Meeting basic needs: Health and safety practices in feeding and diapering infants

Summary Diapering and feeding are two vitally important routines in meeting basic needs of infants. Such routine times provide opportunities for enhancing infants' development through interaction with others. Feeding and diapering times are ideal for one-to-one interaction with infants. Caregivers are encouraged to speak directly with children, asking questions and responding to infant vocalizations with verbal and nonverbal (e.g., smile, head nod) communications. Adults can also label infant body parts as well as the items used in the process of feeding and diapering. Singing simple songs and reciting rhymes can also be incorporated into routine times. Early childhood professionals educating and caring for infants are encouraged to review the procedures used in diapering and feeding. Assessing whether procedures assure safe and healthy conditions for infants is an important component of quality care.     

Personal Storytelling as a Medium of Socialization in Chinese and American Families

The goal of this study was to determine how personal storytelling functions as a socializing practice within the family context in middle-class Taiwanese and middle-class European American families. The data consist of more than 200 naturally occurring stories in which the past experiences of the focal child, aged 2,6, were narrated. These stories were analyzed at 3 levels: content, function, and structure. Findings converged across these analytic levels, indicating that personal storytelling served overlapping yet distinct socializing functions in the 2 cultural cases. In keeping with the high value placed on didactic narrative within the Confucian tradition, Chinese families were more likely to use personal storytelling to convey moral and social standards. European American families did not treat stories of young children's past experiences as a didactic resource but instead employed stories as a medium of entertainment and affirmation. These findings suggest not only that personal storytelling operates as a routine socializing practice in widely different cultures but also that it is already functionally differentiated by 2,6.     

Little Women Out to Work: Women and the Marketplace in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Work

Much critical attention has focused on Alcott's representation of domesticity, and, given that her contribution to the nineteenth-century domestic ideal was the source of her fortune and continuing literary fame, this is hardly surprising. This attention to Alcott's portrayal of domesticity, however, has meant that her representation of working women has received relatively little consideration. Indeed, what is missing from many studies of Alcott's domestic novels is an acknowledgment that Alcott's image of domesticity is underpinned by her experience as a working woman. This article examines the foundations of Alcott's domestic ideal by focusing on the experiences of Alcott's working women in two of her most autobiographical novels.     

Effects of Spatial Scale on Cognitive Play in Preschool Children

This study examines the effects of a scale-reduced play environment on temporal aspects of play behavior. Specifically, it examines the amount of time required to enter complex forms of play, the length of play segments, and the percentage of total play time spent in complex play under normal environmental conditions (full-size, control) and under scale-reduced environmental conditions (experimental). Eleven subjects (mean age of 4 years 2 months) were observed during unstructured play activity with playdough in a small-n, A-B-A-B design. Subjects served as their own controls and were self-motivated relative to the activity. The play structure (scale-reduced environment) consisted of a screened wooden frame 7' (L) x 5' (W) x 5' (H) over a vinyl floor. Results indicate subjects enter complex forms of play more quickly, engage in play segments of longer duration and tend to spend a slightly greater percentage of their overall play time in complex play under experimental conditions, as hypothesized. This study suggests attention span and information processing may be affected by the scale of the play environment. : -.     

Learning through block play

Early childhood educators are greatly concerned about the value of classroom materials for young children's development. Blocks continue to be favored by many as a way of facilitating the developmental domains in children. In fact, blocks are considered the most useful and most used equipment in preschool and kindergarten programs. (Benish, 1978; Kinsmans & Berk, 1979). Variations in shapes, sizes, and weight foster learning experiences from infancy through early childhood.Janis R. Bullock is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.