How Do Children Think About Death? A Narrative Review of Historical and Recent Developmental Perspectives Examining Children's Understanding of Death.

This study aimed to investigate children's thinking about mental illness by employing a well-established framework of adult illness understanding. The study adopted a semistructured interview technique and a card selection task to assess children's responses to causes, consequences, timeline and curability of the different types of mental illness. The children were aged between 5 and 11 years. Results indicated a developmental trend in the children's thinking about mental illness; there was an increase in the children's understanding of the causes, consequences, curability and timeline of mental illness with age. The older children demonstrated a more sophisticated and accurate thinking about mental illness compared with the younger children, who tended to rely on a medical model in order to comprehend novel mental illnesses. Furthermore, the girls exhibited more compassion, showing greater social acceptance compared with the boys. The Leventhal model provides a useful framework within which to investigate children's knowledge and understanding of mental illness. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Abstract
 The current study is a theoretical study that aims to underline the role of picture books as a serious genre of children's literature in raising children's understanding of English literature and life concepts; especially for non-English speakers. Unfortunately, most Iraqi people have developed a social phobia of learning English since childhood. This phobia is resulted from the heavy traditional reading and writing assignments as well as hard exams. Therefore, this study suggests incorporating more interesting literary material like picture books that would bring pleasure and help in raising children's love and cognition of English Language. More significantly, it calls to replace the old curriculum with a more vital one where children can interact with all their senses; visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (VAK). To make this possible, two of Eric Carle's books The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Tiny Seed have been carefully selected according to the American and English elementary school teachers' standards for children aged 3-6 years old. Each story element was submitted to a literary analysis, including pictures, life concepts, and language that enhance children's understanding of literature. Based on Piaget's view about the importance of involving sensorimotor actions in learning to help in children's cognition development, some VAK lesson plans and activities were designed using the concept development model and Synectics strategy. The study has concluded that incorporating picture books into the school curriculum and sensorimotor activities like coloring, cutting paper, games, sounds, and music would help in raising children's understanding of English literature and life science more interactively.

Computers will soon be an integral part of the classroom and home environment of children, yet there are unanswered questions concerning their effects on young children's cognition; Particularly salient are largely unsubstantiated claims concerning the cognitive benefits of computer programming. This study assessed the effects of computer programming on children's cognitive style (reflectivity, divergent thinking), metacognitive ability, cognitive development (operational competence, general cognitive measures), and ability to describe directions. Eighteen 6-year-old children were pretested to assess receptive vocabulary, impulsivity/reflectivity, and divergent-thinking abilities. The children were then randomly assigned to one of two treatments, computer programming or computer-assisted instruction (CAI), that lasted 12 weeks. Posttesting revealed that the programming group scored significantly higher on measures of reflectivity and on two measures of divergent thinking, whereas the CAI group showed no significant pre- to posttest differences. The programming group outperformed the CAI group on measures of metacognitive ability and ability to describe directions. No differences were found on measures of cognitive development. The increasing acceptance of the critical necessity for children to become computer literate is leading to an increased prominence of computers in the home and school environment. Yet there are unanswered questions regarding the effects of computer use on children's thinking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of computer programming on 6-year:old children's cognitive style, metacognitive abilities, cognitive development, and ability to describe directions. Seymour Papert, one of the creators of the computer language Logo and a leading exponent of the use of computer programming to expand children's intellectual power, based his ideas on the theories of Piaget, with whom he studied. Papert (1980) has argued that the most beneficial is what he calls Piagetian learning, or learning without being taught. He has proposed that computer programming environments can create conditions under which intellectual models take root, conditions in which young children can master

Early mathematics education is a fundamental aspect of children's cognitive development and plays a crucial role in their future academic success. However, conventional teaching methods in early childhood education (ECE) often rely on lectures and worksheets, lacking exploration and deep conceptual understanding. Bruner’s learning theory (1966), which consists of enactive, iconic, and symbolic stages, provides an effective framework for early mathematics learning by emphasizing active engagement through concrete experiences before moving to abstraction. This study investigates the impact of nature-based early mathematics learning using Bruner’s approach on the cognitive achievement of young children. A quasi-experimental research method with a one-group pretest-posttest design was employed. The participants consisted of 4–5-year-old children from a preschool in Surakarta, Indonesia. The findings revealed a Cronbach Alpha score of 0.732 and a significant improvement in children's cognitive abilities after implementing nature-based learning with Bruner’s approach. These results suggest that integrating natural materials into early mathematics education can enhance children's understanding of mathematical concepts by providing richer and more meaningful sensory experiences. Additionally, this research contributes to the literature by exploring an alternative and innovative teaching strategy that leverages natural resources to support early childhood learning. The study has practical implications for educators, encouraging the adoption of nature-based learning to foster interactive and developmentally appropriate mathematics instruction. Future research should explore long-term effects and broader applications of this approach in different educational settings.

