Two studies explored the possibility of inducing conservation understanding in intellectually normal preschoolers and mildly mentally retarded children of comparable mental age. Retarded children, MA 3-10 to 5-0, received Verbal Rule instruction. Three- and 4-year-old children were given Verbal Rule training in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design…

The purpose of this study was to cross-sectionally and longitudinally examine the developmental process of search behavior in infancy. Subjects were 23 Japanese normal infants (11 males and 12 females) who were individually tested once a month from the age of six to 13 months in laboratory settings. Small toys and three white opaque cubic boxes…

This study examined the development of the rational number concept as a ratio. Preliminary to the description of the study is an introduction discussing constructivism and equilibration. The study itself tests whether equilibration theory holds, and if so, what is the nature of its "phases" and whether these are found at each of the "periods" of…

The paper recommends areas for consideration by the Oregon State Department of Education for providing recreational services as outlined in PL 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Four service areas are defined (assessment of leisure function, therapeutic recreation services, leisure education, and recreation programs in school…

Six Piagetian-type tasks, designed to examine associated topological groupings, were examined to determine if a hierarchical relationship existed among them. The groupings examined were: the partitioning of sets and addition of subsets, reciprocity of proximities, one-to-one multiplication of elements, order of placement, symmetrical interval…

The development of children's metalinguistic understanding of the basic unit of reading--the word--was examined. Subjects were 45 children from preschool, kindergarten, and first grade who were reclassified according to reading ability (nonreadiness, readiness, reader). The children's understanding of the word as a linguistic segment was measured…

Reading can be defined as a meaningful interaction with a print setting. Interactive models of reading assume that lower level and higher level processing occurs simultaneously, interacting with each other. The familiarity of the book, the context in which a sign occurs, and the illustrations of a book are all examples of print setting cues that…

This guide is intended as a resource for educators who wish to use films on aging to teach humanistic values. There are three main divisions in the guide: (1) descriptive and analytical notes on 12 films about aging, (2) suggestions for instructional programming, and (3) an annotated filmography. The first section includes film-study questions on…

This book deals with cognitive development from the perspective of the author's theory of conceptual learning and development (CLD) and from a Piagetian perspective. Chapter I provides an overview of CLD theory and also identifies and discusses the Piagetian constructs of stage, groupement structures, and equilibration. Chapter II focuses on the…

The psychoanalytic theory of identification and the cognitive-developmental and social-learning theories of imitation are briefly described. Pertinent empirical research in the following areas is summarized and critically evaluated: imitation in infants, observational learning, clinical use of modeling, and the relation of imitation to aggression,…

This document discusses the relation between adolescents' expertise (their informational background, which can be accurate or inaccurate, about a particular task or subject) and their formal operational reasoning, and reports the results of three studies of the effects of children's expertise on reasoning. In Study I, adolescents from a rural…

This paper reviews Piaget's stages of play and discusses the implications of play for early childhood education. The three stages of play identified in Piaget's research are: (1) practice play, (2) symbolic or make believe play and (3) games with rules. The characteristics of each type of play are presented and examples of play at each stage are…

Adolescent turmoil has been investigated as a manifestation of normative crisis functioning. Anna Freud and Erikson look upon this as almost universal. Daniel and Judith Offer found this quality present in only 21% of their sample of male high school non-patient students. Masterson in his longterm study reported that adolescent turmoil was at most…

This paper examines research findings about language development and their implications for classroom teaching. It first discusses early analyses of child grammar, which led to descriptions of the telegraphic nature of the speech of very young children and to the classification of child grammar into pivot and open classes. It then points out…

After examining major concerns that have been developing in many schools and communities with regard to elective English programs, this paper notes the need for a "second generation" of English programs that will incorporate the successful features of electives yet will seek solutions to the obvious problems. It outlines a model curriculum based…