This review of the literature examines characteristics of the play of young children with visual impairments and suggests areas for intervention. The review notes that the deficits in symbolic play commonly exhibited by these children are related to language deficits and that intervention should focus on enhancing the child's sense of self.…

Reviews the literature and argues that children need to be taught a range of television thinking skills if they are to use the medium as an educating force over which they have control and discernment. Argues that television can be a powerful tool in the development and application of thinking skills of all children, including gifted and talented…

Learning to imagine is a crucial step in symbol-making in early childhood. Uses examples of children's symbol-making to illustrate the process by which children understand the world around them. Considers how effectively aspects of children's learning environments facilitate children's exploration and their development of imagination. (MDM)

Investigated developmental patterns of cognitive performance over first 3 years of life in sample of 762 low birthweight premature children. Intelligence test scores were obtained at 12, 24, and 36 months adjusted age. Five developmental patterns were identified. Results reveal patterns of cognitive development can be discriminated by three…

In 2 studies, subjects between 7 and 16 years of age indicated predictions for the water level in a tilted container or the position of a plumb line. Found that sex differences were evident at all ages; task performance improved with age according to a discrete stage process; and task performance was determined by field effects and rule strategy.…

The movement concept approach to teaching elementary physical education provides challenges that require children to use all their resources to respond, enhancing total development through cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. Worksheets can help teachers determine whether movement concepts are being learned and generalized to other…

Reanalysis of the data from a 1984 study on making and breaking problem-solving mental sets with 50 children found that gifted subjects who failed to initially form the set made the most errors of any group and were least likely to recognize their own errors. Results suggest that motivational reasons may underly this inferior performance by some…

Analyzes the nature and growth of students' algebraic knowledge and thinking from an epistemological perspective supported by historical observations. Focuses on two crucial transitions: from the purely operational algebra to the structural algebra of a fixed value of an unknown and then to the functional algebra of a variable. (Contains 58…

Discusses a teaching experiment with (n=19) senior and graduate mathematics students. Analysis suggests that students' difficulties with the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus stem from impoverished concepts of rate of change and from poorly developed and coordinated images of functional covariation and multiplicatively constructed quantities.…

This longitudinal study examined the effects of nonparental care on the development of 47 children, birth through age 5. Found that children who had a nonparental care experience during infancy had a developmental quotient inferior to those who did not have such experience. Results suggest that quality of the child care setting is the determining…

Discusses the difficulties of providing unity in introductory political science classes. Argues that beginning students will better understand politics if they are shown how to conceive of political figures and events in the same terms as their own experience. Urges a definition of politics that stresses people's relations to one another rather…

Eighteen children (mean age 10.2 years) with mild mental retardation were pretested on a variety of measures and then instructed on Piagetian concepts twice per week for 4 months via a learning set technique. When posttested at semester's end, the children had, with few exceptions, mastered the concepts and made significant gains on the Peabody…

The study comparing 36 preschool children and their mothers from either low income maltreating, low income comparison, or middle income comparison homes found children from maltreating backgrounds scored lower on measures of cognitive and physical competence and on ratings of motivation. These children also overrated their own physical competence…

Secondary analyses indicated that maternal employment in children's first year had detrimental effects on cognitive and behavioral development. Grandmother care was beneficial for the cognitive development of children in poverty. For behavioral development, mother care was beneficial for boys and babysitter care for girls. (BC)

The constructivist hypothesis that the acquisition of domain-specific conceptual knowledge (declarative) requires the use of general procedural knowledge was tested. Students (n=314) were classified as reflective, transitional, or intuitive thinkers and presented with four concept-acquisition tasks. Skill in hypothetico-deductive reasoning…