Aim: It has been suggested that high levels of prenatal testosterone exposure are implied in the aetiology of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined the association between the ratio of the length of the second and fourth digits (2D:4D ratio), a marker of fetal testosterone exposure, and the presence of ADHD-related…

This semiotically informed article problematizes the concept of literacy as an aesthetic activity rather than reading skills and offers strategies for assessing young readers' understanding of fictional texts. Although not based on empirical research, the essay refers to and theorizes from extensive field studies of children's responses to…

What is the role and meaning of emotions in the second language learning process? To respond to this question, this article focuses on how learners' emotions manifest in their verbal communication over the course of a semester-long joint task. Recognizing interpersonal, functional, and developmental aspects of emotions, I illustrate how a group of…

An experimental methodology was used to test hypotheses concerning the effects of contextual, cognitive-developmental, and individual difference factors on children's views of whether they have been the target of gender discrimination and the possible consequent effect of such views on two forms of state self-esteem: performance and social…

This study investigated the visual information that children and adults consider while switching or maintaining object-matching rules. Eye movements of 5- and 6-year-old children and adults were collected with two versions of the Advanced Dimensional Change Card Sort, which requires switching between shape- and color-matching rules. In addition to…

This paper reports Grade 12 students' biology learning during interactive teaching classes in 2001 in Taiwan. The researcher as teacher, working within an interpretive framework, set out to improve her senior high school student biology teaching and learning. An intervention based on a social constructivist view of learning was designed,…

Recognising and nurturing giftedness in young children presents an important challenge to educators. This study sets out to identify and support gifted children through the provision of a rich learning environment in the Nursery (Kindergarten) setting. Practitioners in the Nursery aimed to provide cognitively challenging activities appropriate to…

This article reviews research conducted on social comparison processes in the classroom since Festinger proposed his theory of social comparison. It covers the theoretical framework of social comparison theory, and it is organized around the following themes: motives for social comparison, dimensions of social comparison, direction of social…

Music learning and music performance involve all aspects of the individual: cognitive, emotional, social, and psychomotor. John Feierabend shows that music requires a special kind of intellectual process that is unique to the discipline. Brain density reaches its peak in a child's first few years of life; hence, as with language, music learning…

Patterns of development of ToM belief abilities in intellectually disabled (ID) children and typically developing (TD) children matched on their developmental age were investigated. The links between cognition, language, social understanding and ToM belief abilities were examined. EDEI-R [Perron-Borelli M. (1996). "Echelles Differentielles…

Despite many disagreements on the utility of neuropsychological applications in schools, executive function measures have been found to be useful across a variety of areas and ages. In addition, many disagreements are extant in discussions of the maturational course of the development of executive functioning abilities that are dependent on…

Preschool teachers use the domino effect--standing dominos on end in rows and pushing one over--to examine how play contributes to children's acquisition of knowledge. Using diagrams, photos, and vignettes of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the authors demonstrate how children at different stages of development use physical knowledge…

Adults assess precisely the center of mass (CM) of single-bodied objects and choose grasping points that span an axis through or close to the center of mass when lifting them. The present study examined how children and adults assess the CM when lifting two-bodied objects (barbells) and how this ability develops. Four- to five-year olds, 6- to…

The developmental course in the distance-speed-time domain is still a matter of debate. Traditional stage models are contested by theories of continuous development and adaptive thinking. In the present work, we introduce a formal framework for modelling the developmental course in this domain, grounding on Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory.…

This study adds to the growing research on school outcomes associated with individual differences in preschoolers' theory of mind skills by considering whether "costs" of theory of mind (e.g., sensitivity to criticism) actually help to foster children's academic achievement. A group of 60 Italian children was tested during the last year…