A 4-H K-2 program was evaluated by 277 parents, 144 volunteers, and 44 extension agents. These stakeholders believed the program was beneficial and effective in improving children's life skills (self-esteem, making friends, making choices, learning and physical skills). (SK)

This study compared the developmental status, functional abilities, and temperaments of 31 young (36 to 95 months) boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) who did not have autism, matched on chronological age, gender, and race, with 31 boys with autism but no FXS. Overall, the boys with autism exhibited a more variable profile of development than did…

Assessed how attention toward a visual model affects children's production of visually realistic drawings. Found that spontaneous increase in attention toward models accompanied progression from intellectual to visual realism and that drawing performance of younger children was enhanced by contrasting tasks and explicit instructions. For all, use…

Advises parents to relax and learn to recognize the signs that a child is physically and emotionally ready for the next developmental step. Developmental milestones discussed include riding in a backpack, moving to a forward-facing car seat, using eating utensils, taking time-out, and moving from crib to a bed. (HTH)

Discusses current issues in theory-driven evaluation from the perspective of the evaluation practice literature. Confirmatory program evaluation is proposed as one way to use theory, in combination with quantitative analytical techniques, to assess the effects of social and educational programs. An illustration is provided in the evaluation of a…

Presents an evolutionary model of children's play, noting that an evolutionary approach to children's play is virtually unknown in educational studies. Maintains that there is some urgency in stressing the contribution biological sciences can make to the study of early development, because an enormous amount of relevant research has been ignored…

The study of resilience in child development has overturned many negative assumptions about children growing up in adverse conditions. An examination of findings from variable- and person-focused investigations suggests that resilience is common and usually arises from the normative functions of human adaptational systems, with the greatest…

Analyzed child care rules and regulations of four states from Child Care, Cost & Quality study. Found that the limited requirements set for child care personnel and community interaction departed substantially from professional judgments about what is needed in child care settings. Higher personnel standards, explicit emphasis on developmental…

This paper describes the developmental and behavioral patterns of 13 prelinguistic children (ages 11 to 47 months) with Cri-du-chat syndrome (CDCS). Parents provided demographic and genetic information, descriptions of their child's typical behavior, and completed a developmental checklist. Developmental, behavioral, and genetic profiles are…

Used multivariate latent growth modeling to conceptualize and analyze intra-individual changes in children's social skills and intraindividual differences in these changes in home and school settings for 378 children from kindergarten to grade 3. Results suggest that the nature of the intraindividual change in children's social skills may be…

This study of hyperlexia in 80 children with developmental delays found no significant differences in the frequency of hyperlexia in girls compared with boys; a significantly elevated frequency of hyperlexia in children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) compared with children with non-PDD diagnoses; and a similar range of IQ…

Proposes a developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence that states that the faster maturation and brain size growth in girls up to age 15 compensates for their smaller brain size so that sex differences in intelligence are very small. Discusses evidence that supports this theory. (SLD)

Investigated young children's learning of the correct use of first and second person pronouns, using feed-forward neural networks. The study involved four computer simulations using the cascade-correlation (CC) learning algorithm. Results indicated that the CC networks could produce the correct pronouns without errors if children heard pronouns…

Examined the effects of four resistance training protocols on upper body strength and muscular endurance development in children. Untrained children trained twice per week for 8 weeks, using general conditioning exercises and different upper-body conditioning protocols. Results indicated that higher-repetition training protocols enhanced…

Two studies investigated the syntactic bootstrapping abilities of 5- and 7-year-old children with specific language impairment and comparison groups matched for equivalent language level or chronological age. Only typically developing 5-year-olds showed evidence of using syntactic clues. However, continued syntactic growth was seen in all…