Early emotional development, emotional regulation, and the links between emotion and social or cognitive functioning in atypically developing children have not received much attention. This lack is due in part to the priorities given to the educational and therapeutic needs of these children. Yet an understanding of the basic emotional processes in children with atypical development can only serve to promote more effective strategies for teaching and intervening in the lives of these children and their families and may contribute to our understanding of basic emotional processes as well.
When referring to "emotions," the editors mean some complex set of processes or abilities, whether or not the topic is normal or atypical development. Specifically, they use the term "emotion" to refer to at least three things -- emotional expressions, emotional states, and emotional experiences. The focus of this volume, these three aspects of emotional life are affected by socialization practices, maturational change, and individual biological differences including, in this case, differences in children as a function of disability. Contributors examine the development of emotions in children with organic or psychological disorders as well as those in compromised social contexts making this volume of prime importance to developmental, clinical, and social psychologists, educators, and child mental health experts.

Concern with stress and coping has a long history in biomedical, psychological and sociological research. The inadequacy of simplistic models linking stressful life events and adverse physical and psychological outcomes was pointed out in the early 1980s in a series of seminal papers and books. The issues and theoretical models discussed in this work shaped much of the subsequent research on this topic and are reflected in the papers in this volume. The shift has been away from identifying associations between risks and outcomes to a focus on factors and processes that contribute to diversity in response to risks. Based on the Family Research Consortium's fifth summer institute, this volume focuses on stress and adaptability in families and family members. The papers explore not only how a variety of stresses influence family functioning but also how family process moderates and mediates the contribution of individual and environmental risk and protective factors to personal adjustment. They reveal the complexity of current theoretical models, research strategies and analytic approaches to the study of risk, resiliency and vulnerability along with the central role risk, family process and adaptability play in both normal development and childhood psychopathology.

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This book explores the ways in which systems (organizational) consultation may be applied to school roles and functions as part of an overall systems change process. Using an implementation science framework grounded in systems/organizational consultation research, the volume details how school reform or improvement may be facilitated. School-based case studies illustrate the application of implementation science to systems change efforts in schools and districts across the United States. Each case study describes the implementation science steps taken to deliver a school-based innovation at the systems level. The book discusses implementation science theory combined with real-world examples of its use in planning for, implementing, and engaging in ongoing evaluation of a systems change effort. Key areas of coverage include: Implementation science in educational settings. Key stakeholder roles in school-based systems change. Implementing and evaluating systems change in schools. Teacher-student mediation to reduce conflict and ensure effective school discipline and behavior practices. District-level processes and supports for English Language Learners. Mental health screening and social-emotional well-being of students. Systems Consultation and Change in Schools is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as scientist-practitioners, school-based practitioners, and clinicians across such disciplines as school administration and leadership, school and clinical child psychology, social work, public health, teaching and teacher education, educational policy and practice, and all interrelated fields.

Caregiving role rather than gender has a predominant influence on parent interaction in nonstressful as well as stressful situations. Primary caregiving fathers can competently assume caregiving and nurturant functions so as to become their infants' primary attachment figures.

Based on videotaped home observations, Dr. Geiger examines the unique and interactive effects of the gender of the caregiver and the primacy of the caregiver role on parent-infant interaction. Dr. Geiger observed 56 parents of different gender (father-mother) and caregiving role (primary-secondary) interacting with their infant in a non-stressful situation. Then infants were placed under stress in a modified version of the Strange Situation. A gender X caregiving role analysis of variance indicated no gender or role effect for parents' and infants' affiliative behaviors under nonstressful conditions except for fathers' rough tumble play. A caregiving role and/or a gender X role interaction effect was observed on the attachment behaviors of parents (caregiving and displaying affection) and of infants (displaying affection, clinging, moving away, and exploring). Infants' play interaction was most synchronous with that of primary caregiving fathers. Finally, the caregiver role effect indicated on all infants' attachment behaviors under stress showed a distinctive preference for primary caregivers (fathers or mothers) with disregard for gender.

