This paper is in memory of Esther Thelen, who passed away while President of the Society for Research in Child Development. A survey of Esther Thelen's career reveals a trajectory from early work on simple movements like stepping, to the study of goal-directed reaching, to work on the embodiment of cognition, and, ultimately, to a grand theory of…

This article describes one unconventional elementary school teacher's frustrations with colleagues doubting her competence, intelligence, and sense of purpose as a teacher. In her classroom, she never used textbooks or had a teacher's desk. There were no contests, gold stars, or redbird reading groups. There were no school-supply decorations,…

The present work documents how the logic of a model's demonstration and the communicative cues that the model provides interact with age to influence how children engage in social learning. Children at ages 12, 18, and 24 months (n = 204) watched a model open a series of boxes. Twelve-month-old subjects only copied the specific actions of the…

Riding toys and push-pull toys are traditionally part of every early childhood program. Young children can develop a wide variety of skills and get numerous health benefits from riding toys if one is careful and thoughtful in setting up the riding-toy area. This article describes various types of riding toys and activity ideas to enhance…

This article presents suggestions on how to increase awareness of a sense of time for infants up to age 6. It recommends using children's personal experiences to help them understand time concepts. Individual components of this article include: (1) "I Go Now!"--Birth to 2 (Carla Poole); (2) "Today's My Birthday!"--3 to 4 (Susan A. Miller); and (3)…

In these times when educational standards, assessment, and evaluation of core subjects seem to dominate the public school agenda including early childhood, the challenge for educators to provide essential art experiences for children is daunting. Examinations of the greater educational value of art media can reveal some answers. Knowing how…

In this article, the author believes that computers for young children are often reductive and limiting, rather than expanding their three dimensional sensory, interpersonal, and cognitive experience. Among other points, she discusses the after effects of children's early exposure to technological materials. Moreover, she opines that teachers need…

Four-month-old infants were habituated with an upright or an upside-down face. Eye-movement recordings showed that the upright and upside-down faces were not explored the same way. Infants spent more time exploring internal features, mainly in the region of the nose and mouth, when the face was upright. They also alternated as frequently between…

At the Center for Discovery (The Center), a private, non-profit agency 80 miles northwest of New York City in the Catskill Mountains, children are growing and learning at their own pace, in their own way, with careful attention focused on communication and social/emotional development. Children with autism are being educated to be social beings,…

The role of homework needs to be considered within the context of the broader developmental needs of children. This article focuses on how children spend their time after school and how homework, as well as other activities, can contribute to school success. Children differ in their after-school experiences, from "latchkey" children who lack…

The study of children?s peer relationships has been well represented within the pages of Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. Particularly over the last decade, the pace of publishing studies on peer relationships has increased. Despite this upswing in interest in peer relationships, significant gaps remain. In this article, we focus on a particularly…

Theories about reading have neglected basic differences in the developmental trajectories of skills related to reading. This essay proposes that some reading skills, such as learning the letters of the alphabet, are constrained to small sets of knowledge that are mastered in relatively brief periods of development. In contrast, other skills, such…

Provides the biography of E. Mavis Hetherington and announces that she has received the APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions (2004) for her outstanding contributions to understanding the family context of children's and adolescents' development and adaptation. A selected bibliography is also provided.

The genetic and environmental contributions to the development of general cognitive ability throughout the first 16 years of life were examined using sibling data from the Colorado Adoption Project. Correlations were analyzed along with structural equation models to characterize the genetic and environmental influences on longitudinal stability…

Matt Ridley, an Oxford-trained zoologist and science writer whose latest book is "Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human" (2003a), wrote such an impressively clear and fascinating piece on "What Makes You Who You Are" that the author decided to use it to introduce the continuing pursuit of "What do I do to best promote…