Social understanding and social lives: from toddlerhood through to the transition to school. By Claire Hughes. Psychology Press, Hove, East Sussex, 2011.

Adolescents in some countries and U.S. states are required to perform community service, and many national and nongovernmental agencies promote such service. Van Goethem, van Hoof, Orobio de Castro, van Aken, and Hart (p. 2114) find that while community service has broad benefits for adolescents, it's particularly effective when the activities are accompanied by reflection. They assessed findings from 49 studies from around the world conducted from 1980 to 2012 that involved almost 24,500 participants ages 12–20, focusing on identifying how reflection contributed to community service. While community service positively affected such areas as grades, self-esteem, and civic responsibility, structured reflection was found to be crucial to the benefits gained, especially when it was integrated with school curricula. Educators and families agree that parental involvement in adolescents' education is important. But it's unclear what parents do and what works to support adolescents' academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes throughout middle and high school. Wang, Hill, and Hofkens (p. 2151) find that parental involvement in adolescents' education isn't as simple as more is better: Different types of involvement strategies are important for different types of outcomes. There are also important differences in the patterns of involvement and the effectiveness of involvement strategies between African American and European American parents. The results of this study of almost 1,500 ethnically diverse families (including adolescents in seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades) pave the way for developing targeted interventions and for providing strategic support to families and their teens. Omega-3 fatty acids, a group of nutrients that are found only in food, are important for good health. Some research shows that, in young children, more Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet are connected with better performance on tests of memory, ability to concentrate, and other mental processes. However, Omega-3 fatty acids might affect brain development even before birth. Rees, Sirois, and Wearden (p. 2131) considered whether the level of an Omega-3 fatty acid (DHA) in mothers' diet during pregnancy was connected with better performance by young children when they were 22 months old. About 70 women from high-income families were asked questions when they were 21–28 weeks pregnant, then again at 35–37 weeks of pregnancy, and their foods were recorded. Babies were tested at 22 months on a task involving memory, concentration, and understanding objects. On average, babies of mothers who had high DHA in the third trimester of pregnancy performed better than babies of mothers who had low DHA during that period. Since most women don't have enough DHA in their diet during pregnancy, the findings have implications for advising pregnant women about their DHA intake, especially during the last 3 months of pregnancy. Imitation isn't just the most sincere form of flattery; it's a great way to learn. that's what Nielsen, Mushin, Tomaselli, and Whiten (p. 2169) find in their study of about 175 children ages 3–6 from three different cultures (urban Australia, remote Australian Aboriginal, and South African Bushman communities) and a range of economic backgrounds. The work builds on research showing that children are prone to blanket copy something new they see an adult do, down to details that seem irrelevant. They find that while children from different cultures overimitate, most can transfer what they learned to different but related problems—though the Bushman children were less able to do so, perhaps for reasons related to poverty or cultural factors. Rather than being the expression of an immature mind, then, children's overimitation may be a key part of learning. By showing that imitation isn't restricted to the objects on which actions are learned but, for most, can transfer to other similar objects, the findings have implications for learning. As adults, we understand that what we prefer at age 20 may differ from what we will prefer at age 60. Without an awareness of such differences, planning for the future would be difficult. Although research has shown that children's ability to talk about and formulate simple plans for the future improves between ages 3 and 5, we know little about their understanding that preferences may change over time. Bélanger, Atance, Varghese, Nguyen, and Vendetti (p. 2419) find that 3-year-olds tended to believe that they would always prefer “child” items (e.g., Kool-Aid) over “adult” items (e.g., coffee), while 5-year-olds were able to envision their own grown-up selves, or the grown-up self of another child, preferring coffee. In this study of 240 Canadian children from predominantly White, middle-class backgrounds, 3- and 4-year-olds also found it easier to predict that another child's preferences would change than that their own preferences would. The study adds to research on future thinking and can inform how we understand development. How do people remember emotionally salient events and information? Dykas, Woodhouse, Jones, and Cassidy (p. 2185) examined how the way adolescents talk about their early attachment-related experiences affects their memory for emotionally salient events and information. They interviewed about 190 primarily White, middle-income eleventh graders to determine how they reflected on and discussed their childhood relationships with caregivers; how people think and talk about the attachment-related parts of such relationships may be relevant to how memory is formed. Results suggest that individuals recall and store emotionally salient information in memory in a biased way, and that these biases relate to how individuals talk about their early experiences. The findings show that individuals' memory for emotional and parent-related information may indeed be shaped and altered by attachment-related representations. As such, they have implications for clinicians, psychologists, and people in the legal system. According to self-socialization theories, once children develop an understanding of their gender identity, like little “gender detectives,” they seek out information relevant to their gender and undergo the process of becoming what they think it means to be a girl or a boy. While research has confirmed that children's early understanding of gender categories (e.g., girl, boy) is linked to an increased interest in play with gender-typed toys, the exact type of knowledge that matters for the development of gender-typed play is unclear. Zosuls, Ruble, and Tamis-LeMonda (p. 2202) looked at more than 210 toddlers from low-income, ethnically diverse homes (children were African Americans born in the United States, or of Dominican or Mexican ethnicity). They find that only once children develop an intergroup understanding of gender—one that involves the idea that their own gender (the ingroup) contrasts with