Notes that many children in today's classrooms exhibit a variety of emotional and social difficulties, and discusses the use of bibliotherapy, an approach that uses literature as an effective way to remediate such difficulties. Explains emotional intelligence and how bibliotherapy can promote development of the socioemotional competence necessary…

Investigated children's and adolescents' involvement in mutual antipathies. Found that children and boys of all ages were more frequently involved in same-sex antipathies; involvement in mixed-sex antipathies was comparable for both genders. Same-sex antipathies were associated with antisocial behavior and social withdrawal for both age and gender…

Mother-child conversations during story-telling play were analyzed for patterns of emotion talk. Subjects were 48 Mexican immigrant and Mexican American mothers and their children aged 3-4. Contrary to previous findings, Mexican immigrant mothers used more explanations of emotions than labels. Mexican American mothers used both, equally. Results…

A range of metaphors composed by gifted elementary children are presented and discussed in terms of what they indicate about their personal worlds, special talents, and emotional insights. The approach to creative writing described in the article also has the potential to assist with the identification of linguistic talent. (Contains references.)…

Research has shown that the classroom social environment is a chief psychological determinant of academic learning. A recent study showed students who gave their classrooms high ratings on cohesion, challenge, satisfaction, and absence of friction and favoritism on the Learning Environment Inventory achieved more academically, had better attitudes…

Explores special issues in counseling highly gifted students, including feelings of isolation, fear and guilt for being different, irritation with the pace of school, and other concerns. Offers guidelines for introducing such children to the subculture of intellectual achievement and how they can be effective self-advocates within the educational…

Describes aspects of self-concept that develop in toddlerhood: (1) self-recognition; (2) self-representation; (3) self-description; (4) self-assertion; (5) self-evaluation; and (6) self-regulation. Intervention ideas for children with special needs are presented based on three dimensions of the socializing environment: provision of inanimate…

Four-year-olds and their mothers co-constructed a narrative. At ages 4 and 5, children constructed personal narratives and mothers rated children's behavior. At both ages, children who were more emotionally coherent, compared to children who were less so during the co-construction, constructed personal narratives that were more coherent, more…

This article offers suggestions on enhancing emotional vocabulary in early childhood education settings. A schematic of children's emotional literacy is followed by ways to build emotional vocabulary by teaching directly, teaching incidentally, or utilizing special activities. Suggestions also address teaching children to recognize feelings in…

This article discusses how the exploration of opera with high-ability students can contribute to positive social and emotional development, particularly the development of humane intelligence, by stimulating ethical and moral awareness, making connections with age-old truths of humanity, and providing a powerful genre for self-expression. Teaching…

Developed the Toddler Behavior Checklist (TBC) using parental reports of the frequencies of 103 patterns of behavior in children from 9 to 48 months old. Five scales were derived from factor analysis: Oppositional, Immaturity, Emotional Instability, Physical Aggression, and Shyness. Four scales demonstrated excellent reliability; reliability of…

Twenty-one autistic and 21 nonautistic retarded adolescents and young adults were compared on British Picture Vocabulary Scale items considered emotion-related or highly abstract. Autistic subjects' lower scores on emotion-related items suggest autism-specific impairments in grasping these concepts. No differences were found for abstract/concrete…

Asserts that emotions are based on cognitive appraisals of occurrences. Argues that cognitive models have heuristic value for research and practice and examines objections concerning the validity of those models. Discusses the usefulness of these models for several educational and developmental goals. (KO)

Reviews research on family processes that affect the socioemotional functioning of children in poor families and families in economic decline. (PCB)

This paper describes a 14-year follow-up research study conducted in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada), examining blind children's educational, social, and emotional development. The paper also reviews the research literature on blindness in children, focusing on family reactions, early development, special problems, outcome, intervention, and…