The present study utilized a short-term longitudinal research design to examine the hypothesis that shyness in preschoolers is differentially related to different aspects of emotion processing. Using teacher reports of shyness and performance measures of emotion processing, including (1) facial emotion recognition, (2) non-facial emotion recognition, and (3) emotional perspectivetaking, we examined 337 Head Start attendees twice at a 24-week interval. Results revealed significant concurrent and longitudinal relationships between shyness and facial emotion recognition, and either minimal or non-existent relationships between shyness and the other aspects of emotion processing. Correlational analyses of concurrent assessments revealed that shyness predicted poorer facial emotion recognition scores for negative emotions (sad, angry, and afraid), but not a positive emotion (happy). Analyses of change over time, on the other hand, revealed that shyness predicted change in facial emotion recognition scores for all four measured emotions. Facial emotion recognition scores did not predict changes in shyness. Results are discussed with respect to expanding the scope of research on shyness and emotion processing to include timedependent studies that allow for the specification of developmental processes.

Research assessing children's emotion understanding has increased over the past several years. Despite the proliferation of research, there have been few studies conducted examining the development of emotion understanding in children from diverse backgrounds. Further, there has been no research conducted examining the psychometric properties of emotion understanding measures when used with children from diverse backgrounds. A total of 597 preschool children from low-income families enrolled in Head Start (248 Spanish-speaking and 349 English-speaking) were given an emotion understanding assessment in their native language at two sessions separated by six months. All children showed significant growth in emotion understanding abilities from time 1 to time 2, with English-speaking children generally outperforming Spanish-speaking children. The psychometric performance of the measure was analyzed for both English and Spanish samples and for English-speaking children at different levels of language ability.

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Assessment within the fields of early childhood education and early childhood intervention is guided by the deductive-psychometric model, which is a framework for legitimizing constructs that arise from theories. An alternative approach, termed the inductive-experimental model, places significantly more restrictions on what constitutes a legitimate construct. In this paper, the utility of these two assessment models, one more generative and one more restrictive, are evaluated within the context of a Head Start setting. Given the pragmatic goal of informing instruction, we argue for the superiority of the more restrictive approach. Implications for early childhood intervention are also discussed.The failures of the relief and rescue efforts in the wake of hurricane Katrina will undoubtedly generate a review of policies that guide how human services agencies serve their constituents. Questions will arise about the quality of the information they acquire and the extent that it contributes to effective decision-making and action. It is perhaps timely, therefore, to undertake such a review as it applies to agencies that serve young children and families. To preview, the dominant model for generating information within early childhood education and intervention is described and contrasted with an alternative model. The utility of these models are then evaluated with respect to ongoing attempts by one Head Start agency to develop assessment procedures that inform teaching. Although this case study concerns an agency devoted to educational outcomes, implications of these conclusions for all agencies serving children and families are discussed.