Over the past quarter century, the study of child and adolescent development has made important progress by using its theoretical insights to address the common problems of growing up. In light of findings generated by this empirical activity, it is now time to take a new look at the field's theoretical base to establish a comprehensive framework…

Art education, due to qualities of its epistemology and pedagogy, has at its fingertips the tools that many boys need to facilitate a change from within masculinity. With the existing paucity of research into boys, masculinity and art education, this remains largely conjecture. However, Malcolm's experiences, described in this paper, suggest that…

The structure of working memory and its development across the childhood years were investigated in children 4-15 years of age. The children were given multiple assessments of each component of the A. D. Baddeley and G. Hitch (1974) working memory model. Broadly similar linear functions characterized performance on all measures as a function of…

A broad perspective on child development is important to understanding collaboration in special education. Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development provides a backdrop to this case study of collaboration on behalf of Cassie, a 4-year-old child with disabilities in a small West Virginia community. The story of Cassie and her family is…

Rule use in perceptual classification was investigated in adults and in 4- to 12-year-old children. Two studies of performance on triad classification tasks with large samples (N=226 and N=328) are presented to (a) contrast theoretical predictions from the holistic-to-analytic-shift theory (Smith & Kemler, 1977) and the differential-sensitivity…

Picture books appeal to readers of all ages for many different reasons. As instructors of child development, we use them as one strategy to help students conceptualize the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional growth of children. We use picture books to introduce principles, explain vocabulary, and encourage students to make connections between…

When Congress reformed the welfare system in 1996, major goals of the legislation were to increase employment and income of needy families and to decrease child poverty. Another major goal was to improve child outcomes through increased parental employment and earnings along with other provisions of welfare reform. However, there was also concern…

By law each state is required to ensure that all substantiated cases of maltreated infants and toddlers are referred to Part C early intervention services. In reality, many children may not be receiving the child development services they need. Researchers have known for some time that children who have been abused are at greater risk for…

Intergroup attitudes in children were examined based on Leyen's "infrahumanization hypothesis". This suggests that some uniquely human emotions, such as shame and guilt (secondary emotions), are reserved for the in-group, whilst other emotions that are not uniquely human and shared with animals, such as anger and pleasure (primary…

This study investigated associations between mother-infant interactions and children's subsequent understanding of mind and emotion. Mothers' tendency to comment on their infants' internal world and their general sensitivity to their infants' internal states were measured through coded play interactions at 10 months. The latter measurement…

This article reviews research conducted on social comparison processes in the classroom since Festinger proposed his theory of social comparison. It covers the theoretical framework of social comparison theory, and it is organized around the following themes: motives for social comparison, dimensions of social comparison, direction of social…

Music learning and music performance involve all aspects of the individual: cognitive, emotional, social, and psychomotor. John Feierabend shows that music requires a special kind of intellectual process that is unique to the discipline. Brain density reaches its peak in a child's first few years of life; hence, as with language, music learning…

Teachers at the Freeburg Early Childhood Program know that experimentation with physical science is of great interest to young children, and can begin as early as the age of 3. The constructivist teachers at this experimental school at the University of Northern Iowa worked for six years to develop a center-based approach to physical science with…

Appreciation of diversity begins in our classrooms with the children we know and interact with on a daily basis. Each child has a unique history--a story that gives us insights when we interact, plan our classroom community, and design our instruction. Children who have a primary language other than English have stories that they can communicate…

Program evaluation practices in early childhood care and education have been underdeveloped compared to the larger field of educational evaluation. The inclination not to include parental views in evaluation is mainly a result of the problem of positive response bias. Researchers who study client satisfaction with educational or child care…