Over a 2-year period, observed the play of 6 mentally handicapped children who were 2-3 years old at the start of the study. Measured children's behaviors that related to displacing objects, finding and locating objects, and using language. Found that the sequence of the children's development of object knowledge and early language was similar to…

Investigates whether the prelexical phonological route develops prior to the visual route while learning to read Greek. Finds reading accuracy unaffected by the main psycholinguistic properties of words; chronological age did not influence long-term reading acquisition; and beginning readers used phonological information in reading but started to…

Presents 2 studies that examined theory of mind: first studied false belief in 3-4 year olds, and second studied second order attribution in 4 year olds. Results indicated that, when the test situation is realistic and actively involves the children, understanding of ignorance and false belief is seen at a younger age than when the traditional…

This study examined above-grade-level abstract reasoning abilities of 150 students (grades 2-6). Understanding of abstract concepts varied by age for only four of eight subscales or concepts: probability, proportion, momentum, and frames of reference. Performance varied widely within age level for the understanding of volume, correlation,…

Discusses the development of phonological awareness skills in early childhood and assessment of phonological awareness abilities. Explains rhyming tests, blending tests, and segmentation tests, along with specific intervention tasks and intervention materials and programs. Urges explicit training in phonological awareness for all children. (CR)

Studies how Singaporean children differentiate in drawing between a sphere and an elongated, straight-sided ovoid. Tests Piaget's and Inhelder's beliefs that very young children are unable to differentiate in their drawings between differently contoured shapes. Finds that children are able to show the difference in drawings between the two shapes.…

Conducted meta-analysis of experiments comparing duration judgments of children, adolescents, and adults. Found that children made larger verbal estimates, comparable productions, shorter reproductions of durations, and more variable judgments than did older participants. Concluded that explanations are needed for children's inaccurately learned…

Outlines theoretical perspectives of neo-Piagetians (Kohlberg, Peel, Labouvie-Vief), synthesizers (Kolb, Biggs, Pascual-Leone), and alternative theorists (Perry, Gilligan). Considers their applicability to adults and the implications for adult and higher education. (SK)

A study investigated elementary mathematical strategies used by 25 Hungarian children (ages 5 through 9) who are blind. Children dealt with numbers in five ways and experienced numbers in four ways. Although the children went through typical stages of development, their ways of dealing with numbers had some specific characteristics. (Author/CR)

Two studies examined developmental changes in handwriting variability. Results indicated that, between 3 and 5 years, the number of grip patterns that children routinely use declines and the variability associated with pen-surface positioning declines. Older 3-year-olds used an adult grip pattern more often and were less variable in pen-surface…

This cross-sectional study examined communicative function in children (ages 12-54 months either with profound hearing loss but learning spoken English for communication) or with normal hearing. Data suggested somewhat different patterns of communication function development between the groups. Also, the use of language for social purposes was…

Examined whether a detailed analysis of age-related changes in error patterns could reveal the mechanisms underpinning development in short-term memory. Tested developmental changes among 7- to 11-year-olds in their serial recall of lists of 6 letters, finding developmental differences in the patterns of errors. (JPB)

A study of 33 gifted children (ages 6-12) showed that external indicators of smartness were synthesized with internal factors of feelings and judgments about intelligence. A developmental progress in the children's understanding was found which suggests that age is a factor to consider when discussing giftedness with children. (Author/CR)

Examined how first, second, and third graders learned to spell and investigated other questions related to learning to spell. Data came from teacher notes, spelling pretests and posttests, and interviews about students' perceptions of writing samples and of themselves as spellers. Results indicated that spelling was a developmental process, and…

This study used longitudinal productivity criteria to establish the phonetic skill of 20 children (followed from 9 to 16 months). The number of specific consonants produced consistently across the months predicted referential lexical use at 16 months. Prior use of at least two supraglottal consonants characterized the children achieving…