The value of language and intellectual stimulation in young children is stressed in a report designed for health administrators and family planning organizations. First year developmental milestones are outlined, and a baby's need for attention as well as the need to provide information on speech and intellectual development to parents are…

The English and Spanish utterances of 19 bilingual preschool children were monitored as they conversed with experimenters. Characteristics of the children's language are reported for a bilingual prestage (exhibited by the youngest subject) and for four developmental stages in English and Spanish. These stages are characterized by approximately…

Psychosocial theory, based on the ideas of Erik Erikson and Robert Havighurst, is proposed as a useful framework for conceptualizing the potential for growth within the family. Erikson's (1950) eight stage theory of psychosocial development and Havighurst's (1959) concept of developmental tasks are used to take account of the stages of development…

Developmental differences in preschool children's abilities to communicate about basic and subordinate level semantic contrasts were examined in a referential communication situation. Twenty-four three, four, and five-year-old children communicated with children of the same age and adults about pictures' referents. Speakers talked about one…

Researchers have long focused upon the problems of student/adolescent drug use; however, such a limited perspective may actually provide inaccurate information as to the actual nature and extent of total drug use. It may be more appropriate to emphasize a lifespan developmental perspective regarding drug abuse behaviors, insofar as drug use must…

This document cautions against high expectations on the part of educators for rapid cognitive growth during middle school years--and urges a rethinking of curricular structure for those years--based upon neurological data concerning brain growth patterns. Empirical research (case studies, autopsy studies, cadaver research) conducted by Epstein has…

Two developmental stage theories concerned with moral development (Kohlberg) and ego development (Loevinger) were compared. Correlational relationships between the stages of each theory were measured, and a contingency table that visually portrayed the relationships between the stages was included. The study was based on two hypotheses: (1) There…

Samples of 98 fourth graders and 111 sixth graders participated in a study of the relationships between operational thinking and reading comprehension of texts involving operational structures. Tests of operational thinking, reading comprehension, IQ, and vocabulary were administered in class groups. Results from correlational and factor analyses…

Three stories were presented via audiovisual media to each of three classes in grade two, three classes in grade four, and three in grade six. Children were interviewed individually after the presentations and were asked which misdemeanor in the stories was naughtiest, whether the punishment was fair, what punishment would be fair, and why.…

A modified version of Inhelder's and Piaget's bending-rods task was administered twice in succession to 9-, 11-, and 13-year-olds. Subjects were then categorized as spontaneous, latent, or nonusers of the formal operational control-of-variables strategy according to whether they used the strategy on the first, second, or neither administration.…

The relationship was studied between Kohlberg's stages of moral development and the process of decision making utilized by 214 subjects, aged 14 to 63 years, during the resolution of hypothetical moral dilemmas. It was not possible to distinguish moral development stages on the basis of decision making criteria. (Author/BH)

Explores age differences in children's conceptions of play, pretending, and toys. Examines parallel structural changes in other areas of development, such as language acquisition. Subjects for the study were 5-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children. (BD)

Points out that an aspect of Piaget's theory, the concept of stage, is being misrepresented through vague and incorrect use of the idea. (Author/GA)

The technology of behaviorism and the social consciousness of normalization have produced monumental changes for developmentally handicapped children but lack an intrinsic developmental perspective. Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory is proposed as a framework to provide content, direction and structure for educational and habilitative…

The proportion of children in a representative sample of 1200 15- to 16- year-olds showing different Piagetian levels of thinking was measured. No increase in the proportion showing formal operational thinking was found beyond the age of 15. Investigated whether boys develop at the same rate as girls. (Editor/RK)