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Purpose: Intervention provided to school-age children with developmental language disorder often relies on the provision of performance feedback, yet it is unclear whether children with this disorder benefit from feedback-based learning. The study evaluates the effect of performance feedback on learning in children with developmental language disorder. Method: Thirteen 8- to 12-year-old children with developmental language disorder and 14 age- and gender-matched children with typical language development completed two learning tasks whose objective was to pair nonword novel names with novel objects. The two tasks differed in the presence of performance feedback to guide learning. Learning outcomes on immediate and follow-up tests were compared between the feedback-based and feedback-free tasks. Additionally, an electrophysiological marker of feedback processing was compared between children with and without developmental language disorder. Results: Children with developmental language disorder demonstrated poorer learning outcomes on both tasks when compared with their peers, but both groups achieved better accuracy on the feedback-free task when compared with the feedback-based task. Within the feedback-based task, children were more likely to repeat a correct response than to change it after positive feedback but were as likely to repeat an error as they were to correct it after receiving negative feedback. While children with typical language elicited a feedback-related negativity with greater amplitude to negative feedback, this event-related potential had no amplitude differences between positive and negative feedback in children with developmental language disorder. Conclusions: Findings indicate that 8- to 12-year-old children benefit more from a feedback-free learning environment and that negative feedback is not as effective as positive feedback in facilitating learning in children. The behavioral and electrophysiological data provide evidence that feedback processing is impaired in children with developmental language disorders. Future research should evaluate feedback-based learning in children with this disorder using other learning paradigms., Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a prevalent DLD affecting approximately 7% of kindergarten children in the United States (Tomblin et al., 1997). The disorder, which is characterized by a delay [...]

Purpose: This study investigated Icelandic-speaking children's acquisition of singleton consonants and consonant clusters. Method: Participants were 437 typically developing children aged 2;6-7;11 (years;months) acquiring Icelandic as their first language. Single-word speech samples of the 47 single consonants and 45 consonant clusters were collected using Malhljodaprof PM (PM's Test of Speech Sound Disorders). Results: Percentage of consonants correct for children aged 2;6-2;11 was 73.12 (SD = 13.33) and increased to 98.55 (SD = 3.24) for children aged 7;0-7;11. Overall, singleton consonants were more likely to be accurate than consonant clusters. The earliest consonants to be acquired were /m, n, p, t, j, h/ in word-initial position and /f, l/ within words. The last consonants to be acquired were /x, r, r, s, [theta], n/, and consonant clusters in word-initial /sv-, stl-, str-, skr-, [theta]r-/, within-word /-dr-, -tl-/, and word-final /-kl, -xt/ contexts. Within-word phonemes were more often accurate than those in word-initial position, with word-final position the least accurate. Accuracy of production was significantly related to increasing age, but not sex. Conclusions: This is the first comprehensive study of consonants and consonant cluster acquisition by typically developing Icelandic-speaking children. The findings align with trends for other Germanic languages; however, there are notable language-specific differences of clinical importance., The ability to produce consonants clearly and correctly is a key component of developing intelligible speech and one of the primary markers of speech acquisition. A knowledge of the milestones [...]

Conversational repairs are an important pragmatic language skill. We identified types of responses to requests for clarification and their frequencies in typically developing 4;0-6;0-year-old Jordanian children. This study was motivated [...]

Many educators (Cohen, 2006, 2007; Jones, 2004; Stevens & Charles, 2005) believe that teaching tolerance is a pedagogical imperative, while others relegate children's moral development to the purview of parents. [...]

This study into observational learning of social reasoning from narrative characters tested the effects of interactivity on cognitive empathy. The study took place in three fourth grade classrooms, using convenience sampling and cluster assignment. The study compared print and hypertext versions of two illustrated stories using a between-subjects, posttest-only control group design. Perspective taking and fantasy identification were measured through questionnaires, and two intrapersonal empathy outcomes were measured through writing prompts. Interactivity was found to negatively affect fantasy identification and intrapersonal empathy. Thus for a reader positioned outside of a story, perceived agency may reduce identification with characters and therefore reduce their effectiveness as social models. These findings may inform the design of media to support observational learning of social reasoning., PURPOSE Practically all learning that results from direct experience can also occur vicariously through observation of others, including learning cognitive competencies such as social reasoning, or understanding social rules and [...]

