Research into practice: intervention models and new views of behavior and motivation.

This issue highlights seven distinct studies. The first study provides evidence on the play behaviors of children with and without mental retardation in home- and center-based play environments. The second looks at the use of a literacy program that is rooted in an multiple intelligences framework. The third examines the content of individualized family services plans and the needs of families of young children with disabilities. The fourth is a comparison of home-based and center-based Head Start classrooms. The fifth provides a unique glimpse into the relational aggression that may be present among preschool children. The sixth investigates the continuity between kindergarten and 1st grade classroom environments. The seventh and last study examines the relationship among parenting styles, parent involvement, and motivation in mathematics. This column briefly summarizes the content of the articles and suggests implications for the research as well as areas for future research studies.

Differential Expression of Toy Play by Preschoolers With and Without Mental Retardation -Malone

There is a vast amount of research on the benefits of play as well as instructional strategies that support the needs of children with cognitive disabilities. Children play to learn and this play is an important part of all children's lives. Children with mental retardation not only benefit more often from the use of the play-based assessment, but they also benefit from the play-based instructional strategies that are part of their individualized education plans. What is missing from this vast literature is a strong conclusion about the environments in which this play takes place for children with mental retardation. The current study examines the peak and predominant play of both children with mental retardation and children who are typically developing, in classroom and home-based early care and education environments.

Participants in the study were 34 preschool children who were enrolled in inclusive preschool classrooms. Seventeen of the children were identified with mild/moderate mental retardation and were matched on cognitive developmental age and sex with 17 children who were typically developing. Children were observed in their classroom settings and their homes. Toys brought to homes were consistent among children, while toys utilized in classrooms were typical of those found in most preschool environments. Behavior was coded for categorical and sequential play. Categorical play included nonplay, exploration, functional play, constructive play, and pretend play. Sequential play included single scheme, unordered multi-scheme, and ordered multi-scheme sequences. The variables were then coded as prominent and peak play types. Sixty minutes of videotape were collected on children in their homes, where the children played with three toy sets. The same amount of data was collected on children in classroom environments. Adults were encouraged in both settings not to involve themselves in the children's play. Data were coded in 15 -second intervals by independent coders.

Children with mental retardation were more likely to engage in functional play, constructive play, and pretend play in their homes than in their classrooms. Unordered multi-scheme play was more likely to be found in homes than in classrooms. Children who were typically developing were more likely to be engaged in exploration, functional play, and constructive play in their home environments.

For children with and without mental retardation, children's peak play was pretend play in the home-based setting. For between-group analyses, home-based predominant categorical type, home-based predominant sequential play type, and classroom-based peak play type were more sophisticated for children with mental retardation than for those children who did not have mental retardation. The portion of time in home-based predominant and peak categorical play was also greater for children with mental retardation than for children without mental retardation.

The results of this study suggest the importance of observing children in home-based settings in order to engage children in effective and age-appropriate play. The data also suggest that children were engaging in effective behaviors that were not always carried out in classroom environments and could influence parents' positive views of their children's ability and potential. This study builds our understanding of the role of different play environments. Future research that focuses on communicating such information to teachers and parents, and on how these findings are translated into meaningful components of children's individualized education plans, is needed.

Facilitating Emerging Literacy Skills: A Literature-Based, Multiple Intelligence Approach -Brand

Young children who may be identified as at risk for not achieving school success may require additional supports to develop phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and oral language skills. While most recent research has focused on specific literacy skills, there is some question in the early childhood literature about the developmental appropriateness of focusing on single skills. The current study adds to the literature on early literacy intervention by utilizing an integrated phonics and literature-based approach through a lens of multiple intelligences for children who are placed at risk. The author asserts that children who are schooled in more traditional approaches may need a more focused, individualized approach to their literacy instruction that incorporates the unique intelligences in which they have strength. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether children who received small-group, literature-based multiple intelligences training would demonstrate greater letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and word use fluency than a comparison group.

