Through document analysis, one-on-one interviews with parents, and observations the researcher aimed to explore early intervention in pre-school children with learning difficulties in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The researcher set out to determine whether parents were aware of the importance of early intervention in addressing learning difficulties in their children, what support existed to help parents give support to children with learning difficulties, and how support could be improved to enable parents to help their children. This study found that parents in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape needed support that would enable them to provide early intervention for their children with learning difficulties. The study also showed that parents were aware of the importance of early intervention to help their children with learning difficulties. Most parents were receiving support, but there was room for improvement in the support that they were receiving. Flowing from this, the study also found that parents needed different forms of support, e.g. emotional and financial support. Based on the findings, recommendations were made. Recommendations were aimed at improving support for parents, so they can provide successful early intervention for their pre-school children, e. g. through the creation of open channels of communication between parents and other role players, like government departments and service providers. Recommendations were also made for future research, e. g. research into ways to create open channels of communication. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

The study was carried out to investigate the implementation of the Malawian ECD policy in CBCCC in Namatubi Kanyenjere area. Both primary and secondary techniques were used to carry out the research. Literature review was carried out to ascertain the evolvement of ECD over the years and establish the basis of the current policy. Interviews were carried out with three respondent groups namely CBCCC committees, care givers and government officials. This was done to assess perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of the ECD policy among communities as well as the roles played by different stakeholders in the policy implementation. Over 90% of the CBCCC in Chitipa were initiated by communities and duly registered by the government. However there is little monitoring thereof by the government officials which dwindles the activities of the centres. Communities, stakeholders and government face various challenges that require concerted efforts to help improve the implementation of the ECD policy. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

The study contributed to preschool education by highlighting the attitudes and perceptions of parents and preschool teachers and practitioners concerning preschool education in general, and the teaching of thinking skills in particular. Furthermore, information with regard to developing guidelines for a preschool learning programme to assist unqualified and underqualified preschool practitioners in predominantly rural areas was generated. The literature study revealed that all areas of development, that is, cognitive, physical, social, moral and emotional are interrelated. Therefore, development in cognition is influenced by, and influences the other areas. Cognitive development in particular, is most rapid during the preschool years and should be stimulated at this stage. A qualitative study was undertaken to determine the attitudes and perceptions of preschool teachers/practitioners and parents with regard to preschool education in general, and the teaching of thinking skills to enhance cognitive development in particular. Four preschools in Region 3 of the Northern Province were observed to investigate the teaching of thinking skills and also the learning programmes used in these institutions. The findings from the literature and research studies led to the following conclusions: * Parents are uninformed concerning their role in stimulating the cognitive development of their children. * Preschool education is regarded as being very important for children. * There are no prescribed learning programmes or explicitly stated guidelines underlying preschool education. * Thinking skills are taught to a greater or lesser extent in preschools, although the intentional mediation is missing. *The training of preschool practitioners is a neglected area. In view of the conclusions, the following recommendations were made: * Underqualified and unqualified preschool practitioners should receive training. * Partnership between parents and preschool practitioners should be encouraged to ensure continuity between the home and the preschool. * Parents' support programmes should be developed to empower them as their children's most significant mediators. * Thinking skills should be infused in preschool learning programmes and activities. * Remote, rural areas should be supported by the goverment and NGOs with the provision of preschool education. * Prescribed guidelines and learning programmes should be developed to assist unqualified and underqualified practitioners in rural and disadvantaged areas in the Northern Province. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

