Make-believe play is an important part of growing that can help young children develop physically, emotionally, socially, creatively and intellectually. Suggestions are offered to help parents know when play may be leading to abnormal behavior and to know how they can respond to fantasy. (DF)

Television can be a source of knowledge and information or it can cause negative behavior. Parents can help their children understand the difference between fantasy and reality on television and help make television viewing a positive event. (DF)

Youth gangs can be found throughout all racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Characteristics of gang membership and suggestions for parent and school involvement in preventing gangs are discussed. (DF)

Provides a foundation for future experimental research on the origins in mother-infant interaction of sex differences in the development of a separate sense of self. Suggests that sex differences in the experience of a separate sense of self begin to emerge in early infancy and that mothers engage in different types of contact with sons and…

Parents of gifted preschoolers are advised of research on their role in stimulating cognitive development, achievement motivation, affective development, and social development. Suggestions are also offered regarding interactions with extended family members, school personnel, friends, and strangers. (CL)

A checklist is offered to help parents work on homework with their learning disabled adolescents. Guidelines are offered for preparing as well as following up the homework. (CL)

Examined the relationships among career, marital, and family-role salience variables, parenthood motivations, and childhood paternal and maternal relationships for graduate-student mothers and those choosing to remain childless. Results revealed significant differences in types of motivations, levels of parental-role salience, and degrees of…

The effectiveness of supplementary home tutoring with minimal professional guidance of 64 learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, or educable mentally retarded primary grade students was evaluated. Results indicated that after two weeks children whose parents had received the tutoring materials scored significantly higher on a word recognition…

Three articles by parents of deaf children describe their efforts to secure appropriate education for their children and their concerns with the success and failures of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. (CL)

A longitudinal study examined the connection between mothers' and fathers' sex role orientations and employment situations and the parents' involvement in child-oriented activities. Reported are interrelations among measures of husbands' and wives' sex role orientations, association between sex role attributes and extent of participation in the…

Non-paternalistic arguments supporting the rights of parents to have a say concerning their children's schooling are presented. These include parents' rights rooted in (1) extensions of their own freedoms, (2) parental involvement in children's suffering and success, (3) a contract of birth, and (4) exceptional demands of familial relationships.…

Children learn to be caring individuals when they are raised in a considerate and sensitive environment. Suggestions for helping children be more aware of the needs of others are discussed. (DF)

Finds that even young babies can attend to books being read to them and provides some guidance for a successful book-reading experience. (FL)

The Parent Advocacy Network is designed to develop in parents of handicapped children strategies for being a mediator and/or an advocate with the schools. Such an approach focuses on parents' need for information, self confidence, and understanding of ways to assume power in school decisionmaking. (CL)

Defines six family-cycle phases relating to motherhood and age/developmental stages of children. Examines timing of women's psychosocial changes relative to specific phases of the family cycle. (NH)