Sympathetic Behavior in Young Children

Using three stratified random samples of thirty-two teachers each from grades 2 through 5, a 3-group posttest-only control group research design was employed to determine the effectiveness of an in-service program utilizing simulation techniques on teacher awareness of pupils’ instructional reading levels. Pupils were selected randomly from each teacher’s classroom. Differences between the grade level of pupils’ readers and their performance on McCracken’s Standard Reading Inventory constituted the measure of teacher awareness. The importance of teachers’ grade level assignments and the time of year when this in-service training is conducted were also evaluated.

Findings indicated that this in-service program is effective only when conducted before school begins. There was a significant difference in teacher awareness among grade levels but a contravertible one between primary and intermediate levels.     

Path-Selection Behavior of Young Children in Body-Mazes

A sample of 120 subjects, 11 to 14 years of age, was used to examine the effects of gender and community socioeconomic setting (CSES) on intransitivity of paired-comparison responses. A two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze data. Small gender differences were attributable to chance alone. CSES differences were large, however, with the lower CSES group having significantly (p = .014) more intrasitive responses than the higher CSES group. Interaction effects were inconsequential. It was not possible to isolate the specific aspect(s) of community socioeconomic setting (i.e., family income, parents’ education, etc.) that accounted for the CSES effect. It was concluded that CSES is too complex to treat as a simple dichotomous variable (higher or lower) and that additional research is needed to examine its multidimensional nature. Suggestions for future research are given.     

五年制学生行为习惯培育探索

本文分析了五年制学生行为习惯方面存在的问题及成因，并根据五年制学生的身心特点和成长规律，以探索五年制学生行为习惯培育的途径与方法。     

The Development of Programmes for Young Children in Japan

Japan is one of the countries which have been producing and broadcasting a large number of programmes for children, both educational and entertainment, and both types of programme have been widely watched by children in other countries in recent years. This article introduces the characteristics of Japanese children's television viewing and some examples of studies on the development of new television programmes for young children and then discusses the possibility of the development of international television programmes for children.     

The Development of Message Evaluation Skills in Young Children

The goal of this research was to learn if young children overestimate message quality because they evaluate their knowledge or assumptions about the intended meaning of the message, rather than its literal meaning. 2 experiments were conducted with preschoolers (4 years) and kindergartners (5-6 years). Second graders (8 years) also participated in the first experiment. Children evaluated the communicative quality of informative, ambiguous, and ineffective picture messages in a simple communication game. In the first experiment, children knew the intended referent when they evaluated the message. The results showed that younger children overestimated the informativeness of the ambiguous and ineffective messages, while older children evaluated message quality accurately, even though they knew the intended meaning. In the second experiment, younger children detected more of the message ambiguities when they did not know the target referent than when they were informed of the intended interpretation. The results suggest that young children overestimate message quality because they evaluate their interpretation of the message rather than its literal meaning.     

Reading Development in Young Children: Genetic and Environmental Influences

The development of reading skills in typical students is commonly described as a rapid growth across early grades of active reading education, with a slowing down of growth as active instruction tapers. This study examined the extent to which genetics and environments influence these growth rates. Participants were 371 twin pairs, aged approximately 6 through 12, from the Western Reserve Reading Project. Development of word‐level reading, reading comprehension, and rapid naming was examined using genetically sensitive latent quadratic growth curve modeling. Results confirmed the developmental trajectory described in the phenotypic literature. Furthermore, the same shared environmental influences were related to early reading skills and subsequent growth, but genetic influences on these factors were unique.     

我国幼儿园英语浸入式教学研究报告

本文介绍了自1997年在我国开展的幼儿英语浸入式教学研究项目、幼儿园英语浸入式实施方案、幼儿园英语浸入式整合课程及幼儿园英语浸入式教学的初步效果.     

