Child's Developmental Level Research Articles

Conceptualizing Today's Kindergarten Curriculum

As kindergartens have become an almost universal experience for American children, there is a need to rethink the concepts underlying kindergarten education. Child development research and theory can help educators understand what young children can know. What children need to know is determined by what society thinks is important. Kindergartens have taught children various things at different times. Kindergarten programs that have developed from diverse traditions also teach young children different things. Educators today need to make explicit what they believe children should learn in kindergarten. Kindergarten programs can be responsive to children's developmental levels while emphasizing cultural knowledge and the foundations of academic scholarship. Such programs should be evaluated both in terms of their developmental appropriateness and in relation to their educational worth to the children taught and the communities served.

Maternal attributions to a handicapped and a non-handicapped twin: a longitudinal study

This study was designed to explore a mother's attributions toward her twins from 11 to 32 months. One twin was developing normally while the other was extremely handicapped. Results suggest that the mother fine-tuned her attributions in response to the children's developmental level of communicative development but not in other areas. Several hypotheses are explored for this lack of reflection of the children's developmental level. One possible explanation is the possibility that the mother needed to feel that she was interacting with a competent infant and thus overinterpreted the handicapped infant's behaviour in order to interact effectively.

A Mother's Language to Her Twins: One Child Down Syndrome and One Child With Normal Development

This paper presents a comparison of a mother's language to her Down syndrome child and his normally developing twin, age 2 years, 9 months old. When interacting with the Down syndrome twin, the mother changed her language in the following ways: (1) shorter MLU, (2) greater TTR, (3) more confirmations, (4) more verbal directives, (5) fewer leading wh; yes-no, and true questions, and (6) more directive questions. The differences in the mother's language are discussed in terms of their appropriateness for the delayed child's developmental level.

Graphic Symbol and Speech Training of Young Children With Down Syndrome: Some Preliminary Findings

This study examined the effects of five treatment conditions on the abilities of 11 preschool children with Down Syndrome to learn and use five new words/graphic symbols (Rebus or modified Bliss symbols). Treatment conditions included Speech and Language Training Only, Nonspeech Communication Training Only (Rebus or Bliss) and Speech and Language Training Combined with Nonspeech Communication Training (Rebus or Bliss). Subjects were seen for 12 individual sessions, the focus of which was training comprehension and spontaneous expressive use of the wordsl symbols. Pre- and post-treatment measures were obtained for training and nontraining words on the comprehension and expression tasks. Although no significant overall treatment effect was found for either task when pre-and post-treatment comparisons were made, there was a significant increase in comprehension scores for the subjects as a group. Analyses of the data from the treatment sessions revealed a significant decrease in the number of prompts required for expressive use of the wordl/symbols for subjects in the Speech and Language Training Combined with Nonspeech Communication Training conditions. Further, subjects'scores for some dependent measures significantly correlated with their developmental ages and levels of communicative functioning. Results suggest that incorporation of graphic symbols into the language intervention program may facilitate language acquisition in a young child with Down Syndrome, provided the tasks and procedures are appropriate to the child's developmental age and level of communicative functioning.

Exit Criteria in Early Childhood Programs for Handicapped Children

Information on the existence of written exit criteria, as well as descriptions of existing criteria, was obtained from 178 surveys completed by early childhood education programs for handicapped children across the United States. Approximately half of the programs had formal written exit criteria. The most commonly cited criterion was chronological age. Other factors, such as formal test results, team staffing decisions, and the child's developmental skill level, also played a role. Significant differences appeared between exit criteria listed by programs with formal written exit criteria and those of programs without. The basis for dismissing children from preschool special education programs varies widely across and within states.

