Discusses early entrance to kindergarten on the basis of whether a child's success in school can be reasonably predicted. Provides an early entrance procedure. (FL)

Discusses harmful myths or stereotypes that adults have about adolescents and proposes a realistic appraisal of adolescents' needs based on their developmental tasks. (SS)

Examined the instrumental responses and facial expressions during learning and extinction in a group of 36 cocaine-exposed infants ages 4 to 8 months and an equal number of control subjects. Findings indicated that cocaine-exposed infants expressed less interest and joy during learning and less anger and sadness during extinction than infants who…

Three studies investigated toddlers' judgments and communications about how desires, perceptions, and emotions connect in people's lives and minds. Findings indicated that in appropriate circumstances, young children realized that a person's perception of desirable or undesirable objects leads to related emotional experiences. Children's…

Presents information on prenatal brain development, detailing the functions controlled by the medulla, pons, and midbrain, and the implications for cognitive development. Concludes that fetal cognitive motor activity, including auditory discrimination, orienting, the wake-sleep cycle, fetal heart rate accelerations, and defensive reactions,…

Identifying mechanisms that explain the children's differential vulnerability to violence exposure is an important research focus. Developmentally sensitive theories and methods are recommended to better understand children's risk and resilience to violence exposure. Examples are provided of promising research that links violence exposure to…

There is growing evidence that cumulative exposure to highly responsive parenting styles throughout the early childhood period may provide a variety of important child benefits in terms of language, cognitive, social, and emotional development. We view maternal responsivity as a dynamic construct of central importance to the development of…

The authors share results from two longitudinal studies exploring the impact of father's alcohol use on child development. The Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS) has followed a sample of alcoholic families with 3-5 year old children for 20 years. The Buffalo Longitudinal Study (BLS) has followed a sample of alcoholic and nonalcoholic families…

This article shares the story of Alex, a gifted child. Alex is clearly gifted when observed through one lens and yet obviously lagging when viewed from a different angle. He knew his letters at 20 months, but did not learn to tie his shoes until the middle of second grade. He taught himself to read just before his third birthday, but in third…

Although childhood death from health-related disorders has decreased dramatically in the United States due largely to advances in medical technology, it is an unfortunate fact of life that children can and do die from medical and health-related problems. A possible role for school psychologists in dealing with this situation is providing direct…

This study explores educators' reflections on professional childcare practice in different national contexts. The data were collected by showing video clips of classroom activities in Japanese, Dutch and German pre-schools to experienced German and Dutch pre-school teachers. The clips were used to elicit their opinions on playing and learning in…

This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation of the impacts of an early childhood education program on providers and children in family child care. The program--"LearningGames"--is designed to train caregivers to stimulate children's cognitive, language, and social-emotional…

This study investigated the development of perceptual, cognitive, and affective perspective taking in 167 kindergarten through sixth grade children. Task intercorrelations were low, nonsignificant, and inconsistent, supporting the view that perspective taking is a multidimensional social-cognitive construct. (JMB)

Designed to supplement Indiana's curriculum guidelines for social studies instruction of gifted students, the manual provides introductory information on gifted and talented students and presents activity suggestions for Grades K through 3, 4 through 6, 7 through 8, and 9 through 12. At each grade level, the themes, topics, attitudes, and skills…

This study was designed to determine whether children's judgments of another's emotional state are based on egocentric or perspectivistic reasoning processes. A total of 91 children, between the ages of 3 and 10, at three grade levels, were shown a series of photographs containing conflicting situational and expressive cues to the pictured child's…