The article reviews the literature on the ways in which Piaget's sensorimotor and preoperational periods are relevant to assessment and educational practices for severely and profoundly retarded persons. (Author/DLS)

Kindergarten and first-grade children conserved physical attributes of inanimate objects more easily than the physical attributes of animate objects. Significant conservation differences between various animate objects also were found. (Author/RL)

Provides a catalogue of federal programs and gives the key sources of federal funds for child development, social services, nutrition, education, health, community development, etc. (MP)

Suggestions are made for using an understanding of child development to ensure fair and constructive competency testing in the first years of school. (JD)

Author states that Csikszentmihalyi's flow model seems to be contradictory in distinguishing play as an activity undertaken for the individual's enjoyment of the process itself and play as an extrinsically motivated, goal-oriented activity. (RW)

In reply to Barnett's article, Csikszentmihalyi states that the individual's intrapsychic needs and response to external stimuli are interwoven and cannot be separated into two distinct motivating factors. (RW)

Discusses philosophy and approaches for relating futurism to home economics education and ways in which future planning can be incorporated into home economics curriculum. Describes objectives and activities for presenting futurism in teaching housing and child development. (MF)

Describes efforts to develop a humanistic, interdisciplinary program designed to "educate the whole teacher to educate the whole child". (Editor)

Reflects on four aspects of the history of developmental psychology. Notes that the discipline has followed a path from fact collection without theory, to grand theories, to a profusion of minitheories; expanded focus from child to lifespan development; exhibited increased cross-disciplinary interests; and become more sensitive to addressing…

Examined how infants acquire adaptive locomotion in the novel task of going up and down slopes. Found that infants' judgments became increasingly accurate and exploration became increasingly efficient, with no transfer over the transition from crawling to walking. Infants learned to gauge their abilities on-line as they encountered each hill at…

Summarizes findings in brain research that directly impact how caregivers interact with young children: (1) interplay between genes and environment; (2) contributions of early experiences to brain structure; (3) effects of early interactions on brain "wiring"; (4) the non-linear progress of development; and (5) children's biological…

Presents a functionalist perspective on emotion communication and its role in the development of shame and guilt. Emotion communication influences relationship-building between parent and child; gives significance to standards, rules, and achievement; and serves as a channel of communication between parent and child regarding standards, rules, and…

This article critiques Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development as it relates to children with disabilities. Discusses the recently expanded theory, including the identification of ecological niches that differentially influence children with particular personal characteristics. Studies from the disability literature illustrate…

Subtypes of nonsocial play were examined for matched groups of young typically developing children and children with mild developmental (cognitive) delays. Findings indicated that the nonsocial play of these children can be characterized as multidimensional in a manner similar to that of typically developing children. However, context did not…

Introduces a methodology for exploring primary students' television news interpretation, noting how to integrate such interpretations into the classroom. Analysis of news broadcasts from three major networks indicates that mayhem constitutes the majority of broadcasts, with developmentally appropriate topics interspersed among violent episodes.…