the other gender (the outgroup)—do they change their play behaviors to become increasingly aligned with gender stereotypes. The study highlights how children develop an awareness of us and them that shapes their behavior while they're still quite young. Is identity—how we perceive ourselves, who we want to be, and how we think we're perceived by others—important for success in school? Students' ability to identify with the purposes and values of their school can affect their academic motivation, but different students may identify with academics in different ways. In their study of 600 urban African American and Latino American adolescents in sixth, eighth, and tenth grades, Matthews, Banerjee, and Lauermann (p. 2355) find that identity when it's defined as internal values (e.g., “Education is important to how I think of myself”) differs from identity when it's defined as social belonging (e.g., “The people in my school make me feel like I belong”). And for students who have low confidence in their academic abilities, perceptions of social belonging are especially important for academic effort and motivation. By illustrating the importance of belonging among students who have historically contended with disconnectedness in school, the study can inform educators' efforts. An estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States are affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and gaps in our knowledge about these disorders limit our ability to detect and treat children early in life. Across two experiments with 6-month-olds, Libertus, Sheperd, Ross, and Landa (p. 2218) examined how almost 130 infants played with and manipulated small objects, and how long about 40 infants were able to grasp toys. Compared to infants in a control group, infants later diagnosed with ASD or with an older sibling with ASD showed reduced grasping and less mature manipulation of objects. The findings, among the first to suggest measurable differences in the motor domain between high- and low-risk children at 6 months, confirm and extend previous research identifying motor weaknesses in infants later diagnosed with ASD or at increased risk for ASD. As such, they have implications for paying attention to manual abilities as part of early detection and intervention of autism and related disorders, which have increased tenfold in the last decade. When does young children's drawing begin to show distinctively human characteristics? Saito, Hayashi, Takeshita, and Matsuzawa (p. 2232) compared drawing in about 60 human children and six chimpanzees, humans' closest living relatives. According to their longitudinal study, humans tended to complete the missing parts on an imperfect face even with immature motor control, while chimpanzees never completed the missing parts, instead marking the existing parts or tracing the outlines with fine motor control. This study, one of few directly comparing chimpanzees and human children on drawing, suggests that the differences aren't due to inadequate motor ability, but to conceptual issues: Both species put pen to paper and draw, but young children show signs of representational skill. Figures on paper may trigger imagination in humans and lead them to complete the missing parts, and this cognitive tendency may be absent in chimpanzees, the study suggests. Improving the academic skills needed for school entry could reduce inequalities in educational achievement, according to Chittleborough, Mittinty, Lawlor, and Lynch (p. 2247). They used information from almost 12,000 families in England to examine differences in educational achievement between 15-year-olds from poor backgrounds and those from more well-off backgrounds if academic skills at age 5 could be improved through interventions (providing extra support to parents and high-quality preschool for children have been found to improve children's ability to get the most out of school). Children born into poorer families were twice as likely as those born into the most affluent families to have a poor educational outcome at age 15. This difference was cut by about 15% when effective interventions were provided for all families, with more intensive support for those from poorer backgrounds. Millions of children in the United States live in homes where there is violence between parents. This kind of domestic violence increases children's chances of having difficulties in social, cognitive, and behavioral development. However, many children adapt well despite their exposure to family violence, raising questions about what factors contribute to healthy development in violent environments. Manning, Davies, and Cicchetti (p. 2263) took a longitudinal look at about 200 mother–toddler pairs in which income was low and there was, in two-thirds of the cases, some level of violent interactions with a male romantic partner who had had regular contact with both the mother and child over the past year. They sought to determine how sensitive parenting when the children were 2 altered children's emotional and social development 2 years later. They find that violence predicted later behavior problems only when children didn't have sensitive parenting as toddlers. Children who had sensitive parenting had fewer angry emotional responses to conflicts between their parents, which led to fewer behavior problems and more positive social behaviors over time. The findings can inform intervention efforts. Children who have been exposed prenatally to substances such as cocaine, alcohol, and opiates are at greater risk for developing problem behavior than children who haven't been exposed. But how does this happen, and why do some children who have been exposed do well despite growing up in adverse early environments? Conradt et al. (p. 2279) studied 860 primarily African American 11-year-olds from a mix of economic backgrounds—some had been exposed to substances prenatally and some hadn't. Findings: The way African American children respond to stress (as measured by their cortisol response) may explain how they develop problem behavior and how well they adapt to their early environments. Being exposed to substances prenatally led to exposure to more adversity early in life, which in turn was related to a flattened cortisol response and more externalizing behavior and delinquency. Less exposure to substances prenatally was related to less exposure to early adversity and greater reactivity to cortisol, which in turn was related to more positive student–teacher relationships and better executive functioning. The results have implications for public health, early intervention, and prevention. Biracial youth (children with parents of two different races) are the fastest-growing youth population in the United States. We know relatively little about how educational and social outcomes might be different for these youth. In their study, Gaither et al. (p. 2299) looked at almost 250 monoracial and biracial 3- to 8-year-olds from middle- to upper-income families: Monoracial children were White, Black, and Asian; biracial children were Black/White and Asian/White. They find that a child's racial group