In recent research, two qualitatively different classes of mental operations have been identified. The performance of one type of cognitive task requires attention, in the sense of mental effort, for its execution, while the second type can be performed automatically, independent of attentional control. Further research has shown that automatic…

Studies suggesting appropriate literature for children at various stages of social and intellectual development can offer only a general picture of children's changing response to literature. While smaller children appear to prefer shorter stories in simple language, for example, they readily accept the unfamiliar place names or nonsense words of…

The result of five years of collaboration, discussion and applied research, this book reviews theory and research on handwriting instruction for ordinary children as well as giving detailed consideration to the problems encountered by slow learners and children with physical disabilities. The titles of the chapters (and their authors, if different…

An elementary school teacher discusses conflict management techniques appropriate for use with children in kindergarten through the fourth grade. Discussion first recapitulates developmental theory from several perspectives, including those of Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and profiles conflict theory. Illustrative contemporary social problems that…

A newborn child can identify impressions by means of the sense organs with the help of "non-visible" sensory impressions such as tactile and kinesthetic. A communication arises early between different modalities and muscle activities, which make possible an early synchronization, and identity between the infant and its surroundings.…

This series of 12 short newsletters provides parents with information on their child's growth and development in each month of the child's first year. Specific information on the child's physical, social, emotional, and language development is provided, along with information on feeding and health issues. Each newsletter also focuses on a…

Extracted from a doctoral thesis on young children's emergent literacy, this paper describes the literacy development of one five-year-old subject. The paper first describes the subject's home environment, her relationships with family members, and her early reading experience and literacy development. Transcripts illustrating her home reading…

Little attention has been given to how adults develop through their lifetimes and what roles their workplace environments play in that development. Research and theory regarding adult psychosocial development have confirmed the developmental life-cycle phases of adulthood. These are: leaving the family (ages 16-22), getting into the adult world…

The validity of recent research concerning invented spelling, the developmental stages in children's writing, and whether children will attempt writing before reading and continue writing while learning to read were examined. Five developmental stages in spelling have been identified: (1) the precommunicative stage, involving the use of random…

Order Analysis is a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique for determining order among items. This paper reviews articles by different authors describing various components of ordering theory. A common nomenclature is constructed to link together the various ideas and is applied to a fairly simple set of data. Topics discussed include a more…

A study examined primary-grade children's ability to construct felicitous, or audience-accommodating, character introductions in their stories. The study was intended to (1) describe the linguistic variation children employed in character introductions; (2) identify cognitive factors other than egocentrism contributing to infelicitous…

A task was developed to differentiate the reasoning of elementary school students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Subjects completed 16 matrices containing two, three, or four dimensions and varying in the embeddedness of the dimensions. They also solved a formal operational task assessing ability to isolate, exclude, and include variables.…

Sample unit outlines, designed for kindergarten through grade six, define the content, activities, and assessment tasks appropriate to specific grade levels. The units have been extracted from the Board-approved curriculum, Health Education: The Curricular Approach to Optimal Health. The instructional guidelines for grade one are: describing a…

This resource curriculum outline for grades 9 through 12 contains a content outline; sample teaching strategies; illustrations for making transparencies and dittoes; print, non-print, and film resources for teaching family life and human development. The activities are adaptable to a variety of classroom situations and teaching styles. The…

The articles in this themed issue focus on the use of real literature in reading instruction. Following a comment from the editor, the titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Understanding Poetry: Questions to Consider" (Nancy Wiseman Seminoff); (2) "Experiencing a Novel: The Short and Long of It" (David M. Bishop and…