Much has been written in recent years about early childhood play, documenting its role in healthy development, detailing the risks children face if they do not have access to play, and offering implementation tips to educators to use in communicating about play to administrators and parents. For those ready to move forward in their own communities…

The perceptions on well-being and societal progress are influenced also by the quantitative indicators and measures used in the measurement, presentation and semantics of discussing these issues. The article presents a novel generic statistical measure S-time-distance, with clear interpretability that delivers a broader concept to look at data, to…

Guided by social development constructs, this article investigates race and gender differences in the initiation of various types of delinquent behavior and alcohol and marijuana use among African American and Caucasian adolescents in grades 7 through 12. In addition, this study examined the potential direct or indirect effects of parental…

There are increasing demands in schools to provide social-emotional learning opportunities for students. This article reports on the utility of a universal coping skills program for young people at risk for depression in a rural context. The study deals specifically with the utility of the Best of Coping (BOC) program implemented to all students…

Web based training (WBT) is able to reshape human interaction. Peer review processes, such as adhered to by journals and in the context of political processes such as accession to the EU, have aided in safeguarding quality in the academic field since long. University curricula, however, have not yet fully taken into account training for such…

Abstract: Social skill and language are known to relate, not least in the example of those with specific language impairment (SLI). However, most of the research examining this trend has been conducted on young primary school age children and the nature of the relationships is unclear. Furthermore, little is known about which young people in…

The use of four types of psychological state words (physiological, emotional, desire, and cognitive) during mother-child play sessions at ages 3, 4, and 5 years was examined in 30 children diagnosed with delayed expressive language at 24-31 months and 15 age-matched comparison children with typical development. The children's mean length of…

Two studies investigated the proposition that social achievement goals (different orientations toward social competence) are an important aspect of young adolescents' social motivation. Study 1 (N = 153 6th-grade students) established that different orientations toward developing or demonstrating social competence can be seen in young adolescents'…

Five years ago, a small group of higher education faculty at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) asked the question, "What would it look like if we created a postsecondary program for young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) on the campus of a highly competitive four-year college?" The College of New Jersey, a state college located…

The purpose of this study is to examine how children's starting level and development of social competence (i.e., task orientation and peer sociability) during kindergarten and first grade predict gifted program enrollment by third grade, even after considering children's cognitive ability. A second purpose is to examine the extent to which the…

Trickster tales, with their teachings on how to behave in the world, are a powerful means for transmitting social knowledge and cultural mores to children. In this study we compared two approaches to teaching fourth-grade students to write trickster tales. Although both instructional methods incorporated aspects of the writing process approach,…

Self-regulation and self-determination are part of a continuum of behaviors that are acquired through interaction with the social and physical environment and through problem solving based on experiences that begin in infancy and build throughout early childhood. These abilities should be nurtured early for all children, especially within the…

Although childhood death from health-related disorders has decreased dramatically in the United States due largely to advances in medical technology, it is an unfortunate fact of life that children can and do die from medical and health-related problems. A possible role for school psychologists in dealing with this situation is providing direct…

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a disorder characterized by social skill deficits and display of repetitive behaviors. This article explores the diagnostic components of AS and describes the major school-related issues for children who have the disorder. Specific interventions that school counselors can implement to help increase these students'…

The Foundation for Child Development Child and Youth Well-Being Index Project at Duke University issues an annual comprehensive measure of how children are faring in the United States. The Child Well-Being Index (CWI) is based on a composite of 28 "Key Indicators" of wellbeing that are grouped into seven "Quality-of-Life/Well-Being…