Recognizing the valuable role nature plays in human development as well as humans' responsibility toward the earth is critically important when considering how to transform education for the betterment of the individual and society. In this article, the author views nature as a force or phenomenon of the metaphysical world. As such, she suggests…

Urges teachers to develop the genius that lies dormant in each child, the child's personal vision and idiosyncratic gift. (DD)

Evidence for the increasing recognition of maturational lag in addition to intellectual impairment, associated with the syndrome of early onset psychosis, is presented to indicate that developmental variables play a central role in the behavioral profile of autistic children. (Author)

Describes psychological approaches to study of cognition and emotion, identifies issues that may provide direction to understanding the organization and integration of cognition and emotion in development. Maintains that an integrative model for the study of "cogmotion" is needed, suggesting that cogmotion research will contribute to the exchange…

Searches for an understanding of developmental scholar William Kessen, and of what he was trying to teach in his later years. Discusses possible sources of Kessen's dissatisfaction with the field of child development, and whether any of these issues can be resolved in ways that Kessen might not have fully anticipated. Summarizes the main lessons…

England's Summerhill School is an alternative school based on child-centered philosophies involving, freedom, love of children, and natural development. A recent television program generated negative publicity that could endanger its future prospects. (SK)

Examination of the child prodigy phenomenon suggests it is a result of extremely accelerated mental development during sensitive periods that leads to the rapid growth of a child's cognitive resources and their construction into specific exceptional achievements. (Author/DB)

Although the connections between learning and identity are acknowledged in most contexts (e.g., family, community, and workplace), these issues are oddly divorced in schools, a curious bifurcation given schools' developmental agenda. This situation is suggested to have emerged from a Western folk-view in which the cognitive act of learning is seen…

Discusses contributions of Adolph's study to behavioral knowledge; it is an important study of the early development of a universal basic pattern of human behavior, illuminating how humans perceive the possibilities for action and learn to use them when appropriate opportunities are offered. Notes that the study addresses generalization of newly…

Offers psychologist Baldwin's theory as an approach to the development of social understanding emphasizing gradual differentiation of self and other and rooting this process in embodied activity within a social context. Argues that Baldwin's account provides a stronger starting point for conceptualizing the infant's discovery of other, self, and…

Argues that dynamic systems approaches may provide an explanatory framework based on general scientific principles for developmental psychology, using principles of self-organization to explain how novel forms emerge without predetermination and become increasingly complex with development. Contends that self-organization provides a single…

Today's children are being forced to achieve more and at an earlier age than ever before in society. Previously "natural" rites of passage into adulthood come too early for children, and they often do not get the chance to appreciate and experience the highly important period of life called childhood. (CJ)

Describes the Prospect Archives, which contain children's artwork and academic work as well as observations and reports on the children by teachers and other staff members of the Prospect School. The contents of the archive document the growth of individual students over a period of years. (Author/IRT)

A clinical psychologist recounts her childhood efforts to develop creatively despite the discouragements of many of the adults in her world. (DB)

Proposes an amended timetable for the origins of joint visual attention and offers theoretical alternatives for the development of point. Includes discussions of the origins of intentionality, the emergence of joint attention, the transition to pointing comprehension, the signal cues of different joint-attention cues, pointing comprehension, the…