Research results reported in this special issue show that egocentricity and staging, both central ideas in the Piaget-Kohlberg account of human development, are myths. The appearance of egocentricity and staging can be accounted for by a subtle combination of ethnocentricity and the effects of inappropriate methodologies. (RM)

The transition from preverbal to verbal communication of 13 retarded and nonretarded children was explored in a prospective, longitudinal study. Mental development was tested at ages 13 months and at 2 and 3 years. Results seem to support the postulate of a skill-specific homology in the transition from preverbal to verbal communication.…

Tells how undergraduate student volunteers tested children, ages 3 to 10 years old, to reveal their development in language, conservation of volume and weight, and moral judgment. These videotaped sessions were then used in class to illustrate important concepts. (JDH)

Reports on a study that used two approaches to examine how words are used to create meaning in written discourse in order to illuminate the differences among a group of essays written by 12 developing writers. (HTH)

Elementary students in grades K-1 and 4-5 (N=98) responded to descriptions of a hyperactive boy under one of two solution conditions (medication vs. effort) and one of two outcome conditions (success or failure). Among reported findings was that older children particularly valued the child whose own efforts succeeded. (Author/JW)

Analyzes an intimate journal, Florida Scott-Maxwell's "The Measure of My Days". Scott-Maxwell's journal contains suggestive ideas about the experience of aging among the old-old, about the theoretical issue of late life individuation, and about successful aging. (Author/ABB)

Examines the major findings in the history of the family, with special attention to their relations to childhood and child development. The focus is on the family and household structure and the wider kin group, the life course and the relations between the family and social change. (BB)

From a developmental-structuralist perspective, describes stages of child development; presents operational criteria to help the clinician categorize infants and young children whose behavioral and emotional patterns may fall outside the expectable, normal range; and illustrates the diagnostic approach with five case studies. (RH)

Studies 40 children ages 1 to 3 with respect to stage 6 object permanence, representational language, and symbolic play. Examines methodological problems in investigations of Piaget's model of cognitive-linguistic relationships related to the definition of these variables and associated with the use of correlations for data analysis. (Author/CB)

Reviews research studies aimed at informing children about illness and hospitalization, points out methodological problems in such studies, and describes work based on the normal child's ideas of health and illness. (Author/RH)

Asks adults and 6-, 9- and, 13 year olds' questions about tape-recorded stories in order to investigate their ability to recognize sincere, deceptive, and sarcastic remarks. Results indicate that the youngest children interpret all remarks as sincere; 9 and 13 year olds can appreciate deliberate falsehood, but only adults identify sarcasm.…

The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with Vygotsky's theory on verbal regulation of thinking skills, to describe related research and applications of the theory, and to explore its relevance for researchers, parents, and educators. (MT)

Argues that James Moffett's influential model of a young writer's development is flawed, because it depicts beginning writers as being far more limited than they are. (HTH)

Inhelder and Piaget found that somewhere between 12 and 15 years of age, children's thinking shifted from concrete to formal operations. To determine if this shift occurs at approximately the same age for learning disabled children (N=27) compared to normal learning children (N=27) was the task of the study reported. (JN)

Evaluated developmental trends in social perception by examining accuracy and consistency using a novel nonverbal trait-inference task at four age levels (5-6, 7-8, 9-11, and 19-22 years) in male subjects. This general paradigm may prove useful in future investigations of social perceptual development, particularly when consistency as well as…