Behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory, prevalent early in this century, declined at midcentury. Theorists subsequently developed domain-specific theories of socialization, which were influenced by, or resulted in, changing conceptions of children's identification with their parents, changing definitions of optimal parenting, and an understanding…

This Dutch study examined the play behavior of 18 kindergarten children without mental retardation and 55 children with retardation, all at a developmental age of 4 to 5 years, as they played individually with a stimulating adult. The study found few differences with regard to activity, types and quality of play, and play content. (DB)

Schouten and Kirkpatrick's review of evaluations of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers' predictive validity reveals unacceptably high error rates in target population identification. Miller's response suggests flaws in their argument, Humphry and King-Thomas suggest alternative interpretations, and Schouten and Kirkpatrick respond to their…

Compared pregnant adolescents (n=45), parenting adolescents (n=39 mothers), and nonpregnant adolescents (n=45) on knowledge of child development and attitudes toward caretaking. Pregnant and parenting adolescents were more realistic about developmental milestones than were nonpregnant adolescents. Parenting adolescents demonstrated more positive…

Notes that ample evidence exists that standardized tests may not adequately reflect student achievement and may be harmful to the educational process and student development, especially for young children. Presents developmentally appropriate alternatives that are available for use in the classroom and on district and state levels. (Author)

The idea of "resiliency" (successful development of children despite stressful childhoods) is related to ideas of gifted education. Three publications addressing the idea of resiliency are reviewed. (DB)

Examined children's metapragmatic knowledge, or knowledge about linguistic forms. Children were read narratives in which a protagonist made a request. Children evaluated the request, explained their judgments, and suggested alternative formulations of the request. Findings showed that five year olds had metapragmatic knowledge and that…

This study found that 5 7-year-old and 4 10-year-old prelingually hearing-impaired children displayed evidence of anticipatory coarticulation based on temporal and spectral cues, but they did so to a lesser degree than normally hearing children. (Author/JDD)

The relations of dependency and self-criticism to social function were studied for 106 secondary-school students who completed measures of depressive experiences and interpersonal problems. Results show that self-criticism is strongly associated with reporting interpersonal problems, but dependency is only marginally related to interpersonal…

Reviews three articles in this journal on pretend play and focuses on the communicative activity through which social pretending is created. Suggests that, despite recent advances toward understanding techniques by which children construct make-believe, further examination of conversational exchanges and sequences of this complex activity is…

Suggests that the three articles on pretend play in this journal expand knowledge of pretend and social pretend play. Notes that the ultimate value of these articles lies in their exploration of the integration of affective, communicative, and cognitive processes as children construct shared social reality in pretend play. (MM)

The isokinetic strength of the knee extensor muscles of both limbs was evaluated in 25 children and adolescents with Down's syndrome. The Down's syndrome subjects were significantly weaker than control groups with average intelligence and with non-Down's syndrome mental retardation. Results suggested a dysfunction of the neuromuscular system,…

Provides a brief history of the empiricism-nativism issue, considering present-day intellectual roots of nativist and empiricist inclinations. A schema is proposed for explaining the ontogenetic origin of an innate attribute or principle relevant to language. An attempt is made to explain the origin of primitives as derived by learning. (Contains…

Describes a teacher's experience with infants at a Montessori program. Discusses observations made in the areas of rapid change in development, crying as communication, the thumb-sucking versus pacifier dilemma, and intellectual growth. Discusses factors critical to quality infant care and how infants can teach us. (HTH)

Evidence from 5 experiments with over 150 newborns suggests that infants are born with some information about the structure of faces. This information, termed CONSPEC, is contrasted with CONLERN, a device for learning visual characteristics of conspecifics. Distinction between these mechanisms allows for reconciling conflicting data about face…