Examines the benefits of sand play for young children, focusing on areas of cognitive, physical, communicative, creative and social-emotional development. Also discusses the role of the teacher in encouraging children's natural curiosity and exploration with sand play, noting that teachers should observe and interact with children during play in…

Examined cardiac activity during the first 13 months of life. Indexes of cardiac activity changed in an orderly way with development. There were intercorrelations among the cardiac measures. Analyses indicated that measures of heart-rate variability were significantly higher in insecure children than in secure children. (BC)

As weight training becomes increasingly popular with children and adolescents, physicians need to advise patients and parents about what is safe and what is not. Young people who adhere to a well-supervised, progressive strength training program can improve their strength and improve performance in other sports. (SM)

Notes children with movement difficulties do not receive neat diagnostic classification, as they have normal intelligence and minimal neurological signs. Details a study based on interviews of 11 parents of children with movement difficulties that revealed that parent involvement and knowledge is critical to acquiring professional attention.…

Maintains that the "getting into shape" hypothesis of explaining the inverted-U distribution of exercise play across age is likely incorrect. Argues that the biological study of human physical activity play, as recommended by Pellegrini and Smith (1998), will reveal whether physical activity play represents an example of…

The article considers nursery rhymes as the foundation for learning. It is said that nursery rhymes carry all the parts of language that lead to speaking and reading. Because rhymes are short, they are easy for children to repeat, and become some of the first sentences children utter. The rhymes expand vocabulary, exposing children to words they…

This article features activities for children to explore the concepts of "over" and "under." Using boxes and blocks, children explore positional relationships and develop physical skills. Here, the author offers activities for every age level.

This report presents a revision of the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework (2000), renamed The Head Start Child Development and Learning Framework: Promoting Positive Outcomes in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children 3-5 Years Old. The Framework outlines the essential areas of development and learning that are to be used by Head Start programs…

This book offers lively, creative ideas to develop children's curiosity while helping them build the skills needed to succeed in kindergarten and beyond while meeting standards and benchmarks. "Play, Projects and Preschool Standards" has won the Distinguished Achievement Award for "Best Teacher Resource" in the professional…

Adolescent boys (n = 269) were assessed for levels of several risky behaviors related to the pursuit of muscularity, including substance use (anabolic steroids, prohormones, and ephedrine) dieting to gain weight, and symptoms of muscle dysmorphia (MD). The association between these behaviors and a variety of putative biological, psychological, and…

This study reviews the literature on gender issues in human development, focuses on student revealing differences in specific abilities of males and females, and discusses whether those differences are as well established as the literature suggests. The research literature is examined from the following perspectives: perception, physical/motor…

A study explored girls' emerging attitudes toward breast care and breast self-exam (BSE) and the extent to which girls had given thought to these issues. Analyses focused specifically on individual differences related to age, stage of breast development, perceived normalcy of breast development, and body image. The sample consisted of 43 white,…

In the 1940s, Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck of Harvard Law School began a cross-sectional study of 500 delinquent and 500 non-delinquent boys. This book is based on interviews and other data provided by 240 subjects in the non-delinquent group over a 40-year period. All of the subjects were born into lower- and working-class Boston families in the…

"Nutrition Counts," the pediatric portion of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's (MDPH) Nutrition Surveillance System, monitors and describes aspects of nutritional status among groups of young children in the state. This report presents cross-sectional data describing 5,176 infants and young children in Massachusetts. Of…