For the field of human development, the synthesis of older theories of the environment, newer context theories, biological theories, and systems theories permit the generation of new models for the developmental process. This paper reviews, compares, and contrasts recent theories of development and presents a synthesis that can guide future…

This final project report examines how to successfully develop a national approach for the infusion of aging content into the K-12 grade curricula. As the U.S. society is "graying," the students in schools should be exposed to aging information on the increasing responsibilities for the care of aging family members with a realistic view of their…

Originally written for students at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, this guide to child development offers an overview of child development for parents, teachers, and all adults concerned with raising children. Many of the book's ideas come from direct work with children and draw on Rudolf Steiner's approach to child development. The book's…

Theories concerning cognitive development or complexity include one developed by W. G. Perry, Jr., and his colleagues (1970). Research related to Perry's scheme is analyzed to suggest ways by which this particular theory can be validated. The first part of the paper describes Perry's scheme and assumptions of cognitive development theories in…

Findings from a study that designed a theoretical compensation system for school administrators incorporating concepts of career/work development and adult life stages are presented in this paper. Methodology involved: a literature review of compensation practices in education; a discussion of new forces in the field affecting considerations in…

Dissatisfied with traditional approaches to beginning reading practices dominated by phonics, basal reading series, and workbooks, and more importantly, influenced by research and knowledge about how children learn to read, teachers/educators launched a grass-roots whole language movement in the early 1980s. However, the term "whole…

Goals and challenges pertaining to infant sensory and perceptual development are discussed. It is suggested that the inability of researchers to think and talk wisely about "partial accomplishments" in development creates a barrier in developmental research. Conceptual schemes are needed to accommodate these partial accomplishments. Three major…

This study examined individuals' concepts of human nature in Germany, the United States, and Indonesia. Three procedures were used with about 100 subjects in each country. Only the second procedure, a presentation of a story involving a character's dilemma that has moral and social consequences, is reported here. In each culture, there were some…

This report describes an in-service education program offered to teachers at a rural northeastern Head Start program to help them assess children's overall development by looking at their level of language development. The program focused on the case conference, a forum in which coordinators, teachers, home visitors, and sometimes parents meet to…

This study addressed the question of developmental processes underlying gender differences in aggression. Specifically, the study examined stories young children tell about nice or mean social interactions. A total of 100 middle-class 3-year-olds participated in storytelling sessions with trained experimenters. Subjects also completed the Peer…

A discussion of functional language proficiency considers several widely-accepted theories of cognition, draws parallels between specific stages of intellectual maturity and development of second language proficiency, and suggests ways in which teachers may be able to help students progress from one stage to another within the context of foreign…

Previous literature on children's visual pattern perception has suggested that preschool children may process hierarchical forms in a manner different from that of older children and adults. Data from some studies suggested that children are holistic processors of pattern information, while other studies characterized children as piecemeal…

One of four packets designed to help day care workers provide services to handicapped children and their families, the booklet addresses issues in screening and identification. A 12-item agenda for a workshop on screening and identification covering such topics as the definitions of screening, rationale for screening, information gathered from a…

This review of research considers both the similarities and differences between adult learners and learners who are children, and applies the findings to second language instruction. First, similarities between children and adults have to do with involving as many senses as possible in learning, allowing for emotional involvement of learners,…

In this study, change over time in grandparenting experience, sex differences in grandparenting, and differences among relationships with different grandchildren were explored. Thirteen grandmothers and six grandfathers were interviewed; content analysis and thematic analysis of interview transcripts were performed. Grandparents described changes…