Qualitatively analyzes the stories that 23 preadolescent foster children told about their lives. An ecological framework in conjunction with the social constructionist understanding of stories guided the ethnographic semistructured interviews. These stories contained both common and unique features and provided insight into the lives of foster…

Developmentalists have overlooked the problem of the real impermanence of things. Though the metaphor of impermanence is central to Piagetian and neo-nativist accounts of representation, the development of the understanding of impermanence is unstudied. This article proposes that the development of the concept of impermanence is distinct from the…

Neural network models and more conventional statistics were used to study the use of sequential phonological probabilities in the segmentation of a phonological transcription of conversational English that might allow the infant to bootstrap into a series of increasingly sophisticated segmentation competencies. Results are interpreted in the…

Summarizes and integrates key findings from the most widely cited research studies which have investigated children's understanding of what is "real" on television. Discusses the developmental patterns in young viewers' use of various criteria for assessing the reality status of television programs. (Author/LRW)

The Kid's Klub is a school-age child care summer program focused on building developmental assets. Extension staff, 4-H adult and youth leaders, and Master Gardeners presented projects to first- through fourth-graders. Parents (n=11) reported that their children continued developing empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills. (SK)

Explores relationships between ethics and individual and societal development in psychologist Baldwin's work, focusing on how he extended evolutionary theory to encompass social and ethical development. Asserts that Baldwin tried to demonstrate a natural developmental process leading toward truth, beauty, the Good, and God; that developmental…

Recent research provides evidence of the strong connections between quality of play in preschool years and children's readiness for school instruction. Mature play, characterized by imaginary situations, multiple roles, clearly defined rules, flexible themes, language development, length of play, helps students' cognitive development. (Contains 12…

This special issue brings together research concerned with the psychoeducational and psychosocial functioning of Chinese children in Mainland China (including Hong Kong) and of those who have immigrated to the U.S. Articles address a variety of topics including: moral development, self-concept, school adjustment, creativity, friendships, reading,…

Examined sharing of child development knowledge between grandmothers and mothers in White and Black populations to determine impact of cultural, generational, and familial effects. Fifty-six White grandmother-mother dyads and 31 Black dyads estimated age at which average child is capable of various developmental tasks. Blacks held older age…

Reviews research that uses autonomic responses of human infants as dependent measures. Focuses on the history of research on the autonomic nervous system, measurement issues, and autonomic correlates of infant behavior and systems. (RJC)

Describes the Program for Adolescent Mothers (PAM) established to provide opportunities for teen mothers in Louisiana to increase their self-esteem, become productive citizens, and become aware of the physical and emotional development of children. (JOW)

The mechanisms of both language-based and non-language-based learning disabilities are presented within the framework of central nervous system development and the compromises to that development that arise from genetic, hormonal, antibody, medication, and postnatal compromises. Also reviewed is the need for a taxonomy of learning disabilities.…

Examined the ability of 144 children of 6 and 12 years to respond to instructions to use environmental landmarks when leading the way. Children who were told they would lead the way did not prepare more adequately than children who were not told. Children did benefit from instructions to attend to environmental features. (RJC)

Investigates the ability of 757 children aged 8, 11, 14, and 18 years to judge the importance of intraepisodic and interepisodic story statements on the basis of their causal properties. Children in all groups judged statements with many intraepisodic causal relations as being more important than statements with few such relations. (RJC)

Investigation into the relative effectiveness of four input strategies for two-year-olds' (N=56) category evolution found that the most effective strategy involved labelling an object and providing both a physical demonstration and a verbal description of important attributes. (Author/CB)