Asserts that, for young children's development, there is no other activity as meaningful as play. Discusses how play helps in life skill development, how children learn through their senses during play, how play contributes to children's independence, how to shop for toys, and age-appropriate toys and activities. (EV)

Discusses how adversity provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Notes benefits of adversity, including enhanced skills and insights, sense of accomplishment, balanced perspective, increased productivity and efficiency, increased sensitivity to others, enhanced sense of humor, better priorities, and personal and professional…

Describes the Mental Health Consultation Team at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center nursing home. The team is an interdisciplinary group of mental health professionals and primary care providers. Cooperation among these professionals has decreased the demands for formal psychiatry and psychology consultations while increasing mental…

Describes Erikson's theory of developmentally appropriate curriculum and the eight stages of the life cycle. Provides brief descriptions of these stages and some possible professional applications that early childhood educators can use in pursuing professional development. (MOK)

Examines the relationship between the "True Colors" temperament type of the primary caregiver and the readiness to involve her child in the social context of extracurricular reading activities (a summer reading program) intended to promote literacy development. Finds that the "Gold" and "Blue" types involved their children in organized, structured…

A study explored responsibilities and concerns of six young adults in relation to their brother/sister with vision and hearing disabilities. Although mothers were the primary care takers, siblings played an important, secondary role. Siblings expressed guilt about being unable to take a more active role and were aware of future demands. (Contains…

Notes that the child care business often requires multi-site communication, training, and management; offers suggestions for effective management of long-distance staff meetings. Discusses four elements of successful long- distance teamwork, outlines strategies for long distance team participation, and shows how to use technology to improve…

Examines factors associated with abuse of children in residential child care institutions including: failings in staff recruitment, training, and supervision; ineffective management and accountability; development of inappropriate institutional cultures; public ambivalence toward children in care; slow response to threats posed to children in…

Camps should have crisis management plans. Steps to formulating a plan include involving appropriate off-site agencies, identifying potential threats, gathering resources, crafting an appropriate response, training via role-playing, managing incoming and outgoing information, and writing it down. Sidebars present resources, successful response…

Contrasts environments in two early childhood settings; describes how materials and activities are arranged and the tone of the classroom. Provides resources and a sample observation log for evaluating the following aspects of environment: furnishings; materials and supplies; interest areas; language, literacy, and intellectual development;…

This article discusses the child sexual abuse literature which was available in the 1980s, as well as several new sources of information, and describes a curriculum which was developed to provide a model for immediate evaluation of sexual behaviors observed among children in schools and child care settings. (CR)

Discusses gossip in early childhood settings as a threat to professionalism. Identifies reasons for staff gossip, provides guidance for developing an anti-gossip program policy, and presents an activity to distinguish gossip and shared information. Discusses how directors can influence parents' discussions with staff and get staff to confront each…

Suggests ways directors can create a climate to reduce and resolve conflict, including assessing the work environment, improving communication, understanding different personalities involved, and understanding the negotiation process. Applies the process to particular scenarios of early childhood staff conflict. Asserts that how directors deal…

Presents plan for developing community support system for quality child care, based on the military's system. Examines the military system quality components and applicability of this model for the nation. Presents local steps toward the proposed "New American Child Care System." Asserts that a few key policy changes could bridge the…

To decrease noncompliance of a child with disabilities in the home and community, a precision request procedure was examined and evaluated in the home and community. The use of a precision request format was evaluated with ABAB single subject design. The difference in compliance for baseline and precision request procedure was statistically…