This book is an exploration of story and its importance in early childhood. It provides a thorough theoretical foundation, and considers how to practically implement the use of stories to aid children's wellbeing and holistic development. The chapters cover topics including cognitive and emotional development, creativity, play, mathematics,…

Social competency is a set of skills that provide children with the tools and abilities to successfully navigate the world around them. "Developing Social Competency in Young Children" looks at each of the seven Cs of social competence--communication, community building, coping, confidence, conflict resolution, control, and curiosity.…

The quality of the verbal environment sets the stage for young children's developing perceptions of themselves and others. This document provides hands-on, practical advice for practitioners to support children's self-perception and coping skills by establishing and maintaining a positive verbal environment. Positive verbal environments enhance…

Describes how one first-grade classroom dealt with the tragedy of the Challenger explosion. (MD)

Traditionally, stress has been defined in terms of its sourceinternal, such as hunger, pain, sensitivity to noise; and externalseparation from family, change in family composition, exposure to conflict or violence. Although the research literature tends to focus on the impact of single-variable stressors on children's development, in real-life…

This article argues that if professionals categorize parents as "in denial," unaccepting, or difficult, professionals may lose the chance to understand and learn from the parents. Recommendations are provided for rethinking denial and working with parents, including supporting parents' hopes and dreams for their child, suspending judgment, and…

Information from a workshop on how to help preschool teachers discuss death with young children is presented. Limitations of young children's preoperational thought processes are noted, including children's confusion about the irreversibility of death and the loss of a sense of trust in their environment. Children have different ways of dealing…

Enumerates negative emotions that early childhood teachers may feel when first encountering the handicapped child and suggests ways to overcome these feelings. (KS)

Proposes a precrisis curriculum for nursery and elementary schools to prepare healthy young children for hospitalization as an alternative to current preadmission preparation programs. Key elements include such stress-immunization techniques as systematic desensitization, modeling, and rehearsal. (AS)

Family stress and coping behaviors of 90 mothers with moderately mentally retarded children exhibited no significant differences across 3 age groups: school entry, early adolescence, and young adult. Differences in perceived stress were found for race and maternal age; differences in coping behaviors were found for race, marital status, and…

About one in five Americans moves each year, and often children find such moves emotionally difficult. This book is a guide to help adults assist young children (preschool-3) in understanding and dealing with the emotions that arise from moving to a new home. Intended for use with the picture book "Moving Is Hard," this resource provides…

Resilience is an important trait because it is the human capacity to face, overcome, be strengthened by, and even transformed by the adversities of life. This guide provides ways to promote resilience in children and help them learn to improve many aspects of their own resilience. The guide is centered on three features, or sources, of resilience:…

Reviews research on the components and stages of stress in the lives of children, identifying three stages and six categories of stress factors: personal child variables, ecological stressors, socioeconomic status, catastrophes and terrors, family events, and spouse problems. (KS)

The Research in Practice Series is published four times each year by Early Childhood Australia. The series aims to provide practical, easy to read, up-to-date information and support to a growing national readership of early childhood workers. The books bring together the best information available on wide-ranging topics and are an ideal resource…

Children's anger presents challenges to teachers committed to constructive, ethical, and effective child guidance. This Digest explores what is known about the components of children's anger, factors contributing to understanding and managing anger, and the ways teachers can guide children's expressions of anger. Anger is believed to have three…