The call for accountability in U.S. schools is gaining intensity. The emergence of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the high dropout rate, and media reports of declining test scores fuel [...]

In this study, the authors examined the extent to which children's self-regulation upon kindergarten entrance and classroom quality in kindergarten contributed to children's adaptive classroom behavior. Children's self-regulation was assessed using a direct assessment upon entrance into kindergarten. Classroom quality was measured on the basis of multiple classroom observations during the kindergarten year. Children's adaptive classroom behavior in kindergarten was assessed through teacher report and classroom observations: Teachers rated children's cognitive and behavioral self-control and work habits during the spring of the kindergarten year: observers rated children's engagement and measured off-task behavior at 2-month intervals from November to May. Hierarchical linear models revealed that children's self-regulation upon school entry in a direct assessment related to teachers' report of behavioral self-control, cognitive self-control, and work habits in the spring of the kindergarten year. Classroom quality, particularly teachers' effective classroom management, was linked to children's greater behavioral and cognitive self-control, children's higher behavioral engagement, and less time spent off-task in the classroom. Classroom quality did not moderate the relation between children's self-regulation upon school entry and children's adaptive classroom behaviors in kindergarten. The discussion considers the implications of classroom management for supporting children's early development of behavioral skills that are important in school settings. Keywords: adaptive classroom behavior, classroom quality, self-regulation, self-control, engagement

Byline: Stephen A. Hockema; Linda B. Smith Abstract Children learn how to learn language, and they get better as they go along. This article presents an overview of research inspired by a dynamic systems view of language learning that shows it to be a self-organizing process in which children create the units they need from the regularities present in the environment in which they are situated. Article History: Date received: May 13, 2005 Date revision received: March 19, 2008

Byline: Heike Behrens Abstract It was long considered to be impossible to learn grammar based on linguistic experience alone. In the past decade, however, advances in usage-based linguistic theory, computational linguistics, and developmental psychology changed the view on this matter. So-called usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition state that language can be learned from language use itself, by means of social skills like joint attention, and by means of powerful generalization mechanisms. This paper first summarizes the assumptions regarding the nature of linguistic representations and processing. Usage-based theories are nonmodular and nonreductionist, i.e., they emphasize the form-function relationships, and deal with all of language, not just selected levels of representations. Furthermore, storage and processing is considered to be analytic as well as holistic, such that there is a continuum between children's unanalyzed chunks and abstract units found in adult language. In the second part, the empirical evidence is reviewed. Children's linguistic competence is shown to be limited initially, and it is demonstrated how children can generalize knowledge based on direct and indirect positive evidence. It is argued that with these general learning mechanisms, the usage-based paradigm can be extended to multilingual language situations and to language acquisition under special circumstances. Article History: Date received: May 25, 2005 Date revision received: May 02, 2007

The purpose of this study was to determine whether food consumed by children while in center-based child care meets the new MyPyramid food group recommendations for children 2 to 5 years of age. Dietary observation of 117 children from 20 child-care centers throughout North Carolina was conducted. The type and amount of food served to and consumed by children was observed and assessed using Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R) software (version 2005, Nutrition Coordinating Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). Portion sizes were then compared to the new MyPyramid food group recommendations to see whether 1/2 to 2/3 (for time spent in full-day child care) of the recommended amounts were consumed. On average, of the five main food groups, children consumed only the 1/2 to 2/3 recommendation for milk. Children also consumed less than 13% of MyPyramid recommendations for whole grains and 7% of MyPyramid recommendations for dark vegetables. Also noteworthy, 50% of milk consumed was whole milk and 75% of the meat consumed was of the high-fat or fried variety. Overall, our data suggest that children are not consuming recommended amounts of whole grains, fruits (excluding 100% fruit juice), or vegetables while attending full-time child care, and are consuming excess amounts of saturated fat and added sugar. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2008.01.014