Development of Motor Patterns in Young Children

A predominant area of instruction in school physical education programs is game play. Effective decision making is important to the successful execution of skills. Unfortunately, the task of teaching effective decision making in varying game situations is not easy. The demands of the game require far more than simply physical skillfulness. Game play is interwoven with numerous decision-making opportunities for the participant. Successful game players must make these decisions in an effective and timely manner. The purpose of this article is to compare two models of game instruction: the technique model and the “games for understanding” model. This analysis indicates that the games for understanding model provides a more viable way of teaching strategic decision making for game players. Included will be discussions on the various theories that contrast the two approaches. A final section provides suggestions for future research into the validity of the “games for understanding model.”     

幼儿偏差行为的测量及发展特点

本研究采用《幼儿偏差行为问卷》测量了258名幼儿的偏差行为,并分析了幼儿偏差行为的发展特点.结果发现:(1)幼儿偏差行为可分为四类:不遵守规则、多动、冲动和注意力分散.(2)幼儿偏差行为存在性别差异,男孩比女孩更容易表现出偏差行为,并且男孩在不遵守规则、多动、冲动上的得分显著高于女孩.(3)幼儿偏差行为不存在显著的年龄差异.研究者据此提出相应的教育建议,例如教师在引导幼儿改正偏差行为时要意识到幼儿偏差行为存在性别差异,在组织教学活动时宜充分考虑男孩偏差行为的特点,利用男孩的兴趣特点改善他们的偏差行为.     

Individual Differences in Theory of Mind, Aggressive Behavior, and Social Skills In Young Children

Research Findings. The present study examined relations between social-cognitive skills, aggression, and social competence using teacher questionnaires and tabletop tasks with preschool and kindergarten children. It was hypothesized that the acquisition of a theory of “mind”, as indexed by an understanding of false beliefs, might be related to social behavior for this age group. Overall, results indicated that both generation of forceful solutions in a traditional social-problem solving task and performance on the false belief tasks were significantly related to social competence, after controlling for the effects of age, language comprehension, and teacher ratings of aggression. In addition, theory of mind understanding was a better predictor of social competence than performance on a more traditional social information-processing task that involved the generation of alternative solutions to interpersonal problems. Practice. The implications of these findings for preschool and kindergarten peer relations and their potential relevance to treatment of deficits in social skills are discussed. Specifically, training in an understanding of counterfactual thinking (e.g., through increased and structured opportunities to engage in pretend play and storytelling) may enhance preschooler social skills.     

Individual Differences in Theory of Mind,Aggressive Behavior,and Social Skills In Young Children

Research Findings. The present study examined relations between social-cognitive skills, aggression, and social competence using teacher questionnaires and tabletop tasks with preschool and kindergarten children. It was hypothesized that the acquisition of a theory of "mind," as indexed by an understanding of false beliefs, might be related to social behavior for this age group. Overall, results indicated that both generation of forceful solutions in a traditional social-problem solving task and performance on the false belief tasks were significantly related to social competence, after controlling for the effects of age, language comprehension, and teacher ratings of aggression. In addition, theory of mind understanding was a better predictor of social competence than performance on a more traditional social information-processing task that involved the generation of alternative solutions to interpersonal problems. Practice. The implications of these findings for preschool and kindergarten peer relations and their potential relevance to treatment of deficits in social skills are discussed. Specifically, training in an understanding of counterfactual thinking (e.g., through increased and structured opportunities to engage in pretend play and storytelling) may enhance preschooler social skills.     

Young Children Are Wishful Thinkers: The Development of Wishful Thinking in 3- to 10-Year-Old Children

Previously, research on wishful thinking has found that desires bias older children’s and adults’ predictions during probabilistic reasoning tasks. In this article, we explore wishful thinking in children aged 3- to 10-years-old. Do young children learn to be wishful thinkers? Or do they begin with a wishful thinking bias that is gradually overturned during development? Across five experiments, we compare low- and middle-income United States and Peruvian 3- to 10-year-old children (N = 682). Children were asked to make predictions during games of chance. Across experiments, preschool-aged children from all backgrounds consistently displayed a strong wishful thinking bias. However, the bias declined with age.     

Supporting the Narrative Development of Young Children

This article presents the developmental continuum of children’s storytelling skills and provides examples at each of five levels: labeling, listing, connecting, sequencing and narrating. The authors connect these developing narrative skills to communication, literacy and cognition. Strategies to facilitate development from one level to another are described.     

