Opportunities for Improving Programs and Services for Children with Disabilities
Opportunities for Improving Programs and Services for Children with Disabilities

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-08-06

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0309472245

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Although the general public in the United States assumes children to be generally healthy and thriving, a substantial and growing number of children have at least one chronic health condition. Many of these conditions are associated with disabilities and interfere regularly with children's usual activities, such as play or leisure activities, attending school, and engaging in family or community activities. In their most severe forms, such disorders are serious lifelong threats to children's social, emotional well-being and quality of life, and anticipated adult outcomes such as for employment or independent living. However, pinpointing the prevalence of disability among children in the U.S. is difficult, as conceptual frameworks and definitions of disability vary among federal programs that provide services to this population and national surveys, the two primary sources for prevalence data. Opportunities for Improving Programs and Services for Children with Disabilities provides a comprehensive analysis of health outcomes for school-aged children with disabilities. This report reviews and assesses programs, services, and supports available to these children and their families. It also describes overarching program, service, and treatment goals; examines outreach efforts and utilization rates; identifies what outcomes are measured and how they are reported; and describes what is known about the effectiveness of these programs and services.

Improving Services for Young Children
Improving Services for Young Children

Author: Angela Anning

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2008-06-24

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1446243117

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′This book is a welcome addition to the field of Early Childhood studies and would appeal to both students and professionals working with children and families in any area. The format of the book is clear and the style of writing is very readable and engaging′ - ESCalate ` In this excellent book two of the principal investigators from the huge national evaluation of Sure Start bring together key findings of ′′what works′′ as the local programmes are turned into children′s centres and rolled out across England. Chapters on all aspects of Sure Start and children′s centres reflect the services themselves in providing a valuable ′′one stop shop′′ for those who want to understand how to work effectively with young children and their parents′ - Dame Gillian Pugh, Visiting Professor, Institute of Education, University of London This book sets out important insights gained from the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS). The contributors present the effects of Sure Start from a range of perspectives and explore the successful and problematic aspects of the programme with its vision of improving the life chances of the most disadvantaged families. They also map and evaluate the progression of the programme into Children′s Centres and Extended Schools. Each contributor provides an overview of their specialist area before outlining the findings from the study and its implications for developing Children′s Services. These areas include: - Ethnicity - Childcare - Parents - Special Needs - Maternity Services - Domestic Violence - Buildings and Spaces. The chapters set out the practical lessons learned from these areas for practitioners, professionals and policy makers in the field of children′s services, as well as those involved in the setting up of Children′s Centres and reform of multi-agency children′s services. The book will be relevant to undergraduate students on Childhood Studies Degrees, Early Years Professional Foundation Degrees students, postgraduate students on National Qualification for Managers of Children′s Centres and Masters related to Integrated Children′s Services. It is also for those with an interest in anti-poverty intervention programmes for young children and their families around the world.

Parenting Matters
Parenting Matters

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-11-21

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 0309388570

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Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

From Neurons to Neighborhoods
From Neurons to Neighborhoods

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-11-13

Total Pages: 610

ISBN-13: 0309069882

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How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8
Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-07-23

Total Pages: 587

ISBN-13: 0309324882

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Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Helping Young Children Impacted by Trauma
Helping Young Children Impacted by Trauma

Author: Laura J. Colker

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9781938113673

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This go-to guide for educators helping children who have experienced trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) provides accessible information paired with practical, adaptable strategies.

Starting Strong Engaging Young Children Lessons from Research about Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care
Starting Strong Engaging Young Children Lessons from Research about Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2018-03-27

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9264085149

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The first years of life lay the foundations for a child’s future development and learning. Reflecting on the important role of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in providing all children with the skills they need to be successful in school, many countries have increased their ...

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition (Fully Revised and Updated)
Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition (Fully Revised and Updated)

Author: Naeyc

Publisher:

Published: 2021-08

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9781938113956

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The long-awaited new edition of NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs is here, fully revised and updated! Since the first edition in 1987, it has been an essential resource for the early childhood education field. Early childhood educators have a professional responsibility to plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and general learning competencies of each child served. But what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)? DAP is a framework designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. As educators make decisions to support each child's learning and development, they consider what they know about (1) commonality in children's development and learning, (2) each child as an individual (within the context of their family and community), and (3) everything discernible about the social and cultural contexts for each child, each educator, and the program as a whole. This latest edition of the book is fully revised to underscore the critical role social and cultural contexts play in child development and learning, including new research about implicit bias and teachers' own context and consideration of advances in neuroscience. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the many assets all young children bring to the early learning program as individuals and as members of families and communities. They also develop an awareness of their own context. Building on each child's strengths, educators design and implement learning settings to help each child achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas.

Funds of Knowledge
Funds of Knowledge

Author: Norma Gonzalez

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-04-21

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1135614059

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The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.

Rise to the Challenge
Rise to the Challenge

Author: Jeff C. Marshall

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2019-07-22

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1416628002

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Do you sense that some students have mentally "checked out" of your classroom? Look closely and you'll probably find that these students are bored by lessons that they view as unchallenging and uninteresting. In this follow-up to The Highly Effective Teacher: 7 Classroom-Tested Practices That Foster Student Success, Jeff Marshall provides teachers with a blueprint for introducing more rigor to the classroom by - Reorienting themselves and their students toward active learning—and establishing the habits that allow it to flourish; - Creating a classroom culture where students aren't afraid to take risks—and where they grow as learners because of it; - Planning the same lesson at different levels of challenge for different levels of development—and designing assessments that gauge student progress fairly without sacrificing expectations; and - Implementing inquiry-based activities that push students beyond their comfort zones—and that result in well-rounded learners with stronger character and sharper thinking skills. Leveraging the latest research in the field as well as years of hard-won classroom experience, this book offers practical strategies, replicable examples, and thoughtful reflection exercises for educators to use as they work to help students embrace the mystery, complexity, and power of challenge.