This follow-up study compares cognitive and language aspects of a group of Italian children ages 4-6 years, who had shown delayed expressive language abilities at 24 months of age (late talkers), with those of a group of children with a history of normal expressive language development (average talkers). Children were given a battery of…

This study compared the performance of 300 Chinese children on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Revised (BTBC-R) with that of American children from the standardization sample of the BTBC-R. Subjects were in kindergarten, first, and second grade, and completed the test at the end of the 1996-97 school year. The focus of the comparison was to…

A study explored perceived reality and developmental differences in viewing theater. Subjects, 33 second graders, 33 fourth graders, 23 sixth graders, and 23 college students viewed a production of "This Is Not a Pipe Dream," a non-representational play based on biographical facts about the early life and work of the surrealist painter…

A study examined whether the higher-order thinking patterns elicited by a reader response approach would carry over and become part of students' ways of thinking about literature, even in the absence of reader response prompts. Subjects were fourth-grade students (48 in all) in two intact, heterogeneously grouped classrooms in the same elementary…

A group of 119 children in Sweden were followed from infancy to age 8 to determine the relationship between type of child care children received and their later development. At the age of 8, children were given aptitude tests and were rated by teachers on school performance and social and personal development. A number of background variables were…

This study investigated the ability of preschool children in Singapore to conserve number, length, and quantity. Participants were more than 200 children of 3 to 6 years who attended one of six different types of preschool centers. Findings indicated that more than half of the 5.5-year-old children were able to conserve number, but less than 15…

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…

A SCHOOL- AND HOME-BASED PRESCHOOL WAS INSTITUTED FOR CULTURALLY DEPRIVED, FUNCTIONALLY RETARDED, 3- AND 4-YEAR-OLD NEGRO CHILDREN TO PROVIDE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES AND TO ENABLE THE CHILDREN TO SUCCEED IN SCHOOL. THE PROGRAM CONSISTED OF A COGNITIVELY ORIENTED MORNING NURSERY SCHOOL, AN AFTERNOON HOME-BASED PROGRAM TO PROVIDE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL…

Sixty kindergarten and sixty second grade children were administered a paired-associate (P-A) task. The subjects in each age group were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (1) experimental with aural presentation of the P-A's, (2) experimental with visual presentation of the P-A's, (3) control with aural presentation of the P-A's and (4)…

Although the literature abounds with speculation about open education, there are few experimental studies designed to test its effects. This research compared an open education program with a traditional program at the middle school level. Subjects were randomly assigned to comparison groups. Dependent measures included a self-concept scale, a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of CEMREL's Language and Thinking: New Directions Program, a broadly based early learning program in the teaching of basic language and reasoning skills. The program is a hierarchical skills oriented approach which provides a broadly based set of guidelines for teachers; a wide array…

A conservation problem of numerical equivalence which 80% of adults reliably fail and 40% of third graders pass was developed, and responses of 188 subjects (Grades 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and college) to it and related number conservation and probability problems indicated that the differences in nonconservation were rooted in subjects' different…

Control group students (receiving descriptive, non-inquiry science) and experimental group students (using Science Curriculum Improvement Study-SCIS "Interaction and Systems" materials) were later combined in grade 4 for instruction with SCIS "Subsystems and Variables" materials. Results show similar difficulties in learning…

Uses structural equation modeling to combine traditional ideas from repeated-measures ANOVA with some traditional ideas from longitudinal factor analysis. The model describes a latent growth curve model that permits the estimation of parameters representing individual and group dynamics. (Author/RH)

This research is testing the suggestion that acquisition and representation of formal language knowledge of dysphasic children is qualitatively different from the normal language acquisition/representation processes. In a cohort-sequential design, aspects of language and cognitive development of 120 dysphasic children aged 6-14 are being analyzed…