Early Child Contingency Learning and Detection: Research Evidence and Implications for Practice

The types of contingency experiences infants and young children are typically exposed to are examined with a focus on the implications for early childhood intervention with young children who have developmental disabilities and delays. Studies of response-contingent child learning, the manner in which contingencies are not under direct child control, and child/caregiver reciprocal contingencies, are reviewed in terms of how they influence child learning and development. Results indicate that the different types of contingencies all positively influence child behavior. Implications for practice are described in terms of contingency-rich everyday child learning activities, child response-contingent learning in the context of those activities, and caregiver contingent responsiveness as an instructional strategy for supporting child contingency learning.     

Tolerating intolerance? Parental choice and race relations ‐ the Cleveland case

In 1987, Cleveland Local Education Authority (LEA) allowed a child to transfer schools to one where the vast majority of children were white. Four years later, a High Court judge ruled that the LEA was correct to do so. His judgement made it clear that the 1976 Race Relations Act did not govern the 1980 provisions for parental choice of school. This paper looks at the implications of this case. After detailing the events leading up to and including the judicial review, it examines first, the legislative framework for parental choice of schools and its place in Conservative Party education policy, and second, it explores the history of school admissions in racial terms. Following this, three themes arising from the Cleveland case are highlighted: the increased levels of juridification affecting education, the deracializing of the debate on school organization and curriculum, and the roles of individual parents and the state in educating children. The paper concludes by focusing on the need for more participative structures within the education system. These changes would help to ensure that moves towards a segregated educational system do not occur by default, but that the matter is fully and publicly debated.