Nine individual prosocial child behaviors of 2-year-olds were obtained from mothers and caretakers. These behaviors were combined into a fourfold scheme which was then used to assess child prosocial behavior outside a laboratory setting. In addition, the two dispositional attributes of sociability and happiness were assessed. Observations of 28…

The present study compared the presence of sibling versus non-sibling partners in relation to the exploratory behaviors of toddlers in a novel environment. It was predicted that young children would use siblings as a secure base from which to explore the environment even in the absence of an adult attachment figure, whereas the presence of a…

Three studies examined the abstractness of children's mental representation of counting, and their understanding of the cardinality principle, namely, that the last number word used in a count tells how many items there are. In the first experiment, 24 toddlers of 2-3 years counted objects, actions, and sounds. Findings revealed that children…

Recent work suggests that the apparent shift from thematic to taxonomic concept organization reflects changes in children's preference for these forms of organization, rather than their capacity. A study was made to assess toddlers' knowledge of the different possible relations for the same concept and to extend the triad method to children under…

In order to examine the development of social pretend skills in the toddler period, social pretend play was observed in same and mixed age dyads. More complex social pretend play was expected in the mixed age than in the same age condition. A second purpose of the study was to compare 5-year-old children's attempts to communicate pretend meanings…

A case study of a 2-year-old progressing normally in speech development provides evidence of suprasegmental marking of the plural, thought to be adopted only in language-impaired children. Acoustic analyses of the durations and intensity of elicited words indicate that the child had adopted a suprasegmental strategy for marking the singular/plural…

Songs, rhymes, and sayings entered in this handbook are particularly useful as basic teaching techniques for babies and small children. Popular and easy to learn, many are simple Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Others are traditional songs and sayings that have been passed on from generation to generation in our culture. Some are appropriate for use…

A study of the late acquisition of the passive in Zulu used data from transcripts of naturalistic speech gathered in a longitudinal study of several children's speech development between 1.10 and 3.6 years of age. It was hypothesized that the productivity of the passive construction in Zulu is a factor facilitating acquisition. A range of…

This study determines whether children who see an object hidden in a location in one space can retrieve an analogous object hidden in an analogous location in a different space. Participants were 16 31-months-old and 16 38-months-old children. After a familiarization experience, half the children observed a stuffed dog hidden in a room, tried to…

Temperament is examined from a longitudinal, within-individual perspective in order to investigate short-term change and patterns of temperament changes. For 100 consectutive days five mothers completed a temperament survey, reporting on their own and their two-year-old children's behavior. Patterns of change were identified for both mothers and…

Analyzes data regarding children's early talk about past experiences, resulting from longitudinal home observations of five working-class mothers and their two-year-olds. Results indicate that children talked primarily of negative past events, especially those involving physical harm, and that during this period temporally-ordered sequences…

Two strategies that children use to figure out new word meanings--attention to linguistic form class and the assumption of lexical contrast--were examined. It was found that very young children use both form class and lexical contrast to interpret new words. (PCB)

Introduces the Social Relations Model as a new approach for understanding reciprocity during parent-child and sibling play. (PCB)

Sex cleavages in toddler and preschool peer groups were investigated in two studies. In the first study, playmate preferences and initiations and responses to friends were examined during the free play of toddlers in day care centers. In the second study, cross-sex friendships in toddlers and preschool children were examined. (PCB)

Based on observations of children ages 21-25 months in play groups, investigates reactions of both peers and teachers to behaviors that could be identified and coded as male, female, or neutral. (Author/NH)