Spatial language and ability play important roles in children's cognitive development. Spatial ability in kindergarten predicts achievement in reading, math, science, and technology in primary school and therefore constitutes an important skill set in preparation for school entrance. Good spatial thinking skills are required for learning in…

The study investigates the preschool readiness of moderately preterm children and, in particular, the likely presence of learning disabilities at preschool age. Its theoretical model detects linguistic comprehension and expression; memory-related metacognition and cognition skills; orientation and motor coordination skills; premathematics and…

Spina bifida (SB) is a neural tube defect diagnosed before or at birth that is associated with a high incidence of math disability often without co-occurring difficulties in reading. SB provides an interesting population within which to examine the development of mathematical abilities and disability across the lifespan and in relation to the…

Compared performance of children with autism, with learning disabilities, and normally developing 4-year-olds on reasoning problems with and without instruction to use imagery. Found that instruction to use imagery led to persistent logical performance. Children with autism displayed a distinctive response pattern, performing around chance levels,…

A set of studies investigated the relative importance of operative schemes and figurative (rote) memory. In Study I, 60 concrete operational children from grades 1-4 were asked to reconstruct two types of stimuli from memory. In order to separate the effects of operative and figurative skill use, learning disabled children with poor figurative…

Investigates the role of operative schemes in explaining older children's superior memory on past Piagetian memory tasks. Contrasts were made between the performance of normal v learning disabled grade school children, and between preschool children who either possessed or lacked seriation schemes. (Author/SS)

This paper reports briefly on a program aimed at preventing the educational disadvantagement of young children through (1) the identification of preschool and kindergarten children who displayed deficits in general cognitive ability; (2) the development of a half-day program providing individually prescribed instruction to each of these children…

Focuses on a single case study of a mentally handicapped child to examine directly the relation between the development of number-after rules and a counting-on from the larger addend (COL) strategy. Examines the development of children's proficiency with n+ and 1+n combinations and the evolution of their counting-on strategies over time. (AA)

The Public Schools of Brookline, Massachusetts are operating a pilot program to assist families during the first five years of a child's life. The multidisciplinary program, entitled the Brookline Early Education Project (BEEP), aims to help each child obtain optimal physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. The program begins at…

This report examines the impact of the Saturday School (a school and home learning program for 4-year-olds in a large suburban school district) on the following four groups: (1) students with learning disabilities, (2) students identified as either "mentally retarded" or of "low intellectual functioning", (3) students with…

This report provides an overview of the scientific missions, research and research training funding trends, strategic planning initiatives, and research highlights for each Child Development and Behavior Branch (CDBB) research program for the years 1995-1999. CDBB develops scientific initiatives and supports research and research training relevant…

In recent years a growing body of evidence has implicated deficits in the automaticity of fundamental facts such as word and number recognition in a range of disorders: including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, apraxia and autism. Variously described as habits, fluency, chunking and over learning, automatic processes are best…

Representational competence refers to the individual's capability to respond appropriately to external representations. For example, a child engaged in a grouping task may collect together all like objects even if the group contains varying representations of the object, including (1) the object itself, (2) a three-dimensional likeness of the…

A reassessment of schools and education in general from the standpoint of the orthopsychiatrist, this volume attempts to answer a wide variety of questions such as: What does society expect from its educational institutions? What exactly is the educational experience and do we really mean to provide it for children? How can the schools best deal…

This study examined the instructional effectiveness of three software learning environments--LOGO, drill and practice, and teacher-directed activities--for preschool special needs children. Cognitive distancing was applied to classify children and child-software interactions; dependent measures included indicators of problem solving, skill…