Fatherchild and motherchild engagements were examined longitudinally in relation to children's language and cognitive development at 24 and 36 months. The study involved a raciallyethnically diverse sample of low-income, resident fathers (and their partners) from the National Early Head Start evaluation study (n290). Fatherchild and motherchild…

Can going to an art museum make elementary school students better learners? It can if they are participating in Thinking Through Art, an innovative partnership uniting the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Boston Public Schools (BPS), and Visual Understanding in Education (VUE), a nonprofit educational research group committed to improving…

This study examines individual growth rates in phonological awareness and letter-word identification skills over an academic year for 150 Latino English-language learners. In October, February, and June of their kindergarten year, participants completed standardized measures of phonological awareness skills. Before the second and third…

The Family Development Research Program (FDRP) was begun as an omnibus effort to serve low-income, low-education families by providing education, nutrition, health, safety, and human service resources for the 108 families initially recruited. Very deprived families were recruited early in the last trimester of pregnancy. All the families had an…

Because more children under the age of 3 years are being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), early interventionists face the challenge of identifying appropriate programs to meet the unique needs of very young children with ASD and their families. Project DATA (Developmentally Appropriate Treatment for Autism) for Toddlers is an…

"Informal Forum," grounded in constructivism has been developed to foster active learning and deep understanding. Learning is an interdependent process, and is most effective when students construct their own meaning of knowledge. If one believes in the value of constructivist learning, it is important to teach how we preach in higher education.…

The article considers nursery rhymes as the foundation for learning. It is said that nursery rhymes carry all the parts of language that lead to speaking and reading. Because rhymes are short, they are easy for children to repeat, and become some of the first sentences children utter. The rhymes expand vocabulary, exposing children to words they…

Playdates are a regular part of life of many preschool age children, and when a child with disabilities cannot participate in the typical playdates of childhood, they, and their parents, feel isolated and lonely. This article discusses different aspects of running successful playdates for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.…

Verbal and behavioral measures of children's knowledge are frequently dissociated. These situations represent a largely untapped but important resource for furthering an understanding of human cognition. In this paper, verbal-behavioral dissociations in children are discussed and analyzed, drawing from a wide range of domains. The article explores…

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between lacking emotional support from parents early in life and adult alcohol abuse. A series of logistic regression models were run with data collected from a nationally representative sample of over 2,500 adults ages 25-74. The findings reveal a linear relationship between level of…

Increasing numbers of low-income children are receiving regular nonparental care, yet knowledge is limited regarding whether child care settings meet the needs of low-income children and their parents. Using a sample of low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic children and families from low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago,…

The purpose of this article is to review evidence concerning the joint impact of family characteristics and child care experiences in understanding children's development. Although child care experiences are related to children's development across a variety of domains, family characteristics, particularly socioeconomic status and parenting…

Preparing foster children for school entry by focusing on the skills necessary to succeed in kindergarten calls for early intervention. However, existing programs to enhance school readiness have not been tailored to meet the educational, emotional, and psychological needs of foster children. This is the rationale behind development of the…

In this article, the author discusses how important kindergarten is and how important it is for the parents to choose a kindergarten program that will be appropriate for their child. Most parents understand the importance of education and its relationship to their child's success in later years. However, today is a confusing time to be raising a…

This article features activities for children to explore the concepts of "over" and "under." Using boxes and blocks, children explore positional relationships and develop physical skills. Here, the author offers activities for every age level.