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Play Therapy for Preschool Children is a comprehensive sourcebook of play interventions for preventing and resolving the most common disorders of children aged 3-5 years old.
This volume provides a comprehensive clinical/n-/developmental framework for understanding and treating behavior problems in early childhood. Susan B. Campbell offers a highly readable account of the developmental tasks and transitions that young children face in cognitive, social, and family domains, and examines why and what happens when development goes awry. Particular attention is given to the critical question of how certain children manage to successfully overcome difficult transitions, while others face the risk of serious, ongoing problems. Empirically supported prevention and treatment approaches are reviewed.
The "Caring for Preschool Children" program was designed as a personalized training program to help adults working with preschool children acquire the skills and knowledge needed to provide a high quality preschool program. This two-volume training manual is comprised of 13 modules corresponding to the areas of the Child Development Associate Competency Standards, each containing an overview, self-assessments, learning activities, answer sheets, and a glossary. The modules are: (1) "Safe," preventing, and responding to accidents and injuries; (2) "Healthy," including promoting wellness and reducing the spread of disease, and helping children develop habits that promote good hygiene and nutrition; (3) "Learning Environment," encouraging play and exploration, and planning and implementing schedules, routines, and transitions that meet children's needs; (4) "Physical," providing materials, equipment, and opportunities for gross and fine motor development and encouraging physical fitness; (5) "Cognitive," encouraging children to explore and construct knowledge about their world, and helping children to develop confidence in their ability to think and solve problems; (6) "Communication," helping children use language meaningfully and providing materials and experiences that support emerging literacy skills; (7) "Creative," encouraging exploration and experimentation, offering materials and activities, and showing respect for children's ideas; (8) "Self," developing positive relationships with children and helping them accept and appreciate themselves and others; (9) "Social," helping children develop social skills, get along with others, and express their feelings; (10) "Guidance," encouraging self-discipline and using positive methods to guide children; (11) "Families," sharing information with parents about their child's experiences and development, supporting families, and offering several options for parent participation; (12) "Program Management," learning about each child, following policies and procedures, and teaming; and (13) "Professionalism," assessing one's performance and applying professional ethics. The trainer's guide provides a detailed description of the trainer's role in guiding teachers through the learning activities and includes suggestions for providing feedback and encouraging teachers to extend their learning. Answer sheets and observation forms for assessment, and tracking forms to record each teacher's progress are included. Chapter 1 of the guide discusses the need for an organized system for staff development, the components of a professional development system, and the importance of linking training to professional development and program improvement. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the training materials, content, and approach. Chapter 3 presents suggestions for managing the training programs, including completing an orientation and providing feedback. Chapter 4 discusses strategies for effective group training sessions. Section 5 presents information on assessing teachers' progress through the modules. Appendices contain forms for the trainers' use. (KDFB)
From the very first chapter of this informative and inspiring book, a clear picture emerges of how even three- and four-year-olds' capacities for serious authorship can and should be supported. - Lillian G. Katz Coauthor of Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years By the time they reach preschool or kindergarten, young children are already writers. They don't have much experience, but they're filled with stories to tell and ideas to express - they want to show the world what they know and see. All they need is a nurturing teacher like you to recognize the writer at work within them. All you need to help them is Already Ready. Taking an exciting, new approach to working with our youngest students, Already Ready shows you how, by respecting children as writers, engaged in bookmaking, you can gently nudge them toward a lifetime of joyful writing. Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover guide you through fundamental concepts of early writing. Providing numerous, helpful examples of early writing - complete with transcriptions - they demonstrate how to: make sense of children's writing and interpret how they represent sounds, ideas, and images see important developmental signs in writers that you can use to help them grow further recognize the thinking young children engage in and discover that it's the same thinking more experienced writers use to craft purposeful, thoughtful pieces. Then Ray and Glover show you how little ones can develop powerful understandings about: texts and their characteristics the writing process what it means to be a writer. You'll learn how to support your writers' quest to make meaning, as they grow their abilities and refine their thinking about writing through teaching strategies such as: reading aloud working side by side with writers sharing children's writing. Writing is just one part of a busy early childhood classroom, but even in little doses, a nurturing approach can work wonders and help children connect the natural writer inside them to a life of expressing themselves on paper. Find that approach, share it with your students, and you'll discover that you don't have to get students ready to write - they're Already Ready.
The updated chapters include information on phonemic awareness and preschool reading, additional references, the latest Perry Preschool research results, recent research relating to brain development, and a complete description of a consistent approach to problem solving. Written for early childhood practitioners and students, this manual presents essential strategies adults can use to make active learning a reality in their programs. Describes key components of the adult ‚'s role: planning the physical setting and establishing a consistent daily routi≠ creating a positive social climate; and using High/Scope ‚'s 58 ‚"key experiences ‚" in child development to understand and support young children. Other topics include family involvement, daily team planning, interest areas, appropriate materials, the plan-do-review process, small- and large-group times. Offers numerous anecdotes, photographs, illustrations, real-life scenarios, and practical suggestions for adults. Reflects High/Scope ‚'s current research findings and over 30 years of experience.
In this lively board book, a young boy starts his first day of school not knowing what to expect. Follow along as he explores his classroom, makes new friends, and enjoys all the creative and interesting activities school can offer. My First Day of School helps first-time students, from preschoolers to kindergartners, understand what happens at school, while providing parents the opportunity to answer questions their child may have. An enthusiastic narrator and bright, cheerful illustrations will have first-time students eagerly anticipating their first day of school.
Mental health problems often debut in early childhood and may last throughout adulthood, thereby making early detection and intervention especially important. The overarching aim of the present thesis was to identify patterns of emotional and behavioural problems indicating mental health problems in preschool children. To facilitate the detection of such problems early on, one available screening instrument Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), was validated. The development and interaction of externalising problems in preschool children were studied over time. Functioning and behaviour and their relations to protective and risk indicators in both environmental and personal characteristics were explored. The long-term goal was to increase knowledge about early identification of emotional and behavioural problems in preschool children in order to facilitate early intervention. In Study I (n=690), the subscales Hyperactivity and Conduct Problems were shown to be valid for children in the age group 1–3 years. A reasonable level of validity was found for the age group 4–5 years when using the original SDQ four-factor solution. The preschool teachers considered most of the SDQ items relevant and possible to rate. Based on the results of Study II (n=815), a score of ?12 on the SDQ Total Problems Scale is recommended as a cut-off for Swedish preschool children. There were significant differences between boys and girls on all subscales except for the Emotional subscale. The Swedish norms for SDQ are to a large extent similar to findings from other European countries. Study III (n=195) showed that preschool children’s conduct problems decrease over time. Children exhibiting more initial hyperactivity (at year 1) have less reduction in conduct problems over time, i.e. the more hyperactivity early in life, the more conduct problems at year 3. In Study IV (n=197), children high in engagement and social interaction function well over time, even in the presence of hyperactivity, while children with low engagement and interaction alone or in combination with hyperactivity and conduct problems continue to have problems. Stability was related to the existence of a larger number of protective or risk indicators respectively. Taken together, this thesis has shown that the SDQ can be used to identify preschool children at risk of developing mental health problems later in life.
