By using play activities, learning centers, and dramatizations, educators can build on children's literature to cross-fertilize across content areas, meet developmental needs, and help preschoolers "open the book" to themselves and their world. (Author/JOW)

Contends that adolescent substance abuse and measures of self-esteem are highly negatively correlated. Research of literature provides inferential conclusion that young child whose self-esteem is not sufficiently nourished will group into adolescent having greater propensity for substance abuse. Discusses construct of self-esteem and examines…

Describes a week of testing 28 second graders. Points out how much classroom time testing consumes, how frustrating it is for teachers, and how emotionally trying it is for young students and their families. Maintains that all children operate at different developmental levels in different skills and should not be compared to each other. (MLF)

In this month's Centennial Essay, Harvard's renowned child analyst and author tells how he learned to listen and to learn from the children he met in his professional role. (MLF)

The relations between the meanings of verbs and the syntactic structures in which they appear were investigated in 5 experiments involving approximately 156 college students (most attended the University of Pennsylvania). Findings support the view that the syntax of verbs is a regular, although complex, projection from their semantics. (SLD)

The importance of actions, results, and instruments in the development of verb concepts was examined in four studies. Studies are discussed in terms of theory and research on conceptual development, word learning strategies, and the semantic organization of nouns and verbs. (PCB)

Considers aspects of the structural design of conventions observed in parent-child interaction. Examines kinds of design differences that occur in conventions and the consequences of those differences, particularly for parent-child coordination. (PCB)

Used longitudinal data from Oregon Youth Study to examine quantitative and qualitative change. Used latent growth models to demonstrate changes in form and systematic changes in mean level for subgroup of boys. Factor analyses carried out at three ages showed that, over time, changes in form and addition of new problems were quantifiable and thus…

Used structural equation techniques to evaluate model predicting children's (n=1,742) developmental status, taking into consideration demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of mother and her household, characteristics of child at birth, and quality of home environment. Children's developmental status was related strongly and positively to…

Examined whether active participation in the setup of a trick significantly affected the performance of young (mean 40 months) and old (mean 45 months) 3-year olds on questions concerning individuals' ignorance of and false beliefs about a situation. Results suggest that even young 3-year olds have the ability to understand false mental states.…

The extent to which adolescents rely on rational versus experiential information processing was studied with 49 adolescents administered multiple measures of formal operations, two critical thinking questionnaires, a measure of rational processing, and a measure of ego identity status. Implications for studies of development are discussed in terms…

Investigates whether children can demonstrate awareness of musical expression by discriminating between expressive and mechanical music fragments, performing similar songs, and describing the fragments and songs. Indicates task improvement with age, significant differences between kindergarten and fourth-grade scores in perception and description,…

Two recent books, "When Good Kids Kill," by Michael D. Kelleher, and "Lost Boys," by James Garbarino, explore how children become killers and suggest ways to reduce our high-pressure society's epidemic levels of youth violence. Physically or psychologically distant parents and unaffirmative media messages are negative…

Relates chronicity, timing, and severity of alcohol exposure to age-specific developmental and behavioral consequences. Delineates specific interventions with infants, preschoolers, school-age children, and adolescents. Advocates making services for youngsters available early, and basing them on individual strengths and weaknesses as determined…

Discusses C. Milbrath's thesis that artistically talented and less talented children follow different developmental paths because they rely on different ways of responding to the world. Relates this thesis to studies of the childhood work of Paul Klee, Henri Toulouse Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso. (SLD)