Among 4,971 young children of mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, those from the Deep South scored lowest on a measure of receptive vocabulary. Differences for girls and boys were related to regional variations in maternal race/ethnicity, but boys' differences were also partly explained by regional subculture, maternal…

A total of 50 children were observed at home at 33 months of age and then tested at 40 months on affective labeling, perspective taking, and false belief tasks. Individual differences at 40 months were associated with family discourse about feelings and causality at 33 months, verbal fluency of mother and child, and sibling cooperation. (BC)

Recent theory and research suggest that peer conflict contributes to children's development and represents an important form of social interaction. Research has identified structural features of children's conflict as issues, such as control of objects or physical space; strategies, including aggressive and nonaggressive physical and verbal…

This longitudinal study was designed to investigate the nature and extent of sex differences in both verbal and spatial abilities among black and white children. Six scales of early cognitive functioning were administered at three times (at 8 months, 4 years and 7 years) to 3,013 children. Two major hypotheses were examined: (1) if cognitive…

This book is the second to present the results on a study of how children's practice of speech, as shaped by family interaction, affects learning to talk. Participating in the study were 42 diverse families with young children. Each month for 2.5 years the interactions between 42 one- to two-year-olds and their parents were recorded as the…