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…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

This article describes the character education program in Donald Stewart School No. 51, in Elizabeth, NJ, a dual-language preschool serving 300 students that first opened its doors in 2004. Over the years this school has been committed to laying the foundation of character development with its preschoolers. Their pillar "Friends Care, Friends…

There are 25 million displaced children worldwide, and those receiving schooling are often educated in overcrowded classrooms. Montessori is a child-centred educational method that provides an alternative model to traditional educational approaches. In this model, students are able to direct their own learning and develop at their own pace,…

Poverty, neglect, or family stress can make it especially difficult for young children to develop the self-discipline and habits of mind they will need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Armed with research and a commitment to the whole child, Washington state has transformed the way its agencies work together and in partnership with…

This study investigated intellectual development in 4-7 years old Greek and Chinese children. They were examined on speeded performance, working memory, reasoning, and self-awareness tasks in order to investigate possible effects of learning the Chinese logographic system on possible differences in intellectual development between these ethnic…

Progress monitoring tools have been shown to be essential elements in current approaches to intervention problem-solving models. Such tools have been valuable not only in marking individual children's level of performance relative to peers but also in measuring change in skill level in a way that can be attributed to intervention and development.…

This study examined the role of variability and change in children's strategy performance within the context of spelling. The spelling ability of 34 eight- to nine-year-olds was examined using an experimental spelling task comprising 45 items, which varied with regard to rime unit frequency. The spelling task incorporated a series of consistent,…

Presents an evolutionary model of children's play, noting that an evolutionary approach to children's play is virtually unknown in educational studies. Maintains that there is some urgency in stressing the contribution biological sciences can make to the study of early development, because an enormous amount of relevant research has been ignored…

Interpersonal, familial, and situational risk factors that predict young children's aggression and non-compliance are explored. Here examples of specific techniques and provided to help teachers and parents effectively support children's early development of cooperative and prosocial behaviours as well as problem-solving skills in family and…

In 2005, the Children's Aid Society launched The African American Male Initiative to respond to the growing concern for the status of African American males and to bring about change. The initiative aims to: (1) more fully understand the issues facing our Black male clients and (2) create new program strategies that will better address the needs…

This paper describes a computer-simulation model of the way in which basic reasoning processes develop in children. The model, based on PRISM-II programming language, was designed to reflect the manner in which world knowledge can be used to construct strategies for reasoning. The model learns strategies for performing transitive inference by…

Stages of moral reasoning through which children develop, as researched by developmental psychologists Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, are outlined in the introduction of this paper. The six stages are defined and exemplified by the moral issue of the value of human life. The developmental model, as it is argued, is suitable for instruction in…

This study employs a time-series analysis of naturalistic developmental functioning to describe characteristics of transition in social development. A special education classroom of eight preadolescents, ages 11 and 12, provided subjects for this study. Transitional patterns in social cognitive development were studied in children's…

A study of the advantages and disadvantages of various types of infant care provided by someone other than the mother is presented. Problems listed as occurring in intervention programs include: maternal-child attachment, individual differences among infants, planning problems, and emotional-social development. Types of intervention studied are:…