Early childhood learning of language has led some to postulate innate knowledge of an abstract symbolic linguistic system. However, if the child's abstract understanding initially requires concrete support in the form of agreement of the message with his nonlinguistic experience, the indication would be that the development of syntactic…

Girls' responses to fantasy in children's literature as related to a conceptual framework (extrapolated from books of modern fantasy) of intellectual development (based on Piaget's theoretical formulations) were investigated. The three stages of thinking corresponded to the ages of the subjects: five year olds represented the preoperational stage,…

This report summarizes research evidence of the values in early childhood education with emphasis on nursery school education. Included are studies of the effects of nursery school and kindergarten on children's social, personal, emotional, and intellectual development, and later school achievement. Other reports focus on race awareness, dramatic…

A study on the intellectual consequences of science teaching in the classroom is reported in this dissertation to illustrate the importance of the views of science emerging in instruction and to produce an analytical scheme for detecting students' ability to judge knowledge claims rationally and independently of their teachers. Instrumentalism and…

This study tested 60 children, 5 to 8 years old, on a variety of mental, moral, social, creative and cognitive tasks to determine the interrelatedness of those variables and their relationships to the intellectual process of decentration. The subjects were observed while attending a summer program prior to entering grades one through three.…

The methodology and content of the modern behavioral sciences as reflected in the writings of John Upton, C. K. Ogden, I. A. Richards, and Jean Piaget were used in creating a one-semester controlled experiment in Freshmen composition. Depending primarily upon Upton's "Creative Analysis," this program resulted in significant gains in IQ…

The development of children's humor is described, focusing on the cognitive aspect of what is funny and how this relates to children's intellectual growth. Cognitive elements that facilitate children's humor are identified as: (1) the ability to grasp incongruities, (2) the presence of an intellectual challenge, (3) timing, (4) novelty, and (5) a…

In the study reported here, teachers were given a 5th grade student's report card to which was attached a photo of either an attractive boy, an unattractive boy, an attractive girl, or an unattractive girl. Teachers completed an opinion sheet indicating their best estimate of: (1) the child's IQ; (2) his peer relationships; (3) the parents'…

Three groups of children (urban black, urban white, rural white) from Middle Tennessee who live in an Appalachian-type environment were studied to assess their health and nutritional status. In addition, some attempt was made to relate aspects of physical status to intellectual adequacy as measured by the Stanford-Binet or the Wechsler Preschool…

Thirteen papers given by language specialists are presented. These analyze special linguistic (semantic) problems that occur when interconnected strings of sentences constitute data base; they also analyze special psychological problems (of memory, inference, and motivation) that occur when human subjects are exposed to discourse materials in…

Games through which parents, family day-care centers, and large day-care centers can provide learning opportunities for children are presented. The primary aim of these activities is to encourage intellectual and language development. The sections of the book, which are not arranged by age, are as follows: Sorting and Matching Games, Building an…

The differential visual responses of 20 Down's Syndrome and 20 normal infants (CA 8 months) to 13 pairs of visual targets were compared. Although DS subjects generally looked longer at the stimuli than normal subjects, they showed a response differential in only 3 stimulus pairs compared to 11 for the normals. Six of the stimulus pairs elicited…

FROM A STUDY OF GUILFORD'S MODEL OF THE STRUCTURE OF INTELLECT, THE HYPOTHESIS WAS FORMED THAT THE ABILITIES MOST IMPORTANT TO LEARNING MATHEMATICS AND MOST LIKELY TO BE CULTIVATED IN MATHEMATICS CLASS ARE THOSE WHICH REQUIRE THE OPERATIONS OF COGNITION AND CONVERGENT PRODUCTION PERFORMED ON SYMBOLIC AND SEMANTIC CONTENT. A BATTERY OF TESTS…

Metaphors of similarity and proportionality, together with a pictorial form of similarity metaphors, proverbs, and several Piaget-type cognitive tasks, were given to 50 boys aged 5 through 13 years. Results indicated that metaphor comprehension is a type of classificatory behavior, the development of which is related to maturing cognitive…

Discusses the books used by Bronson Alcott in the school he opened in Boston in 1834, and tells methods Alcott used to stimulate children's imaginations, appreciation of literature, and spiritual understandings. (GW)