Discusses the developmental process that takes a child from Montessori's "absorbent mind" period to the period when the child creates interior cognitive structures. Suggests practical ways for teachers and parents to support the six- and seven-year old's need to design projects and accomplish goals. (HTH)

Examined the relationship of caregivers' beliefs and behavior to personal and professional background and work environment. Studied the quality of care in family day care homes in Israel in terms of the caregiver's behavior. With the exception of the attribution of influence, caregivers' beliefs were not related to their background or work…

Discusses Gilligan's explanation of the distinction between justice and care. Describes how she contrasts the two notions and explores the possibility of encompassing care within Piagetian developmental theory. Reviews Gilligan's position on justice and care as different forms of moral judgment. Examines different interpretations of universality…

Reviews research on the influence of intervention programs such as Project Head Start on the development of young children. Declares a lack of explanations as to how gains are made in programs showing substantial gains. Reviews factors affecting social science research. Makes recommendations for future research and programs. (NL)

This study analyzed the impact of child and family variables (such as child's functioning level, parent-child interaction, and parent and family adaptation) on the progress of 12 children (ages 2-4) with autism. Analyses showed a strong inverse relationship between mother-reported stress and child progress. (Author/JDD)

Responds to Herbert Zimiles's criticisms in this issue of an overreliance on empirical, quantitative data in child development research, arguing that, although quantitative research has limitations, intuition is no substitute for a rigorous, systematic investigation of a hypothesis. (MDM)

Responses to youth violence include intervention programs to teach children alternative skills for solving problems and to challenge superficial beliefs about the glories of violence. Children on a destructive path need someone they can trust who will guide them. Lists 29 measures in response to school violence and the percentage of school…

Discusses how teachers can aid young children in developing social skills in and outside the home through reading and discussing books that present characters and social situations with which children can identify. Discusses several such child-recommended book titles from "Children's Choices" and includes an annotated bibliography of additional…

An intervention program designed for 62 adolescent mothers and their children (ages 3-39 months) that included a curriculum focused on improving mother-child interaction skills and the mothers' knowledge of child development, resulted in the children making significantly greater gains on selected developmental skills than did their peers.…

Transescent (preadolescent and early-adolescent) students are at high risk for negative social and psychological consequences, and their unique nature concerns educators. The emergence of junior high and middle schools illustrates educational attempts to address transescents' needs and reduce risk. Middle schools, with their current philosophical,…

Describes a conceptual model of physical activity promotion based on the unique developmental, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of children. The model adopts a social-ecological framework by acknowledging the input of various personal, social, and environmental influences on children's physical activity. It also unites constructs from…

A study investigated the effects of a neurobehavioral motor intervention on intentional communication development of four children (ages 1 to 3) with neuromotor impairments. Related communication skills linked to motor targets were observed. All subjects increased the use of communication behaviors following implementation of the motor-skill…

Discusses the underidentification of young highly-gifted children and describes the developmental differences in highly-gifted children. Issues in the identification of young highly-gifted children are addressed, along with suggestions for teacher nomination, parent nomination, ability and achievement testing, and appropriate placements of…

Examined how French mothers' gestures and prosody contributed to their infants' conversational competence, investigating how they used ostensive marking to point out common references at different developmental stages. Longitudinal observations of mother/infant dyads during free play at three developmental stages indicated that mothers adapted…

Describes the Deaf Mentor Experimental Project, which provided deaf-mentor services to young deaf children, ages 0 to 5, and their families. Deaf adults (mentors) shared their language (American Sign Language), culture, and personal knowledge of deafness while serving as role models for the children. Program children made greater language gains…