At preschool age, it is generally accepted that children's main pursuit is play. In particular, pretend play has a major role in supporting a preschooler's learning processes. Early pretend play involves object substitution, before later progressing to the incorporation of invisible objects. The purpose of the presented study was to validate that…

Reviews some of the major cognitive, social, and emotional achievements of young children and discusses some of their limitations. Divides description of development into intellectual, language, social, and emotional development. Notes that this division represents adult categories of thought and does not represent young children's actual modes of…

Reviews research on intellectual, emotional, and social development of children in day care. (RH)

Reported is a longitudinal study in which families with preschool children were observed, interviewed, and tested over two years following the parents' divorce and compared with a sample of intact families. Findings on the impact of divorce on individuals, on family interactions, and on children's social and intellectual development are presented.…

This study explores (a) the relative effects of the Learning to Learn Program on the educational competencies of the experimental children (E) who attended the Learning to Learn Program as compared to control children (C) who participated in traditional preschool and primary grade programs; and (b) the developmant and longitudinal educational…

Accumulating evidence suggested that during the first 3 years a child needs a certain amount and quality of experience for an optimal rate of intellectual development. (Author)

Preschools are environments where children are given opportunities to develop emotional, social and intellectual capabilities, characteristics that by recent research have been revealed as health protecting. The objectives of this study were to examine the intentions of 25 Swedish municipalities to develop such capabilities through activities in…

Studied the relationship of family background and child care quality to preschoolers' cognitive, language, and social development. Concluded that family background variables were significant predictors of children's cognitive and language development, and that child care quality variables significantly predicted social adjustment and were a…

Reported was program effectiveness of an early childhood educational program designed to provide a supportive educational atmosphere to meet the educational needs of young children handicapped by deviant emotional, behavioral, educational, and neurological growth patterns. Eighteen students participated in the program with objectives of…

Several factors are eroding children's right to play. The first is continuing poverty throughout the world. This factor is evident in underdeveloped countries and the inner cities of industrialized countries. Changing cultural values are a second factor in developed societies where indifference toward the importance of play is prevalent. The many…

The Cognitively Oriented Preschool was implemented in West Chester, Pennsylvania as a special program to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of disadvantaged children moving into the area. This report describes the program as it was implemented, including specific daily activities as well as the various kinds of curricula used. Also included…

This document briefly describes Phase I of the Preschool Project. The research from 1969-72, Phase II, focuses on how the experiences and environments of highly competent and less competent children differ in early childhood. It is theorized that intellectual development is a function of a child's interaction with his human and physical…

A Piagetian analysis of social development focuses on the changes in children's social concepts and the social factors which facilitate these changes. Piaget's early analysis of children's language into a 3-stage transition from egocentrism to fully socialized speech led to more general study of social behavior. Observations of children playing at…

In this study, preferences for activities with people vs. objects were examined in preschool children and related to two kinds of intellectual abilities. Children with high object orientation were expected to be relatively advanced in organizing and classifying physical objects. In contrast, children with high people orientation were expected to…