This commentary endorses J. Kagan's (2008) conclusion that many of the most dramatic findings on early perceptual, cognitive, and social competencies are ambiguous. It supports his call for converging research operations to disambiguate findings from single paradigms and single response indices. The commentary also argues that early competencies…

Preliminary report of a longitudinal study. (ST)

Comparisons of age and test score correlations, comparisons of cross-sequential means, and trends of means for diagnostic subgroups and normal controls suggest developmental delay for all measured skills at all ages for autistic and schizophrenic children. Findings also suggest a trend for steady prepubertal cognitive skill development, followed…

Examined whether spatial classification is discovered during play and if external products of play lead children to use space to represent similarity. Found through two experiments--a longitudinal study of four children's classification behaviors, and the examination of play behavior with two types of objects--that comparison of different kinds…

This paper describes a series of longitudinal experiments which dealt with the development of object awareness in infants, ages 6-18 months. The experiments were designed to document and evaluate Piaget's account of this development. The studies focused on two types of phenomena: (1) when infants first find an object hidden in one place, they will…

Used a multivariate approach and longitudinal design to examine the relationship of early perceptual and cognitive development in first grade, to school achievement in fourth grade. Results indicated variables used to predict achievement differed between the sexes, and sex as a predictor variable depended upon area of achievement studying.…

Results argue against the too frequent use of human figure drawings as a single, stable, and accurate measure of intellectual ability. (Authors/CB)

A longitudinal study of three children examined the relation between object permanence and language development. (Author/NCR)

This research investigates the learning impact of Montessori prekindergarten training as compared to traditional approaches with economically deprived Puerto Rican and Negro children. The three-part, 156-page monograph includes a 22-page introduction to Parts I and II, and a 37-page appendix to Part I. Parts I and II assess training effects of the…

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is beginning a comprehensive longitudinal study of the cognitive, personal, and social development of disadvantaged children from age 3 to grade 3. ETS hopes to identify the antecedents of favorable intellectual and social development and to suggest what kinds of educational programs might help to bridge the…

This report is part of a comprehensive study of the cognitive, personal, and social development of disadvantaged children over the crucial period age three through grade three. The aims of the study are to identify the components of early education associated with children's development, to determine the environmental and background factors…

This report investigates perceptual functioning in the kindergarten first-grade period for slow- and average-maturing children. Two sets of auditory and visual tasks were devised: (1) identifying the first of an ordered pair of lights or tones when speed of presentation was a factor, and (2) categorizing each stimulus signal either by a uni- or…

Noting that the last 30 years have seen enormous increases in the understanding of infancy, this book examines the current state of knowledge regarding infant development. The book's contents stem from meetings of the British Infancy Research Group. Although the book was intended for advanced undergraduates, it would also be useful for advanced…

This paper describes the purposes and procedures of a longitudinal study designed to: (1) relate mother-infant interaction patterns to infant age, sex, and social class; (2) relate mother-infant interaction patterns to infant sensory-motor development; and (3) to examine the relationship between infant sensory-motor development and infant sex and…

This document on early characteristics of high and low achieving black children of low socioeconomic status is part of the ETS Head Start longitudinal study, Disadvantaged Children and Their First School Experiences. In the study reported here, intensive case studies were prepared for those study children who, on a 3rd-grade achievement test,…