Presents child-care directors' opinions regarding influences on their thinking about staff development. Suggests strategies for keeping professional-development efforts on track, such as using the questions emerging from working with children as a basis for learning, incorporating time and systems for thinking about learning, forming a book/study…

Accidents at camps increase when counselors become fatigued or complacent, or step out of their primary roles as supervisors and become participants. Horseplay, time in bunks, and sports activities are hotspots for injuries. Camps must teach counselors how to monitor fatigue and recognize when activities exceed campers' abilities. A video is…

Childhood onset mood disorders can lead to stress and parenting burden as well as problems within family, peer, and school settings. Article highlights research related to caretaker burden among parents, and describes a multifamily psychoeducation group intervention designed to alleviate some of these problems. Parental reports of intervention…

A survey of 400 early childhood personnel in northwestern Ohio identified personnel characteristics associated with an interest in caring for young children with special needs. Most respondents were interested in providing care but cited lack of knowledge as a barrier to providing inclusive childcare. (Author/CR)

Reviews the existing research on the role of grandparents in the lives of children with disabilities. Although parents and grandparents report a wide range of supportive activities and involvement, grandparents may also be an additional burden. Clinical and educational professionals are urged to facilitate the role of grandparents as a resource…

Two experiments examined 6-month olds' ability to categorize natural infant-directed utterances. Infants heard seven different tokens from one class of utterance (comforting, approving). Findings indicated that infants who later heard a test stimulus from the unfamiliar class showed response recovery, whereas those who heard a novel stimulus from…

Examines trends in intervention research designed to support caregivers of chronically ill, older adults. Focuses on the work of Ronald W. Toseland and colleagues but also reviews other selected caregiver intervention research studies. Analyzes the aims, content, methodology, and outcomes of studies conducted over the past two decades. (RJM)

Summarizes findings regarding how caregivers support literacy development of former Head Start students. Discusses promotion of independence, communication between the child's caregivers, interactions during story telling, affectionate interactions during story telling, and level and frequency of cognitive demands. (SR)

Discusses the need for child caregivers to be aware of cultural differences as they relate to individual autonomy and the family. Relates ideas on teaching toddlers self-help skills so they can become independent, and shares a personal story illustrating connected, yet independent, family members. (TJQ)

Compared language development of 16 firstborn and 16 secondborn children at 21 months to investigate whether secondborn children benefit from overheard conversations between caregivers and older siblings. Found that secondborn children were more advanced that firstborn in pronoun production, while not differing general language development,…

Examines how professional early childhood caregivers care for themselves. Notes two basic human challenges: the need to make good contact with peers, parents, teachers, and others; and the need to achieve a good sense of self. Discusses four deterrents to meeting these challenges, and how to overcome them to achieve a healthy sense of balance and…

Observational reinforcement was studied in 5- to 13-month-old infants in a contingency learning task where brief light-sound stimulation followed touches on a canister. The task was preceded by differing preexperiences for each of four study groups. Overall, results demonstrated that vicarious reinforcement in the preexperiences probably did not…

Explored use of respite care by 60 families to help prevent family breakdown. Found that after nine months, parents were more in control of their lives and had reduced family problems. Ninety-two percent of families remained intact. Social workers were more satisfied with the intervention in less-complex than in more-complex cases. Children…

Tested predictions of infantile amnesia theory compared with social-interactionist account of autobiographical memory. Found maternal reminiscing style and self-recognition when child was 19 months old uniquely predicted children's shared memory reports across time, even with children's initial language and nonverbal memory factored out.…

Examined effect of toddler temperament on caregiver-toddler interaction in child care. Found that children classified as difficult attracted significantly more attention, not necessarily positive, from caregivers. Children rated as easy were overlooked more often than others. Children's sociability/withdrawal made little difference to caregiver…