Examines invented spelling as a stage of progress in children's writing growth. Suggests that children generally understand consonant sounds first. As a consequence, they start invented spelling often omitting all or most vowels. Gradually, as children make the transition to conventional spelling, vowels are added. Proposes ways to facilitate…

Evaluated the development of 44 children adopted from Romanian orphanages. Adoptive parents described their children twice, using the Revised Denver Prescreening Developmental questionnaire when they first met the children, and again at approximately 11 months postadoption. Showed that progress was equal across areas, and that, on average,…

Claims in "The Bell Curve" that Head Start and other early intervention programs are a failure and a waste of funds depend on a notion of cognitive ability reduced to IQ. They ignore other studies that demonstrate the success of such programs and that, consistent with Piagetian views, recognize the interrelationships of cognitive,…

This article focuses on a change affecting Spanish in contact with English in the United States: simplification and loss of subjunctive mood morphology. Analysis of conversational data from 17 Mexican American bilinguals representing 3 immigrant groups living in Los Angeles reveals a reduced inclination for the obligatory use of the subjunctive in…

Sixty-seven students participated in a study that used path analysis techniques to test a hypothesized structural model of direct and indirect causal effects of students variables on science process skills. Academic ability, biology knowledge, and language preference were found to have significant direct effect, whereas cognitive development,…

Examined children's use of the representativeness heuristic with two types of decision problems adapted from research with adults--standard representativeness problems and conjunction fallacy problems. Findings on both problems indicate the use of decision heuristics in the early grade-school years, and suggests these should be the years for…

Reviews research on the development of children's awareness and feelings related to race and class. Suggests that children's perceptions of themselves and others depends on their majority or minority status in their community and on the quality of contacts they have with other racial groups. Proposes teaching practices that can raise awareness and…

Investigated effects of object reinstatement on event recall by 6- and 9-year olds'. Subjects were interviewed either 10 days and again 10 weeks after an event, or only 10 weeks after an event. Interviewing included free recall, prompts, and questions. Found that age, delay, and object reinstatement all affected amount and accuracy of recall. (JW)

Studied effectiveness of instruction in seriation and classification for kindergartners cognitively lagging behind their peers. Found that extensive classification and seriation instruction in a variety of formats was particularly helpful in facilitating cognitive gains for struggling kindergartners. Individualized instruction provided children…

Examined the effectiveness of small sets of predictor variables for correctly identifying children as developmentally delayed at four to seven years of age. A combination of six biomedical risk items, maternal education level, and four subscale scores from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory is effective when used as…

Yearly cognitive tests were administered to adoptive and nonadoptive siblings between one and seven years of age and identical and nonidentical twins between one and three years. Results indicated that genetic influences are a source of continuity and change in mental development, whereas shared and nonshared environmental effects contribute to…

Report provides new data concerning children's accuracy as measured by previous studies and clarifies progress of first graders during entire year on difficult single-digit addition and subtraction problems. Discussion focuses on advantages of an adding on interpretation of subtraction and the importance of emphasizing conceptual understanding…

Presents results of a study in which subjects produced narratives with the help of a computer. Discusses control processes, correction of wrong choices, and coherence of narrative. Concludes that expert functioning is the result of the acquisition of the narrative structure and the processes involved and is highly related to metacognitive…

This paper discusses a cross-sectional study that assessed the moral development profiles of undergraduate pharmacy students (n=71) using Rest's Defining Issues Test. Analysis showed no significant difference in mean level of principled moral reasoning between first and fourth professional year undergraduate students. (GLR)

Measures of vocabulary, phonological memory, nonverbal intelligence, and reading were taken from 80 children at ages 4, 5, 6, and 8 years. Comparisons revealed a significant shift in the causal underpinnings of the relationship between phonological memory and vocabulary development before and after age five. (Author/LB)