membership may influence learning and social preferences more for biracial children because these children have multiple racial group affiliations with which to identify. This may allow them to identify with a larger diversity of teachers, for example. Racial identity malleability has the potential to open up options for learning through expanded opportunities for affiliating with teachers and classroom peers from different backgrounds. The study is the first to offer evidence that the racial identity malleability known to exist for biracial adults is also present and developing early in childhood. Although adolescents often experience ethnic-racial discrimination, little is known about whether they experience discrimination from adults and peers in the same manner or to the same degree during middle school. Niwa, Way, and Hughes (p. 2339) looked at 585 low-income Dominican, Chinese, and African American urban public middle school students in grades 6–8 to determine whether different patterns of discrimination from adults and peers existed among ethnically diverse adolescents over time. They find no universal patterns of ethnic-racial discrimination: While some adolescents experienced no adult discrimination, others consistently experienced low discrimination from adults during middle school, with boys at a higher risk for membership in that group. And most adolescents were in groups who experienced high and moderate, but declining, discrimination from peers. The findings challenge the assumption of universal patterns of discrimination during middle school, and they illustrate the potential role of race and ethnicity in peer victimization and bullying. Head Start, the largest federally funded preschool program for disadvantaged children, is designed to prepare children academically and socially for kindergarten. Research has shown relatively small impacts overall on cognitive and social skills, which has led to controversy over its effectiveness and cost benefit. Using a new statistical technique, Cooper and Lanza (p. 2317) investigated data from the national, federally funded Head Start Impact Study, which was done to determine the program's effectiveness. They sought to determine whether certain types of children benefit more or less from the program. Findings: The most consistent, positive effect was on short-term cognitive outcomes (specifically, reading skills), but these didn't last. Bilingual children whose moms were married and had low levels of education also saw a positive effect, with benefits lasting into first grade. And children of single moms had more positive benefits. For other groups, there was little to no effect. If replicated with other groups, this study and its findings could inform policy, especially decisions related to which low-income children should be given priority for early education services. Children of immigrants are among the nation's fastest-growing demographic subgroups. Young children of immigrants are more likely to live in poverty and to enter school with fewer of the kindergarten readiness skills needed for early academic success. One way to promote readiness for this large and vulnerable group of children is the federal child care subsidy program. Johnson, Han, Ruhm, and Waldfogel (p. 2140) tested whether subsidies received in the preschool year are associated with immigrant children's school readiness in kindergarten. Although research has found negative or neutral effects of subsidies on child outcomes in the general population, this study finds some positive associations between subsidies and reading skills for children of immigrants, but only if the subsidy was used in a center rather than a home-based setting. The study used data on 2,900 kindergarten children from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort whose parents had low incomes when the children were preschoolers; the children were either native-born or children of immigrant parents. Keeping a secret can be challenging for children, both socially and cognitively. In their study of more than 100 Canadian 4- to 12-year-olds and their parents from a range of economic backgrounds, Gordon, Lyon, and Lee (p. 2374) find an association between children's social and cognitive development, on the one hand, and their ability to keep a secret for a parent, on the other. Overall, older children were more likely to keep the secret than younger children, and children who agreed verbally to promise to keep the secret were more likely to do so. Children who kept the secret throughout two interviews showed more trust in their parents and were rated more highly by their parents in executive functioning than children who didn't keep the secret. The findings suggest that the development of children's ability to keep secrets coincides with the development of other social and cognitive skills. The results can inform forensic situations as well as our general understanding of trust and secret keeping in children. Part of what makes us human is our ability to understand that people's behavior is motivated by what goes on in their minds, or theory of mind (TOM). While we understand that TOM develops in the preschool years and is related to social competence, we know less about how children's inferences about others' mental states relate to an understanding of how their own minds work. Lecce, Bianco, Demicheli, and Cavallini (p. 2404), in their study of about 60 Italian children ages 4 and 5 from a mix of socioeconomic backgrounds, find that it's possible to help young children develop TOM through dedicated training. Specifically, promoting children's understanding of others' minds helps them understand how their own minds work in a cognitive task, such as memory, and the effects of the training last 2 months. By identifying TOM understanding as a cognitive tool to enable children to develop sophisticated forms of knowledge about mental phenomena, the study has implications for teachers and parents. Positive peer relationships in childhood have been shown to affect later well-being and academic performance. Understanding the factors that contribute to healthy peer relationships is key for supporting how children initiate and maintain friendships. An important part of children's cognitive development that influences peer relationships is TOM understanding, that is, the ability to take someone else's perspective. In their longitudinal work, Fink, Begeer, Hunt, and de Rosnay (p. 2389) find that TOM understanding plays a particularly important role when children enter into a new peer group, such as during the first year of school—it helps them establish and maintain social relations with peers. However, once social position is established, it becomes largely self-maintaining and children's later TOM understanding no longer exerts a strong influence on their social position. This study looked at about 115 middle-class Australian 5-year-olds, most of whom were followed up a year later. The findings can inform the timing and design of interventions that help promote positive social interactions for children at risk of isolation and rejection by classmates.

