Binaural masked thresholds for a speech sound (/ba/) were estimated under two interaural phase conditions in three age groups (infants, preschoolers, adults). Differences as a function of both age and condition and effects of reducing intensity for adults were significant in indicating possible developmental binaural hearing changes, especially…

Discusses children's conceptions of their lives "away from home" while they are in residential settings. Focuses on children's notions about family life, home, neighbors, community, and society, employing a developmental framework. Describes how contextual factors (e.g., the surrounding social services network) influence the planning, operation,…

Examines hothousing from a developmental perspective and concludes that hothousing is a matter of concern because it is based on a conception of the preschool child's future which is too narrow to include the complex creative and social needs these children will face. (PCB)

The article examines the child's ability to produce complex sentences with sections on a structural framework for complex language (clausal and nonclausal complexity), a developmental perspective (coordination of clauses, subordination of nominal, adverbial, and relative clauses), and applied considerations (evaluating and teaching complex…

To investigate the development of function concepts and their relation to mathematical and logical abilities typically acquired during the age period of five to seven years, children were tested on nonnumerical function tasks, numerical tasks, and aspects of logical reasoning. (PCB)

Illustrating major points with specific examples (including a "Doonesbury cartoon), the main article faults schools' organizational efficiency and educators' ignorance of child development for forcing young children to work beyond their developmental readiness. An inset article presents the 19th century kindergarten as a haven for children to grow…

Maintains that parents and teachers of toddlers need to see "toddlerhood" as a special and distinct stage of development with its own set of tasks and behaviors, when creating age-appropriate activity programs in home or group settings. Gives eleven ways that such programs can be made to fit toddlers. (BB)

Examines the effects of providing different reasons for young children inteacting with a peer during play. Shows that dispositional or situational information about an unknown peer affects children's impressions of that peer differently, depending on the age of the child. (HOD)

Reviews literature focusing on six aspects of pet-person relationships that are most relevant to the growing child. Areas include love, attachment, and comfort; sensorimotor and nonverbal learning; responsibility, nurturance, and competence; learning about the life cycle; therapeutic benefits; and nurturing humaness, ecological awareness, and…

Discusses the ways early childhood programs presently fit into community colleges, describes five related issues (i.e., the ambiguities of the early childhood field, the open-door policy, faculty responsibilities, power structures, and funding), and makes suggestions for further development of the community college/early childhood relationship.…

Describes a program being taught in 14 East Coast independent schools and three Philadelphia public schools to teach school-aged children to be caring and competent in human and family relationships, by observing parent-child interactions and by participating in infant care. Highlights predicted outcomes of the Education for Parenting program.…

Describes the powerful force that peer relationships exert on a child. Focuses on four aspects of development in which children's friendships predominate: finding out how to deal with aggression; learning about sex; developing moral standards; and finding emotional security. Discusses when and how adults should intervene in a child's…

Describes the Knowledge of Child Development Inventory (KCDI), a multiple-choice test of knowledge of child development from birth to age three in the areas of emotional, cognitive, physical, and social development. Normative data, reliability, and validity statistics are given. (Author/BL)

Explores possible influences on children's early development that originate with parents, grandparents, and even more distant family relations. Explains how these transgenerational influences may provide deliberately articulated strategies for child-rearing or may represent unstated, background values that have unconsciously been incorporated into…

Tested infants in their second year with a box task to determine whether they would show a hand preference in solutions involving complete differentiation of roles for the two hands. (HOD)