Factors Related to the Age of Attainment of Nocturnal Bladder Control: An 8-Year Longitudinal Study

The age of attainment of nocturnal bladder control was studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. By 8 years of age, but all 3.3% of children had attained such control, but because some children had relapsed subsequent to the attainment of control, 7.4% of children had nocturnal enuresis. It was estimated that from 5 years of age onward between one half to two thirds of children experiencing nocturnal enuresis did so as a result of failure to attain nocturnal control and the remaining children had secondary or onset enuresis. Factors predictive of the age of attainment of nocturnal bladder control were a family history of enuresis, the child's developmental level at 1 and 3 years of age, and the child's early sleeping patterns. The age of attainment of bladder control was unrelated to a broad range of psychosocial factors including family social and economic background, family life-event measures, changes in parents in the family, and residential changes. These results favor the view that the etiology of primary enuresis is mainly biologic and that psychosocial factors play little role in this aspect of bed-wetting.

Patterns of Early Socialization: Mother-and Father-Infant Interaction in the Home

To provide a description of early socialization patterns in the home, naturalistic observations of the families of 24 first-born infants (four boys and four girls at each of three ages: 11, 14, and 17 months) were conducted. Four kinds of parental socializing practices were recorded: behavioral socialization, cognitive socialization, parent-infant play, and short-term behavioral regulation. The majority of interactions fell into the cognitive socialization and short-term behavioral regulation categories. Parental socialization practices were geared to the child's developmental level: attempts to regulate infant attention and aggression decreased with age; attempts to engage infants in planful, self-regulated sequences of behavior (household responsibilities and prosocial behavior) increased. Mothers attempted to enforce more household rules than did fathers, and both mothers and fathers were more likely to discourage aggression and encourage prosocial behavior in their girls, and to encourage household responsibilities and turn-taking games in their boys.

Modification of children's gender-stereotyped behavior: General issues and research considerations

This paper reviews some recent studies that have attempted to change gender-stereotyped behavior or attitudes in children. While such efforts have often been successful, at least on a short-term basis, enough inconsistency exists to suggest that more detailed theoretical analyses are required to increase the efficacy of such modification attempts. The review suggested at least four factors that needed additional empirical and theoretical attention as factors in susceptibility to counterstereotyping manipulations. These included: (a) the child's developmental level, (b) the relationship between sex role cognitions and behavior, (c) the degree of situational consistency of gender-stereotyped behavior, and (d) the role of individual initial differences in determining modification outcomes. The importance of these factors are discussed in the context of the existing literature.

A developmental exploration of language used to accompany symbolic play in young, normal children (2–4 years old)

Observation of play can provide crucial information about a child's developmental level of language. To make this information available categorization and measurement are necessary. By defining, from a cognitive and pragmatic point of view, separate but parallel measures of play and language it was possible to define four different levels of symbolic functioning: representational play; conceptual play; programmatic play; and script play. Careful longitudinal descriptions of language used to accompany symbolic play of ten 2-4-year-old children are presented. Interesting developmental trends in play and cognitive and pragmatic organization of language were found. Gradually language production was considered as the primary mode for symbolic expression between the ages of 2;6 (2 years; 6 months) and 3 years. Language production increased dramatically between the ages of 3 and 3;6, and became better differentiated from the play context. The scientific study of child language using an analytic tool, such as a play procedure, to describe and analyse spontaneous production of spoken language, with a cognitive and pragmatic framework contributes not only a more accurate understanding of normal play and language development, but may also have an efficient clinical value. Suggestions for and implications of exploring components of language used in a standardized play situation are discussed in reference to developmentally disabled children.

