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)

Examination of children with disabled siblings reveals that nondisabled children may treat their siblings more kindly and spend more time caring for them than do children with nondisabled siblings. Their experiences may produce more worries and anxieties; however, they also may develop more tolerance and humanitarian concerns. (Author/BJV)

Analysis of 232 elementary school children's questions posed to nontraditional workers reveals that gender schemata are important aspects of a child's thought processes. Common characteristics of their questions are identified. Boys and girls fill part of their gender schema with like kinds of information about what is gender-appropriate behavior.…

Reports on a comparative study of nursery school children in the United States and Italy. Identifies and discusses the importance of basic routines in the peer culture of young children for the development of communication skills and social knowledge. Explores the possibilities of universal features in young children's peer cultures and develops…

The performance of 40 hearing and 40 hearing-impaired children, aged two-five years, was compared on a battery of nonverbal tasks and a nonverbal intelligence test. Age significantly affected the results, consistent with a developmental change. In cognitive development, the hearing-impaired children were comparable to same-age hearing children.…

Reviews recent product-oriented outcome studies from the perspective of whether VLBW (very low birthweight) infants born since 1975 (when intensive care methods became relatively stabilized in effectiveness) show behavioral problems, intellectual impairment, linguistic or social deficits. (RWB)

The paper reviews the complexity of the social and affective demands confronting children aged 4-10 and the advantages of preventive over remedial interventions. Components of classroom-based social problem-solving preventive interventions are described, along with practical issues in program implementation. (Author/JDD)

Analyzes the nature of the concepts shared and the manner in which they develop within the shared reading of five parent-child dyads. (FL)

Reports on a longitudinal study that provides a prospective view of children's personality functioning prior to their subsequent experiencing of divorce. Shows the behavior of boys as early as 11 years prior to parental separation or formal dissolution of marriage to be consistently affected by predivorce familial stress. (HOD)