Dr. Geiger's study indicates that primary caregiving fathers can be as competent as primary and secondary caregiving mothers. They were more affectionate, and despite an increased amount of assumed caregiving and household chores, primary caregiving fathers were more involved and in greater synchrony with their infant's play activities than primary or secondary caregiving mothers. This study challenges sex-role stereotypes and suggests benefits of modeling a more egalitarian upbringing. It presents strategies to resolve the dilemma of day care for infants. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and other researchers involved with early childhood education, socioemotional development of children, and developmental psychology, especially once it is acknowledged that father care in the home for infants less than one year of age has become the most common form of primary nonmaternal care arrangement (21.6%) adopted by employed mothers.

Research on the development of metaphor abilities in children can be dated back as far as 1960, with Asch and Nerlove's pioneering study, which concluded that children were unable to understand metaphors until middle or even late childhood. However, the study of metaphor in children did not take off until the 1970s; research continued to show metaphor as a relatively late-developing skill, based on children's inability to paraphrase correctly metaphoric sentences presented out of any situational or narrative context.
In the past decade, research into the development of figurative language has broadened considerably in scope. Efforts have been underway to demonstrate the cognitive underpinnings of the ability to make sense of figurative language and to demonstrate the role of metaphor and its cousin, analogy, in the development of cognition.
Metaphor is now considered to be a central aspect of language and thought and thus a crucial variable in cognitive development. The articles in this issue support the claim that no longer can any theory of language acquisition afford to ignore how children are able to recognize the distinction between what is said and what is meant and how they are able to grasp what is meant when people say things they do not mean.

The culmination of 15 years of research by a Turkish psychologist who was educated in the West, this volume examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of cross-cultural psychology. It takes a contextual-developmental-functional approach linking the child, family, and society as they are embedded in culture. A refreshingly different view, the author presents a portrait of human development from "the other side"--from the perspective of the "majority world." In a world seemingly dominated by American psychology, she proposes the cross-cultural orientation as a corrective to the culture-boundedness of much of Euro-American psychology.
Analyzing human development in context while avoiding the pitfalls of extreme relativism, this work studies development with an inclusive, holistic, and ecological perspective, focusing on the development of the self and of competence. In so doing, it also attempts to combine cultural contextualism with universalistic standards and psychological processes. It proposes a theory of family change which challenges some commonly held modernization assumptions, and links theory and application while examining the role of psychology in inducing social change.

In response to the growing concern for the psychological impact of disasters on children, this book integrates a diverse body of literature-including theory, case studies and other research, and assessment and intervention techniques-contributed by many of the fields most experienced professionals. Child and school psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, mental health administrators, and pediatricians will all appreciate the work's unique focus on the reaction of children to extreme stress.

Designed to provide practical information to those who are concerned with the development of young children, this book has three goals. First, the authors offer details about patterns of language development over the first three years of life. Although intensive studies have been carried out by examining from one to 20 children in the age range of zero to three years, there has been no longitudinal study of a sample as large as this--53 children--nor have as many measures of language development been obtained from the same children. Examining language development from a broad perspective in this size population allows us to see what generalizations can be made about patterns of language development.
This volume's second goal is to examine the impact of such factors as biology, cognition, and communication input--and the interaction of these factors--which traditionally have been held to play an important role in the course of language development. The comparative influence of each--and the interaction of all three--were examined statistically using children's scores on standard language tests at age three.
The volume's third goal is to provide information to beginning investigators, early childhood educators, and clinicians that can help them in their practice. This includes information about what appear to be good early predictors of language development at three years; language assessment procedures that can be used with children below age three, how these procedures can be used, what they tell us about the language development of young children; and what warning signs should probably be attended to, and which can most likely be ignored. In addition, suggestions are made about what patterns of communicative interaction during the different periods of development seem to be most successful in terms of language development outcomes at three years, and what overall indications the study offers regarding appropriate intervention.

