Researchers, educators, professional organizations, administrators, parents, and policy makers have increased their involvement in the assessment and evaluation of early childhood education programs. This interest has developed swiftly during the last decades. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National…

This paper focuses on possible relations between early peer skills and developing cognitive abilities. One promising area for discovering relations between cognitive development and peer interaction appears to be related to the young child's developing ability to differentiate self from other, that is, decentration. Decentration is typically…

Observations suggest that 12-month-old children show little evidence of possession rules, while 18- and 24-month-olds are still coming to differentiate purely personal possession rules from shared possession rules that take into account the other child's status or rights as a possessor. Children 12 months old exhibited the highest frequency of…

Studies social play and social and solitary pretend play in well-acquainted toddlers aged 14-38 months in order to describe a sequence of progressively more complex social pretend play forms. Results indicate that social pretend play forms emerge later than comparable solitary pretend and social play forms. (RJC)

Sex cleavages in toddler and preschool peer groups were investigated in two studies. In the first study, playmate preferences and initiations and responses to friends were examined during the free play of toddlers in day care centers. In the second study, cross-sex friendships in toddlers and preschool children were examined. (PCB)

A short-term longitudinal study of the peer-related social interactions of 111 developmentally delayed toddlers and preschool children was carried out. Results suggested the existence of unusually marked deficits in peer interactions. Possible contributing factors were discussed. (Author/RH)

Development of toddlers' combinatorial skills was examined in the domains of object manipulation, symbolic play, motor imitation, language, and peer interaction. Additionally, task demands that might produce variations in age-related patterns within or between domains were examined. Data were collected in free play sessions and during structured…

Tests the ability of 43 children, ranging in age from 20 months to 40 months, to discriminate between pictures of boys and girls and male and female adults. Compares children who passed this gender-task with those who failed it on three behaviors most often categorized as sex-typed: toy choice, aggression, and peer playmate selection. (HOD)

On the basis of two sets of videotaped observations collected on same-sex, same-age and mixed-age dyads composed of children 18 and/or 24 months old, issues concerning research on infants and toddlers are addressed. The first set of observations was a simple description of the structure and content of children's peer interaction during 15 minutes…

Examines the role of the partner in the development of social pretend play in two related studies. In both studies, toddler age children played with same-age and five-year-old partners. In both studies, two-year-olds engaged in more social pretend play with older than same-age partners. (Author/BB)

Analysis of questionnaires completed by parents of 91 young blind children and 74 matched sighted children indicated that sighted children engaged in more complex levels of play at an earlier age; blind children interacted less frequently with other children than did sighted children; blind children preferred tactile-auditory games and toys; and…

Investigates the influence of infant-mother attachment patterns on the development of peer interaction between the toddler and preschool periods. Notes that, in an initial encounter with an unfamiliar peer, attachment patterns appear to be related more to the child's attractiveness as an interactive partner than to the child's own active interest…

Toddlers' play with care-giving adults, and with toys and peers, was observed and rated in family day care homes. Participants were 55 children, their mothers, and family day care home providers. The quality of the family day care home was assessed. Mothers reported information on family stress, social support, child-rearing attitudes, and…

Cross-sectional and longitudinal study of one- to six-year-olds in full-time child care assessed sequences and individual differences in development of social competence with peers. Study collects most extensive and varied data to date. Findings concern stability of individual differences, social classifications, influences of variations in…