There are both public health and food industry initiatives aimed at increasing breakfast consumption among children, particularly the consumption of ready-to-eat cereals. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were identifiable differences in nutritional quality between cereals that are primarily marketed to children and cereals that are not marketed to children. Of the 161 cereals identified between January and February 2006, 46% were classified as being marketed to children (eg, packaging contained a licensed character or contained an activity directed at children). Multivariate analyses of variance were used to compare children's cereals and nonchildren's cereals with respect to their nutritional content, focusing on nutrients required to be reported on the Nutrition Facts panel (including energy). Compared to nonchildren's cereals, children's cereals were denser in energy, sugar, and sodium, but were less dense in fiber and protein. The proportion of children's and nonchildren's cereals that did and did not meet national nutritional guidelines for foods served in schools were compared using [[chi].sup.2] analysis. The majority of children's cereals (66%) failed to meet national nutrition standards, particularly with respect to sugar content, t tests were used to compare the nutritional quality of children's cereals with nutrient-content claims and health claims to those without such claims. Although the specific claims were generally justified by the nutritional content of the product, there were few differences with respect to the overall nutrition profile. Overall, there were important differences in nutritional quality between children's cereals and nonchildren's cereals. Dietary advice for children to increase consumption of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals should identify and recommend those cereals with the best nutrient profiles.

The study purpose was to examine parental perceptions of the mealtime environment in families with school-aged children and identify strategies to improve the dietary quality of meals. Cross-sectional surveys were completed by a convenience sample of 107 parents (86% mothers, 14% fathers) of 8- to 10-year-old children who were recruited from afterschool child care programs/elementary schools. SAS (version 9.1) was used to produce descriptive frequencies of parental reports of positive and negative perceptions of mealtime. Parents reported frequent family meals; however, they indicated that family dinners were eaten at full-service restaurants, purchased from fast-food establishments, or picked up as takeout foods at least weekly (47.05, 28.3%, and 23.8%, respectively). Conflicts about food were problematic for some families (40.2% on at least some days), and appeared to be related to children's food pickiness. Parents reported many benefits of family meals, including time for conversation, feelings of togetherness, shared nutrition, and ceremony. Areas where parents desired change included assistance with meal planning, food preparation, and clean-up; spending more time at meals; assistance with children's food pickiness; new recipes and meal ideas; and decreasing conflict at mealtimes. Findings suggest that interventions to increase family meal frequency and promote healthful foods at mealtimes should address promoting food acceptance among children, sharing responsibilities among parents and children for meal planning and preparation, decreasing conflict at meals, and eating out healthfully. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2008.01.005

This paper examines the provision of distance education to young people studying from their isolated properties in remote areas of Australia. While Australia's innovative approach to remote education is well established, this paper challenges the gender and structural assumptions underpinning this approach. A sustained period of rural restructuring and a long period of drought have changed the social relations of agriculture in a number of significant ways that ultimately undermine distance education as it is currently constructed. The assumption that mothers are available to provide home tutoring is no longer valid given the pressures on them to work on properties due to staff cutbacks and off properties to earn additional income. Further, the trend for farm family properties to be amalgamated into larger holdings and for these holdings to be run by farm workers also undermines the assumption that parents are willing, able and resourced to home tutor their children for long periods. This paper raises significant questions about the adequacy of current distance education provisions in remote areas. Keywords: remote education, gender, drought, rural restructuring, Education for Isolated Children: Challenging Gendered and Structural Assumptions Australia has provided international leadership in the provision of education to young people living in remote areas (Queensland Government Education Queensland [...]

BACKGROUND: Characterization of the epigenome is a primary interest for children's en-vironmental health researchers studying the envvironmental influences on human populations, particularly those studying the role of pregnancy and early-life exposures on later-in-life health outcomes. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to consider the state of the science in envvironmental epigenetics research and to focus on DNA methylation and the collective observations of many studies being conducted within the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers, as they relate to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis. METHODS: We address the current laboratory and statistical tools available for epigenetic analyses, discuss methods for validation and interpretation of findings, particularly when magnitudes of effect are small, question the functional relevance of findings, and discuss the future for environmental epigenetics research. DISCUSSION: A common finding in environmental epigenetic studies is the small-magnitude epigenetic effect sizes that result from such exposures. Although it is reasonable and necessary that we question the relevance of such small effects, we present examples in which small effects persist and have been replicated across populations and across time. We encourage a critical discourse on the interpretation of such small changes and further research on their functional relevance for children's health. CONCLUSION: The dynamic nature of the epigenome will require an emphasis on future longitudinal studies in which the epigenome is profiled over time, over changing environmental exposures, and over generations to better understand the multiple ways in which the epigenome may respond to environmental stimuli., Introduction Epigenetics is defined as the mechanisms by which mitotically heritable perpetuation of gene activity occurs without modification of the underlying gene sequence. The most commonly studied epigenetic mechanisms are [...]

