Play can become a truly significant learning experience for all our youngsters if educators will pioneer in making adventure the key word in our elementary school playgrounds. (Author)

By including measurements of body length and head size along with birth weight, four distinct patterns of fetal growth impairment were identified. Diagnostic criteria presented make allowances for effects of race, sex, fetal age, and parity on each pattern. (Author/KW)

Contains 3 contributions: Conference Report" (conference on child motor development sponsored by AAHPER and NAEYC), A Real Look at the Young Child," and What Movement Means to the Young Child." (AN)

A total of 20 children with idiopathic precocious puberty; 27 adolescents with clinically delayed puberty; and an equivalent number of controls matched for sex, age, and IQ were given a battery of tests including measures of verbal and spatial abilities and a task using a dichotic listening procedure to assess hemispheric lateralization.…

Using a question-and-answer format, the author discusses brain research, its relationship to existing learning theory, left- and right-brain differences and their relationship to logical thinking, brain growth spurts, learning styles, and the effects of future brain knowledge on learning, especially on schools' development of brain-compatible…

Investigated concurrent validity of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) with Native American primary-grade children. Significantly low General Cognitive Index indicates that the MSCA with Native American children is not recommended for psychodiagnostic purposes. However, perceptual-performance and motor scales may provide useful…

Describes the relationship between neonatal crying and anthropometric indices of fetal growth. No differences were found between cry features of underweight and overweight infants; both groups required more stimulation than average weight infants to elicit crying. It is suggested that certain cry features may reflect the risk status of neonates…

Behavioral observations and sociometric methods revealed a stable dominance hierarchy in eight groups of 12- to 14-year-old male and female adolescents at a summer camp. (JMB)

Changes in information processing during child, adolescent, and adult development affect motor performance. Several of the memory processes that change with development produce increased performance, processing speed, and control processes. (CJ)

Effects of major life events, and of types of resources, on the physical and social-psychological adaptation of participants in a longitudinal study were examined. Medical events had the most impact on physical adaptation but had little impact on social-psychological adaptation. Retirement had the most negative social-psychological effects.…

Tests indicate that males have better performance than females in motor performance tests, with the exception of flexibility; black children ran significantly faster than white children in the 30-yd dash, but significant race differences were not evident on any other motor items. (JD)