An examination of the journal writing of 14 second graders during one school year reveals the evolution from egocentricity, with the work of one student serving as a model against which similarities and differences in the growth patterns of the other students are measured. The students' drawings and writings reflect their learning about the world…

The current study was devised to determine the short-term (1 month) and long-term (4 months) effects of having students generate their own examples of selected concepts. More specifically, focus was on determining how self-generated examples might enhance the learning and retrieval of concepts. Subjects were 55 (54 female and 1 male) undergraduate…

Discussed are some changes needed in teacher education programs if prospective teachers' training in child development is to be relevant to the ethnically diverse children encountered in the classroom. Particular attention is given to characteristics teachers must have to teach children in large urban areas; the incorporation of human growth and…

Writing development in preschool children has only recently begun to receive attention; however, Russian researchers dealt with the subject in the 1920s and 30s. Arguing that writing was a fundamental assist to cognitive growth as well as a tool for communication, Lev Vygotsky believed that the preschool child was ready to be taught writing.…

The research literature suggests that the processes involved in language and cognitive development are similar in nature, especially during the early years. Both require some method for assimilation and accommodation of incoming stimuli, both appear to be continuous and hierarchical in nature, and both require the development and refinement of a…

Cognitive development proceeds through a series of four levels. The first is the single-class level, attained by infants at approximately 1 year of age. At the single-class level, concepts are based on element similarity or convention (for example, images and words for common objects). The second level is the relational level, attained by toddlers…

While many contemporary developmental theorists have avoided taking a stand on the controversial relationship between learning and development, this paper is based on the belief that the notion of "bandwidth of competence," or L. S. Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development," provides a useful framework for considering this…

This report evaluates a nursery program for pre K pupils in New York City. The program emphasized oral language, sensory motor coordination, conceptual training and the development of a strong self concept. Fifteen pre K pupils participated in the program. An intake diagnosis was used to help specify areas of deficit which needed attention.…

This review of research on the preschool years asserts that a general behavior analysis of those years is essential not only because of its importance as a developmental stage but also because there is a need to fill the knowledge gap between the principles of animal behavior and the principles of practical applications to childhood problems.…

A study was conducted to see if there was a developmental progression in the type of persuasive appeals selected by children; that is, whether the appeals could be ordered in terms of the degree to which the children accommodated the views of others. The subjects, 211 kindergarten through twelfth grade students, selected one of four messages they…

Within the multidisciplinary setting of the Brookline Early Education Project, the present investigation examined the relationship between observations of parents, pediatricians, psychologists and teachers. The study was designed to examine two questions: (1) Are systematically collected parent reports of their children's current development…

This review of the literature on self-speech, a subset of a communicative speech (speech not intended for nor effectively adapted for communication with others), focuses on the concept of self-control through language. The theories of six major researchers in the area of self-speech--J. Piaget, L. Vygotsky, A. Luria, H. Reese, J. Flavell, and L.…

This instructional booklet is part of Learning Package #2 on self concept development and child behavior used in conjunction with the Child Development Training Program at Bemidji, Minnesota. The booklet is divided into 15 brief sections which emphasize: (1) techniques of observation and experimentation; (2) measurement of the readiness concept;…

The described teacher inservice education program is designed for elementary school teachers and administrators who are interested in child development in relation to individually guided education. The scope and sequencing of topics in the program are outlined, and the activities and resources involved are described. Ordering information for…