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. Keywords: school readiness, socioemotional behaviors, attention, early academic skills

The impact of parental education and family size on childrens' interest in schooling and later earnings.

This pilot study examined the influence of participation in a 6 week bimanual coordination program on Grade 5 students' reading achievement. Twenty Grade 5 students participated in a bimanual activity (sport stacking) and were tested whether reading achievement scores were significantly different from the scores for 21 control students. The experimental group consisted of 20 students (11 boys, 9 girls) from one intact classroom cohort; the control group consisted of 21 students (12 boys, 9 girls) from one intact classroom cohort. Students in both groups ranged in age from 10 to 11 years. The intact classroom cohorts were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Reading achievement was measured by differences in pre-and posttest scores from the GMRT-4 Decoding and Comprehension skill subtests. Group by sex analyses of covariance, using pretest scores as covariates, indicated that there were no significant differences by group or sex for decoding skills. A significant increase was found for the experimental group on Comprehension skills. Therefore, participation in a bimanual coordination program, using sport stacking as the activity, may improve Grade 5 students' reading comprehension skills, regardless of sex.

773 children (359 girls, 414 boys) of two age groups, 10 years and 14 years, completed a questionnaire about subjective experiences of home and school. Children who reported getting along well with their parents and finding it easy to communicate with them also reported being more satisfied with themselves, enjoying school more, feeling less lonely, being less bullied by others, and also bullying others less. Boys reported bullying more than girls and more satisfaction with themselves than girls. Girls reported enjoying school more, feeling lonelier, sometimes having trouble falling asleep, and having headaches more often than boys. Girls at age 14 reported experiencing a prominent increase in headaches and parental complaints about their eating habits.

This paper investigates how and when differences in work behaviour between men and women develop, focusing on the evolution of the gender gaps over the period of family development. The findings support the theory that gender differences in the formal labour market stem from the presence of children in the home and that childbirth and children entering school are critical times in women's employment. Births mark a dramatic decline in participation in work for women, while school entry is a time of considerable turnover in participation. The length of absence from work following a subsequent birth is closely related to whether the mother was in work between births, while maternity pay and leave entitlements appear to influence the precise timing of the return to work. In addition, a return to work following birth is often only temporary. The gradual decline in women's relative wages following the first birth appears to stem from the accumulation of several shorter periods of unusually low wage growth for women around the times of birth and school entry. There is also a sharp movement into part-time work for women following childbirth and a transition towards non-permanent positions and non-supervisory roles at both critical points.

Prosodic, or expressive, reading is considered to be one of the essential features of the achievement of reading fluency. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) the degree to which the prosody of syntactically complex sentences varied as a function of reading speed and accuracy and (b) the role that reading prosody might play in mediating individual differences in comprehension. Spectrographic analysis of 80 third graders' and 29 adults' reading of a syntactically complex text was carried out. Oral reading skill was measured through standardized assessments. Pitch changes (changes in fundamental frequency) and pause duration were measured for sentence-final words of basic declarative sentences, basic declarative quotatives, wh questions, and yes--no questions; words preceding commas in complex adjectival phrases; and words preceding phrase-final commas. Children who had quick and accurate oral reading had shorter and more adultlike pause structures, larger pitch declinations at the end of basic declarative sentences, and larger pitch rises at the end of yes--no questions. Furthermore, children who showed larger basic declarative sentence declinations and larger pitch rises following yes--no questions tended to demonstrate greater reading comprehension skills. Keywords: prosody, comprehension, oral reading, fluency, punctuation

