To obtain information on the potential benefits of integration, the study investigated the nature and extent of social interactions among 37 mildly, moderately, severely, and nonhandicapped preschool children at different developmental levels. (Author)

Research findings indicate that children who are unpopular with their peers play in less emotionally mature cognitive and social ways than do children who interact well socially. It is suggested that noncompetitive play in familiar environments may promote a behavior change in unpopular children. (JN)

Forty-three preschoolers (14 three-, 16 four-, and 13 five-year-olds), who were attending four multi-age, child-centered classes in a University laboratory school, were assessed for perceptual, cognitive, and affective role-taking ability. These same children were then observed naturalistically (via systematic time sampling) in laboratory…

Offers a theoretical and methodological approach to study of children's socio-cognitive interaction. Observation of object-centered activities among three age groups of children showed different modes of collaboration. Processes were similar across age groups; roots of basic peer interaction patterns reach back into infancy. Similarities across…

Comments on Verba's ideas about collaboration in peer interaction in this issue. Praises Verba for setting new direction in the study and understanding of social processes in cognitive development and for establishing important continuities in how children communicate with peers. Notes that Verba's analyses suggest natural categories of…

This paper presents some background information and a brief report on the progress of the first two and one-half months of the Synanon study of the social behavior of communally-reared children in which an attempt is being made to apply ethological methods of observation and analysis to human infant behavior. The children range in age from 6 to 40…

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the use of an interaction analysis in assessing specific objectives of the Demonstration and Research Center for Early Education (DARCEE) preschool program. A time sampling technique was used to monitor the interactions of 8 children (3 males, 5 females) in two settings in the DARCEE Head Start…

The 11 chapters comprising this work focus on the interactional influences that may be related to differential classroom experiences for males and females. The effects of contextual factors, teacher characteristics, and student characteristics are investigated. Addressed primarily to researchers, this information should prove useful to teachers,…

This study reports on differences in children's interactional behaviors in traditional and nontraditional classrooms. The Differentiated Child Behavior Observational System which provides for systematic recording of group behavior in ongoing classroom activities, was applied in two days of observation in each of 17 classrooms (grades 1 to 3, ages…