Symbolic play is a powerful vehicle for supporting emotional development and communication. It embraces all developmental capacities. This article describes how symbols are formed and how emotional themes are symbolized whereby children reveal their understanding of the world, their feelings and relationships, and how they see themselves in the…

Three studies investigated developmental changes in facial expression processing, between 3 years-of-age and adulthood. For adults and older children, the addition of sunglasses to upright faces caused an equivalent decrement in performance to face inversion. However, younger children showed "better" classification of expressions of faces wearing…

This article introduces a novel hypothesis regarding amygdala function in psychopathy. The first part of this article introduces the concept of psychopathy and describes the main cognitive and affective impairments demonstrated by this population; that is, a deficit in fear-recognition, lower conditioned fear responses and poor performance in…

Contemporary research into science education has generally been conducted from the perspective of "conceptual change" in learning. This study sought to extend previous work by recognizing that human rationality can be influenced by the emotions generated by the learning environment and specific actions related to learning. Methods used…

This article explores the process of consultation to professional networks, teams, groups and individuals concerned with the mental health of children and young people in the care system, and those adopted. Frequently there are significant elements of early trauma suffered by the young people and disruption in the professional organisation. The…

Children with a history of maltreatment and placement into foster care face elevated risks of poor psychosocial outcomes including school failure, substance use, externalizing, and deviant peer association. For children in the general population, school engagement appears to be a promotive factor in preventing negative outcomes. In this study,…

Time perception, crucial for adaptive behavior, has been shown to be altered by emotion. An arousal-dependent mechanism is proposed to account for such an effect. Yet, physiological measure of arousal related with emotional timing is still lacking. We addressed this question using skin conductance response (SCR) in an emotion regulation paradigm.…

Executive function is understood as an umbrella term encompassing a number of interrelated sub-skills necessary for purposeful, goal-directed activity. Research suggests a vital role for executive function in children's social-emotional development. However, executive function is rarely considered in models of intervention programs that attempt to…

Reflects on G. Zivin's framework on the development of expressive behavior. Stresses the need to include noncognitive, as well as cognitive, affective activation in the framework, and the necessity for the adoption of an inclusive, synthesizing strategy at this stage of knowledge. (HOD)

Details some problematic features of G. Zivin's framework on the development of expressive behavior. (HOD)

Discusses how one's conception of intelligence and its development profoundly affects the formulation of educational objectives. A mechanistic conception of intelligence leads to the definition of objectives as a collection of fragmented "cognitive skills", while a Piagetian conception attempts to develop children's intelligence as an…

This article examines learning processes of the infant and the caregiver role in the development of social-emotional skills. The "lived experience" model is discussed that takes into account the dual coding of affect and behavior as the architecture of social and emotional development, along with the caregiver role in this process. (Contains…

The authors' investigations of the antecedents and consequences of the empathy response have been guided by a three-component model of empathy. Two of these components are cognitive: the ability to discriminate and label affective states in others, and the ability to assume the perspective and role of another person. Emotional capacity and…

The overall intention of this project was to enhance awareness, for those involved with persons on the autism spectrum, of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) strategies for treating persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The project involved a literature review on autism and the use of CBT strategies for people with autism spectrum disorders…

Highlights the strengths of the Halberstadt et al. contribution to the literature on social-emotional development. Discusses three issues relating to their model: (1) the inseparability of cognitive representation in both emotional and social functioning; (2) the role played by context; and (3) the significance of goals in any construct involving…