Described is an empirical and rational inquiry into the formation of a small set of special or geometrical concepts of young children. The approach taken by the author is to attempt to specify intellectual growth in one particular area, a child's acquisition of diagonality, in such a way as to be representative. That is, to give a clean portrayal…

The paper reviews a theory advanced by Satz and Sparrow (1970) which purports to explain the nature and cause of specific developmental dyslexia, and evaluates several developmental hypotheses which are generated bythe theory. The theory postulates that developmental dyslexia is not a unitary syndrome but rather reflects a lag in the maturation of…

Reports a study conducted to determine whether several key concepts related to child development could be extended to existing theory and research concerning comprehension of television by kindergartners and early primary school children. Results indicate that children's indivisual differences partially explain amount and kind of social learning,…

This paper discusses how children form concepts; the diversity of concepts that are influenced by social processes; factors that affect concept formation; and behavioral techniques that have been effective in improving the instructional capabilities of parents and teachers. (Author/AM)

Reviews the theories of Piaget, Smilansky, Sutton-Smith, Vygotsky, and others on the role of play in child development. (SB)

Discusses the relevance of the study of the neurobiology of cognitive development, for an understanding of both the neural bases and the nature of cognition. Also considered are the age at which hemisphere specialization first appears and whether hemisphere specialization changes over time. (PCB)

The intellectual development and behavior of U.S. citizen infants with undocumented alien parents were compared with infants of documented alien parents or Hispanic American parents. Demographic and environmental variables were equivalent for both groups. Infants of undocumented parents scored significantly lower on the Bayley mental and…

Reviews research on children's ability to remember events in relation to that of adults. Concludes that age interacts with other factors, including language and the relative development of knowledge structures, to determine suggestibility. Suggests that children's memories may at times be less easily influenced than adults' memories. (KH)

Assessment of development and home environments of twelve, 2-year-old children raised by mentally retarded mothers indicated for increased risk developmental delay, particularly in language. Cognitive development was significantly correlated with whether the mother had a previous child removed from the home by child protection authorities and with…

Identifies stages children progress through in acquiring adult metaphor comprehension and develops a more complex coding scheme based on theoretical clarifications of metaphor comprehension. (PD)

Mean scores of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development for 61 very low-birthweights, corrected for prematurity, were within the normal limits at both testing occasions. However, there was a significant decrease in mental development scores from one to two years of age. (Author/CL)

The author presents a series of programmed exercises designed to help teachers develop the skills necessary to incorporate Piaget's concepts of child intellectual development into effective classroom use. (MB)

Article reviews Piaget's views on language and explains why he is not more concerned with this than he is. (AM)

This science brief reports on a study that identified the effects of different experiences on critical periods of learning during early brain development. The study found that the presence of corticosterone in a part of the brain called the amygdala determined whether a normally painful experience was learned as an attractive or fearful event.…

Integrating Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of the mind and cognitive science's computational model, this book focuses on how the computational mind uses language to mediate the internal and external worlds during thought. The first part of the book establishes the basis for unifying social and computational approaches to mind through language.…