Defines skills important for kindergarten success in areas of health and physical well-being, social and emotional skills, intellectual skills and general knowledge, and language and speech development. Lists eight "red flags" to help identify children who may need specialized assistance. (DLH)

Offers a qualitative, longitudinal study that focuses on individual changes in novice teachers triggered by continuous contact with students of another cultural background in multicultural schools. Reveals clear differences in the acculturation processes. Regards the increase in cognitive differentiation as an opportunity for personal change. (CMK)

Suggests that studies of the development of children with disorders of motor function afford opportunities, as yet unexploited, to understand the importance of motor function to overall child development. Maintains that Pellegrini and Smith's (1998) review provides a challenge to developmentalists from many disciplines to use their natural model…

Asserts that Bennett's edited work offers an informed, sophisticated, and thought-provoking overview of current issues in developmental psychology. Notes the volume prompts theoretical and empirical reflection and provides fair representation of trends and advances in mainstream child developmental psychology. Suggests that a more thematic…

Maintains that advances in the literature on perception-action development suggests that tool use may be a more continuous developmental achievement than previously believed. Suggests new research directions, including efforts to investigate the processes by which children detect and relate affordances between objects, coordinate spatial frames of…

A week-long residential program in the United Kingdom combines ritual with psychotherapy to assist men in coming to terms with the meaning of masculinity. The program recognizes no fixed notion of manhood, but aims to support each man as he finds within himself, and marks with ritual, the next step in his unique journey. (TD)

Recent research has demonstrated that employers can benefit from the participation of their staff in expeditions. The outcomes of expedition experiences are similar to those of outdoor development courses and include the personal development of expedition participants with regard to work performance, interpersonal skills, and learning. (Author/TD)

Addresses the need for art teachers to help students develop an empathetic awareness for others. Describes moral-cognitive learning as a means for encouraging empathy where a connection between the students and teacher must be made while a connection between self and ideas is also necessary; imagination also affects students' ability to care. (CMK)

Examines three forms of religious involvement in relation to ego strengths, ideological and ethnic forms of identity, general self esteem, and school self esteem for African American (n=62) and European American (n=63) students in 11th grade. Ego strengths of hope, will, purpose, fidelity, love, and care were associated with various forms of…

Examines 662 Arab adolescents' commitments to their own self-development, family, Arab people, and village along with the order in which these commitments are structured. Reveals that the two prevalent patterns of adolescent commitment, individualistic and collectivistic, demonstrate the adolescents' struggle with these value systems and the…

Racism is the current sociopolitical climate, the central bacteria, in our society, which prevents the possibility of social cohesion. This personal narrative explores a child's early experiences of racism and the development of a coping strategy. It calls for helping professionals to engage in "a lifelong critique of identity." (EMK)

Challenges some commonly-held beliefs about what primary children can and cannot learn about astronomy. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/WRM)

Describes the use of newspaper advice column letters as case problems in a human development course where students wrote weekly papers focusing on defining the problem in the letter, offering a solution to that problem, and relating the letter to course concepts. Reveals that students enjoyed and learned from the assignments. (CMK)

Examines how the Montessori community can work for peace within individuals, the schools, and the Montessori community itself by building school identity, creating family-friendly schools, building community within the faculty, and building a community of schools among the competing schools in the local area. Describes several peace programs for…

Analyzed self-perceived maturation associated with service in the Israeli army according to gender, rank, service trajectory (unit or role), and the socialization environment of the individual (urban or kibbutz). Results for 633 subjects suggest that army service contributes to the maturation of Israeli youth, and maturation is moderately affected…