Increasingly, sociologists have turned their attention to the social problems of children- in particular, of younger children. This collection reflects those recent interest. While most researchers have focused on social problems involving adolescents, this volume offers instead original case studies of problems concerning preadolescent children.

The papers that Best has gathered here represent different theoretical and methodological approaches. They report on social issues in Albania, Kenya, and Japan as well as in the United States. The range of social problems they address is a wide one, from broad societal crises to decision-making within families. Topics include the effects of economic and social crises in Africa and Eastern Europe; concerns about crack use and other forms of fetal endangerment; parental decisions about spanking, toy choices, and letting children listen to rock music; schooling in day care and elementary and junior high schools; and children's perceptions of environmental crises.

Troubling Children adds a new dimension to courses in social problems. It also offers a different set of perspectives for those concerned with sociology of preadolescent children and their discontents.

Stepfamilies represent an increasing number of American households and shape the upbringing of countless stepchildren. Despite their prominence in society, our knowledge about these families is very limited. To address this deficit, the editors have drawn together the work of 16 nationally known scholars to deal with four questions:
* Marriages that create stepfamilies: Why do they occur? Fail? Succeed?
* How do stepfamilies function as child rearing environments?
* How do stepfamilies function as sources of support in later life?
* Building research and policy agendas: What is needed?
In seeking answers to these questions, the book bridges the disciplines of psychology, sociology, social psychology, child development, demography, law and policy. Readers will gain an understanding of the current knowledge about stepfamilies, obtain an appreciation of the diverse views on a variety of stepfamily issues, learn about existing and anticipated laws and policies that affect stepfamilies, and acquire ideas on needed research and policy agendas. Chapter authors are leading figures in psychology, sociology, demography, human development, and family law; their contributions are valuable to researchers, teachers, and students as well as policymakers and legislatures.

Blending academic theory with policy guidelines and practical suggestions, this book provides a review of current approaches to assessment and Intervention For Children With Emotional And Behavioural Difficulties. It incorporates a discussion of government guidelines on policy and provision with schools and LEAs and reviews a range of successful innovations in intervention. Specific areas are covered, including Exclusion, Integration And Emotional Abuse.; Five Recurring Themes permeate the whole book, these being: the effects of government legislation on all aspects of EBD assessment and provision; the recognition that children with EBD come from economically and socially disadvantaged families and the implication that this has for assessment and provision; the problems of agreeing on an acceptable definition of EBD; the fact that children labelled as EBD do not have an equal opportunity to assessment and provision; and the belief that schools can make a substantial contribution to the prevention of EBD.

Understanding how young children begin to make sense out of the social world has become a major concern within developmental psychology. Over the last 25 years research in this area has raised a number of questions which mirror the confluence of interests from cognitive-developmental and social-developmental psychology. The aims of this book are to consider critically the major themes and findings within this growing social-cognitive developmental research, and to present a new theoretical framework for investigating children's social cognitive skills. Beyond being the first major review of the literature in this area, this synopsis articulates why contemporary theoretical ideas (e.g. information processing, Piagetian and social interactionist) are unlikely ever to provide the conceptual basis for understanding children's participative skills. Building upon ideas both within and beyond mainstream developmental psychology, the "eco-structural" approach advocated seeks to draw together the advantages of the ecological approach in perceptual psychology with the considerable insights of the conversational analysts, child language researchers and Goffman's analysis of social interaction. This convergence is centred around the dynamic and participatory realities of engaging in conversational contexts, the locus for acquiring social cognitive skills. The framework provides the building blocks for models of developmental social cognition which can accommodate dynamic aspects of children's conversational skills. This book then is a review of an important area of developmental psychology, a new perspective on how we can study children's participatory social-cognitive skills and a summary of supporting research for the framework advocated.

