This booklet is a compilation of articles written by educators to describe the qualities of a "meaningful" kindergarten experience. The authors present the unique characteristics of 5-year-olds, the importance of kindergarten, and the relationship of kindergarten to other school experiences. Topics discussed range from teacher-pupil ratio and…

The training methods used to develop peer counselors to colead counseling groups and provide both remedial and preventive counseling to academically able freshmen who have never performed at a level in keeping with their potential are described. Freshman subjects were selected on a voluntary basis from those who scored in the top quartile in the…

An investigation of the relationship between appearance and psychological development is presented in this paper. The central hypothesis of the investigation is that appearance is an important stimulus property in the psychological development of children, and as such has an effect on an individual's response to his environment as well as the…

This research describes the attempts of 24 male and 24 female Kikuyu children (aged 2-9 years) to persuade other Kikuyu children and adults to comply to their demands. Examined was the sequence of behaviors beginning when a child encountered a noncompliant response from a target, and continuing until the child either gained compliance or gave up…

This is a study of how young children gain social competence through pretend play or role playing. Subjects were 38 Caucasian children (19 females, 19 males) who were observed at four ages: 12, 18, 24 and 30 months. The same set of toys, which included a doll, a saucepan, doll bottles, coffee mug, teacup, teaspoon, doll crib, blanket, toy phone…

According to a recent study of fifth grade students' self concept and cooperative behavior, high self concept pairs produced the most competitive behavior, while low self concept pairs demonstrated the most cooperative behavior. White students were more competitive than black students. No significant sex differences were found. (Author/MV)

The Center for Urban Educational Studies is engaged in various primary school language projects, notably Second Language in the Primary School Project (SLIPP) and Reading Through Understanding (RTU). Discusses how these have affected language instruction in the multi-ethnic classroom. (Author/RK)

A three-year project integrating 40 antisocial children into a community center composed of prosocial children compared behavioral observations of children with inventories completed by children and their group counselors designed to measure the same behavior. Data indicate antisocial children can be incorporated into a community center with…

Despite increasing recognition of the early importance of peer relations, virtually no systematic information exists on the way in which normal children view their emotionally disturbed peers. This research reports a replication of recent findings on children's use of the concept of emotional disturbance. (Editor/RK)

The relation between time spent in day care by preschool children and their social behavior was investigated at three child-care centers through observations of the children's free play. A positive relation was found in a large community center and in a small university center, but not in a small private center. (Author/BN)

The mother of a mentally retarded adolescent describes the implementation of her idea to hire nonretarded neighborhood peers as friends and resource persons for her daughter. The program's purpose was to educate nonhandicapped youth as well as to increase her daughter's opportunities for socialization and peer contact. (JW)

It was hypothesized, following attribution theory, that psychological closeness to the perpetrators of delinquency would lead to its being explained in terms of external factors. Consistent with these hypotheses, the 15-year-old subjects endorsed less individualistic explanations and stressed the social functions of delinquency. (Author/LMO)

Identified by peer nomination 238 students in grades 3 through 5 as one of five social types: popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average. Examined status group differences among teachers' reports, peer reports, and children's self-reports of adjustment. Rejected children were viewed as exhibiting significantly more classroom and peer…

Examination of children with disabled siblings reveals that nondisabled children may treat their siblings more kindly and spend more time caring for them than do children with nondisabled siblings. Their experiences may produce more worries and anxieties; however, they also may develop more tolerance and humanitarian concerns. (Author/BJV)