This article summarizes literature about paraprofessionals who assist children or families in the areas of mental health, education, or early childhood education, and focuses on three main questions: How effective are paraprofessionals?; what are the common and appropriate roles and responsibilities of paraprofessionals?; and what qualifications, training, and supervision are needed for paraprofessionals? Implications are inferred for a burgeoning new form of paraprofessional services: attendant care in community based mental health services for children. Lessons from existing literature can help mental health administrators and clinical supervisors at state and local levels to select, train, supervise, and evaluate attendant care workers. KEY WORDS: paraprofessionals; attendant care; community mental health; children and adolescents.

The usage of housing vouchers in neighborhoods and its effects on children's educational achievements is discussed.

Moving during childhood has typically been found to have negative effects on educational attainment. The loss of important social relationships is likely the cause. Many studies that examine the effect of residential mobility on education take a relatively short-term view by only looking at the effect for those no older than their late teens or early 20s. However, because many family moves are beneficial to children, in terms of improving their neighborhood or home environment, it is possible that the positive effects of family mobility do not appear until much later. I examine the effect of childhood residential mobility on educational attainment using the 1986 Canadian General Social Survey for individuals aged 25 and over. Results suggest that over the long run, residential mobility in childhood is beneficial for later educational attainment in that those who move between birth and age 15 are more likely to eventually graduate from high school than those who remain in the same community.

The interrelation between parent income levels and child education is analyzed by focusing on Sweden's immigrant communities.

The relation of low birthweight, an indicator of adverse perinatal events and social disadvantage to IQ changes during the period of school attendance were examined by generalized estimating equations. The low birthweight deficit was found to be constant across social environments, the social disadvantage deficit was uniform across birthweight groups and initial IQ deficits associated with urban environment increased significantly from age 6 to 11, but no further by age 17.

Computers can never be a replacement for books since teaching children through the use of PCs and the Internet has contributed to the psychological and cognitive difficulties of students because printouts do not draw one into the mood of the work. However, the contents of a book are deeply imprinted on memory because the material contact with books inspires corresponding mind-pictures that imprints the images more richly in memory.

The 2005 International Focus issue of Childhood Education focused on the education of aboriginal and indigenous children. Guest Editor Jyotsna Pattnaik located too many excellent articles on that important topic […]

Military deployments and job assignments provide an opportunity to estimate the impact of parental absences and household relocations on children's academic achievement. Combining U.S. Army personnel data with children's standardized test scores from Texas, I find that parental absences adversely affect children's test scores by a tenth of a standard deviation. Likewise, household relocations have modest negative effects on children's test scores. Both parental absences and household relocations have the greatest detrimental effect on test scores of children with single parents, children with mothers in the army, children with lower-ability parents, and younger children.

When economists use the phrase 'human capital' it generally means 'education.' But one's health can also be viewed as a form of capital. Both education and health are strongly influenced [...]

Abstract. Researchers conducted focus groups in three Minnesota Head Start programs that provide full-day services. The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand how these programs operated, the strengths […]

Effects of women's education on their children's education with relation to education policies are presented.

We evaluate the effects of undergoing any early education (before the compulsory starting age of 5) and of pre-school on a cohort of British children born in 1958. In contrast to most available studies, we are able to assess whether any effects on cognition and socialisation are long-lasting, as well as to estimate their net impact on subsequent educational attainment and labour market performance. Controlling for a particularly rich set of child, parental, family and neighbourhood characteristics, we find some positive and long-lasting effects from early education. Specifically, pre-compulsory education (pre-school of school entry prior to age 5) was found to yield large improvements in cognitive tests at age 7, which, though diminished in size, remained significant throughout the schooling years, up to age 16. By contrast, attendance of pre-school (nursery or playgroup) was found to yield a positive but short-lived impact on test scores. The effects on socialisation appear to be more mixed' we found some positive, though short-lasting, effects of pre-compulsory education on teachers' reports of social adjustment (only at age 7); on the other hand, we found some adverse behavioural effects according to parental reports at age 7 which persisted up to age 11. In adulthood, pre-compulsory education was found to increase the probabilities of obtaining qualifications and of being employed at age 33. For both pre-compulsory education and pre-school per se, we found evidence of a marginally significant 3-4 per cent wage gain at age 33.

