An attempt to train concrete operational fifth-grade students (N=32) and seventh-grade students (N=32) to perform at the formal operational level on tasks demanding the control of variables are reported. The training was conducted in four individual sessions of approximately 30 minutes each. The training sessions were designed to represent a…

The purposes of this longitudinal study of early intervention with 83 black mother-child dyads were (a) to test the thesis that sociocultural transmission influences childhood development in educationally significant ways, and (b) to describe the process through which such transmission can occur. Two social intervention programs were contrasted;…

Reported are results of a study proposing to determine whether developmental patterns in correlational reasoning could be identified among a large and diverse sample; whether developmental patterns in correlational reasoning were similar regardless of problem context; and whether developmental patterns in correlational reasoning were similar for…

As part of an ongoing study of sex differences in spatial ability, three preliminary hypotheses on parental socialization, sex role socialization, and biological explanations were tested, using 139 high school seniors as subjects. The early findings indicated that there was no support for the hypothesis that boys and girls differ in how they view…

The resource manual, in two parts, provides a compilation of methods for enhancing the development of handicapped children from birth to 5 years in the areas of motor, communication, cognition, self help, and social skills. The manual is intended to aid in (1) assessing and identifying target behaviors to be achieved, (2) identifying methods for…

Israel's Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, a nationally administered home-based program of early childhood education, is discussed in this book. In addition to presenting information regarding the social conditions that necessitated development of the program, this book describes the theory and planning behind the program, its…

Fifth and sixth grade students from the State College Area School District (Pennsylvania) participated in a 5-day resident outdoor education program to investigate the effectiveness of such a program on the development of cognitive learning processes. Students were divided into experimental and control groups of one fifth and one sixth grade class…

Several studies that were directed towards examining the influence of cognitive factors in sex-related differences in mathematics achievement are reported. Specifically, two lines of research were pursued examining: (1) the relationship between different types of visual-spatial skill and mathematics achievement, and (2) the trainability of…

The Auditory Discrimination in Depth (ADD) program, an oral-motor approach to beginning reading instruction, trains first grade children in auditory skills by a process in which language and oral-motor feedback are used to integrate auditory properties with visual properties. This emphasis of the ADD program makes the child's perceptual…

Piagetian levels of 126 volunteers (60 males and 66 females) were measured using the Burney Logical Reasoning Test. Findings demonstrated that the six predictor variables succeeded in explaining 58% (pooled male/female sample), 53% (female sample), and 59% (male sample) of the variance in Piagetian cognitive levels. In addition, since prediction…

The value and function of play behavior in young children, and the process and conditions by which play contributes to learning, cognition and problem solving, are explored in this literature review. The first section examines early theories of play, the psychoanalytic theory of play, and the developmental stages of play. Common elements of play…

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between parental style of psychological defense and children's social competence in 50 families in which one parent had been hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder. The children sampled were nine 4-year-olds, eleven 7-year-olds and thirty 10-year-olds. Based upon a formal analysis of the…

Every speech community has a baby talk register (BT) of phonological, grammatical, and lexical features regarded as primarily appropriate for addressing young children and also for other displaced or extended uses. Much BT is analyzable as derived from normal adult speech (AS) by such simplifying processes as reduction, substitution, assimilation,…

This instructor's guide for a foster parent curriculum consists of specific curriculum material for the study of the social and psychological development of children aged 6 to 12. The guide is divided into 5 parts: (1) a developmental guide of normal child behavior and appropriate adult responses; (2) an outline for instruction which lists desired…

This study investigated the relationship between children's ability to conserve on Piagetian tasks and six measures of the openness of classrooms which comprise the Dimensions of Schooling Questionnaire (DISC): (1) individualization of instruction; (2) student independence; (3) environmental flexibility; (4) nongradedness; (5) flexibility of…