Educators are urged to encourage gifted/talented students to teach themselves foreign languages. This essay discusses the lack of language requirements in schools, linguistic insensitivity or laziness shown by Americans, individuals' linguistic potential, goals of multilingual development, the appropriate time to introduce foreign languages, and…

Examines evidence concerning developmental correlates of nonmaternal care in the infant's first year with respect to infant-mother attachment and subsequent social development. Concludes that more than 20 hours a week of nonmaternal care may be a risk factor contributing to developmental difficulties. (SKC)

Addresses the relevance of attachment theory and research to an understanding of the effects of early day care on sociopersonality development. Concludes that evidence is weaker than claimed by Jay Belsky and that further research is necessary before the effects of day care will be understood. (SKC)

Thirty-five maltreated children (mean age 36 months) who received treatment in a therapeutic day program had significantly higher developmental scores in five areas -- fine motor, cognitive, gross motor, social/emotional, and language -- than did maltreated children not receiving the treatment. (Author/DB)

Provides brief case study of a child care worker in a children's residence and describes the following: (1) the personal ingredients of care giving and care receiving; (2) how spatial arrangements influence daily experience; (3) group living as an everyday life experience; and (4) residential life as a prelude to and extension of a child's home…

Discusses various factors which need to be considered when designing physical environments for infants and toddlers in child care settings. Along with the developmental differences and needs of infants and toddlers, these factors include health and safety, variety, flexibility, scale and proportion, softness and responsiveness, and harmony and…

Professional review teams in nine Third World countries assessed a sample of children referred as probable cases (or as controls) from a door to door household survey of 1000+ children aged 3 to 9 years. Examines the criteria used by the teams in determining whether or not the children should be classified as severely mentally handicapped. (RWB)

Examines the role of the partner in the development of social pretend play in two related studies. In both studies, toddler age children played with same-age and five-year-old partners. In both studies, two-year-olds engaged in more social pretend play with older than same-age partners. (Author/BB)

Criticizes Lawrence J. Schweinhart and David Weikart's article on early childhood development in this "Educational Leadership" issue for overemphasizing inadequacies of the direct academic approach. Claims that findings were based on insufficient data and disclosed no significant differences in self-esteem, locus of control, suspension,…

Maintains that infants two years of age and younger do direct social behavior toward one another. Adults play an important role in young children's social development. Developing strategies and planning peer experiences for infants become a teacher's responsibility. Recognizing differential influence of varying toys may be useful for such…

Proposes and tests an attributional model of parent social cognition and examines parents'inferences about why everyday child behaviors occur and what consequences these inferences may have for socialization. (HOD)

Describes five studies in which the learning and transfer abilities of two- and four-year-old children were examined on a task that required them to combine two separately learned solutions to reach a goal. (HOD)

The Mutual Regulatory Model is used to describe the infants' dual task of regulating simultaneously his internal emotional state and his engagement with the external environment. (Author/BB)

Records the attempts of a very young child to construct his own understanding of what it means to die and of the social impact of death within his own culture. Includes transcripts in which the child uses narrative to frame his first, tentative ideas about death and responds to literature to further extend his understanding. (JD)

Describes the Lane County Relief Nursery program in Eugene, Oregon, a therapeutic school for abused and at-risk children, which also has an Intensive Parent Training Program. (HOD)