The purpose of this study was to survey parental media attitudes and perceptions of their children’s knowledge and engagement with various media technologies, as well as to explore the children’s actual knowledge and experience with these tools. A total of 101 US parents of young children (ages 2–7 years) and 39 children (ages 3–6 years) participated. Results revealed heavy media consumption both among parents and children, and a large number of children, including the youngest, had private access. Less than half of the parents could accurately identify their children’s technological proficiency, and despite heavy usage, many children misidentified various media tools. Overall, parents showed positive attitudes toward media, to the extent that they believed media exposure to be vital to children’s development, and many disagreed with recommendations from expert sources regarding age-appropriate screen time. Implications of these findings are discussed.

In an effort to address how to best assess the importance of various characteristics of child care to parents, 355 employed mothers of children under 6 years of age completed a questionnaire exploring the importance of child care characteristics to their choice of arrangement, through ratings, rankings, and conjoint analysis. Results indicate that when rated, warmth of caregivers, educational level of caregivers, and utilization of a play-based curriculum emerge as the most important factors for mothers in this sample. When rank ordered, warmth, a play-based curriculum, and the educational level of caregivers emerge as the first-, second-, and third-most important factors. When examined using conjoint analysis of child care scenarios, warmth, flexibility of hours of operation, and education level of caregivers emerge as the most influential variables in the child care decision. Demographic differences in parental child care preferences and potential future uses for conjoint analysis are identified.

Novel word learning in the context of shared storybook reading has been primarily investigated with monolingual children, while experiments with Hispanic dual language learners (DLLs) are less prevalent. This exploratory study investigated the extratextual stylistic behaviors of storybook reading that promote novel word learning in DLL preschoolers enrolled in Head Start. Using monolingual studies for methodological support, we examined vocabulary noneliciting questions and noneliciting labels as well as the impact of English and Spanish conditions. Results from our home language survey showed that Spanish was the only adult language spoken in most children's homes. The present study's findings revealed that Spanish vocabulary noneliciting questions promoted expressive novel word learning. Implications for adults working with Hispanic DLL children in Head Start and future avenues for research are discussed.

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