This book provides the latest information about the development of intersensory perception -- a topic which has recently begun to receive a great deal of attention from researchers studying the general problem of perceptual development. This interest was inspired after the realization that unimodal perception of sensory information is only the first stage of perceptual processing. Under normal conditions, an organism is faced with multiple, multisensory sources of information and its task is to either select a single relevant source of information or select several sources of information and integrate them. In general, perception and action on the basis of multiple sources of information is more efficient and effective. Before greater efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved, however, the organism must be able to integrate the multiple sources of information. By doing so, the organism can then achieve a coherent and unified percept of the world.
The various chapters in this book examine the developmental origins of intersensory perceptual capacities by presenting the latest research on the development of intersensory perceptual skills in a variety of different species. By adopting a comparative approach to this problem, this volume as a whole helps uncover similarities as well as differences in the mechanisms underlying the development of intersensory integration. In addition, it shows that there is no longer any doubt that intersensory interactions occur right from the beginning of the developmental process, that the nature of these intersensory interactions changes as development progresses, and that early experience contributes in important ways to these changes.

Based on the First Biannual Lifespan Development Conference, this volume offers a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach to the study of lifespan development in the areas of neuropsychology, cognition, behavior genetics, and perception. The objective of the conference was to provide a lively forum for the discussion of issues related to lifespan development and to reflect on important topics challenging the field during the 1990s. The chapters in this book, motivated by the conference presentations, cover:
* the assessment and evaluation of developmental changes in visual perception;
* the contribution of behavioral genetic factors to development;
* the predictability of perinatal risk factors as they relate to cognitive and linguistic outcomes;
* the neuropsychological changes during aging; and
* innovative approaches to the study of cognitive development using neuropsychological testing methods.

In this book, Dr Stoller describes patients with marked abberrations in their masculinity and feminity--primarily transsexuals, transvestites and patients with marked biological abnormalities of their sex - in order to find clues to gender development in more normal people.

This book constitutes the first time in the field of developmental psychology that cross-cultural roots of minority child development have been studied in their ancestral societies in a systematic way--and by an international group of researchers. Most child development and child psychology texts take cultural diversity in development into account only as an addendum or as a special case--it is not integrated into a comprehensive theory or model of development. The purpose of this text is to redress this situation by enlisting insiders' and outsiders' perspectives on socialization and development in a diverse sampling of the world's cultures, including developing regions that often lack the means to speak for themselves in the arena of international social science.
The unique feature of this text is the paradigm. For the minority groups represented, the questions focused on how development was behaviorally expressed "within" the culture of origin and "in" new societal contexts. Thus, developmental issues--such as language and mother-child interactions--for African-American children are considered in the United States as well as in the African culture of origin and in France as a country of immigration. This paradigm is considered for African and Asian cultures and the Americas, including Hispanics from Mexico as well as Native Americans.
Specific questions posed consider the extent to which:
* the development and socialization of minority children can be seen as continuous with their ancestral cultures;
* the cultural and political conditions in the United States, Canada, and France have modified developmental and socialization processes, yielding discontinuities with ancestral cultures;
* the ancestral cultures have changed, yielding cross-generational discontinuities in the development and socialization of immigrants from the very same countries.
* the role of interdependence and independence in developmental scripts can account for historical continuities and discontinuities in development and socialization, both across and within cultures.
These questions not only provide the unifying theme of this unique book but also a model for conceptualizing multi-culturalism within a unified framework for developmental psychology.

Language acquisition is a human endeavor par excellence. As children, all human beings learn to understand and speak at least one language: their mother tongue. It is a process that seems to take place without any obvious effort. Second language learning, particularly among adults, causes more difficulty. The purpose of this series is to compile a collection of high-quality monographs on language acquisition. The series serves the needs of everyone who wants to know more about the problem of language acquisition in general and/or about language acquisition in specific contexts.

