Compares the spelling errors on the Wide Range Achievement Test II made by adults with an apparent autosomal dominant form of dyslexia to those made by their normal adult relatives and by spelling-age matched normal controls using a computerized error evaluation program. (HOD)

Presents descriptions of play reflecting recent theories, including the psychoanalytic works of Freud, Erikson, and Peller; Piaget's developmental theory (with discussion of Sutton-Smith); and the views of Smilansky and Parten. (AS)

Describes materials mastery and symbolic development as two discrete but related processes that preschool children learn. Uses the preschool setting to identify the developmental stages of construction play. (AS)

Describes kindergarten children's oral and written language behaviors while operating a computer. Stages of computer language play and children's experimentation with speech and writing specific to the computer also are discussed. (AS)

Based on a longitudinal study of three children from birth, argues that children experiment with two dimensional representation much earlier than is commonly thought. Interaction between figurative and action modes of representation is described. Suggests symbolizations based on movement and time as well as configuration. (Author/AS)

Investigates young children's ability to adjust the content of their verbal responses according to what they know their listener knows. Younger and older three-year-old children were able to discern what another person knew and did not know and adjusted their responses accordingly. Younger three-year-olds tended to be underinformative. (SED)

The distribution of a small number of syntactic structures in the speech output of 102 Israeli preschoolers was examined. Findings are reported on the proportion of grammatically analyzable clauses, the patterning of word order in Hebrew child language, and the emergence of syntactic connectedness through coordination and subordination of clauses.…

Investigates whether 7- and 10-year-old children and adults are sensitive to their own and another listener's failure to understand literal and nonliteral (sarcastic) uses of utterances. (HOD)

Argues that instructors of courses in psychology of gender roles need to address the life-stage concerns of participants in their classes. Identifies seven unifying themes for such a course and provides examples of useful topics, films, and books with a developmental emphasis. (Author/JDH)

Compares the performances of equivalent groups of six- and eight- year-olds in the United Kingdom and the United States on pitch transposition and rhythmic inversion music conservation tasks. Results showed older students outperformed younger. Maintains Piagetian explanations of results are inadequate. (Author/JDH)

Since early research had shown that a total score on 27 Piagetian tasks was very highly correlated with a Wechsler and achievement composite, a study investigated the possibility of shortening the Piagetian test by means of classical analysis methodology. (HOD)

Examines the effect of an unfamiliar peer in a situation requiring a subject's separation from mother in order to play with attractive toys. Observation of 20 children 18 months old and 20 children 30 months old revealed that peer presence facilitated initial separation for both ages, but that age differences in subsequent behaviors existed. (CB)

Using a microcomputer "dart" game, this study of 61 primary school students investigated how children of different ages used counting to make numerical estimates. Results showed developmental differences in accuracy of estimation, fluency in counting and sophistication of self-reported strategy use. (BS)

Specific modes of formal reasoning and measurements of principled moral reasoning ability were obtained from 99 10th-grade students. Hierarchical relationships were found amoung variables with combinatorial and correlational reasoning accounting for 22 percent of the variance in principled moral reasoning. Theoretical and educational implications…

Data from 60 observations of 10 teachers and 10 each of their students showed that type/quality of teaching strategy predicted 37 percent of variance in engagement and that the more indirect the teaching strategy, the greater the students' involvement in learning tasks. Implications of these and other findings are discussed. (Author/JN)