Jean Piaget's theory seems to lend support to reading specialists who believe that concrete operational thought constitutes a necessary and sufficient condition for learning to read. Preoperational children cannot deal with the complex relationships inherent in reading because they are tied perceptually to the immediate situation or…

Nonsense forms with nonsense labels were utilized in a match to sample task to observe whether children's word extensions are based on static form characteristics or on functional action characteristics. The stimuli consisted of: (1) a single model object which performed an action; (2) a selection array consisting of one object similar in form to…

The value of infant stimulation is stressed in a report on the characteristics of infant development. The following five areas of development are discussed: sensorimotor, language, mental, emotional, and social. Stages of development during the first year in each of the areas are surveyed, and traditions in different countries are highlighted to…

Traced are the developmental stages involved with the design of the Test of Logical Thinking (TOLT), a paper and pencil test constructed by the authors to measure formal reasoning ability. The final version of TOLT is described as consisting of two items for each of five reasoning modes: (1) controlling variables, (2) probabilistic reasoning, (3)…

The current status of conceptions of learning in children is reviewed and some areas of neglect are considered in this paper. The main premise is that although considerable strides have been made in the understanding of the learning process, essential developmental formulations of growth and change have been poorly articulated. It is suggested…

This report proposes a pioneering diagnostic taxonomy of adult career problems, describes its development, and documents the results of a pilot test using a preliminary design to validate the taxonomy. The report is based on a study which had four major activities: a literature review of adult career development and pertinent taxonomies, a…

A study was conducted to determine whether students at different grade levels could use categorical cues to encode information from prose text. Sixty college students, 74 high school students, 96 junior high school students, and 108 third grade students read a 12-paragraph passage containing two references to color and number per paragraph. The…

A study explored the means by which children apply knowledge of the television medium and of the real world in distinguishing among the levels of reality and fantasy presented on television. Fifty-four second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children were presented with a series of paired (reality/fantasy) television shows. They were asked to choose…

This pamphlet is designed to help parents care for their children and themselves in ways that foster good mental health. The subject matter presented, death, may also be useful for relatives, school teachers, and babysitters who play important roles in the lives of children. Emphasis is placed on the following areas: (1) awareness of death; (2)…

An original purpose of higher education in the United States was personal development through acculturation to the classics and to moral principles. Other purposes, those of economics, political orientation, and service, have frequently overshadowed that original goal. It may be that higher education institutions have neglected personal…

This curriculum guide, in working paper form, for a semester-long three-credit course in individual and family development is one of nine technical core courses in an associate degree consumer/family manager program. The course studies individual and family development through the life cycle. Emphasis is on the relationship of basic needs to the…

The research described is based on videotapes of 40 toddlers interacting with peers during 10 small playgroup sessions spaced throughout the children's second year of life. The paper outlines the development of an observational system for studying the development of peer relations in toddlers, considers the behavioral forms which characterize peer…

The concepts of cognitive development and objectivity are explored preparatory to a discussion of a suitable theory of development to be used as the foundation for developmentally-based standardized tests. It is hypothesized that Piagetian theory is the most appropriate basis for such tests and two possible approaches for constructing…

The foundations of the cognitive developmental curriculum movement are briefly examined in the paper. The key features of this movement are the recommendations it makes in three areas: curriculum sequencing, curriculum content, and teaching strategies. Each of these areas is critically examined. It is concluded that the grounds for all proposals…

In a pilot study of children's drawings of "a house with a tree behind it," Piagetian sequence (scribbling, fortuitous realism, failed realism, intellectual realism, and visual realism) was tentatively supported. Children's strategies in decentering from intellectual to visual realism were noted. The study reported in this paper was…