Mitigating the perils of transition to early adolescence, while also supporting the promise of this stage of human development, has been a major focus of middle school reform (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989; Jackson & Davis, 2000). As a result, there are many classroom-based educational programs that target the social and…

Social and play skills are important developmental tasks for young children. Typically developing children learn appropriate social skills quite naturally and without specific intervention while interacting with other children in playful environments. Young children with disabilities, however, usually need social skills interventions, and these…

Defining emotional competence as the demonstration of self-efficacy in emotion-eliciting social transactions, this paper presents a model of emotional competence that explores the factors and skills contributing to the development of a mature emotional response that supports an individual's social goals. The paper first describes the primary…

Developmental guidance workshops (DGW) provide new direction and involvement for school guidance services. They are designed for existing classroom groups, to provide a more total learning environment and accelerate student growth toward fulfillment of developmental needs. An example of a nonthreatening workshop implementing the DGW concept is…

Presents six articles on brain research and child development: "Brain Research, Infant Learning, and Child Care Curriculum" (J. R. Lally); "The Thinking Brain" (P. Schiller); "Early Experiences Shape Social Development" (B. Caldwell); "Facing the Challenge of Motor Development" (P. Weikart); Language…

This is a report of a New York City school district educational project funded under Title l of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 which provided a supplementary reading and mathematics readiness program for early childhood CRMD pupils ranging in age from five to seven. The major goal of the program was to increase the levels of student…

Key developmental tasks of adolescence and the unique problems that face the learning-disabled adolescent are outlined, focusing on the role of social competency and communication effectiveness. Components of a comprehensive social competency training program include the nature of the learning disability, the affective-defensive pattern, adaptive…

Three case studies are used to illustrate how adolescent male-female relationships in a psychiatric hospital setting can effect growth in the developmental tasks of separation-individuation, identity formation, and preparation for successful adult relationships. (Author/JW)