This study examined the planning that occurred when children participated in classroom playcrafting with either adult or child leadership. In a first-/second-grade classroom in an innovative public school, we videotaped 11 sessions in which children volunteered to develop a play with small groups of classmates and seven sessions in which adult…

A total of 32 adult-child and peer dyads involving children of 9-10 years participated in an errand-planning task to see whether children who worked with adults gained from adults' expertise. Adult-child dyads explored a map more frequently, planned longer sequences of moves, and verbalized more planning strategies than did peer dyads. (RH)

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…

Two studies involving five- and nine-year-old children examined the effects of planning with a partner as well as the relation of collaborative planning to subsequent solo planning. Results suggest that cognitive gains resulting from joint problem solving between children and adults or peers may be more likely with shared task responsibility. (RH)

A study of recorded and analyzed inspection times in a picture recognition memory task involving three different delays between inspection and test. Subjects were 108 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children. (Author/SDH)

Eighty-nine children between four and nine years of age solved mazes varying in the presumed appropriateness of advance or improvisational planning. Results of the study show that children's planning strategies are adapted to circumstances and suggest that older children may be more proficient in this adaptation than are younger children. (RH)