The effects of a community-based literacy program on young children's language and conceptual development.

Effects of a community-based literacy program on 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old children's language and conceptual development were assessed. University students were trained to teach Head Start parents effective methods for reading to their children. Families were randomly assigned to receive 18, 3, or 0 instructional visits. Results indicated that parents in the 18-instructional-visit program increased their participation in appropriate literacy behaviors such as reading to their children, teaching concepts to their children, and using the library, more than parents in the 0-instructional-visit groups. Children in the 18-instructional-visit program showed greater gains in language and conceptual development than children in the 0-instructional-visit group. Few differences were found between children in the 3-visit and 0-instructional-visit groups. Thus, only a high-intensity community-based intervention designed to train parents was effective in increasing emergent literacy in low-income ethnic children.

Trace analysis of 2,6-disubstituted anilines in blood by capillary gas chromatography.

A simple, rapid, and sensitive procedure for the detection of 2,6-disubstituted anilines in the low nanogram range in blood is described. These aromatic amines were extracted from blood and converted to the corresponding N-hepta-fluorobutyramides, which were confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The derivatives yielded excellent electron capture detection (ECD) responses that allowed the identification and detection of these compounds at the low nanogram level by glass capillary GC/ECD. The procedure, which was tested in an in vivo system, is suitable for pharmacokinetic studies and toxicological investigations, and may be adapted for the quantitative determination of other substituted anilines and similar compounds in blood and other body fluids.