Concludes that there are several interrelated minisequences of drug involvement; cigarettes play a prominent role as a gateway to cannabis and hard drugs; and at higher levels of involvement there is a synergistic or reciprocal effect of increasing involvement. The later developmental period was much more stable with somewhat different patterns of…

Explores three current approaches to describing what happens to basic writers when they enter college. Seeks a more comprehensive approach that takes into account the differences in dialect, discourse conventions, and ways of thinking, through the notion of a language community, and W. Perry's developmental model. (HTH)

A longitudinal investigation on development of conservation skills in 31 learning disabled (LD) children suggested that delayed transition between preoperational and concrete operational thought may be an important factor in understanding the continued school failure of learning disabled children. (Author/CL)

Results of two experiments involving four severely handicapped preschoolers suggested that Ss could be taught rudimentary communication skills prior to the attainment of J. Piaget's sensorimotor stage 5. It was further suggested that establishment of initial labeling in an elicited training format will not necessarily generalize to either…

The seminar's major theme was that art education is a discipline in its own right. It was concluded that the art curriculum can be both structured and disciplined, with the goals of art instruction determined from the characteristics of the discipline rather than of children at various stages of development. (Author/RM)

Reviews research on children's ability to remember events in relation to that of adults. Concludes that age interacts with other factors, including language and the relative development of knowledge structures, to determine suggestibility. Suggests that children's memories may at times be less easily influenced than adults' memories. (KH)

Presents a historically based outline of six stages of human normative development. Elucidates this outline phenomenologically and derives a hierarchical scheme of normative behavior from which to develop programs of moral education. (SK)

Career cycles should be considered apart from life cycles, even though the two are interrelated. This essay examines five theories about life and career cycles, and offers insights into their limitations and potential uses. (JB)

Assessed Venezuelan college freshmen's (N=709) level of formal or concrete operations and its correlation with performance in various courses. Findings show 84 percent were concrete; achievement in chemistry had the highest correlation with formal operations, and decreasing correlations occurred with mathematics, biology, biology lab,…

An investigation of the order of acquisition of domains by severely retarded children and adolescents indicated that object permanence performance always equaled or exceeded means-ends, which in turn always equaled or exceeded causality for 23 of 25 subjects. (Author/CL)

A spontaneous mastery measure, sampling sophistication of infants' behavior and infants' propensity to demonstrate their most sophisticated repertoire of skills, was developed and tested for predictability. Unlike a measure of executive capacity to which it was compared, the spontaneous mastery measure was highly stable across a 6-month period.…

Finds that, between five and seven years of age, the majority of healthy children in modern urban-industrial societies achieve an understanding of the irreversibility, nonfunctionality, and universality of death. Suggests reasons for ambiguous findings concerning the relationship between the acquisition of the concept of death and developmental…

Proposed developmental steps for hopping over distance were tested to determine their comprehensiveness and accuracy. The proposed arm action component required modification, but the leg action was properly ordered. The pattern of sex differences was consistent with earlier research. The non-chosen leg was developmentally behind the chosen leg in…

Three examples of children (five to nine years old) with acting-out behaviors are cited to illustrate the author's contention that such behavior is indicative of specific developmental levels of social and emotional functioning. The need for intervention appropriate to the developmental level is asserted. (CL)

Assessed relationship development of single-parents, focusing on the communicative affect of their immediate social network (children and ex-spouse) by using Levinger's developmental scheme. Interpretations of data are presented in light of relationship development for the single parent within the communicative context of his/her immediate social…