Describes factors associated with workers' willingness to use force with institutionalized children, including (1) resentment toward children, (2) management of routines in the organization, (3) staff participation in decision making, (4) size of the community in which the caregiver was raised, and (5) caregiver's age. Suggests methods for…

Interviewed women and partners (N=40) separately about changes in parent-child interactions and other family relationships after the mother had returned to college. Parents generally reported that, overall, their children were now receiving more and better parental contact and that there had been qualitative improvement in father-child…

Differences in attachment, affiliative, and exploratory behaviors in the presence of substitute caregivers v a stranger were examined in light of differences in the physical quality of centers and the level of caregiver involvement. (Author/MP)

Discusses the special quality of the relationships teachers, caregivers, and parents have with young children, focusing on aspects of the relationship which help the adult develop as much as they help the child grow. (CM)

After-school settings and activities for 206 urban children, grades one through four were examined, and associations with behavioral adjustment noted. Found that effects of activities on externalizing and internalizing behaviors were more pronounced in lower income children than in those from middle and upper income backgrounds. Peer interaction…

Describes traits of effective child care team members: instigator--develops ideas; day-dream believer--suggests solutions; jester--relieves tension; mother hen--ensures fair treatment; nervous Nellie--critiques ideas; keeper of the faith--focuses on center's mission; bull dog--keeps on task; compromiser--preserves unity; and mover and…

Three child psychology studies illustrate that although behavior can be shaped by rewards and punishments, children also learn through imitating adult role models. When parents combine control and warmth, children are more independent, responsible, and content than when either control or warmth is absent. Human behavior is influenced by context…

Discusses the issue of whether sex between mentally retarded individuals is morally permissable, and if so, under what conditions. Argues that mutual consent has unacceptable consequences for the mentally retarded. Specifies conditions where caregivers can grant permission for sexual activity. Describes the implications for future professionals'…

Examines educational activities in terms of authentic, developmentally appropriate practices. Suggests that authentic experiences are closer to being true than false in nature; a real thing rather than a replica; characterized by honesty; and richer, wider, deeper than a synthetic counterpart. Authentic experiences feel right and evoke feeling.…

This article explores the idea of toddler independence from a Montessori perspective. Integrated with increasing competence in daily living, independence is defined in terms of toileting, dressing and undressing, eating and food preparation, plant and animal care, clothes washing, sweeping, gardening, and putting oneself to sleep. (Author/KB)

Summaries of four studies in child psychology reveal that children's attachment to caregivers depends on physical contact more than food; secure attachment to loving caregivers provides a base from which children explore and learn; children's separation behaviors reveal much about their attachment relationship; and children are born with traits…

To better prepare students for kindergarten, the Lafayette County School District in Oxford, Mississippi, provided cost-effective professional development seminars to local day-care workers. Three-day seminars several times a summer for 3 years were offered to all day-care workers and preschool teachers in the county including Head Start staff,…

Input language addressed to language-learning children was analyzed to assess the quality of the semantic-syntactic correspondence posited by the semantic bootstrapping hypothesis. This correspondence was strong--objects were labeled with nouns, actions with verbs, attributes with adjectives--and may serve to make children's construction of…