, which is an interagency, multidisciplinary program that provides young children and their families a range of child development, mental health, and family support services. The CSS project, which was begun in September 2000, addresses the…

The purpose of this article is to guide parents, guardians, and teachers, who wish to utilize the therapeutic qualities of literature, in aiding a grieving child. In a child's first decade of life, the first experience he or she has with death often is the very distressing loss of a beloved pet. This first introduction to the cycle of living and…

Eighty-two Head Start preschoolers were assessed with a peer rating measure of sociometric status, the Social Skills Rating System for Teachers (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), an Overt Aggression scale culled from items from the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the CBCL-TRF (Achenbach, 1997), and teacher ratings of relational aggression (Crick,…

The second edition of this best-selling textbook provides students and practitioners with a broad introduction to, and critical analysis of, the main theories and issues within the field of early childhood studies. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and pulls together all the key themes involved in the study of young children and…

Despite economic and social challenges facing California, Children Now advocates that the foundation of state vitality and well-being is a healthy, educated and skilled population, and urges efficient investments in children. State leadership is called upon to: (1) Ensure every child has affordable health insurance coverage; (2) Invest earlier in…