视频学习在幼儿早期发展中的作用

视频学习是影响幼儿身心发展和幼儿社会文化习得的重要途径之一.已有研究表明,视频学习影响幼儿的视听能力、符号表征和理解能力、行为模仿能力以及言语能力等.家长、教师乃至节目制作者要根据幼儿学习的情境性特点来正确指导幼儿进行视频学习,并向幼儿传授视频学习的基本知识,以提高幼儿视频学习的效果.     

The Development of the Subconcepts of Death in Young Children: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

A short-term longitudinal design and the probabilistic latent class method of analysis were used to study the development of young children's understanding of death. 99 first and second graders were interviewed individually in the fall and spring. The results support the notion that the subconcepts of death--irreversibility, cessation, causality, and inevitability--need to be studied separately and in relation to one another. Children first understand the subconcepts of irreversibility and inevitability. Development of these subconcepts does not seem to be conditional on each other. However, at least one of these subconcepts must be understood before the child understands the subconcepts of cessation or causality. The pattern of development of these subconcepts is different when the referent object is human versus animal. The overall methodology offers promise in understanding the development of these concepts in young children.     

Maternal Reports of Conscience Development and Temperament in Young Children

Multiple manifestations of emerging conscience, their development, organization, and links with temperament were studied in 171 21–70-month-old children. A new parental report instrument was designed to measure conscience, with good psychometric qualities and predictive of children's behaviors in a laboratory. For most aspects of conscience, the major developmental shifts occurred around age 3. 2 components of early conscience emerged in factor analyses: Affective Discomfort, significantly higher for girls, that encompassed guilt, apology, concern about good feelings with the parent following wrongdoing, and empathy with others, and Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance, which included confession and reparation following wrongdoing, internalization of rules of conduct (self-regulation), and concern about others' wrongdoing. Children's temperament, assessed by maternal reports, was associated with conscience. Low impulsivity and high inhibitory control were associated with Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance for both sexes and, for girls only, also with Affective Discomfort. For girls, temperamental reactivity related positively to Affective Discomfort and negatively to Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance.     

儿童行为发展中的情绪自我管理

儿童情绪的自我管理是要受到一定文化背景下的社会规则或规范所影响的,并对其未来行为有一定的预测作用和对问题行为有预防作用。结构化评估、非结构化评估以及半结构化评估是当前对儿童的情绪自我管理和社会行为进行研究的主要方法。     

Family-Centered Intervention for Young Children at-risk for Language and Behavior Problems

This study investigated the effects of a family-centered intervention that involved parents in weekly assessments and daily routine activities for promoting young children’s language and behavior. Forty-one 3–5-year-old children at-risk for language and behavior problems, recruited from three developmental pre-schools, were randomly assigned to a control and an intervention group that received parent–professional support. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were used to examine whether groups differed on post-test scores on the Test of Early Language Development—Third Edition and Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, using pre-test scores as a covariate. Results showed that children in the intervention group outperformed children in the control group on both tests. The study indicated that family-centered intervention is an effective method for empowering parents to identify and implement concrete solutions to their children’s problems, especially when done as part of a professional collaboration.     

Social Development of Young Children in Different Cultural Systems

Ninety‐six 5‐year‐old girls and boys and their mothers (n ‐‐ 87) participated in a cross‐cultural study on prosocial behaviour in Germany and the former USSR. Each child was observed interacting with a playmate who appeared to be sad. The mothers’ educational belief systems were examined on the basis of: (i) a semi‐projective instrument (So‐Sit) depicting everyday conflicts between mother and child; (ii) an interview on a recent conflict. The intensity of prosocial behaviour was higher in German girls than in German boys or Russian girls. More Russian boys than girls showed at least some kind of prosocial behaviour. Russian mothers described their handling of conflicts as more harmonious than German mothers, whereas sex differences occurred within each culture. The results are discussed with regard to the impact of different child‐rearing belief systems in individualistic versus collectivist cultures on the social behaviour of children.