This paper is based on a presentation given at National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2005 in Anaheim, California. It explicates the developmental stages of the child as posited by Piaget. The author then ties each of the stages to developmentally appropriate mathematics instruction. The implications in terms of not imposing…

Roots of Empathy (ROE) is a classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among schoolchildren, while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. At the heart of the program are a neighbourhood infant and parent who visit the classroom for nine visits, every three weeks, over the…

Background: Research has investigated late-talking toddlers because they are at great risk of continuing to experience language-learning difficulties once they enter school and hence are candidates for early intervention. It is also important to consider this group of children with regards to the immediate characteristics which are detrimental to…

The purpose of this article is to examine the strands and goals which arise from the four principles of "Empowerment; Holistic Development; Family and Community and Relationships" ("Te Whariki," 1996) and to propose how music can be used in an integral way not only to meet the stated goals but also to promote them to their…

By focusing on letter-writing the article provides an example of how a technology of the word could be used as a panoptic technology of observation and reformation. The article discusses the practice of using letters in monitoring children's development in early twentieth-century reform school education. It is based on the author's study of…

This article illustrates some ways in which observations of typically-developing infants can inform music therapy and other work with children with disabilities. The research project that is described examines typical infant development with special attention to musical relatedness and communication. Videotapes of sessions centering on musical…

Classification of the quality and topographical pattern of motor impairment is used to describe cerebral palsy (CP). As an adjunct to a study characterizing the quality of life and participation of school-age children with CP, initial and follow-up classification of CP were compared. A cohort of 93 children (58 males, 35 females) were initially…

Children's cognitive skills change substantially from the time they enter school at about the age of five to when they graduate from high school a dozen years later. Some changes can be attributed to the school curriculum, but others are part of children's developmental evolution as they mature and interact with the world. Rather than reviewing…

Finnish curriculum guidelines for early education emphasise play and creative activities as significant factors in healthy child development. Constructivist theory loosely frames the guidelines, but the recommended approach lacks precise developmental goals. Since 1996, we have carried out a narrative learning project with vertically integrated…

The objectives of this study were to establish the different developmental trajectories of hyperactive-impulsive behaviors on the basis of both mother and father ratings at 19, 32, 50, and 63 months, and to examine the predictive validity of these trajectories with respect to later hyperactive-impulsive behaviors, as rated by teachers in the first…

Empirical studies of early childhood educators' experiences with learning and implementing positive guidance skills are absent from the extant literature. This study explored this topic with 63 junior and senior level university students who were involved in concurrent instructional lecture and practicum experiences. Participants defined…

This paper explores parental concern about children's activity levels and whether parents who are concerned about their child's activity provide a supportive environment. A sample of 615 parents of 5-6-year-old children and 947 parents of 10-12-year-old children completed a questionnaire. Just over 50% of parents reported they were concerned their…

We use administrative data on a sample of births between 1978 and 1985 to investigate the short-, medium-, and long-term consequences of poor infant health. Our findings offer several advances to the existing literature on the effects of early infant health on subsequent health, education, and labor force attachment. First, we use a large sample…

Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of…

We examined the relationship between cognitive capacity and heuristic responding on four types of reasoning and decision-making tasks. A total of 84 children, between 5 years 2 months and 11 years 7 months of age, participated in the study. There was a marked increase in heuristic responding with age that was related to increases in cognitive…