Infant day care facilitates preschool social behavior

Seventy-one preschool-age children entering infant day care at varying times and receiving varying amounts of infant day care were compared on their reunion-with-parent behavior, teacher and parent ratings of their behavior, and playground play interactions. Age of entry into day care (≤ 6 months vs. > 6 months) had no significant effect on attachment to mother as measured by reunion behaviors or on play and socialization skills as measured by observation and behavior rating scales in a full-time day-care setting. Furthermore, children with more hours and months of day care engaged in less watching, solitary play, and teacher comfort-seeking behavior, and they showed more cooperative play, positive affect, peer interaction, and positive verbal interaction. Thus continuous infant day care in quality centers appears to facilitate preschool social behavior and does not negatively affect attachment behavior.     

Infant joint attention, temperament, and social competence in preschool children

Infant joint attention has been observed to be related to social-emotional outcomes in at-risk children. To address whether this relation is also evident in typically developing children, 52 children were tested at 12, 15, 24, and 30 months to examine associations between infant joint attention and social outcomes. Twelve-month initiating and responding to joint attention were related to 30-month social competence and externalizing behavior, even when accounting for 15-month temperament ratings, 24-month cognition and language, and demographic variables. These results suggest that, in addition to associations with language and cognition, infant joint attention reflects robust aspects of development that are related to individual differences in the emergence of social and behavioral competence in childhood.     

幼儿体操训练与家长心态调查

通过对家长送孩子参加幼儿体操训练的动机获取体操训练点信息的途径和对训练与学习之间的态度，以及对教练员的评判标准进行了问卷调查分析，探讨了幼儿体操训练在训练点信息的传括，训练内容的调整和教练员与学校，家长合作等问题。     

从国外发展学前补偿教育项目的经验看我国农村学前教育的发展

美国和印度两国发展学前补偿教育项目的经验可以主要概括为:积极认识学前教育在个体和社会发展中的价值和意义;以法律法规的形式确立学前教育的性质和地位;政府加强对学前补偿教育项目的管理,促进学前教育有序发展;政府不断扩大对学前补偿教育的财政支持,着力保障学前教育公平;提高参与学前补偿教育项目工作人员的素质和待遇,保障学前教育的质量。这些经验对于我国处于弱势地位的农村学前教育的发展具有重要的借鉴和启发意义。     

Birthday effects and preschool attendance

Young-for-grade students have been shown to receive lower grades and have a higher likelihood of retention compared to their oldest peers upon kindergarten entry. Our study of 1474 economically disadvantaged first-time kindergarteners investigates if preschool attendance may ameliorate some of the risks potentially associated with being young-for-grade. Using the state-mandated age cutoff date, we establish four groups of students based on age (oldest/youngest in the cohort) and preschool experience (attended preschool/did not attend preschool) and use multilevel linear and logistic regression models in analyzing early literacy scores as well as the likelihood of being retained. Our findings show that while preschool attendance is associated with higher emergent literacy performance, young students still experience higher retention risks compared to their older peers, regardless of preschool attendance and controlling for end-of-year literacy scores.     

传统道德与幼儿教育--兼论《三字经》的幼教思想

文章从教宜早，教有方，重环境，重身教，重教育五个方面，阐述了中国传统道德在幼儿教育中的非常作用。同时，兼论了《三字经》中的幼儿教育思想。     

Infant Neurosensory Development: Considerations for Infant Child Care

Infant brain development is a dynamic process dependent upon endogenous and exogenous stimulation and a supportive environment. A critical period of brain and neurosensory development occurs during the third trimester and into the “fourth” trimester (first three months of life). Disruption, damage, or deprivation in the infant’s social and physical environment can create permanent deficits in the developing neurosensory systems. Implications for infant child care environments are discussed, and a review of quality and standards in infant child care environments leads to a call for improvements to optimize child development.     

幼儿教育新的价值取向：幼儿教育与生活的融合

一、教育和生活的关系一个人一出生，就在这个世界上生活，从他的诞生、发展、成熟、延续直至死亡是一个生长的过程，是一个人生活历程的全部内容。当然生活并不仅仅是生理学意义上的，并不仅仅是指人的生命的内在潜能自然展开的过程，而且还包括人的知识、能力、个性，直至整个精神世界经验的过程。因此生活对于个体来说就可简化为被经验到的一切，个体的生活获得各种经验。而这种经验的增长、组织、更新就是广义的教育。因此教育离不开生活。杜威曾说“教育应当是生活本身，而不是生活的准备”。在杜威看来，教育并不是强制儿童静坐听讲和…     

高职学前教育专业(双语幼教方向)课程设置的研究综述

高职学前教育专业(双语幼教方向)作为学前教育专业的一个衍生专业,符合当前我国社会的需求,但是由于存在的时间短,相关的课程设置的研究并不是很多。通过研究我国目前高职学前教育专业课程设置的现状,通过分析高职的学前教育专业课程、课程结构、以及学前双语教育专业课程设置,试图探析高职学前教育专业在课程设置方面存在的问题,为高职学前教育专业(双语幼教方向)课程设置提供合理性建议。     

Security of attachment and preschool friendships

Attachment theory proposes that the quality of the mother-child tie predicts the quality of a child's other close relationships. The purpose of this study was to test whether security of attachment to mother is related to the quality of a preschooler's best friendships. 33 4-year-old and their best friends participated (mean age = 46 months). Attachment Q-set data were collected to score security of mother-child attachment. Security data were used to classify the friend pairs as secure-secure or secure-insecure. Best friend dyads were observed for a 1-hour free-play session. Each pair's behavior was described with the Dyadic Relationships Q-set, a measure designed to describe the behavior of a pair of children. Secure-secure pairs were more harmonious, less controlling, more responsive, and happier than secure-insecure pairs. The results are related to previous work on attachment and social competence.     

Signal properties of reinforcement and reinforcement omission on a multiple fixed-ratio schedule

A series of experiments used food-deprived pigeons to examine several parameters of reinforcement omission in an attempt to control changes of keypeck response measures on a subsequent schedule. In Experiments 1 and 2, the pigeons were tested with a multiple fixed-ratio schedule on which reinforcement was occasionally omitted at the completion of the first component. The duration of the delay occurring in lieu of reinforcement was systematically varied. In Experiment 3, the stimulus that signaled the second component of the schedule was altered to appear either more or less similar to the stimulus that signaled the first component. Two principal results are reported: (1) Response latency decreased and, to a much lesser extent, terminal response rate increased as the delay occurring in lieu of reinforcement decreased; and (2) both latency decrease and response-rate increase were enhanced by a second component stimulus which was similar to the first. The results are evaluated in terms of Amsel’s frustration theory and an analysis by Staddon which suggests that reinforcement inhibits responding. The data appear to support Staddon’s argument that rate increases and latency decreases following reinforcement omission are largely a function of an attenuation of the inhibitory influence of reinforcement, an effect that is enhanced by stimulus generalization. Accordingly, it is proposed that an animal’s response to reinforcement omission is determined by a stimulus complex that minimally includes the omission event and component cues.     

外国学前教育引进与20世纪下半期中国学前教育变革

20世纪后半期,随着中华人民共和国的成立,中国学前教育制度及其思想发生了巨大转变。这一时期学前教育制度的变革和外国学前教育的引进与20世纪前半期有着不同的特点。今天,我国仍然需要借鉴国外先进科学的学前教育制度及其理论来改造我国相对落后的学前教育制度及其理论。如何引进并借鉴外国学前教育的先进经验和模式,推进我国学前教育制度及其理论的变革与创新,仍然是摆在国人面前的重要课题。