Psykoterapi vid ångesttillstånd hos barn

Artikeln grundar sig på ett föredrag om hur ångesttillstånd hos barn kan behandlas. Både förebyggande aspekter. dvs tidig intervention i familjer. dår spädbarnet företer spänningstillstånd, belyses såväl som familjeterapeutiska och individuallerapeuliska behandlingsmetoder med barnet och dennes familj. Artikeln är av översiktlig karaktär och beskriver olika insatsnivåer av behandling och olika angreppssätt på problem och åtgärder.Anxiety in children can be an adequate behaviour, reaction, state in certain situations and because of special experiences related to the child's developmental level and his environment and life-circumstances. Severe anxiety states can be either reactions to earlier traumas or aggravated delayed reactions because of tensions in the family unable of handling the child's demands during extended periods or in special situations. It can also depend on certain patterns in the family creating an unsecure atmosphere around the child, who will react by building up anxiety-reactions to certain situations or react with generalized and often diffuse anxiety and uneasiness showing up in different symtoms. The treatment is depending on causality, degree of difficulty and the motivation and ability in the family in taking part in a treatment. Preventious interventions -more and more common nowadays - family-therapeutic models and different individually adapted treatment models vis-à-vis the child are described. The importance of careful diagnostics is pointed out.

The ecology of nutritional status and development in young children in Kingston, Jamaica

A survey of two poor neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica is reported. The nutritional status in children under 48 months (309) and the developmental levels of children between six and thirty months (168) were assessed. Characteristics of children with poor nutritional status and development were identified. Thirty-one percent of the children had Gomez grade 1 malnutrition, 9% had Gomez grade 2, and 1.6% had Gomez grade 3. There was somewhat more stunting than wasting. Nutritional indicators, weight for age and weight for height, as well as developmental levels declined with the children's age. Children with poor nutritional status tended to be girls, have poor housing, mothers with low levels of education, and mothers who worked. Children with low developmental quotients (DQs) tended to be boys and have mothers who worked. Multiple regression analysis showed that stunting (ht/age) and weight for age had significant effects on DQ, whereas wasting (wt/ht) did not.

Individual differences among young children in Logo environments

Computers are becoming an integral part of the classroom and home environments of children. Yet, there are unanswered questions concerning their effects on young children's learning. Conceptualized within the framework of Piagetian theory and the educational philosophy provided by Papert, this study is a longitudinal investigation of the qualitative changes shown by fourteen preschool children in the development of programming knowledge about Logo over a period of 8 months. Based on their performance, children were grouped into three groups: (1) those who are sophisticated Logo learners; (2) those who function well in Logo environments under support and continuous direction from the Logo teacher; and (3) children who do not function well in Logo environments. In the second part of the study, an investigation of individual difference variables such as field dependent-independent cognitive styles, mathematical ability, creativity, computer and computer-related experiences within the home and outside the home, indicated that only the variable computer-related experiences within the home and outside the home was important in differentiating between the three groups. The findings of the study do not support the claims made by Papert about learning in Logo environments and suggest that Logo learning environments for preschool children be designed by taking into consideration developmental levels of children and individual differences among children. Furthermore, a new set of concepts and paradigms for studying learning in Logo environments needs to be formulated.

Long-Term Effects of Four Preschool Programs: Ninth- and Tenth-Grade Results

Follow-up of achievement test and IQ data on low-income black youths who had participated for 1 year in Bereiter-Engelmann, DARCEE, Montessori, or Traditional prekindergarten was continued through ninth and tenth grades. Stable trends persisted. Montessori males and DARCEE females were high; Montessori males were performing at about grade level on reading and math; IQs parallelled achievement test results. Additional tests of fluid intelligence, task persistence, self-esteem, divergent thinking, task approach, and aspirations and expectations were administered in ninth and tenth grades. Results from program comparisons and factor analyses were consistent with those on IQ and school achievement. The possibility of relationships between techniques used in the different preschool programs and sex differences in children's developmental level was discussed.

The Effects of Cognitive Level on Clustering in Free Recall

Summary The relationship between a child's Piagetian developmental level and clustering on a free recall task was explored. Age-equivalent groups of preoperational (n = 30 boys and girls) and concrete operational Ss (n = 21 boys and girls) were asked to study and recall categorizable pictures. Concrete operational children displayed greater clustering in recall and organized a higher proportion of their output. These data are both in contrast to and a refinement of previous research. Recall amount is linked with age, while clustering is associated with cognitive/developmental changes that may involve knowledge of semantic relations between objects.