A preliminary investigation of 4 to 11-year-old children's knowledge and understanding of stress

Over the course of childhood, children's thinking about social groups changes in a variety of ways. Developmental Subjective Group Dynamics (DSGD) theory emphasizes children's understanding of the importance of conforming to group norms. Abrams et al.'s study, which uses DSGD theory as a framework, demonstrates the social cognitive skills underlying young elementary school children's thinking about group norms. Future research on children's thinking about groups and group norms should explore additional elements of this topic, including aspects of typicality beyond loyalty.

Over the past 20 years, the study of children's thinking has more and more been influenced by Piagetian research and ideas directed towards a theory of the growth of children's intellectual competence. Perhaps 30-40 percent of current published research on children's cognition is in some way connected with Piaget's work. His influence spreads beyond Psychology. More than a dozen books in print offer short courses on Piagetian theory for students in Psychology or Education. The longest "short course" (and one of the best) is The Essential Piaget, a set of commentaries and excerpts from Piaget's writings by Gruber and Voneche (1977) that runs to 881 pages. Eight hundred and eighty one pages make up a lot of essence but, of course, we are dealing with the work of a scholar who has to date published some 50 books and hundreds of articles. .At the moment, his productivity is not faltering. There are mixed judgments about Piaget's work among American psy chologists. Some tender him respect bordering on the reverential, but the number of psychologists who base their work completely and uncritically upon that of Piaget is really rather small. Those who see him as providing an important map of children's cognitive development generally concede that other mappings, such as those of Freud, Erikson, Bowlby, Werner, and Vygotsky, reveal important aspects of children's development not treated by Piaget. Piaget's map says that there are broad stage changes in children's cog nitive development, from sensorimotor intelligence to preoperational thought to concrete operations to formal operations. But careful studies have shown that the idea that children's thought advances in broad leaps is, at best, a very approximate picture of what is going on in children's cognitive development (Brainerd 1978; Gelman 1978).

