Argues that sociodramatic play in early childhood education provides children with developmental gains in social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual, language, and creative spheres. Stresses the importance of proper teacher education and practice of classroom sociodramatic play. Summarizes survey of preschool and kindergarten teachers regarding…

Assesses Kuwait's progress in meeting the needs of autistic children, discussing the roles of governmental and nongovernmental bodies. Gives an account of the two special schools that are currently known to cater to this disorder. Concludes that little information is available to the general public, and makes recommendations to raise the profile…

Examined the impact of high-quality middle-level teacher preparation programs. Subjects were 2,139 teachers from 5 states. Middle schools with grades six through eight configurations were selected. Results showed that respondents prepared in comprehensive programs, had separate licensure, or who had taken more courses tended to give more favorable…

A one-year follow-up study of children who had lost both parents and were placed in orphanages (n=19) or foster homes (n=18) in Iraqi Kurdistan investigated the orphans' situation and development. The children in orphanages were found to have higher frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder than the foster care children. (Author/CR)

Studied personal context and continuity in the thinking of 23 Swedish students from grade 2 through grade 8 using data from a longitudinal study of conceptualizations of ecological processes. While there was substantial conceptual development, there was also a strong element of personal continuity for these students. (SLD)

This interview study investigated mothers', fathers', and first-born children's ideas about child development among Palestinians in an urban Israeli community. Findings indicated that parents of first-born girls emphasized school-related skills, independence, politeness, and compliance as most important for girls, whereas parents of first-born…

The validity of the Diary of Early Language (Di-EL), a parent report technique, was evaluated with nine children with profound hearing loss using cochlear implants or hearing aids. Lexical data, reported by parents using the Di-EL, agreed with results of the Mac Arthur Communicative Development Inventories and the Rossetti Infant Toddler Language…

The language transcripts of seven children with Down syndrome (DS) and seven typically developing children with comparable mean length of utterance levels were compared for verb argument structure. Findings suggest that syntactic difficulties may delay children with DS in overcoming the optional subject phenomena and the lesser number of anomalous…

In revising their kindergarten curriculum, Japanese educators have adapted Western ideas of creativity and expression. Explains that this is especially visible in the goal of "expression" in the current kindergarten curriculum. Provides details on the new curriculum's aims, specifically in relation to the use of Japanese paper and…

Surveyed social agencies' awareness of possible developmental problems of alcohol and substance abusers' children, extent to which agency felt it could deal with the problem involving the family, and development of services for children of substance abusers. Found that many agency workers considered involvement in family problems to be part of…

Explores the risks faced by lesbian, gay, or bisexual youth who have the stigma of homosexuality and suggests approaches and strategies for working with these at-risk youth. Although society is becoming more tolerant of homosexuality and bisexuality, there has not been a corresponding decrease in cultural homophobia. (SLD)

Word-search strategies were studied in a longitudinal design with 56 Swiss children from kindergarten through grade two. Results show clear developmental trends from logographic, to assembled alphabetic, to alphabetic/orthographic addressed strategies. Differences in progression through the phases were linked to reading and spelling. (SLD)

Investigated the relation between infant expectations and reaction time (RT) at age 3 months, and Childhood IQ and RT at 4 years. Found that visual RT and manual RT in childhood correlated only marginally. Data suggested stability in RT between early infancy and childhood, or predictability of childhood IQ by infant RT and anticipation during…

Results from a study of the development of word-decoding skills in 60 8-year-old and 60 10-year-old children are consistent with models suggesting that children become proficient in phonological decoding first, and then shift gradually to a more direct orthographic-decoding strategy. (SLD)

Interviews with 16 Taiwanese mothers of babies with Down syndrome found the mothers believed cognitive development was the most important benefit from parent-child interaction. Compared to other mothers, they placed relatively more emphasis on cognitive and physical benefits and outcomes of parent-child interactions than on social and academic…