This book presents an interplay of imaginative memoir-telling, action research data and future projection that reminds and inspires experiences academics, researchers, professionals, as well as a wider public to recognize the fundamental importance and the impellent need for more and better work in favour of true political and societal recognition of the needs and rights of children to play freely, to participate, to live fully and enjoy their neighbourhoods and cities, and to imagine and construct alternative futures, together with adults. The book's abundant spoken dialogue is, in effect, storytelling between children (and youth) on their own and with adults (especially the elderly). It conveys an appreciation of children's special capacities to think critically about their everyday places-and the greater world around them-and to develop solutions (or 'projects') for the problems they identify. This book serves an effective catalyst for stimulating rich discussion of the theoretical and practical bases of the many themes, or areas of study, which are treated in the story.

What allows children to acquire language so effortlessly, with such speed, and with such amazing accuracy? Capitalizing on the most recent developments in linguistics and cognitive psychology, this volume sheds new light on the what, why, and how of the child's ability to acquire one or more languages.
The Handbook is one of a kind in a number of respects. It includes state-of-the-art treatments of acquisition from a variety of theoretical viewpoints ranging from functionalist approaches and the implications of the creolization of languages for the study of acquisition to the relevance of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. It contains overviews of the acquisition of all components of linguistic structure, treats the acquisition of the sign languages of the deaf, and discusses the specific problems of bilingual acquisition.
Key Features
*Addresses the following questions:
* Is the capacity for language acquisition constant throughout the career of the language learner (that is, is it "continuous") or does that capacity change in significant ways as the learner matures?
* Is the language capacity a separate module of the mind or does it follow from general, "all-purpose" cognitive capacities?
* What is innate in language acquisition and what is acquired on the basis of experience?
* What research/methodological issues arise in the study of child language acquisition?
* How might input from the language (or languages) of the environment, including visual/gestural input in the case of the sign languages of the deaf, affect the process and result of acquisition?
* How are the facts of non-normal acquisition to be explained?

This book is the first to bring together researchers in individual differences in personality and temperament to explore whether there is any unity possible between the temperament researchers of infancy and childhood and the major researchers in adult personality. Prior to the workshop which resulted in this volume, the existing literature seemed to document a growing consensus on the part of the adult personality researchers that five major personality dimensions -- the "Big Five" -- might be sufficient to account for most of the important variances in adult individual differences in personality. In contrast to this accord, the literature on child and infant individual differences seemed to offer a wide variety of opinions regarding the basic dimensions of difference in personality or temperament. The editors believed that they could encourage researchers from both the adult and child areas to consider the importance of a lifespan conceptualization of individual differences by discussing their research in terms of a continuity approach.
Written by some of the most distinguished scholars from Great Britain, continental Western Europe, and Eastern Europe as well as the United States and Canada, the chapters present a cross-cultural view of both adult personality and temperament in infancy and childhood. By sharing their recent data, techniques, and theoretical speculations, the chapter authors communicate the research enthusiasm engendered by the growing consensus of the adult "Big Five" as well as the exciting prospects of an integrative program of research from infancy to adulthood that will clarify and consolidate what is now a disparate set of methods, theory, and findings across the lifespan. The editors suggest that this volume will have considerable heuristic value in stimulating researchers to conceptualize their work in developmental, lifespan approaches that will lead to a consolidation of individual differences research at every age.

Developmental psychology is concerned with the scientific understanding of age-related changes in experience and behaviour, not only in children but throughout the lifespan. The task is to discover, describe, and explain how development occurs, from its earliest origins, into childhood, adulthood, and old age. To understand human development requires one not only to make contact with human nature but also to consider the diverse effects of culture on the developing child. Development is as much a process of acquiring culture as it is of biological growth. This book reviews the history of developmental psychology with respect to both its nature and the effects of transmission of culture. The major theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bowlby are introduced to provide a background to contemporary research and the modern synthesis of nature and nurture. This brief textbook is suitable as an introduction to developmental psychology, both at A level and for beginning undergraduate students. It aims to be of interest to psychologists, educationalists, social workers and others with an interest in a contemporary understanding of factors involved in human development.