Recent interest in the teaching of thinking skills within education has led to an increase in thinking skills packages available to schools. However many of these are not based on scientific evaluation (DfEE, 1999). This paper endeavours to examine the effectiveness of one approach, that of infusion, to teaching thinking. To investigate the impact of an infusion methodology, activating children's thinking skills (ACTS), on the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children in Year 4-6 in primary schools. This is a sister project to research being conducted in Northern Ireland (McGuinness, 2006). The study involved 404 children from 8 primary schools in one local authority. These were divided into 160 in the experimental group and 244 in the waiting list control group. A quasi-experimental design was used with pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests to ascertain changes in children's cognitive abilities, self-perceptions, and social/behavioural skills using quantitative measures. In addition qualitative techniques were used with pupils and teachers to evaluate effectiveness. The experimental group made significantly greater gains in cognitive ability skills over a 2 year period compared to the waiting list control. Qualitative data demonstrated a positive impact on children's social and emotional development. In addition teacher professional development was reported to be enhanced. This research indicated that children's cognitive abilities can be developed following a 2 year period of the ACTS infusion intervention. While some positive effects were evidenced on the social and emotional development of children, further study will be necessary to examine these in more detail.

Children's developmental understanding of ethnicity and race

Introduction: There is a lack of studies specifically analyzing the association between motor abilities and movement skills with cognitive abilities in children. Objective: The study aimed to examine the association between motor abilities and movement skills with the cognitive abilities of preschool children. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, the total sample consisted of 91 children (41 boys and 50 girls), preschoolers aged five to six years (average age 6.09±0.38 years). Motor abilities were assessed through four Bruininks–Oseretsky (BOT-2) subtests, and movement skills were evaluated via the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), while cognitive abilities were measured using the School Maturity Test (TZŠ+). Results: Based on multiple regression analysis, significant associations between motor abilities and cognitive performance of preschool children were revealed. Specifically, the results demonstrated that motor abilities, particularly body coordination and fine motor integration explain a notable proportion of the variance in cognitive total scores. Contrary to expectations, movement skills did not demonstrate an association with cognitive abilities in preschool children. Conclusions: In conclusion, the findings underline the importance of fostering comprehensive approaches to early childhood education that recognize the integral role of motor abilities in cognitive development. Further exploration is warranted to elucidate the specific mechanisms underlying the association between movement skills and cognitive development.

Literature on children's internal body knowledge has consistently indicated that knowledge about the body develops in an orderly sequence with increasing age. How much children currently know about their internal organs, however, may be influenced by the increase in health and body information available through school education programmes. As there is little recent research in this area, the present study aimed to provide an update on what Australian children currently understand about their anatomy, and to corroborate the developmental trends found in previous research. One hundred and eighty-nine school children aged 7 to 12 years were asked to draw the interior of the body in a body outline provided, with a subset of 54 children also being interviewed about their understanding of their anatomy. The developmental trends found in this study were broadly consistent with those reported in the existing literature on children's inside body knowledge, and are similar to those documented with children's human figure drawing; namely, that children's body knowledge and understanding increased with age. Although awareness of the integration of internal body parts amongst children in the present study seemed more developed than suggested in previous studies, the availability of educational resources influencing children's knowledge about their internal organs remains equivocal. Nevertheless, this research has relevance for those involved in children's health awareness and education, as well as direct implications for paediatric health care procedures.

Part 1 Children's understanding of emotion - an introduction, Paul L.Harris and Carolyn Saarni. Part 2 Early understanding of emotion - young children's acquisition of emotion concepts, Patricia Smiley and Janellen Huttenlocher children's understanding of emotional state changes, Nancy L.Stein and Tom Trabasso. Part 3 Developmental change in understanding emotion developmental changes in children's understanding of single, multiple, and blended emotion concepts, Susan Harter and Nancy Rumbaugh Whitesell causal attributions and children's emotional understanding, Ross A.Thompson children's use of personal information to understand other people's feelings, Jackie Gnepp Part 4 The control of emotion: children's understanding of strategic control of emotional expression in social transactions, Carolyn Saarni awareness and self-regulation of emotion in young children, Mark Meerum Terwogt and Tjeert Olthop. Part 5 Emotion, empathy, and experience: understanding emotion and experiencing emotion, Paul L.Harris and Mark S.Lipian what children know and feel in response to witnessing affective events, Janet Strayer. Part 6 The role of culture and socialization practices culture, scripts, and children's understanding of emotion, James A. Russell the socialization of emotions - emotional culture, competence, and exposure, Steven L. Gordon cultural differences in children's knowledge of emotional scripts, Michael Lewis.

Children's knowledge of internal anatomy: conceptual orientation and review of research.