A primary school community in Nottingham, England, has built a social system (via extensive orientation, parent teaching assistants, and multiple school assemblies) in which staff, parents, and students share responsibility for children's academic, social, and personal development. Holistic learning is encouraged by an integrated curriculum,…

Describes Pillow Talk as a ritual in which teachers talk in a relaxed and natural way with individual children in the preschool classroom as naptime begins. Suggests that daily one-to-one interaction with children can yield numerous insights about children's language and emotions and provide effective communication and rich language-learning…

This article examines a definition of giftedness that emphasizes asynchronous development and analyzes archival data collected on 535 high-IQ children in Australia. It found five patterns of behavior that provide evidence of asynchronous development: anxious; self-critical; overly sensitive; easily upset; and easily frustrated; with depression…

Describes the "Roots of Empathy" program for elementary school students in some Toronto schools, designed to teach about parenting, human development, and emotional literacy, and to nurture the growth of empathy. Focuses on development of a culture of caring, the role of perspective taking for conflict resolution, the positive…

A study of personality characteristics of 31 adults with Asperger syndrome found they scored significantly higher on harm avoidance and lower on self-directedness and cooperativeness on the Temperament and Character Inventory. Reward dependence and novelty seeking tended to be low. The most common temperament configurations were obsessional,…

The academic benefits of grade retention are doubtful. Researchers have found that a low percentage of retained students achieve at a higher rate and that many regress. Parents should request a multidisciplinary evaluation before allowing a child to be retained. (JD)

Discusses the effects of social change on children and the importance of acknowledging the emotional aspect of learning. Suggests the use of bibliotherapy to provide children with appropriate books to meet their social and emotional needs. (MG)

Several activities that can help deaf children build affective awareness are described. The activities emphasize hands-on, experience-based learning and play, and focus on building self-awareness, learning new ways to interact, recognizing feelings, and having children create books about themselves. (JDD)

Affective responses of two year olds to their day care teachers' affectionate and caregiving behaviors were observed during free play times. Teacher behaviors were affectionate and caregiving physical contact, affectionate words, smiling, and use of questions and instructions. Smiling was the behavior most likely to elicit positive responses from…

Examined children's emotional and behavioral regulation and emotional and prosocial responses to a crying infant. Found that children who could regulate their arousal were unlikely to become distressed and more likely than other children to talk to and comfort the crying infant. Girls were more responsive and engaged in more active responses than…

Reviews research that provides connections between the constructs of emotional functioning and social competence in children, focusing on such areas as children's understanding and identification of emotions, emotion regulation, emotion display rules, sympathetic responding, and children's mood states. Finds some support for the idea that high…

The mother of a highly creative girl describes her daughter's openness to experience and sensitivity, examines how adults misinterpret creative aspects of her daughter's being, comments that education could be a liberating medium but is generally a conditioning program, and notes that creativeness means living in essence and arriving at insights…

Seventy-two children were presented with a series of stories involving psychological harm in a game context. Found that older children were more likely than younger ones to base their evaluations on intentions, or both intentions and consequences, and to take into account the recipient's perspective. Game context interacted differentially with…

A model of development for children and youth with learning disabilities (LD) is presented, including three cognitive/academic development variables, seven affective variables, three social development variables, and four behavior development variables. The model presents a holistic view of LD students and considers various issues that can impede…

Explores the characteristics and benefits of crying and how to handle appropriate and inappropriate crying episodes in young children. (HTH)