The study focussed on determining whether there were any distinguishing characteristics that comprised the background of the gifted Indian pre-school child. The paucity of literature on the Indian pre-school child forced the researcher to rely on international studies. The theoretical composition of the study reviewed personality and normative development, as well as cognitive development of the gifted pre-school child. Family background and stimulatory activities that parents engaged children in, were also explored. The empirical investigation combined the use of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Initially, parents, teachers and peers were responsible for selecting the research sample. The sample of eighty-three children was subjected to the administration of the JSAIS. Of this twentyfive were selected in order for the questionnaire to be administered to their parents. Results of the questionnaire indicated that parents undertook to stimulate their children by engaging them in activities that they were of the opinion would promote their intellectual development. The results of the questionnaire were corroborated by interviews that were conducted with six of the parents. Relevant excerpts from five of the interviews are presented as well as a full interview with one of the parents. The results reveal that parents continuously strive to stimulate their children so that they can ensure that the potential that they believe their children possess can be actualised. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The Thai government has strongly advocated for the learner-centered education for the past decade. Success For Life Thailand (SFLT), a brain-research-based early childhood education program blended with the theories of the developmentally appropriate practices and child-centered philosophies, has been implemented in Thailand for over 8 years. The purposes of the present study were to: (a) describe the current statuses of the Thai early childhood educators' learner-centered beliefs and practices, (b) identify if the SFLT training workshop affects teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices, and (c) examine if other variables, along with familiarity with the SFLT program, predict teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices. Ninety-three preschool and kindergarten teachers participated in the study. Among them, 17 were SFLT trainees in 1999 and 2000 (i.e., the previously trained group), 43 were trained in Year 2006 (the currently trained group), and the others were comparable to the currently trained group by matching the key personal and school variables. The Teachers Beliefs and Practices Survey: 3-5 Year Olds (Burts et al., 2000) and the Learner-Centered Education: the Assessment of Learner- Centered (ALCP) for K-3 (McCombs, 2001) were used to collect data on the various domains of the learner-centered beliefs and practices. Findings reveal that: (a) Thai teachers highly endorse learner-centered beliefs, (b) Thai educators demonstrate relatively low levels of developmentally appropriate practices and high levels of developmentally inappropriate practices (DIP) in comparing with the American early childhood educators, (c) the previously trained SFLT teachers score higher on the DAP domains and lower on the DIP domains than the other two groups, and (d) familiarity with the SFLT program, along with teacher's education level, years of teaching experience, and the total number of students in the classroom do not predict variations on the different domains of the DAP and learner-centered learning questionnaires. Future studies need to use indigenous measurement instruments appropriate to Thai education to evaluate the impacts of the SLFT program on teachers' learner-centered beliefs and practices when more trainees become available, and possibly to include other teacher, student, and school variables.

This needs assessment research project concerns itself with the lack of parental involvement in preschool programs. The lack of communication between educators and parents is examined in relation to its effects on the child and the community. One possible way to begin to solve this problem is presented through the use of a survey questionnaire for parents and teachers concerning what each group feels are the primary considerations, or needs, for quality preschool educational programs. The considerations surveyed resulted from an in depth review of the literature pertaining to major early childhood concerns. This research examined five areas of review; the relationship of parents to preschools, the background of early childhood education and philosophies, the curriculum objectives in the affective domain, the curriculum objectives in the cognitive domain, and the curriculum objectives in the psychomotor domain. The resulting questionnaires consisted of twelve questions with three different types of responses. Three hundred parental questionnaires were distributed to four private nursery-kindergarten schools in a middle to upper-middle class section of a large Southern city. Fifty teachers, half who taught in the same schools surveyed and half who taught in the same area of the city, were surveyed. The resulting responses were tabulated individually and percentages totaled for each response. A large percentage of the parents--55.3%-- and all the teachers responded to the questionnaire. Both groups were in agreement on most of the questions. The parents expressed the same basic concerns for their children's preschool education as did the teachers themselves. Parental apathy, misplaced values, and ignorance were ruled out as possible reasons for their lack of involvement. Instead, the major cause for lack of parental involvement in preschool programs was determined to be a feeling of intimidation on the part of the parents. In order to remedy this situation, it is suggested that the educators involved need to be the ones to actively structure parental involvement in their educational programs. Several suggestions for this structuring are presented in the conclusions section of this project.

5 DIPLOMA THESIS SUMMARY This diploma thesis deals with the realation of reading and the creation of values. It confirms reading as educational value, as well as reading as means of education towards values in contemporary Kindergarten. In the theoretical part there are at first defined general terms such as value and education. Following these are described in context with kindergarten, preschool child, his needs and his family. The thesis deals with reading as such. There are clarified different aspects that influence the development of reading and its eduvational value. It is the action of educators and their relationship to books, as well as fairy tale itself, which enormously influence the relationship to the values and their subsequent formation. Similarly, the actual illustrations in books and, on the contrary, today's media such as television or the Internet, which may have negative influence, if used incorrectly. The practical part describes the conduct of investigation that focused on actual reading. The investigation was based on two questionnaires. One was addresed to the Kindergartens" teachers, the other one to the parents of preschool children. The questionnaire for teachers delt with the question how Kindergartens work with the books, whether the children have free access to books and...

Instututional education of preschool children is based on individual attitude of the educators at nursery schools. Education of children with special needs is for that reason just siutable at nursery schools where these children can be naturally developed in the group of the same-age children and also the attitudes and values to the dissimilarity of another children are developed alongside. The theoretical part first of all deals with the qestion of the preschool education. Than it concentrates on child with special needs, its family and education. The next specific part describes Autism Spectrum Disorders in detail and the supporting educational aspects of children with autism. The last part deals with the integration problems of children with special needs. The practical part presents the results in sphere attitudes of preschools children's parents to the individual integration of children to common nursery schools and also presents one of the successful examples of individual integration of the child with autism to the common nursery school.