Children's relationships with their peers become more intimate as they grow older, with girls tending to experience intimacy in their friendships at an earlier age than their male counterparts. The size, friendship composition, and activity of elementary school children's play groups were recorded in an attempt to identify probable environmental…

Focusing on the development of systematic observation procedures, this document provides guidance in choosing methods to assess the development of children within an early childhood program. The document discusses how to use observation data to guide decisions about curriculum and teaching, provide feedback on educational and developmental…

Noting that the field of educational psychology is rapidly changing, with renewed interest in how we learn and how excellent teaching occurs, this collection comprises relevant readings selected from professional journals and magazines. The articles are grouped by topics consistently found in educational psychology textbooks. The chapters are: (1)…

In the past 25 years, there has been an explosion in research on the development of perception. The research has produced discoveries at multiple levels: ecological analyses, models of representation and process, and improved understanding of biological mechanisms. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of infant perception, bringing…

This paper addresses the prevalence and identification of social skills deficits in students with learning disabilities. It begins by discussing the definition of learning disabilities and then reviews literature on the social difficulties of this population. Findings indicate that approximately 75 percent of children with learning disabilities…

This discussion examines the reading and writing processes of persons with hearing impairments, particularly those leaving school and in transition from school to work. The reading/writing act is viewed from three perspectives: (1) cognitive science or information processing; (2) text organization and its functions; and (3) the processes whereby…

The Child Development Project (CDP) was designed to enhance the development of prosocial characteristics in school children in kindergarten through sixth grade. It was developed and evaluated in a school district (San Ramon) in the San Francisco, California area. The features of the program include: (1) an instructional approach that enhances…

This manual describes the benefits and procedures for implementing a developmental play program. It is intended to be used by both the leader--a counselor, teacher, or other professional--and students who have been trained in the peer facilitator skills. The manual does not include a detailed training program for peer facilitators, but the nature…

This case study describes the separation distress experienced by Mei Mei, a 2-year-old Chinese-American female toddler at a midwestern university laboratory preschool. The toddler, who could not speak English, was undergoing the first substantial separation from her parents. The toddler was observed over a 9-week period, during which behaviors…

This paper, by reporting on research literature published from 1980 to 1992, attempts to identify the origins of interpersonal and social skill deficits of adolescents and young adults with visible physical disabilities, either congenital or acquired during very early childhood. The paper examines the nature of interpersonal and social skills and…

This report outlines the work of the Fort McMurray School District in Alberta, Canada, to develop a set of indicators of and standards applicable to students' social skills, behaviors, and attitudes. The indicators and standards are intended to be used to assess the quality of a selected portion of the district's education program and delivery.…

This study explored the way parents use information sources for information about their child's motor, social, and cognitive development. This study sought to identify: (1) variations in parental use of information based on the domain of the child's development for which the parent sought information; (2) the role of parent and child gender in…

This handbook is a guide and reference document for those researching the child data files of the 1986-1990 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It describes the child data collection procedures, the nature of the child sample, the child data files available, and the specifics of the child assessments…

This document is a report of the proceedings of a symposium on university distance education and innovations in telecommunications designed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among administrators, educators, and researchers representing various organizations and nations. It is noted that, in Asia and the Pacific region in particular,…

This report contains a series of articles from Japan, New Zealand, and the U.S. dealing with child development. The articles concern: (1) a social dynamic theory of early human development and a program of research based on this theory; (2) the need for intervention and the structure of intervention for children with disabilities on the island of…