Participants for this study included 13 kindergartners (six girls and seven boys) from an inner-city charter school. The reported ethnicities of the children were Hispanic, black, Asian, and white. Children were pretested with four subtests of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). The researcher implemented a 7-week literacy intervention for two mornings each week for 40 minutes per session. Children were divided into three instructional groups, based on their teacher-classified literacy performance. Children's strengths were rated according to the multiple intelligences theory by their teacher, from which the researcher developed specific literacy activities for each group of children. Each week of the intervention had a specific focus and set of activities. For example, during the first week of the intervention, the children focused on the short vowel sound of the letter "a." Activities, including storytelling and creative drama, were planned and executed along with such activities as creating sentences. Children were posttested with four subtests of the DIBELS battery following the intervention.

Statistical analyses indicated that children's scores improved from pretest to posttest on three of the four DIBELS subscales: phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and word use fluency. Children's gains on the letter naming fluency test were not significantly different from the normative sample. The author asserted that the gains made by children were, then, the direct result of the treatment of incorporating multiple intelligences into literacy instruction.

The implications for early childhood educators from this study include the benefits of utilizing methods other than traditional rehearsal and drill-and-practice skills. Although this study utilized a small number of participants, they were at risk for early reading failure. Such research outcomes reinforce the importance of early intervention and comprehensive intervention in meeting the needs of children with more limited access to early literacy instruction.

Examining the IFSPs of Rural, Low-Income Families: Are They Reflective of Family Concerns? -Ridgley & Hallam

Coordinated services for children in home-based early intervention settings assist children and families in opportunities to augment the social, physical, and cognitive growth of children before they receive services in a formalized school setting. While early interventionists carefully listen and document the needs of children and families, there may be, at times, a disconnect between the services provided and the needs of children and their families. Children who live in rural areas may have unique concerns that cannot be addressed because of their more remote location and access to services. Because early intervention has family-centered practices at its focus, supports that address the needs and concerns of families need to be a consistently addressed component of individualized family service plans. The current study examined the specific needs that were cited by rural, low-income families with regard to their child with a disability; as well as whether or not those concerns were addressed in the individualized family service plan.

Five children with disabilities and their families participated in this qualitative study. Children and families who were recruited needed to be eligible for Medicaid coverage due to their family income, had to reside in a rural area, had to receive at least two early intervention services, had to be receiving early intervention services for a minimum of six months, and had to have an individualized family service plan that had been written within one month of the start of the study. Families were recruited by their service coordinators. Children had such disabilities as developmental delay, vision loss, and Down syndrome. Data were collected through two semi-structured inventories and analyzed through an inductive approach.

Needs and concerns related to parenting a child with a disability, health issues of the child, and family issues or characteristics were the main themes that were generated from the data. Families were concerned about accessing toys and materials, addressing the health needs of their child, and obtaining financial support. The content of the individualized family service plans mainly addressed parenting a child with a disability. There were objectives on the family service plans, such as coordinating services; however, families did not cite this as a concern. Inconsistency between family services plans also was found in the developmental needs of the child. All of the family service plans addressed this concern, but only one family identified this component as a goal.

It appears from this study that the concerns of families were not fully addressed by the developers of the individualized family service plans. Because the early intervention field focuses on family-centered intervention, more research is needed as to why a disconnect exists between the objectives set forth on a plan and the needs of the child and family. Research into whether the same phenomenon exists for families who do not live in rural area also is suggested.

Challenges in Implementing Center-Based and Home-Based Early Head Start Programs -Golas, Horm, & Caruso

It has been slightly over a decade since the introduction of the federal Early Head Start program. With a large national study to examine the program's efficacy, a number of positive outcomes were identified that focused on the benefits of providing high-quality early education and care services to pregnant women and to infants, toddlers, and their families. The early childhood literature also has not definitively concluded that either home-based or center-based services for children is better than the other. The current study is a direct comparison of two Early Head Start programs, one home-based and one center-based, with regard to the same content in services provided, the same intensity of services provided, family participation, and effective mechanisms for managing Early Head Start services.

