Learning through play is as natural and important for young children as breathing. With this book, parents and teachers can create toys that help children become more confident, develop their intellect, and encourage play and exploration--all with materials easily found at the local hardware store or home center. Written by two experienced family…

"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" addresses several gaps in previous research estimating the impact of caregiving on employment. For instance, prior studies employ a variety of disability definitions, making it…

Evidence-based practice emerged as a result of the gap often seen between research and practice and gained momentum with the standards and accountability movement. Yet it originates in medicine. Healthcare professionals using evidence-based medicine determine a patient's treatment based on an assessment of evidence from the literature and current…

Research shows that children benefit when they are served by stable and highly trained center-based staff and caregivers. Responding to the unequal distribution of child-care supply across the state and a need for well-trained caregivers, First 5 California approved an initiative to train early care and education (ECE) staff using different…

This guide is designed to help caregivers prevent children from getting involved in drugs. It details six key prevention principles, including actions caregivers can take that can help their child make healthy choices. Each section includes language to use with children, activities to do, information about drugs, statistics about youth drug use,…

In an effort to help practitioners deal with the great volume of current literature in the field of marriage and family therapy, this compilation attempts to present clinically relevant material in a user-friendly format. Topics selected for inclusion are believed to be up-to-date, informative, and clinically meaningful--as well as theoretically…

The work-related and personal factors associated with the willingness and ability of older adults to remain as child care workers and the factors associated with leaving child care work were studied in a time-series design. Subjects were 534 persons aged 50 years and older who were working for pay as child care providers. Of these, 341 replied to…

Dayspring AIDS support services (DASS), a New England-based health organization, like many service organizations that rely on part-time and volunteer help, lacked the funds needed to improve and/or renew part-time staff and volunteer knowledge and skills. This paper describes an innovative way in which the professional development needs of DASS's…

Research on child care quality and experience in the field shows that the quality of working conditions are linked to a caregiver's ability to provide quality care. Noting that legal rights that generally apply to most child care teachers are not upheld in every workplace, this guide provides information on federal legal rights of child care…

Information on how warm and responsive care can help shape infants' and toddlers' development and their ability to learn can be reassuring for concerned parents. This guide, in English and Spanish versions, presents quality child care as a partnership between the child caregiver and the parents with the primary goal of benefiting the child. The…

Child care is an issue of profound significance for children and society, but it is faced with many unresolved difficulties. Children's Action Alliance in Arizona held a series of public forums around the state to give people a wider view of the child care dilemma and to provide a public hearing for those most affected by child care difficulties.…

This paper examines the needs of children in grandparent care, using data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families. Information on the children was obtained from the adult in the household most knowledgeable about the child's education and health care. Most children in grandparent care live with much older caregivers and caregivers with…

As part of the Assessing the New Federalism project, this study investigated the number of child care arrangements that employed mothers with children under 5 years old. The study began by examining national and state estimates of the number of arrangements used by these children, focusing on how these patterns differ for children of different…

As part of the Assessing the New Federalism Project, this study examines the number of hours preschool children with employed mothers spent in child care in 1997, how the number of hours in child care varied across selected states, and how the amount of time in care differed across the states for children of different ages and income groups. Data…

As part of the Assessing the New Federalism project, this study provides information on the primary child care arrangements used by children younger than 5 years with employed mothers, both nationally and across a number of states. Data are from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families, which oversampled low-income households. While parents…