Reports research which reveals the difficulty children have in understanding (1) the real purpose of written language and (2) the abstract, technical vocabulary of language study and reading. (SW)

"A new sort of concept attainment or decoding-encoding experimental paradigm based on the model is developed and an experiment on 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds is reported. (Author)

Discusses the need for a sustained and systematic effort toward establishing a theoretical framework for educational simulations, proposes the adaptation of models borrowed from the natural and applied sciences, and describes three simulations based on such a model adapted using Brunerian learning theory. Sixteen references are listed. (LLS)

Focusing on the ST-ART shorthand theory presentation method, this article discusses the following principles of language-motor skill acquisition: mental practice, symbol-sound association, verbal mediation, recitation and articulation, hierarchy of habits, overlearning, learner anxiety, sense modality, guided practice, kinesthetic imagery, visual…

Describes how infants and toddlers learn to use action, object, picture, and word symbols, and offers suggestions for educators and caregivers to facilitate symbol use. Discusses how adults can introduce books to young children and enhance the symbolic aspect of the care and education program. (KB)

Visual accents can create unique communication graphics to increase attending behavior necessary for learning symbol/referent relationships by students with severe vision loss. Accenting procedures use size, color, contrast, shape, and graphic pattern to enhance the probability that the learner will self-initiate attending to the visual symbol.…

Debates the merits of the claim that "symbolic technologies push cognitive growth earlier and longer." The results of an assessment are presented that involved three adult male peasants (two literate, one nonliterate) living in rural China and their ability to recall the text of "The Lonesome Opossum." (25 references) (GLR)

Discusses development of symbolic thinking in toddlers as a step in language acquisition and skill development. Examines means of encouraging this symbolic problem solving, such as setting the stage for problems, helping children plan problem-solving strategies, and encouraging children in self-evaluating their skills. Examines development of…

Children's developing competence with symbolic representations was assessed in 3 studies. Study 1 examined the hypothesis that the production of imaginary symbolic objects in pantomime requires the simultaneous coordination of the dual representations of a dynamic action and a symbolic object. We explored this coordination of symbolic…

The objective of this research was to explore whether orthographic learning occurs as a result of phonological recoding, as expected from the self-teaching hypothesis. The participants were 32 fourth- and fifth-graders (mean age = 10 years 0 months, SD = 7 months) who performed lexical decisions for monosyllabic real words and pseudowords under…

Designed to help the teacher of young deaf children teach syntax, the text presents a general orientation to the program as well as a review of the specific goals of language instruction. An overview of the early stages of instruction discusses symbol development (as the child becomes aware print has meaning) and illustrates how to help the child…

This paper reports a study which attempted to generalize earlier results obtained by Eastman to another mathematical content area. Two hundred eight ninth-grade algebra students were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. The figural-inductive treatment presented concepts of logic through the use of Euler diagrams in an inductive mode;…

Children learned two linear function rules under varying conditions: presence vs. absence of pointing; visual cues (context vs. weight vs. both pictured); and a verbal-only baseline condition. A complex rule was learned as a transfer task. Visual cues aided both learning and transfer; pointing helped initial learning, but retarded transfer.…

The author emphasizes the importance of concepts and mathematical form in a discussion of understanding mathematics. (MN)

Children show less evidence of nominal realism (treating the name and its object as the same) after participating in an arbitrary naming task, but older children do not show as much development away from nominal realism as Piaget postulated. (RL)