Background. Clinicians, scientists, and policy makers are increasingly taking interest in the long-term outcomes of early intervention programs undertaken during the 1960s and 1970s, which were intended to improve young children's health and educational prospects. The Brookline Early Education Project (BEEP) was an innovative, community-based program that provided health and developmental services for children and their families from 3 months before birth until entry into kindergarten. It was open to all families in the town of Brookline and to families from neighboring Boston, to include a mixture of families from suburban and urban communities. The goal of the project, which was administered by the Brookline Public Schools, was to ensure that children would enter kindergarten healthy and ready to learn. Objective. Outcome studies of BEEP and comparison children during kindergarten and second grade demonstrated the program's effectiveness during the early school years. The goal of this follow-up study was to test the hypotheses that BEEP participants, in comparison with their peers, would have higher levels of educational attainment, higher incomes, and more positive health behaviors, mental health, and health efficacy during the young adult period. Methods. Participants were young adults who were enrolled in the BEEP project from 1973 to 1978. Comparison subjects were young adults in Boston and Brookline who did not participate in BEEP but were matched to the BEEP group with respect to age, ethnicity, mother's educational level, and neighborhood (during youth). A total of 169 children were enrolled originally in BEEP and monitored through second grade. The follow-up sample included a total of 120 young adults who had participated in BEEP as children. The sample differed from the original BEEP sample in having a slightly larger proportion of college-educated mothers and a slightly smaller proportion of urban families but otherwise resembled the original BEEP sample. The demographic features of the BEEP and comparison samples were similar. The young adults were asked to complete a survey that focused on the major domains of educational/functional outcomes and health/well-being. The study used a quasi-experimental causal-comparative design involving quantitative analyses of differences between the BEEP program and comparison groups, stratified according to community. Hypotheses were tested with analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance techniques. Analyses of the hypotheses included the main effects of group (BEEP versus comparison sample) and community (suburban versus urban location), as well as their interaction. Results. Young adults from the suburban community had higher levels of educational attainment than did those in the urban group, with little difference between the suburban BEEP and comparison groups. In the urban group, participation in the BEEP program was associated with completing > 1 additional year of schooling. Fewer BEEP young adults reported having a low income (less than $20 000); the income differences were accounted for largely by the urban participants. The percentage of subjects with private health insurance was significantly lower in the urban group overall, but the BEEP urban group had higher rates of private insurance than did the comparison group. More than 80% of both suburban samples reported being in very good or excellent health; the 2 urban groups had significantly lower ratings, with 64% of the BEEP group and only 41.67% of the comparison group reaching this standard. Overall, suburban participants reported more positive health behaviors, more perceived competence, and less depression. Among the urban samples, however, participation in BEEP was associated with higher levels of health efficacy, more positive health behaviors, and less depression than their peers. Conclusions. No previous study has focused as extensively on health-related outcomes of early education programs. BEEP participants living in urban communities had advantages over their peers in educational attainment, income, health, and well-being. The educational advantages found for BEEP participants in the early years of schooling included executive skills such as planning, organizing, and completing school-related tasks. It is likely that these early advantages in executive function extended beyond education-related tasks to other activities as participants became responsible for their own lives. The long-term benefits revealed in this study are consistent with the findings of previous long-term studies that indicated that participants in high-quality intervention programs are less likely to cost taxpayers money for health, educational, and public assistance services. The BEEP program appears to have somewhat blunted differences between the urban and suburban groups. The results of this study add to the growing body of findings that indicate that long-term benefits occur as the result of well-designed, intensive, comprehensive early education. The health benefits add a unique and important extension to the findings of other studies. Pediatrics 2005;116:144-152; child development, early education, longitudinal follow-up, mental health. ABBREVIATIONS. BEEP, Brookline Early Education Project; METCO, Metropolitan Educational Collaborative; ANOVA, analysis of variance., Health and education are linked intimately. Healthy children learn better than those who are not well, either physically or emotionally. (1-5) Children in families with low educational opportunity are at [...]