Studied children, grades three through twelve, in a community school system. The proportion of group members increases through grade six, then declines, while the proportion of liaisons increases continuously. This finding challenges traditional accounts of the development of cliques. (Author/LHW)

Jerzy Kosinski's "The Painted Bird" is used as a case study to illustrate the universal and necessary unity which binds loneliness, hostility, anxiety, and despair over the possibility of communicating within individual isolated human consciousness. (HOD/Author)

Few public education systems provide schooling for four-year-olds, yet studies show that children who attend preschool programs do better and are more likely to graduate from high school. Includes a national survey of public programs for four-year-olds. (MD)

Analysis of the psychological traits and childhood environments of foremost essayists, historians, and critics (N=42) suggested that, while intelligence was a component of eminence, environmental influences were substantial. Familial, school, and social conditions provided indispensable support during the childhoods of the future essayists.…

Discusses ways in which Myron Hofer's work (1987), which draws on studies of rodents and primates, alters the traditional perspective on human attachment. Emphasizes the importance of the component of attachment that does not develop in explaining attachment in the first six months of life. (PCB)

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

Although most males with a 49,XXXXY karyotype will have significant mental retardation, the case of an affected boy having mild-cognitive and motor delays and age-appropriate adaptive skills at 59 months is presented. Guarded optimism may be justified in affected males demonstrating close to or age-appropriate developmental skills through early…

Relationships between syntactic and semantic aspects of mothers' speech and infants' word acquisition was examined in 27 mother-infant dyads. Results indicated that the more the mother differentiated the complexity of her speech to child and adult, the earlier the child attained 20 words. The more the mother used adult-basic labels in her speech,…

Conversational turn-taking violations and corresponding repair mechanisms were studied in 30 pairs of mothers and children (ages 2-6). Mothers interrupted significantly more than the children who were more likely to discontinue talking when interrupted than the mothers. Mothers appeared less facilitative of turn-taking than of other pragmatic…

Explains the relationship between how children learn clock, calendar, and historical time skills and concepts. An alternative view of how temporal and historical understandings affect the teaching of history called the developmental-historical time view is proposed. (BSR)

The author describes Minnesota's Early Childhood Family Education program for all children from birth to kindergarten and their parents. Topics include the types of activities each local program undertakes, administration and planning, and financing. A list of important program attributes is included. (CH)

The developmental history of a 14-year-old girl with Cri-Du-Chat Syndrome (a genetic disorder characterized by a distinctive cry and severe physical and intellectual disabilities) is reported. (Author/DB)

Issues and developmental considerations in outcome and treatment of head injury in children are considered. Focus is on appropriate assessment practices in the areas of psychoeducational development, motor and cognitive deficits, and neuropsychological deficits. (Author/DB)

Considers possible links between development of empathy and some children's spontaneous creation of imaginary companions or situations, citing examples of Agatha Christie's "Autobiography." Questions if such activities show ability to "decenter emotionally." Suggests need for better methods of assessing emotional decentering…

Investigated relationships among parenting knowledge, quality of stimulation in the home environment, and infant developmental performance in three socioeconomic status groups. In low socioeconomic status families, parenting knowledge was significantly associated with quality of stimulation in the home environment, which in turn was significantly…