Although some research has been conducted in the past, few studies have investigated children's conceptions of life, death and dying. To study children's ideas about death, 112 children, age 4-18, were asked to draw what they thought of when they heard the word "death" and also to make verbal comments about their drawings. Three…

Major life developmental tasks are identified, along with the learning outcomes necessary to fulfill those tasks for adults from age 17 to retirement. Attention is directed to the important connection between life cycle change and adult learning as well as seven assumptions underlying life cycle theory. Developmental tasks and learning needs are…

This annotated bibliography attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What is criticial thinking? (2) Can it be taught and to whom? (3) Which methods are most practical for teaching critical thinking to secondary students? and (4) Can its acquisition be tested? The first question researches the literature for a definition of the term. The…

Many studies have hypothesized a developmental relationship between children's chronological and mental ages and their intrapersonal perceptions of internal and external control. To investigate longitudinal changes in children's locus of control, 97 elementary school children, between the ages of 8 and 13, were administered the Children's…

This paper reviews recent theoretical developments and empirical findings in the area of the development of word knowledge in children. Advances in both linguistic and cognitive theory are described and synthesized, and children's word knowledge at various stages of development is outlined. The point is made that asking meaningful questions about…

Implications for affective education are drawn from an empirical study of 60 upper-middle socioeconomic class 6 to 15 year-olds' responses to questions asking how videotaped actors felt. Percentage frequencies of category use in tape-recorded transcripts coded by two judges revealed no differences by child's sex. Marked developmental differences…

Children's use of proforms in spoken descriptions of real situations was studied and compared with that of adults to explore possible developmental progressions in the use of indexical reference. A discourse distinction between situational and textual reference was applied to data from 6-year-old and 10-year-old children and from adults. Subjects…

The purpose of this study was to examine verbal conceptual knowledge of selected economic topics to test for the existence of age, gender, and/or ethnic related trends and patterns. Three hundred fifty-five children, aged 2-l/2 through 16, were interviewed in one-on-one sessions by their teachers. Five questions were asked: (1) Why do people…

Ten replication studies based on quantitative procedures developed to measure motor and sensory/motor skill acquisition among handicapped and nonhandicapped infants and children are presented. Each study follows the original assessment procedures, and emphasizes the stability of interobserver reliability across time, consistency in the response…

Burnout must be considered as symptomatic of a serious event in a person's life--a mid-life crisis, as it is widely termed. Numerous writings point out that during a period of life, roughly between the ages of 30 and 55, many people reach a crisis brought on by the realization that everyone's career, status, and life are measurable and limited.…

The paper examines the development of language in the deaf blind child with emphasis on the child's motoric behavior and imitation as the initial step in language acquisition. Discussed are the following early developmental stages: symbionic (the close physical and emotional identification of child with the mother to be or new mother); resonance…

Jean Piaget's theories of development are reviewed and implications for instruction of mildly and moderately retarded children are drawn. Piagetian research with the retarded is traced, particularly the work of Barbel Inhelder. The research cited concludes that the cognitive development of retarded children follows the same pattern as normal…

Teachers can use unit blocks as tools for directed learning activities, or blocks can be reserved for children's discovery learning experiences. To use unit blocks for discovery learning, children need adequate, protected space and sufficient, uninterrupted time. Given opportunities for free play with unit blocks, children progress through seven…

This article provides a comparative analysis of studies in which symbolic play in children ages 1 through 3 was the major focus of a formal research strategy. The review provides readers with (1) information allowing more effective evaluation of research involving symbolic play and (2) background for designing or adopting play measurement…

A study was conducted to examine longitudinal and cross-sectional age effects on accuracy of decoding nonverbal cues. A videotaped nonverbal discrepancy test was administered to 78 children aged nine to fifteen years. The test measured (1) decoding accuracy--the extent to which subjects were able to identify affects (positivity and dominance) from…