We introduce the thematic collection by noting some striking similarities in the cognitive abilities of human infants and nonhuman primates. What are the implications of these similarities for our comprehension of human infant cognition? After providing a brief historical and conceptual background on comparative behavioral research, we discuss how…

An account is given of a new research project that is concerned with examining the problems encountered by some young blind children as they learn to read braille. The research to be conducted will look at various developmental and learning theories that are used to explain the reading difficulties of sighted readers, with a view to ascertaining…

This paper presents research in female first sexual intercourse in Australia. Previous research in adolescent sexual behavior, particularly issues around first sexual intercourse behavior, has mainly utilized quantitative methodology. Our research adopted a qualitative approach to provide unique insight into adolescent sexual behavior, attitudes,…

In this book excerpt the authors briefly note the typical developmental features of babies ages birth to four months, four to eight months, eight to twelve months, and twelve to eighteen months. They make suggestions for interactions supporting play during each stage.

This paper reports on a pilot study concerning adolescent boys and spirituality, and specifically on data gathered from interviews with 20 boys of 15-17 years. The data from these interviews will inform the development of a questionnaire to be used more widely in the next stage of the research. The paper also explains and justifies the analytical…

There is a well-developed literature examining the immediate consequences of experiencing maltreatment during childhood. However, because of the problems of conducting longitudinal studies which follow subjects over many years, less is known about the long-term consequences of maltreatment. Using the Rochester Youth Development study, a…

In connection with the growing complexity and intensiveness of school instruction, special urgency attaches to the task of ensuring that the organization of the educational process at different levels of school is in keeping with the developmental stages of psychophysiological and social development. A number of researchers have emphasized the…

This study examined 3- to 5-year-olds' (N = 128; 54% girls) ability to discriminate emotional fantasy and reality. Children viewed images depicting fantastic or real events that elicited several emotions, reported whether each event could occur, and rated their emotional reaction to the image. Children were also administered the Play Behavior…

Rich with clinical insights, this volume reviews the state of the science of identifying and treating autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in very young children. Leading authorities examine critical research issues and present innovative approaches to assessing social, cognitive, adaptive, communication, and sensory-motor impairments in the first two…

This article examines a "calculus graphing schema" and the triad stages of schema development from Action-Process-Object-Schema (APOS) theory. Previously, the authors studied the underlying structures necessary for students to process concepts and enrich their knowledge, thus demonstrating various levels of understanding via the calculus…

A superhighway is being built across today's education landscape, extending from preschool to graduate school, writes Armstrong. This superhighway bypasses all the byways, narrow routes, and winding paths that have traditionally filled the road from early childhood to early adulthood. As schools race to move students through the curriculum at…

How do secondary teacher candidates learn about their responsibility for the ongoing literacy development of their students? How do they gain the understandings and knowledge of instructional practices necessary to meet this responsibility within their content teaching? The authors document three stages of development their students progress…

Motor developmentalists study the processes that underlie change in behavior. There are at least two fundamental ways in which theory and data emanating from motor development are critical components of what undergraduate kinesiology majors should know. First is an emphasis on the lifespan. We are very different organisms as we progress through…

This study examined the proposition derived from the integrative developmental contextual theory (IDCT) (Bar-Tal & Teichman, 2005; Teichman & Bar-Tal, in press) that contextual circumstances determining collective self esteem (i.e. conflict and social status), and developmental stage in which identity development is a central issue (pre-…

Fuzzy trace theory posits that during development the use of verbatim information for solving transitive relationships shifts to the use of gist information. In cognitive developmental research that uses a cross-sectional design, the binomial mixture model is often used to identify such shifts. Because the binomial mixture model assumes equal task…