Examined how quality of center-based child care related to early cognitive and language development from 6 to 36 months among 89 African American children. Found that higher quality care was related to higher measures of cognitive, language, and communication development, even after adjusting for selected child and family characteristics.…

Concerns development of children's understanding of data and classification. Studies three intact classrooms worked over several sessions to categorize drawings made by children and progressively mathematize their categorization rules. Concludes that by engaging with data characterized by prototypic rather than crisp membership values, students…

Reviews research on the effect of stress hormones, particularly glucocorticoids, on the brain and early development. It describes the psychological and social processes that reduce stress hormone responses to threatening and painful procedures. Research on the cognitive and emotional effects of synthetic glucocorticoids is also discussed.…

Defines the components of self-regulation ability--learners' ability to participate actively in their learning: as strategic knowledge, self-efficacy, ownership, mastery orientation, and self-reflection. Presents guidelines for promoting self-regulation ability through instructional design that incorporates these components. (AEF)

Two studies investigated effects of a cognitive early education program on teachers' use of mediated learning strategies and kindergartner's cognitive modifiability and task-intrinsic motivation. Study 1 found that teachers with program experience used more mediation than nonexperienced teachers. Study 2 found that program children improved…

Explored the role of folktales of deception in developing 3- and 4-year-olds' theory of mind. Found that the story's deceptions elicit discussions that change over successive readings as the child shows increasing comprehension of the deceptions and decreasing need of parental support. Parent's and child's gender influenced frequency and…

Active involvement in music can yield significant intellectual and emotional benefits. A Washington-area high school features a digitally literate music teacher and a piano lab with 25 workstations allowing music-loving students to express their creativity. MIDI sequencers and synthesizers aid young composers' efforts. (MLH)

Four conditions of a standard false belief task were administered to 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI), 10 children of the same age, and 9 younger children with comparable language skills. Results found that linguistic competence served as a limiting factor in false belief performance in children with SLI. (Contains references.)…

A study of 172 male and 120 female college students with learning disabilities investigated interaction of gender and ability on cognitive, language, and achievement variables. Most measures were strongly related to general cognitive ability. Gender differences were found for general short-term memory on one cognitive measure and the…

Places current research on children and computers in historical context with earlier research on the mass media, noting recurrent patterns in 20th century media research. Concludes that to inform and sustain the creation of more quality content for children, further research is needed on the effects of media on children, with new partnerships…

Examines evidence that the research community studying infants' object concept and the community concerned with adult object-based attention have been studying the same natural kind. Maintains that the discovery that the object representations of young infants are the same as the object files of mid-level visual cognition has implications for both…

Examined the role of four separate maternal parenting factors (warmth, punitiveness, intrusiveness, and involvement in school activities) in kindergartners' cognitive competence among Head Start children. Found that maternal intrusiveness predicted child cognitive competence while children were in Head Start, and maternal school involvement…

Two experiments used Visual Expectations Procedure to investigate development of expectations in infants up to 12 months old. Reaction time improved and the percentage of anticipations increased between 6 and 9 months using an alternation pattern or a complex pivot pattern, and between 4 and 8 months when using a left-right alternation or a…

Examined social, emotional, and cognitive characteristics of American and Chinese 6-year-olds' narratives. Found that, compared to American children, Chinese children showed greater orientation toward social engagement, greater concern with moral correctness, greater concern with authority, a less autonomous orientation, more expressions of…

By using visual tools corresponding to thinking processes, students can organize their ideas on paper or by computer and improve their reading, writing, and thinking skills. After the brainstorming process, eight types of thinking maps (circle, bubble, double-bubble, tree, flow, multiflow, brace, and bridge maps) are useful graphic organizers.…