The participants in the study were the families of the enrolled children and Head Start staff. Data were collected on a variety of instruments that addressed the four main research questions. A major difference was found between the two models with regard to the content of the services provided. Center-based Early Head Start services were provided with a child-focused approach, while home-based services were provided through a family-focused approach that facilitated child outcomes. Through data collected through observation, it was found that home-based services tended to focus more on family services than on child development issues.

On the intensity of services, center-based families were more likely to take advantage of the services (80 percent versus 74 percent). Families in the home-based program were more likely to terminate their involvement with the program than were families in center-based care. Families in center-based care also were more compliant with the required activities of the program.

Early Head Start staff members equally promoted opportunities for families to participate in the programs. For center-based participants, fewer than one percent of families reported participating in family activities above the required activities. These families' attendance at family involvement activities were rated as minimal. The mental health concerns of home-based families was cited as a reason for poor attendance.

Management of Early Head Start services was differentially observed in the two settings. The participants noted that there were written policies and procedures for the center-based program and that there were an adequate number of staff members to carry out program activities. For the home-based program, the management systems were not found to be as effective. The main reason cited was the lack of sufficient numbers of personnel to carry out program activities.

This study indicated that the content and intensity of the programs differed for the two program options for Early Head Start services. Programs were equally effective at involving families; however, managing the programs resulted in different challenges. The effectiveness of early childhood care and education programs must be achieved in a manner such as in this study. Evaluating the efficacy of early care and education program based solely on outcome variables of children may fail to document the processes that result in such outcomes. Future research that connects the environmental variables of such programs with child and family results will provide much-needed information on the most effective ways to implement interventions for young children and their families who are considered at risk.

Caught Between Stages: Relational Aggression Emerging as a Developmental Advance in At-Risk Preschoolers -Carpenter & Nangle

Early childhood educators, special educators, and therapists are always working to understand the motivations behind the challenging behaviors of very young children. While most think of aggression in its most overt physical form, researchers are beginning to examine relational aggression in very young children. Relational aggression is defined as a verbally mediated form of indirect aggression focused on undermining relationships. While the field had generally excluded very young children from its examination of relational aggression because of children's limited verbal and cognitive processing ability, recent studies have recognized that such aggression does exist among preschool children. Relational aggression is more likely to be observed in girls than in boys and more likely to been seen in older preschoolers than younger preschoolers. The current study investigated the relationship between gender and relational aggression, and age and relational aggression, in a Head Start population.

Participants for the study were 82 Head Start children, of whom 42 were male and 40 were female. In the four respective Head Start classrooms, children who exhibited overt aggression were placed in a two- to three-minute time out after a verbal warning to modify their behavior. Baseline aggression in these four classrooms was found to occur between 0.2 and 2.3 percent of the time. Teachers completed a sociometric measure, the Social Skills Rating System, the Preschool Social Behavior Scale, and the aggressive behavior subscale from the Child Behavior Checklist.

Data were analyzed via regression techniques. A model that explained 27 percent of the variance in relational aggression included age, overt aggression, and social skills. The researchers found that children with high and middle level social skills had significantly higher levels of relational and overt aggression than did those children with below-average social skills. The analyses also suggested that older children exhibited more relational aggression than did younger children. There were no gender differences found in the analysis.

The study has important implications for early childhood teachers. As children become more socially adept, they may also increase their use of relational aggression. Such statements among children as "I will not be your friend," while seemingly inconsequential before in interactions, may now require some adult intervention. Future research that ties these relational and overt aggression concepts to cognitive and verbal capability is needed.

Kindergarten to 1st Grade: Classroom Characteristics and the Stability and Change of Children's Classroom Experiences -La Paro, Rimm-Kaufman, & Pianta

The transition between preschool and kindergarten environments is well-documented in the early childhood literature. There is far less empirical evidence, however, about the transition for children between kindergarten and 1st grade. With the variety of policies and practices across the United States, coupled with a pushdown of curriculum into earlier and earlier grades levels among primary classrooms, it is important to understand the continuity or discontinuity of practices that either support or hinder smooth transitions.

