Early childhood family education

If they came with instructions, then you wouldn't need us reads the poster on the classroom door. It is a pleasant morning in early September and my twelve-month-old daughter, Laura, and I are going to our first day of school. Laura and I enter the infant and toddler room with anticipation.Barb Rose is a free lance writer living in St. Paul, MN, and the mother of a 2-year-old named Laura.     

Children's Gender-Based Reasoning about Toys

The goal of these studies was to investigate how preschool children use gender-based reasoning in making judgments about toy preferences for themselves and for others. In Studies 1 and 2, children ( n = 22, n = 71) were shown unfamiliar, non-sex-typed toys and asked to rate how much they, other girls, and other boys would like each toy. As expected, children made gender-based inferences: "What I like, children of my sex will also like, and children of the other sex will not like." Study 3 was designed to assess how children use gender-based reasoning to make decisions about attractive and unattractive toys when they are given gender labels. Children ( n = 91) were shown unfamiliar toys varying in attractiveness that were given explicit gender labels (e.g., "this is a toy girls really like") or no label. With a different experimenter (to avoid demand characteristics), children rated their own and others' liking of the toys. Children used gender labels to guide their own preferences and their expectations for others. Even with very attractive toys, children liked toys less if they were labeled as being for the other sex, and expected other girls and boys to do the same. The role of gender-based reasoning in cognitive theories of gender and on children's play preferences is discussed.     

Memory and Speed: Their Role in the Relation of Infant Information Processing to Later IQ

This study examined the extent to which memory and processing speed accounted for relations we had found earlier between infant information processing and childhood IQ. The measures of speed and memory were obtained when the children were 11 years of age using paper-and-pencil tasks and an extensive battery of computer-administered tasks. The relations of 7 month visual recognition memory and 1 years cross-modal transfer to 11 years IQ were both substantially reduced with statistical control of factors dericed from these measures. These results suggest that speed and memory underlie some of the infant-childhood continuities in cognition. Path and stuctural equation modeling indicated that the significant pathways from 7 month visual recognition memory to 11 year IQ were nboth directr and indirect, the indirect paths going through memory and speed.     

Relation between Physical Growth and Information Processing in Infants Born in India

The relation between physical growth and cognitive development in infants growing up in India was examined in this study. Subjects were 183 5–12-month-olds. Weight and length, two anthropometric measures commonly used to index nutritional status in developing countries, related to infant measures of visual recognition memory and tactual-visual cross-modal transfer. Underweight infants performed relatively poorly on both cognitive measures and failed to show the clear age-related improvements in speed of processing found among the heavier infants. Weight and length correlated with both measures of infant cognition, r = .25 to r = .45, as did, to a lesser degree, head circumference. Although birthweight, previous illness, and parental education were also related to development, the relations between infant growth and cognition remained significant even after these variables were statistically controlled.     

The voice of the cultural restorationists: recent trends in RE policy-making

This article considers the nature of RE curriculum policy-making from 1988–97. It concentrates on the hegemonic intent of cultural restorationists. Cultural restorationism finds expression when current political action is justified by particular interpretations being placed upon the past. This involves particular use of language and a strong emphasis on tradition, culture and the past. It is also related to economics, policy-making generally and, for this article, is particularly related to RE curriculum policy-making. The ‘voice’ of the cultural restorationists is explored and the manner in which they proceeded to impact on RE policy-making. The context of text production is explored, with its public ridicule and derision, also the marginalization of key figures and groups with skilful manipulation being made of the media. Language itself was adapted and used as a tool to achieve a manipulative and ‘ratchet-like’ effect on education. Many official documents are used positively to effect their agenda, reflecting hegemonic intent. In religious education policy-making cultural restorationism is aligned closely to a ‘Christianizing’ agenda. This involves the increased use of centralizing powers and the subsequent redefinition of the role for those involved at a local level in RE. Interview data are used from parliamentarians and those seeking to influence the processes. The article concludes that RE is increasingly subject to central control, despite its unique status vis à vis the National Curriculum.