Prekindergarten is becoming part of elementary school in the growing number of districts that treat the pre-K-3 years as a distinct learning period. Implementation of instructional connections is a primary goal behind a movement to make pre-K classrooms part of the regular life of elementary schools. Proponents of such efforts argue that children…

A developmental contextual test of a dual-cycle model of identity formation is presented. In addition to a commitment-formation cycle-represented by Marcia's (1966) classical dimensions of exploration in breadth and commitment making--the model comprises a commitment-evaluation cycle--constituted by 2 additional dimensions of exploration in depth…

This research was an investigation of children's performance on a task that requires memory binding. In Experiments 1 and 2, 4-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and adults viewed complex pictures and were tested on memory for isolated parts in the pictures and on the part combinations (combination condition). The results suggested improvement in memory for…

This study aimed to determine whether self-assessed puberty is sufficiently reliable and valid to substitute for physician examination when feasibility of physician examination is low (e.g., behavioral research). Adolescents (convenience sample N = 178 endocrinology patients and N = 125 from educational trial; mean age 12.7 and 11.3 years,…

Recent imaging studies have suggested that developmental changes may parallel aspects of adult learning in cortical activation becoming less diffuse and more focal over time. However, while adult learning studies examine changes within subjects, developmental findings have been based on cross-sectional samples and even comparisons across studies.…

As a follow-up to an earlier effort to distinguish schools by stages of development along the context of organizational learning (OL), this paper further targets the OL processes and outcomes to generate a more dynamic and functional framework for sustaining and refining the earlier version of the typology. It is hoped that through such a…

This eight-year study represents a pioneering effort to investigate color expression in children's graphic notations at two stages of development: "Pre-literate" (age: 7.0-8.5), before students received school music instruction, and "Post-literate" (age: 14.0-15.5), three years after students acquired Standard Notation in…

This paper summarises the results of a Learning & Skills Development Agency-funded research project that focused on the pedagogy of teaching younger learners in English Further Education colleges. It sets out the background and rationale for the research, the methods used, and the main findings. It concludes by suggesting some features of best…

Adolescent physical inactivity has risen to an alarming rate. Several theoretical frameworks (models) have been proposed and tested in school-based interventions. The results are mixed, indicating a similar weakness as that observed in community-based physical activity interventions (Baranowski, Lin, Wetter, Resnicow, & Hearn, 1997). The…

Objectives: To describe smoking and quitting history among multiethnic adolescent smokers and examine these as correlates of readiness to quit. Methods: Data were analyzed from 121 high school smokers. Sociodemographic characteristics, self-reported smoking history, number and duration of recent quit attempts, attitudes toward smoking/quitting,…

Reading development is said to progress in a series of developmental skills and stages that need to be acquired by emerging young readers. The literature on Greek braille reading and its development found that print readers opt for the same text decoding strategy even at the initial stages of development. This article explores the development of…

e mean length of utterance in the Sentence Repetition Task grew from approximately two to three words, and the number of omissions of articles, prepositions and modifiers significantly decreased. After 3;0 years old, omissions of free function words practically disappeared. The results of Study 2 showed that mean length of utterance, omission of…

In this study we examined early motor, vocal, and communicative development in a group of younger siblings of children diagnosed with autism (Infant Siblings). Infant Siblings and no-risk comparison later-born infants were videotaped at home with a primary caregiver each month from 5 to 14 months, with follow-up at 18 months. As a group, Infant…

Background: Narrative thought is a primary mode of human cognition that underpins key human capabilities such as meaning-making and social-psychological understanding. Aims: We sought to further our understanding of the development of narrative thought during adolescence, particularly in terms of the structure and content of narrative…

This article describes both normative changes and individual differences in the gender composition of girls' and boys' friendship networks across adolescence and predicts variations in these changes. It also examines changes in the characteristics (context, age difference, closeness, and support) of same- and other-sex friendships in the network.…