Questions and sentence completion tasks were used to investigate the ability of twenty-four 5-year-old and an equal number of 8-year-old children to explain actions in terms of intentions. When the children were given information about an action and a result, they were able to infer that the reason for the action was the agent's intention to…

The role of play in disabled and nondisabled toddlers was investigated and the impact of maternal stress on the dynamics of mother-child interactions was evaluated in a study involving 20 mother-toddler dyads (10 of which consisted of physically disabled toddlers and their mothers). Results of interviews revealed that mothers of disabled children…

Covert checks of observational methodology reveal declines in reliability of observations. This appears to be particularly true when complex codes are used to track social interaction. The present study was undertaken to see whether reliability could be maintained through a combination of technological advancements and the development of improved…

In this study, 32 9-year-olds worked with either their parent or a friend to plan routes to carry out errands; following this collaboration, the children carried out another version of the task independently. The study thus focused on (1) the effects on the individual's planning skills of having worked with an adult or with a peer and (2) the…

It is suggested that curricula for young multiply handicapped children should be based on well articulated child development models which specify milestones to be demonstrated as well as contexts in which they will be demonstrated. It is further suggested that the criterion of ultimate functioning should also be considered in choosing one design…

After a brief story illustrating the essential humanness of the work of educators, a British educator addressing an American audience reviews fundamental ideas about the nature of children and offers suggestions about optimal classroom practices. The ideas about the nature of children which are presented concern the uniqueness of individuals and…

Three studies were conducted to investigate reasons for the difficulties that children under 5 years of age experience with class inclusion tasks. The studies tested the claim that such tasks have a structural complexity that is beyond the children's processing ability. In experiment 1, class inclusion tasks were compared with other classification…

A study of the phonetic changes occurring when a speaker attempts to revise an unclear word for a listener focuses on changes made in the sound segment duration to maximize differences between phonemes. In the study, five-year-olds were asked by adults to revise words differing in voicing of initial and final stop consonants; a control group of…

The study examined the dyadic relationship between two nonverbal, severely handicapped children (5 and 6 years old) and their mothers. Ss were videotaped in a classroom at an early intervention program, and approximately 110 maternal verbalizations were transcribed. Among findings were that the dyads used little eye contact while communicating;…

This study assessed the role of frequency of input in the acquisition of the present perfect by Scottish and American children. Two questions were addressed: Do adults speaking Scottish English use the present perfect more frequently in speech to children than those speaking American English? If there is a difference in the frequency of input, how…

This paper summarizes how Chomsky's methodological principles of linguistics may be applied to the clinical interpretation of children's play. Based on Chomsky's derivation of a "universal grammar" (the set of essential, formal, and substantive traits of any human language), a number of hypothesized formal universals of…

Twelve boys (24-30 months old) with specific expressive language delay (SELD) and with normal development in every other sphere were identified for longitudinal study. Children were videotaped while playing. Analysis using an ordinal play coding scheme revealed strikingly poor pretend play skills. They appeared deficient in either the ability or…

Two experiments investigated causes of children's selection of easy tasks in task choice situations. Experiment 1 probed the effects of experimenter presence on task choices of 55 Japanese children ranging in age from 66 to 76 months, of whom 32 were boys and 23 were girls. A total of 30 subjects were assigned to an experimenter attending…

A series of experiments, which used the primary memory paradigm of Wickens et al. (1981, 1985) with university students, adults, and 8- and 9-year-old children, found an increase in primary memory capacity with age. Primary memory differs from secondary memory in that the latter is susceptible to proactive interference, whereas the former is not.…

To assess the relationship between specific neonatal variables and subsequent mental development, a longitudinal study of 41 children from a high-risk neonatal nursery was conducted. For each child, 58 measures of neonatal condition (e.g., head size, various laboratory values, delivery mode) were available, as were developmental assessments up to…