"Dialogic Reading" is an interactive shared picture book reading practice designed to enhance young children's language and literacy skills. During the shared reading practice, the adult and the child switch roles so that the child learns to become the storyteller with the assistance of the adult who functions as an active listener and…

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states are trailblazers in providing access to high-quality, state-funded pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds: last year, the majority of all 4-year-olds attending pre-kindergarten in the nation were enrolled in SREB states. The SREB region also leads the nation in setting high standards of quality for…

A health education program was evaluated which used child development specialists as home visitors and served a population of first-time mothers living in rural communities. The evaluation compared health and safety outcomes between intervention and control groups. The research staff, separate from the intervention staff, collected data in the…

Breaking the Cycle (BTC), founded in 1995, is an early identification, prevention, and treatment program for pregnant and parenting women who abuse substances. The authors explore the impact of substance abuse on early attachment relationships and on infant regulatory functioning. BTC focuses on building and enhancing the mother's relationships,…

Current theory on mentoring describes the process as a mutual learning relationship in which both the mentor and the mentee gain knowledge. Many research studies have supported the benefits of mentoring programs for at-risk elementary school children. One particularly interesting mentoring project with preschool children is Jumpstart, a national…

In this article, the author discusses Response to Intervention (RtI), a school-wide system of intervention. One of the advantages of RtI in the diagnosis of disabilities is that it allows schools to intervene early to meet the needs of struggling learners. RtI also maps those specific instructional strategies found to benefit a particular student,…

This chapter is a draft of Chapter 7 of a planned book, "Preschool and Jobs: Human Development as Economic Development, and Vice Versa." This book analyzes early childhood programs' effects on regional economic development. Four early childhood programs are considered: (1) universally accessible preschool for four-year-olds of similar…

The Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is examining the characteristics of children receiving preschool special education, the services they receive, their transitions across educational levels, and their performance over time on assessments of academic and adaptive skills. PEELS…

While data sources exist to measure and monitor the health of children in the United States, few take into account the many contexts in which children grow and develop, including their family and community environments. The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), conducted in 2007, addresses multiple aspects of children's health and…

This 1992-1993 fiscal year performance report provides an overview of Kentucky's early intervention system of building comprehensive services for infants, toddlers, and families. This Part H program has served 1,054 young children who are developmentally delayed or who have an established risk. Highlights are presented of goals, services, and…

The Alcohol and Drug Defense (ADD) program provides federal funds authorized by the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to states and local education authorities. ADD is designed to help schools prevent students from abusing drugs and alcohol and provide intervention services for students who use, or are at risk of using, drugs and alcohol.…

In this investigation, a case study approach was used with two preschool children with language delays to determine whether videotaped self-modeling (VSM) intervention would influence their expressive language development. Language samples of both children were videotaped and then edited to leave only the best examples of the target language…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) identify the educational characteristics of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Undifferentiated Attention Deficit Disorder (UADD); and (2) to discuss the clinical implications of the current DSM-III-R diagnostic procedures of these disorders. Specifically, the differences in…

This study examined the effectiveness and efficiency with which the Chippewa Falls Area United School District (Wisconsin) addressed the needs of its diverse student population, focusing on the At-Risk Kindergarten Program implemented by the school district in 1992. The program serves a selected segment of the kindergarten population in an…

Alcohol poses a significant threat to young people. Ways in which to warn children between the ages of 8 and 13 about the dangers of alcohol are presented in this book. It is a health education text containing precise information presented in a simple way, through the use of fictional characters who are vividly portrayed in pictures and…