Describes preliteracy skills in infants and toddlers and the ways adults encourage them, including communicating, incorporating floor and object play, and giving them a wide variety of real experiences. Asserts that caregivers can reassure parents by showing them how they encourage children's intellectual development on a daily basis. (KB)

Within the last decade, the topic of caregiving in the United States has been recognized as a significant social problem. Not only is caregiving itself a social problem, but there are a number of closely related issues such as stress and abuse which are problems in and of themselves. This study focused on public attitudes and concerns regarding…

Most older Americans who have impaired ability to function avoid institutionalization because of personal care and financial assistance received from family members or friends. However, there is a void in terms of national data on the magnitude of the phenomenon, the financial costs associated with providing care, the use of services especially…

Using models subjected to extensive specification tests, analysis of data from the National Child Care Staffing Study found that group size, child-staff ratio, and staff education and training have only small impacts on the quality of care provided. (SK)

In an effort to address the stressors accompanying work with the dying, a special "Phoenix" group for caregivers is introduced. Planning considerations, group format, and accompanying structured activities are presented. Describes individual sessions which focus on mourning, transition from mourning to disengaging, disengaging, transition from…

Brookdale Grandparent Caregiver Information Project tracked 124 community interventions/service programs for grandparents raising grandchildren. Found that, among programs, lack of funding and institutional support, and the consequent inability to provide child care, were among key obstacles faced, whereas while sponsorship by health and social…

Although sexual minority (SM) youth are at an increased risk for being bullied and experiencing depression, it is unclear how caregiver support is interrelated with those variables. Therefore, we sought to assess (a) the prevalence of nonphysical bullying, depressive symptomatology, and caregiver support among heterosexual and SM girls, (b) the…

This article addresses the following cross-cutting issues evident in the special section of this issue: (a) current diagnoses do not provide adequate validity criteria; (b) the heterogeneity and comorbidity of target problems raise taxonomic challenges; (c) accurate assessment requires integration of multisource data; (d) developmental variations…

This article addresses the following cross-cutting issues evident in the special section of this issue: (a) current diagnoses do not provide adequate validity criteria; (b) the heterogeneity and comorbidity of target problems raise taxonomic challenges; (c) accurate assessment requires integration of multisource data; (d) developmental variations…

This article addresses the following cross-cutting issues evident in the special section of this issue: (a) current diagnoses do not provide adequate validity criteria; (b) the heterogeneity and comorbidity of target problems raise taxonomic challenges; (c) accurate assessment requires integration of multisource data; (d) developmental variations…

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) may result in rates of reinforcement that are impractical for caregivers to implement; therefore, recent research has examined methods for thinning reinforcer delivery during DRA. In this study, reinforcer delivery was thinned during DRA by restricting access to the participant's alternative…

The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to describe currently enrolled students in Child Development/Early Childhood Educator programs in community colleges across the state of Texas. This included students at every stage of their community college education whether they were beginning or completing degrees, certificates or…

The health status of 206 female caregivers supporting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities at home was investigated using objective (i.e., presence of chronic health conditions and activity limitations) and subjective (i.e., self-perceived health status) health measures compared with those of women in the general population in 2…

English-speaking children make pronoun case errors producing utterances where accusative pronouns are used in nominative contexts ("me do it"). We investigate whether complex utterances in the input ("Let me do it") might explain the origin of these errors. Longitudinal naturalistic data from seventeen English-speaking two- to four-year-olds was…

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) established new reimbursement systems in the Medicare home health fee-for-service benefit. Reimbursements were reduced to 1993 levels and per-beneficiary capitated limits were introduced for the first time. This article analyzes the impact of these changes on chronically ill older adults and their families.…