Reviews current issues in child language acquisition and suggests a research agenda for helping those children who have difficulty mastering the fundamentals of language. (Author/BJV)

Presents the results of three studies examining children's conception of the mind itself as an independent, active entity. Findings revealed a developing ability in children to interpret and produce statements personifying the mind and provided considerable evidence of children's movement toward a conception of the mind as an active agent…

Describes a process approach to teaching and learning in preschool settings. The approach uses child-initiated play in a prepared environment, and encourages children's formation of symbolic mental representations through social interaction and mediation. Offers guidelines for the implementation of the process approach. (MM)

Discusses the effect of children's outdoor play on their learning, the promotion of children's development by their playing of games which they have invented, and suggestions for adults to encourage children to invent outdoor games. (BC)

Reviews themes in cognitive psychology on relationship of children's knowledge and strategies to learning, memory, and performance of academic tasks. Notes that literature on strategies indicates that strategic competency is related to changes in structure and efficiency of strategies with development, context in which strategies are used, and…

Reports on a study of 198 Canadian children, ages 4-8, on their understanding of the role of evidence on the formation of beliefs. Finds that younger children evaluate opinions based on their own beliefs about the situation; older children tend to ascribe knowledge to others on the basis of evidence available to those others. (CFR)

Examines the benefits of sand play for young children, focusing on areas of cognitive, physical, communicative, creative and social-emotional development. Also discusses the role of the teacher in encouraging children's natural curiosity and exploration with sand play, noting that teachers should observe and interact with children during play in…

This study examined 236 8-year olds from a state with minimal child care standards in an effort to discover possible differences associated with child care histories. Children with more extensive child care experiences were associated with negative ratings by parents, teachers, and peers. (SH)

Literacy should not be limited to decoding written text. More broadly construed, education should address the many ways in which experience is represented, the development of cognitive potential, and differences in intellectual proclivities. The object should be cultivation of a broad capacity to construct meaning. (SK)

This article reviews literature and research on otitis media, focusing on definitions; occurrence, including such influences as age, socioeconomic status, genetics, child care situation, feeding techniques, and sex; fluctuating hearing loss; psychological, linguistic, and cognitive development; and developmental deficits in speech, language,…

Mismatch between gesture and speech was used to study cognitive processes that characterize the transition between incorrect, but rule-governed, problem understanding to correct rule-governed understanding among 90 fourth graders in Chicago (Illinois). Data support the idea that the transitional state is characterized by concurrent activation of…

Assessed developments in the theory of mind suggested by changes in the organization of cognitive verb extensions during elementary school years. Found three major changes with development: increased understanding of the role of memory in input functions, increased interrelatedness of memory- and comprehension-related verbs, and increased…

Describes a variety of analytic tools available to address questions about development, including growth-curve methods, hierarchical regressions, and both primary and secondary data analysis of project and extant data. Demonstrates some of these techniques using extant data from two projects to examine questions about treatment efficacy and…

Examined rhyming ability of 67 children, ages 3 to 6, who had experienced at least average language stimulation. Found that 4 years 2 months was pivotal age; 17% younger and 76% of children this age and older able to rhyme. Devised suggestions for rhyming books and a sequence of rhyming activities to develop and refine rhyming skill. (KB)

Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth shows that long-term poverty has substantial influences on both cognitive ability and achievement, but time patterns differ. Childhood is a much more crucial period than adolescence for development of cognitive ability, but adolescent achievement is influenced more by adolescent…