The peer related social behavior of children contains both verbal and motoric components. While previous research has described the verbal social behavior of typical preschoolers, few researchers have specifically examined the motoric components of the peer related social behavior of typical preschoolers, and even less information is available concerning the motoric components of the social behavior of preschool-aged children with autism. The present study measured peer related social behavior in children with autism and typical children at four years old and at five years old. Both verbal (e.g., suggesting a play theme, answering a request) and motoric (e.g., sharing a toy, playing at a similar activity) social behaviors were measured. Several population differences and developmental trends were found. Typical children spent more time than did children with autism in peer related social behavior in general, and in particular in verbal social behaviors. However, for both populations of children, motoric behaviors occurred in a majority of the social intervals. The text presents specific patterns of verbal and motoric social behavior in both populations. The present study highlights the importance of motor behaviors, such as playing near other children at a similar activity, in the social development and social competence of preschool-aged children. These behaviors, while not necessarily initiating interactions, may serve an important role in setting the stage for interactions to occur, and allowing interactions to continue past the first initiation-response exchange. Thus, these behaviors impact on children's social acceptance, social competence, and social development. Differences between the two populations, and their implications for intervention and future research are also discussed.

Literacy as a process has been the object of study in different languages. Research has also been devoted to literacy development in bilingual settings both in native and second languages. Early bilingualism, has also been studied. However, the research in the area of biliteracy development, is scarce. This is the case study of a bilingual kindergarten child's journey through a year as she tries to accomplish biliteracy although formal literacy instruction was not provided in both languages. The data was gathered through participant observation at home, where Spanish was spoken, and at school, where English was the language of instruction. Informal and formal interviews where also used. Reading Miscue Inventories in English and Spanish were administered twice in the study. Parallels were found between the child's biliteracy development and the studies on literacy with monolingual children implying that literacy as a process is the same across and among languages. Through the process of constructing and reconstructing, through experimentation, creating and confirming hypotheses we observed the child's movement from nonstandard to standard spellings along with the exploration of different genres, styles and uses of writing. The child's strategies developed parallel across both languages, however where the languages differed, the strategies differed too. The child used decoding as an initial Spanish reading strategy because of an early exposure to a phonics approach to English reading, which she transferred to Spanish reading. When the child was exposed to other English reading strategies, she began to use these for Spanish reading. Finally, this study suggested that research findings in the area of bilingual language acquisition are congruent with the study of biliteracy development. Features such as language differentiation, influence of the environment over the language choice, audience sensitivity and the transfer of strategies from one language to another, are present in this study. The use of different theoretical approaches to literacy instruction, along with the need for maintenance programs of bilingual education where holistic theories of literacy instruction are exercised are educational practices recommended by this study.

The present work is an attempt to combine two traditions of communication study: referential communication approach and sociolinguistic approach. The purpose was to examine how children ages 5 and 7 years learn to give instructions to each other in a peer collaborative problem solving situation. In an effort to identify interaction patterns and possible developmental progressions, various coding and categorization schemes were developed to analyze the processes of: negotiation of themes, establishing a common perspective toward the task, co-constructing messages and shared names. A comparison was made between the children's development of spatial terms for a stationary referent and a moving referent. The analysis shows that 7-year-olds shared themes more actively, using explicit means, compared to 5-year-olds. The older children's instructions were more informative and made in the task-appropriate referential perspective. For the purpose of establishing shared names, the older children engaged themselves in the naming process less often because they used names that can be more easily shared. The development of spatial terms for a moving referent seems to lag behind the development of those for a stationary referent. The children gradually learned, across ages and sessions, to participate to maximize the team effectiveness. Finally, dynamic changes in instructional messages were analyzed using a mode of graphic representation.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur förskollärare arbetar språkfrämjande med barn som inte har svenska som modersmål. Vi ville genom denna studie ta reda på hur de arbetar med att främja barns språkutveckling i det svenska språket samt vilka metoder och verktyg de använder som stöd i arbetet. Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ ansats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem förskollärare. Teoretisk utgångspunkt är den sociokulturella teorin av Lev S Vygotskij där samspelet med omgivningen är avgörande för barns lärande och utveckling. Resultatet i studien visar enligt förskollärarna att språkliga aktiviteter såsom högläsning, sångstunder och lek är ledande i det språkutvecklande arbetet när det gäller att främja det svenska språket för barn som inte behärskar språket tillräckligt. Metoder och verktyg som förskollärarna främst använder sig av för att stödja barn i deras språkutveckling är digitala verktyg, bilder och TAKK vid kommunikation. Andra faktorer som visade sig vara betydelsefulla i resultatet är samverkan med föräldrarna och modersmålet.

This pilot study adds to the limited literature by examining various forms of dosage (i.e., absence rate; stability in years) within a quality early childhood center and its links to multiple criterion-referenced indicators of school readiness (i.e., gross motor, fine motor, pre-writing, cognitive, language, self-help, personal/social developmental). The sample included 46 children between the ages of 3 and 4-years-old primarily from middle to upper-middle socioeconomic backgrounds. Absence rates were determined via daily sign-in sheets, while stability was determined according to center records. Results indicate stability, not absence rate, as a statistically significant predictor of better performance on two school readiness domains, namely gross motor and personal/social development. This preliminary exploration gives implications to programs, parents, and teachers as it relates to best practices in attendance in early childhood.

Cross-sectional and geographical data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were combined with school-district level data from the Census Bureau’s F-33 Survey of Local Government. Use of this unique dataset, allows for the examination of the longterm effects of preschool participation while controlling for the quality of schooling encountered post-program. Former Head Start participants report better health status than individuals with no preschool experience or experience in preschools other than Head Start. Individuals who attended these other preschools outperformed the Head Start group when it came to high school graduation and overall educational attainment. No differences were detected in regard to the groups’ employment status and income. School quality did not appear to be a strong determinant of future success. Neither did it appear to explain the fadeout effect found in many other studies. Long-term effects did not vary much by Head Start region indicating that program quality is of similar quality across the nation. Some differences in benefits were found between rural and urban programs. Respondents who attended Head Start in urban and suburban areas report better health status than their rural peers. Individuals from rural areas were more likely to graduate from high school and have higher incomes than people from urban areas. Intergenerational benefits were also examined. Children whose mothers attended Head Start as a child are more likely to be eligible for the program than children whose mothers had no preschool experience. Among the eligible population, children of Head Start mothers are statistically more likely to actually attend the program than children whose mother did not attend Head Start.

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