Effect of Psychosocial Stimulation on Mental Development of Severely Malnourished Children: An Interim Report

The effect of adding psychosocial stimulation to the treatment of severely malnourished children was studied. The study period covered children from the time they left the hospital to 24 months later. The children's developmental levels (DQs) were compared with those of two other groups who were in the hospital--an adequately nourished group with diseases other than malnutrition, and a severely malnourished group who received standard hospital care only. The children receiving intervention had structured play sessions in the hospital and were visited weekly for 2 years after returning home. During the visits paraprofessionals showed mothers how to continue structured play with their children. The malnourished children who did not receive intervention showed a marked deficit in developmental level compared with that of control children throughout the study. The control children showed a decline in developmental level with age, which is characteristic of disadvantaged children. The children receiving intervention showed marked improvements and by 24 months were ahead of the children who did not receive intervention in every subscale and were head of the adequately nourished children in two subscales. Both groups of malnourished children remained behind the control children in nutritional status and locomotor development.

Reliability, scalability, and validity of an instrument to assess developmental levels of children from birth to three years of age.

Using reliable data from 112 children under 3 yr. (inter-observer agreement indicated by rs of .98-.99), Guttman scaling established reproducibility and scalability of responses to the Mental Development Scales: Birth to three years, using additional data from the Bayley Scales and the Stanford-Binet. Collection of data continues.

Parental estimate of child's developmental level in a high-risk population.

Forty-six children referred for developmental assessment underwent formal testing of language and intellectual development, and for each child a formal developmental quotient (FDQ) was obtained. Each child's mother was asked to provide a subjective estimate of her child's level of function, which was converted to a developmental quotient by dividing by the child's chronological age. The correlation coefficient between this derived parental developmental quotient estimate (DPDQE) and the FDQ was .85 (P less than .001). The DPDQE displayed 75% sensitivity and 100% specificity in detecting children with an FDQ of 69 or less. The DPDQE may be useful as one component of the routine office examination for preschool children.

Hearing families with deaf children: stress and functioning as related to communication method.

This study examined the attitudes and stress of hearing families with a profoundly deaf preschool child. The 28 families were equally divided into those using oral and simultaneous communication and were additionally subdivided by communicative ability (high vs. low). Mothers completed questionnaires and interviews on stress concerns, parent attitudes, and their child's developmental level. Results of the questionnaires showed few differences between simultaneous and oral families. However, comparison of the four subgroups indicated that those with high competence simultaneous communication skills had more positive attitudes and less stress than highly competent oral communication families. Simultaneous children received a higher estimated social age than oral children. These results are discussed in light of behavioral data showing the simultaneous communication dyads showing more reciprocal and positive social interaction than were the oral communicators. Both groups of parents professed a desire for more counseling and paraprofessional opportunities.

Developmental progression in play behavior of children between nine and thirty months. I: Spontaneous play and imitation.

The developmental progression of play behavior was studied cross-sectionally in 85 children at eight age-levels between nine and 30 months. In a structured play situation, three major play patterns were distinguished: (1) exploratory play (at the end of the first year); (2) functional play (beginning of second year); and (3) representational play (after 15 months). Sequential play first occurred at 21 months. Play behavior with spatial characteristics was also observed: relational and container play between nine and 15 months, and understanding of spatial relationships, stacking and grouping between 18 and 24 months. There was a significant relationship between spontaneous and imitative play behavior; the greatest affect was displayed when the demonstrated behaviors matched the child's developmental level of play.

Childhood Depression: Interpersonal Interactions and Depressive Phenomena

The author discusses the impact of parental disability, particularly parental depression, on children. Depression in children, which takes different forms according to the child's developmental level, may mirror or be a response to similar affect in a parent. Clinicians need to take note of the relationship between child and caretaker and of the various manifestations of childhood depression in order to avoid underdiagnosing this disorder.