The author notes that teachers who continually require students to sit still and stop talking apparently prefer to teach a grove of trees rather than a classroom full of students. School environments should be designed to enhance the development of student brains -- and student brains are about movement, not motionless stagnation. 21st century…

New research on brain development has profound implications in the areas of child development and education. This review of the research describes how the brain develops to shape children's growing intelligence, addressing such questions as: (1) What are the brain's functions? (2) What are the critical or sensitive periods in brain development?…

Intended for use in Florida training programs for caregivers of infants and toddlers with disabilities, this guide presents an overview of the Model of Interdisciplinary Training for Children with Handicaps (MITCH); provides a user's guide to the series of MITCH modules; and presents specific information for presenting Module 1, which focuses on…

Chapter 1 of this document on learner outcomes in early childhood education (ECE) discusses the values, educational philosophy, mission, and goals of the Minnesota State Board of Education. Chapter 2 describes components of an effective early childhood program, the role and purpose of ECE, and emerging issues in ECE. An overview of learner…

This volume provides an informed and accessible overview of the whole area of children's thinking. The book reviews children's thinking in detail by discussing the ways children remember and organize information in general; the acquisition of skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic; and the development of more complex reasoning as children…

Constructivist theory asserts that children learn through interaction with and adaptation to their environment. Social constructivism emphasizes social interaction in learning, particularly language and the use of language in interaction between the student and his peers or an adult. This paper discusses the relevance of social constructivism,…

With recent legislation placing a strong emphasis on the transition of welfare mothers into the workforce, it becomes increasingly important to understand whether and how participation in child care has implications for the development of children from welfare families. This study focused on a sample of 182 African-American families, all of whom…

This Kids Count special report examines brain development during infancy and early childhood in order to provide a basis for an informed discussion about the need for preventive programs to foster healthy child development. The report summarizes information on early brain development and how experience shapes neural connections. It focuses on the…

This instructor's manual for "Educational Psychology: A Realistic Approach" is divided into five sections, providing an organized approach to the various materials that can be used to facilitate instruction. Section 1 describes how to use the manual. The second section provides general resources and references. Section 3 is a directory to…

The report describes the development and field testing of the Early Social-Communication Scales (ESCS), a measure intended to reflect developmental dimensions of the at-risk infant's and toddler's adaptive interactions. The ESCS was designed to assess three major communicative functions (social interaction, joint attention, and behavior…

The aims of this paper are to document the need for quality infant day care, to encourage the formation of a statewide policy for infant day care in Maryland, and to recommend specific components of that policy. Discussion refers to both family day care and center-based day care. After the first section's introductory presentation of data…

This bibliography lists all entries from the Jean Piaget Archives Catalogues dealing with mental retardation. The list, including almost 200 entries, encompasses four works by Piaget himself, one collaboration, and 189 works by other authors. Entries are arranged in order by their publication in one of the 12 catalogues of the archives, providing…

Discourse comprehension involves readers or listeners in constructing mental models using local text information, global text structures, and their general knowledge of the world. An analysis of the literature on children's understanding of spoken discourse reveals that young children are capable of forming mental models from texts, but that their…

This paper is a theoretical discussion based on a primary grade, social developmental curriculum developed from cognitive developmental theory and a social-cognitive theory of stages in the developing conceptions of interpersonal relations. The body of the paper focuses on changes, refinements and additions the study has suggested are needed in…