This book brings together a group of scholars to share findings and insights on the effects of media on children and family. Their contributions reflect not only widely divergent political orientations and value systems, but also three distinct domains of inquiry into human motivation and behavior -- social scientific, psychodynamic (or psychoanalytical), and clinical practice. Each of these three domains is privy to important evidence and insights that need to transcend epistemological and methodological boundaries if understanding of the subject is to improve dramatically. In keeping with this notion, the editors asked the authors to go beyond a summary of findings, and lend additional distinction to the book by applying the "binoculars" of their particular perspective and offering suggestions as to the implications of their findings.
One of the goals of the conference that resulted in this book was consensus building in the area of media and family. From examining the findings and insights of a diverse group of scholars, it seems that consensus building in several areas is a distinct possibility. Addressing the concerns of educators about the influence of the mass media of communication -- entertainment programs in particular -- on children and the welfare of the nuclear family, this volume projects directions for superior programming, especially for educational television. The influence of sex and violence on children and adults is given much attention, and the development of moral judgment and sexual expectations, among other things, is explored. The critical analysis of media effects includes examination of positive contributions of the media, such as the search for missing children and exemplary educational programs.

Contents:
P. Mitchell, C. Lewis, Critical Issues in Children's Early Understanding of Mind. Part I: Ontogenesis of an Understanding of Mind. P. Mitchell, Realism and Early Conception of Mind: A Synthesis of Phylogenetic and Ontogenetic Issues. A. Whiten, Grades of Mindreading. R.P. Hobson, Perceiving Attitudes, Conceiving Minds. N.H. Freeman, Associations and Dissociations in Theories of Mind. Part II: Attention, Perception and Cognition: The Legacy of Infancy. G. Butterworth, Theory of Mind and the Facts of Embodiment. D.A. Baldwin, L.J. Moses, Early Understanding of Referential Intent and Attentional Focus: Evidence from Language and Emotion. A. Gopnik, V. Slaughter, A. Meltzoff, Changing Your Views: How Understanding Visual Perception Can Lead to a New Theory of the Mind. S. Baron?Cohen, H. Ring, A Model of the Mindreading System: Neuropsychological and Neurobiological Perspectives. Part III: The Role of Pretence. A. Lillard, Making Sense of Pretence. P.L. Harris, Understanding Pretence. J. Perner, S. Baker, D. Hutton, Prelief: The Conceptual Origins of Belief and Pretence. A. Lillard, P. Harris, J. Perner, Commentary: Triangulating Pretence and Belief. Part IV: The Role of Communication. J. Dunn, Changing Minds and Changing Relationships. M. Shatz, Theory of Mind and the Development of Social?linguistic Intelligence in Early Childhood. H.M. Wellman, K. Bartsch, Before Belief: Children's Early Psychological Theory. E.J. Robinson, What People Say, What They Think, and What Is Really the Case: Children's Understanding of Utterances as Sources of Knowledge. Part V: Misrepresentation. B. Sodian, Early Deception and the Conceptual Continuity Claim. M. Chandler, S. Hala, The Role of Personal Involvement in the Assessment of Early False Belief Skills. M. Siegal, C.C. Peterson, Children's Theory of Mind and the Conversational Territory of Cognitive Development. C. Lewis, Episodes, Events and Narratives in the Child's Understanding of Mind.

This book examines the neuroscience of mathematical cognitive development from infancy into emerging adulthood, addressing both biological and environmental influences on brain development and plasticity. It begins by presenting major theoretical frameworks for designing and interpreting neuroscience studies of mathematical cognitive development, including developmental evolutionary theory, developmental systems approaches, and the triple-code model of numerical processing. The book includes chapters that discuss findings from studies using neuroscience research methods to examine numerical and visuospatial cognition, calculation, and mathematical difficulties and exceptionalities. It concludes with a review of mathematical intervention programs and recommendations for future neuroscience research on mathematical cognitive development. Featured neuroscience research methods include: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Event Related Potentials (ERP). Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Neuroscience of Mathematical Cognitive Development is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology, neuroscience, educational psychology, neuropsychology, and mathematics education.