One hundred ninety-two children and their teachers constituted the sample which is part of the larger NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Observations were conducted in kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms across the United States. The mean years of teaching experience for the kindergarten teachers studied was 14 years and for 1st-grade teachers, 13 years. Almost all kindergarten and 1st-grade teachers were female and white. The sample of children comprised 95 males and 97 females, with 164 children categorized as white, 24 as African American, and 4 as other. Data collected on the sample included classroom observation data; teacher, school, and classroom descriptive information; and family demographic information. Classrooms were observed with a time-sampling strategy for a total of 60 minutes. Global ratings of classrooms were also collected and included teacher ratings of sensitivity, emotional support, and instructional support.

Results indicated that kindergarten classrooms were more likely to be characterized by more time spent by children in such learning formats as centers, free time, and transitions. First-grade children spent more time in teacher-directed activities and seatwork activities. Kindergarten children were exposed to more academic and social skills teaching than were 1st-grade children; however, 1st-grade children were more likely to be actively engaged in activities, whereas children in kindergarten were more likely to be engaged in passive activities. Regarding classroom quality, kindergarten children received more instructional support for learning than did 1st-grade children. Instructional support included instructional conversation, opportunities for child responsibility, and evaluative feedback.

Teachers in both kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms were found to be high in their sensitivity. Classrooms were rated as having low levels of over-control and negative climate. Overall, the results indicated more change and less stability between kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms; they also were characterized by changes in structure and demands placed on children. The promise of this study suggests that there are important changes between kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms to study. By understanding these changes and by noting both the teacher education and environmental implications of such change, the field can seek interventions that promote continuity of experiences so that children may experience smooth transitions between the two learning environments.

The Relation Between Perceived Parenting Practices and Achievement Motivation in Mathematics -Gonzalez & Wolters

Educators advocate for parents to be involved in their children's schooling. The literature in this area is clear that children whose parents are involved are more likely to stay in school, attend post-secondary education, and perform well in school. While there seems to be a great amount of literature on parental involvement in the primary grades, there is far less literature available for how such involvement during adolescence influences schooling variables. In addition, the literature on parent involvement does not typically focus on student motivation. The current piece examines perceived parenting styles, parent involvement, and their relationship to student motivation.

Parenting styles were operationally defined in the study as those developed by Baumrind in the late 1960s and include authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive styles. Parent involvement was measured over three dimensions: behavioral involvement, personal involvement, and cognitive/intellectual involvement. Motivation for adolescents was grounded in achievement goal theory and self-determination theory.

Participants in the study were 140 adolescents from the southern region of the United States who were enrolled in a high school algebra course. The students ranged in age from 14 to 17 years and were Hispanic (37 percent), African American (35 percent), white (14 percent), Asian (5 percent), and other (9 percent). Adolescents completed the Self-Report Measure of Family Functioning, Parental Involvement Measure, Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey, and the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire. Surveys were completed in the students' school. Data were analyzed through correlations and regression techniques.

Analyses indicated that parents who were perceived by their adolescents as authoritative were more likely to adopt goals that reflect intrinsic motivation and mastery goals. These students further perceived their engagement in academic tasks as a result of their own values or decisions. Parents who were perceived as permissive had adolescents who had generally less adaptive patterns of motivation. Students who identified their parents as more permissive also reported a greater focus on performance approach goals. Authoritarian parenting was associated with students' adoption of performance approach goals, indicating that they engaged in their mathematics work in order to outperform others. The data also indicated that parents' involvement in their children's lives was not associated with students' intrinsic motivation. The same trend also was found with regard to student autonomy. Students with goal orientations reported greater feelings of autonomy.

This study has provided a unique glimpse into how parental involvement, parenting styles, and motivation are linked for adolescents. Further research that focuses on linkages between parental involvement and adolescents, such as that done in this study, is desperately needed. Research that ties such involvement to school completion, school engagement, and programs of study also would serve to inform the field about the construct of parental motivation.