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A study examined parents' contributions to the emerging reading abilities of kindergarten and first-grade children by documenting the variation in parent-child interaction during joint storybook reading and the specific interaction patterns associated with children's reading fluency and affect. Subjects, 32 white, working-class parent-child pairs were videotaped for 30 to 40 minutes while reading to each other from a varied collection of picture books. An elaborate coding scheme was developed to analyze both parent and child behaviors. Results indicated that: (1) parents interpreted the mandate to read to their children in a wide variety of ways; (2) the way parents corrected reading errors and their apparent purpose for reading was associated with both the child's reading fluency and affect; (3) the number of error corrections and questions answered were not related to reading fluency or affect; and (4) the number of comments made while reading was not related to fluency. Results showed that parent-child pairs who view the child's reading as fun, keep the story flowing by using semantic-oriented rather than decoding-oriented correction tactics, encourage questions about the story and express humor while reading have children who are more fluent and more positive about reading. Findings underscore the need for educators to convey information to parents about how to be a good coach to the beginning reader, rather than just telling parents and children to read at home more. (Three tables and two figures of data are included; 37 references are attached.) (RS)

Nine individual prosocial child behaviors of 2-year-olds were obtained from mothers and caretakers. These behaviors were combined into a fourfold scheme which was then used to assess child prosocial behavior outside a laboratory setting. In addition, the two dispositional attributes of sociability and happiness were assessed. Observations of 28 toddlers, ages 20 to 31 months, were made over a six-week period in both the home and in a play group setting. Data on child behavior were also obtained through questionnaires completed by mothers. When results were compared with studies of four- and five-year-olds, it was concluded that children may become less prosocial with age. There was also sufficient interrelatedness among the specific behaviors that it may be possible to view prosocial behavior as a coherent construct. Data also showed that obedience to adult requests stood empirically apart from other prosocial behaviors, suggesting that prosocial behavior involving adults may be qualitatively different from that involving peers. Finally, empathy also stood empirically apart from the other prosocial behaviors, suggesting that it may not be a critical component of, or precursor to, the display of prosocial behavior. (PCB)

In 1983, Georgia became the first state to adopt a military-style boot camp in its correctional system (Schnurer and Lyons, 2006)*. In the years following, correctional boot camps spread throughout the United States at a remarkable speed and, by the middle of 1992, twenty-six states had adopted boot camps for adult offenders (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1993). The pervasive spread of boot camps is interesting because numerous studies were released during this period which showed that many boot camps failed to meet their stated goals (Nossiter, 1993). What explains the phenomenal growth of this correctional initiative in the United States? This poster will present findings from my PhD dissertation at Cambridge University (UK) which uses theories and methods adopted from the policy diffusion literature in political science to explain the spread of boot camps in the United States. Through the use of event history analysis, the preeminent statistical technique in policy diffusion studies, the influence of different variables—such as demographics, the media, political situations and economic factors—on the diffusion of boot camps throughout United States can be assessed (Berry and Berry, 1990; Allen, Pettus and Haider-Markel, 2004).*Full bibliographic details of references will be displayed on the poster. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]