Thelma Harms

Assessing preschool environments with the early childhood environment rating scale

Theoret ical perspect ives as d iverse as those of Sk inner and Piaget have aff i rmed the importance of env i ronment in the development of cogni t ive and social ski l ls. Yet, assessing the qua l i t y of an ear ly chi ldhood classroom with accuracy remains a chal lenge. Pract i t ioners need ef f ic ient , pract ical , and val id measures. Researchers need instruments that produce val id and rel iable environmental in fo r mation across programs. Such funct ional descr ipt ions of the basic components of d i f f e r i ng ear ly chi ldhood sett ings might, for example, expla in the conf l ic t ing f ind ings about the impact of ear ly education and care on later social adjustment, since social development is l ikely to be program related (B ron fenb renner , Belsky & Ste inberg, 1977; Harper, 1978; Haskins, Finkelste in, & Stedman, 1978; Raph, Thomas, Chess, & Korn, 1968; Schwartz, S t r ick land, & Kral ick, 1974).

Matching Changes in Preschool Environments to Desired Changes in Child Behavior

Preschool environments differentially affect the behavior and development of handicapped youngsters. A specific quality or aspect of the environment can in part determine how children behave in that setting. It is therefore important that early childhood special educators tailor environmental provisions to match desired autcomes. This article describes five dimensions of childrens behavior likely to be affected by environments: engagement, independence, aggression, social interaction, and happiness. Research and theory documenting the relationship between environments and behavior are reviewed and guidelines for matching changes in preschool environments to changes in child behavior are provided.

Social and educational aspects of mealtimes for handicapped and nonhandicapped presohoolers

Mealtimes serve important social and educational functions for all children. This article reports an observational study of the extent to which teachers of handicapped and nonhandicapped preschoolers use mealtimes to teach and practice functional skills. The lunch routine (pre-eating activities, physical setting, food service, mealtime interaction, posteating activities, organizing the mealtime routine, and teaching during mealtime) was observed in 40 preschool classrooms (20 handicapped and 20 nonhandicapped programs). Although the meals observed were warm and pleasant experiences, teachers generally did not capitalize on the potential of meals for teaching and reinforcing functional skills. Implications of these findings are discussed, and a sequence of mealtime instructional targets is provided.

Parents' Reports of Home and Out-of-Home Injuries among Children Attending Child Care Centers.

Parents of 371 children up to 30 months of age in full time care in 24 child care centers were telephoned to ascertain the number and severity of child injuries occurring both at home and in child care. In addition injury incident reports were collected from six centers. Almost equal numbers of injuries were reported to have occurred at home and in child care. The rate of parent‐reported child care injuries was 52 per 100,000 child hours. Only 25 of the 149 separate child care injury events resulted in a medical visit, a rate of 8.8 per 100,000 child hours. Careful matching of center‐reported events with those reported by parents revealed very little overlap. The discrepancy was only partly explained by parental notification of child care injuries by centers. More deliberate attention to the communication of information about injury events occurring in child care is indicated if child care injuries are to be prevented.