Reviews Maria Montessori's view of sensitive periods and examines the kinds of help needed from adults: an open mind, specific help from a prepared learning environment, and challenges presented at the right time. Stresses the universality of sensitive periods and their connection to brain development. Focuses on the unconscious nature and…

Describes signs of possible learning disabilities in early childhood, during the elementary grades, in middle school, in high school, and in college students and other adults. Includes a table differentiating 25 characteristics of individuals with dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder. (KB)

Explains how an understanding of the developmental stages of teachers can help in designing collaborative induction-year internship programs for orienting beginning teachers to classroom realities, and describes developmental sequences (microphases) that occurred while observing beginning teachers in a year-long collaborative university-school…

This study found that 23 hearing-impaired and 25 normally hearing children (ages 7-14) did not differ on nonverbal intelligence, but the hearing-impaired children obtained lower scores than normally hearing peers on a social decentration task and a nonsocial decentration task. Social decentration was positively correlated with nonsocial…

Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine has added modules on developmental screening to the second-year medical curriculum, teaching students to specialize their basic interviewing and physical assessment skills by considering the patient's developmental stage as well as age-specific risks, issues, and concerns. (MSE)

Discusses children's use of crayons, markers, and other art materials at various developmental stages. Suggests art activities and guidelines for teachers for each developmental stage. (BB)

Analysis of spelling errors of 45 primary-school children needing reading and writing improvement found that a considerable proportion of errors involved both syllabic reduction and feature changes similar to those seen in normal speech development. A model is presented to account for the phonological simplifications seen in both speech and…

Attempts to integrate Perry's (1970) scheme of the cognitive development of college students with a model of group development adapted by Waldo (1985) based on Tuckman's (1965) formulation of developmental group stages. (Author)

Presented stories concerning an actor who precipitated negative consequences after having either issued a disclaimer or not to 144 British children, ages 5 to 11. The findings that only 11 year olds recommended reducing punishment for actors issuing disclaimers supported the hypothesis that this behavior appears later. (NL)

The study of differences between 12 subjects with learning disabilities and 12 without, across 3 grade levels (intermediate, junior high, and senior high) and 2 story grammar tasks, found no developmental differences between disabled and nondisabled groups but did find significant differences in the amount and type of information recalled. (DB)

Challenges the view that the cognitive-developmental level of preschool children prevents them from attaining gender constancy. Reviews shortcomings in procedures previously used to assess gender constancy. Reports on a study which uses a new measure of gender constancy and a new test of children's genital knowledge. (PCB)

Examined child development research and relocation research to help school counselors understand a child's age-related concept of and typical reaction to relocation. Suggests action steps for counselors that can maximize a child's positive adjustment to a new environment. (NB)

A third-year follow-up investigation of socioemotional behaviors of preterm and full-term infants videotaped mother-child and child-peer play sessions. Contributions of gender, birth status, attachment classification, and maternal contingency behavior to children's expressive development were examined. Results suggest that children learn greater…

Describes retraining of Russian teachers in Vygotskian perspectives as an educational innovation. Contextualizes movement toward Vygotsky in Russian education and begins assessing its implications for the Western context. Implications include rethinking the teacher's role in the classroom as socially constituted and reconsidering the nature of…

Characteristics of secondary students with a learning disability in reading are reviewed, and the stages of reading development are outlined. Strategies for academic and social inclusion of these students are discussed, including peer tutoring, guided notes, cooperative learning, learning strategies, and teaching reading in the content area. (JDD)