The purpose of this study was to identify which new mothers may be especially prone to use Facebook more often and more intensely, and to further examine the potential consequences of Facebook activity for new mothers’ emotional well-being.

Early childhood educators play a critical role in providing the language and literacy instruction that young children need in order to develop key skills for later school success. This study seeks to understand how educators’ backgrounds may be linked to the amount of language and literacy instruction they provide.

Young children with developmental disabilities often demonstrate delays in learning important early literacy skills, and are often at a higher risk for future reading problems. This study asks: to what extent are there differences in the home-literacy experiences of children with and without disabilities, and how are these experiences related to children’s early literacy skills?

Who preschoolers choose to interact with most frequently can have a significant impact on their development of social and emotional skills, and emergent language and literacy skills. This study asks, “Do rural preschoolers interact most often with peers who share similar characteristics or skills, such as learning-related behaviors, and language and literacy skills?”

This study suggests children from lower-income families have lower ability to distinguish between thought and reality because their parents are less likely to discuss their feelings and more likely to use harsher discipline strategies. Child vocabulary appears to be more important than parent discipline for understanding how higher-income children acquire greater false belief understanding.

This study suggests that there are complex patterns of kindergarten readiness for rural Appalachian children from low-income families. A significant number of low-income children from rural Appalachia appear to be at-risk. These results suggest the need for further research into similar populations, and continued efforts to improve pre-K access and quality for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.

This study asks: 1) Do children that spend more time reading with their parents watch less TV? and 2) Does the association between parent-child book reading and TV-viewing vary depending on family structure (e.g. single-parent v. two-parent home), mother’s level of education, household size, and whether the child attends daycare?

Greater father positive involvement weakened the effect of family poverty on child behavior problems. For children living below the poverty level, greater father positive involvement further disrupted the persistence of internalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood.

Some scholars argue that educating children with disabilities separately allows them to receive more targeted, intensive instruction than they would be able to receive in an inclusive classroom setting. Advocates of inclusion counter that educating children with disabilities in an inclusive setting enables them to develop important academic and social skills.

Dr. Nathanson began with an overview of children’s media habits in recent history, discussed three studies that she has recently conducted, and closed the talk by explaining that shared media experiences between caregiver and child can increase interactions, facilitate bonding, and encourage discussion about sensitive topics.

Our workshops, seminars and key events help researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and families enhance their skills to support young children by: offering valuable early childhood professional development experiences;
providing opportunities for the university and greater community to learn about topics related to children’s learning and development; bringing renowned speakers and experts together to discuss matters related to children’s well-being.

This book is an essential guide for those many individuals who serve as children’s first teachers and who understand, as we do, that interactive book reading is an important context for helping children learn and develop.