This book, updated since initial publication in 1989, offers explanations, practical tips, and encouragement for teachers and families of preschool children facing the excitement--and stress--of separation. Topics discussed include ambivalence about separation and attachment, the comfort of routines, understanding the child perspective, supporting…

This pilot study compared the development of two groups of adolescents--those whose parents were blind and those whose parents were sighted. It found that there were no essential differences between the groups. Moreover, the friendship relationships, feelings toward parents, and some essential characteristics of the adolescents' emotional state…

Children enter the world with simple emotions and gradually add complex feelings to their repertoire of skills. As children grow and develop, they learn to label their emotions and regulate them in socially appropriate ways. Literature is one way early childhood educators can foster healthy emotional development. This article explains how emotions…

A role model is someone an individual looks up to and wants to be like--but also someone an individual connects with as a person. There is a special relationship between a child and a teacher, particularly in the early childhood years. Teachers must think carefully about how their manner affects the children in their classrooms. This article…

Background: There is uncertainty about the extent to which language skills are part of general intelligence and even more uncertainty on whether deprivation has differential effects on language and non-language skills. Methods: Language and cognitive outcomes at 6 and 11 years of age were compared between a sample of 132 institution-reared…

This paper describes a new digital technology to support emotional self-awareness and empathy, called G.I.R.L.S (Girls Involved in Real Life Sharing). The system invited users to reflect actively upon and interact with a dialogue about how the story made them feel through the construction of pictorial narratives. In a pilot study with teenage…

This article uses longitudinal data from approximately 2,000 low-income families participating in the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program to examine the associations between preschool children's living arrangements and their cognitive achievement and emotional adjustment. The analysis distinguishes families in which…

This study answers the following questions: "In what kinds of environments do preschool children want to play?" and "In what kinds of environments do boys and girls want to play?" Methodologically, the study draws on grounded theory, with data collected among Finnish preschoolers through creation sessions consisting of 15…

Background: Africa is in an orphan-care crisis. In Zimbabwe, where one-fourth of adults are HIV-positive and one-fifth of children are orphans, AIDS and economic decline are straining society's ability to care for orphans within their extended families. Lack of stable care is putting thousands of children at heightened risk of malnourishment,…

This paper reports on a small-scale research study evaluating the work of an emotional literacy project in the North West of England. The purpose of the evaluation was threefold: to assess the degree of success of the emotional literacy project in achieving its aims; to capture and disseminate learning of what works, with whom and in which…

Leaders are increasingly called on to function in ways that demand creative smarts as much as book smarts and street smarts. Consequently, more attention is being given to artistic potentialities of leadership. To help create relevant educational opportunities, the author responds in three ways. First is to identify a framework of characteristics…

Many challenging behaviors can be prevented by designing environments that promote children's engagement and teaching children new social skills (Lawry, Danko, & Strain, 1999; Neilsen, Olive, Donovan, & McEvoy, 1999; Strain & Hemmeter, 1999). Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, and Strain (2003) have described a framework for promoting children's…

This article intends to encourage teachers to explore ways "social and emotional learning" (SEL) and art education can enhance each other. Service-learning art projects were presented as one example, employing collaborate-and-create, asset-based methods integrated with SEL instruction. Advantages anticipated from combining these methods result…

Parents need to play an important role in early intervention services to have a significant effect on children's developmental and social-emotional well-being. With some exceptions, the field of early intervention has failed to engage parents as active and primary mediators of the developmental services their children receive. This failure is…

This compendium, a deliverable for "Assessments for Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning with Preschool/Elementary-School Children," focuses on tools to assess the social and emotional learning (SEL) of preschool and elementary school students (i.e., five- to ten-year-olds), along with aspects of the contexts in which they learn and…