This article discusses how musical activities were added to a childcare playground and the benefits for a young child with blindness. The six-station "Sound Path" is described, and suggestions are provided for using sound pipes to develop sensorimotor skills, social and communication skills, cognitive skills, and emotional skills. (Contains…

Child care quality plays a crucial role in children's social and cognitive development. While child care quality is a critical issue for all children, it matters more for low-income children. Policy makers have increased the emphasis on allowing parents, not government, to make decisions about the type of care they want for their children. Yet…

Adolescence is a time of considerable development at the level of behaviour, cognition and the brain. This article reviews histological and brain imaging studies that have demonstrated specific changes in neural architecture during puberty and adolescence, outlining trajectories of grey and white matter development. The implications of brain…

The basic properties of a dynamic systems approach of development are illustrated by contrasting two simple equations. One equation is characteristic of dynamic systems models. The other refers to what, for the sake of simplicity, is referred to as the standard developmental approach. We give illustrations from cognitive, language and social…

Although the need for social connection is critical for early social development as well as for psychological well-being throughout the lifespan, relatively little is known about the neural processes involved in maintaining social connections. The following review summarizes what is known regarding the neural correlates underlying feeling of…

A longitudinal study was conducted on 34 children with autism to evaluate the usefulness of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) program for Chinese pre-school children in Hong Kong. Eighteen children received full-time center-based TEACCH program training. The control group included 16…

The Executive Committee at "ZERO TO THREE" created a Task Force on Culture and Development to deepen our understanding of the role of culture in child development and to guide the organization through a self-assessment process to better understand how staff and board members address the issue of culture in their work. The task force's literature…

The purpose of this study was to explore students' technology use and its relationship with their psychosocial development. Previous research explored students' computer use in conjunction with their cognitive development. This study examined the effects of computer use and other technologies, such as instant messaging, handheld gaming devices,…

The article reviews developmental research among Palestinians living in Gaza. The aims are, first, to analyze how exposure to traumatic events associates with children's mental health and their cognitive, emotional and social development. Second, we aimed to model familial and symbolic processes that can either harm or protect the mental health of…

In 1996, Paul Deering, now a National Middle School Association West Region Trustee and University of Hawaii professor, established the Masters Degree in Education with a Middle Level Emphasis Program (MLMED) at the University of Hawaii. The MLMED is a two-year program that focuses on five standards that encompass the research-based middle level…

This study investigated the extent to which data collected on play behavior differ when two different data collection methods, observation alone and observation plus interview, were used. A secondary objective was to compare data collected using both methods in an indoor and outdoor play environment. The social and cognitive play behavior for a…

This book addresses the critical issues, as well as contemporary approaches, used to deal with the developmental, social, intellectual, and coping problems of low-birthweight infants and their families. Following an introduction by I. E. Sigel, the chapters are: (1) "Past, Present, and Future Directions in Research on the Development of…

Peer relations contribute substantially to both social and cognitive development. The essentials of friendship are reciprocity and commitment between individuals who see themselves more or less as equals. Affiliation and common interests, the main themes in friendship relations, are first understood in early childhood. Friends serve as emotional…

Derived from the first phase of a research study entitled "The Cognitive and Social Development of Pre-School Children in Singapore" (the IE-BvLF study), the essays in this collection focus on the language, numeracy, cognitive, and social development of approximately 3,000 Singapore children between 1983 and 1986. Following a prologue…

This digest provides basic information and resources on visual impairments. Legal and educational definitions are given for "legally blind,""partially sighted,""visually handicapped,""blind," and "low vision". Typical characteristics of individuals with visual impairments in the areas of cognitive…