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Introduction For decades the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2013) has reported a reading proficiency gap between White, middle-class students, and students from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In [...]

The purpose of the study was to examine parents' play beliefs and see whether their perceptions of play impact children's social competence. A total number of 142 Taiwanese parents with different social class backgrounds participated in the survey. Results revealed that most Taiwanese parents highly agreed that play contributes to children's development, and they provided supportive behaviors in play. Parents' play beliefs demonstrated a moderate positive relationship with both parent and teacher ratings of children's social competence. When adjusted for the three parental background variables that are related to children's social competence, the relationship between parents' play believes and children's social competence still existed but the level of correlation decreased slightly., Play and Social Competence Researchers have put much emphasis on the positive and significant role of children's social and emotional development. Children with better social-emotional competence are more likely to [...]

THERE IS CONSIDERABLE RECOGNITION that shared book reading helps develop young children's early reading and literacy skills. Home is an important context in which children first start to develop their early literacy skills. This paper reviews Australian and international literature of shared book-reading intervention pertaining to the effects of two different strategies (dialogic reading and print referencing) on young children's early literacy skills. Further, a brief summary of findings of a recent Australian study are presented that showed some significant effects of shared reading on children's early literacy skills. This research used a pragmatic RCT (randomised controlled trial) to investigate a combination of these two forms of shared book-reading home intervention with parents and their children enrolled in the Prep year of school in Queensland. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of the findings and implications for parents and teachers to use an evidence-based approach to help children develop early literacy skills., Introduction This paper reviews a recent Australian study (Sim, 2012) that investigated the effects of two forms of shared book-reading intervention with parents on children's emergent literacy skills. In this [...]

This study examined predictive relations between early parenting and African American children's science and social studies achievement in kindergarten (n=2,461). Early parenting was defined as parents' participation in home learning stimulation (e.g., shared book reading) and cultural socialization (e.g., discussing cultural heritage). Hierarchical regression analyses including early parenting and demo-graphic characteristics explained nearly a quarter (i.e., 23 %) of the variance in African American children's science and social studies achievement in kindergarten. Mother age, education, and family income positively predicted achievement while single-parent status and more siblings in the home negatively predicted achievement. Notably, even after these demographic controls were entered into the regression equations, parenting and cultural socialization also predicted achievement. African American parents who engaged in more frequent home learning stimulation and cultural socialization had children with more advanced science and social studies scores in kindergarten. Keywords Parenting * Cultural socialization * Science * Social studies * African American * ECLS-K, The transition to elementary school represents an important milestone for young children and their parents. During the kindergarten year children are presented with new curricular challenges that emphasize competence in [...]

Research shows that home environments play a critical role in developing children's early literacy skills. Given the importance of developing early literacy skills to bolster children's chances for subsequent academic [...]

There remains a plaguing question of how to get parents involved with their child's education. Many parents and educators have different perceptions of what parental involvement means. Miscommunication between the two groups often exists because of how parental involvement is conceptualized. While educators define parental involvement as being involved in the education process by helping in the school and helping out with homework (Anderson & Minke, 2007), parents see parental involvement as getting their children to school on time and solving issues at home that involve them., Introduction Researchers and writers have noted that parental involvement is associated with academic achievement (Mandara, 2006; Toldson, 2008); is a primary contributor to a student's success (Rumberger, 1995); and is [...]

This is a case study about a group of African American parents that banded together in an effort to increase their own involvement, the involvement of other African American parents, [...]

When other people's children become our children, and educators invest time and commitment to working with parents, we may come to the powerful realization that all children have the potential [...]

When compared to risk factors, less is known about family characteristics that enhance developmental outcomes among low-income African-American children. The current study explored elements of African-American parenting and their relationship to early childhood academic readiness. Using a predominantly low-income African-American subsample from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (N=105), this investigation examined associations between three maternal factors-beliefs, confidence, and warmth and children's cognitive and early academic development. We hypothesized that the children of African-American parents who reported more traditional authoritarian beliefs, maternal confidence, and maternal warmth would display higher levels of cognitive development and achievement at school entry. Multiple regression analysis indicated that maternal confidence and warmth were predictive of cognitive development and achievement. Traditional beliefs were found to be inversely related to academic readiness. Together, the predictive variables explained 36% of the variation in cognitive functioning. Keywords African-American * Cognition * Achievement * Parenting characteristics * School readiness, Introduction Early learning experiences that develop meaningful changes in the thought processes, problem solving skills, literacy, language, and numeracy skills of children serve as a reliable indicator of later academic [...]

Most of the parents I know have two full-time 'jobs'--one at work outside the home and the other with their kids--and they brilliantly balance their myriad obligations. Many--whether employed outside [...]

Early planting and nurturing of the seeds that will grow into a love of stories and reading can make a huge, positive difference in children's literacy development and academic success. [...]

Parental involvement in education is a key focus of current policies and programs aimed at improving the academic outcomes of students at risk for academic underachievement. This study examines six [...]

At first glance the mission of family literacy programs is clear. These programs help children and their parents improve their literacy skills. What could be simpler? Invite children and their [...]

If students are to become proficient at using social skills, parents must be involved in teaching and reinforcing these skills at home. Parent involvement is associated with increased student success, especially when it includes a two-way exchange of information between home and school. As the traditional family has changed, new methods of eliciting parent involvement are needed. This article presents a description and evaluation of a school-wide home note program used to encourage generalization of social skills taught in school to home settings. Teachers (n = 20), parents (n = 107), and students (n = 383) at an elementary school in the western United States completed a survey asking them to rate the program in the following areas: favorability, effectiveness, ease of use, and desirability of continued use. Parents had highly favorable perceptions of the program, while students and teachers rated it somewhat favorably. Students and parents reported that home notes helped improve social skills. A majority of respondents agreed that home notes were easy to implement and should continue to be used. Implications for implementing a home note program are discussed., Social skills' training has traditionally been considered important for children with behavior or learning disorders (Townsend, 1994). Today many agree that schools should be attending to the social needs of [...]

Carol (all names are pseudonyms), a single working mother, expressed frustration at watching her daughter Christie's unwillingness to read Buzz Said the Bee (Lewison, 1992): You are making me so [...]

The authors conducted 2 studies of 9th-grade Israeli adolescents (169 in Study 1, 156 in Study 2) to compare the parenting practices of conditional positive regard, conditional negative regard, and autonomy support using data from multiple reporters. Two socialization domains were studied: emotion control and academics. Results were consistent with the self-determination theory model of internalization, which posits that (a) conditional negative regard predicts feelings of resentment toward parents, which then predict dysregulation of negative emotions and academic disengagement; (b) conditional positive regard predicts feelings of internal compulsion, which then predict suppressive regulation of negative emotions and grade-focused academic engagement; and (c) autonomy support predicts sense of choice, which then predicts integrated regulation of negative emotions and interest-focused academic engagement. These findings suggest that even parents' use of conditional positive regard as a socialization practice has adverse emotional and academic consequences, relative to autonomy support. Keywords: parental conditional regard, autonomy support, emotion regulation, academic engagement