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This study investigates the relation between Psychosocial Maturity and a dimension of moral judgment. Form D of the Psychosocial Maturity Inventory and Form B of the Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) were administered to 182 tenth grade students. Predicted negative correlations between SEA and two Social Adequacy subscales were marginally significant for male students and not significant for female students. A previous finding, that SEA scores are curvilinearly related to maturity, was not supported. Implications of the findings for developmental models of moral development are discussed. (Author)

This study examined the transition from concrete to formal operations in very bright children in an effort to determine whether high ability in concrete operations would carry over into formal operational ability, and also to investigate precocity in regard to formal operations. Subjects were 38 white middle-class children ranging in age from approximately 8 to 14 years. Of these, 25 were younger students (approximate ages 8 to 12) with IQ's greater than 160, and 13 were older (approximate ages 12 1/2 to 14) with IQ's in the range of 150. The children were tested individually in their homes on three formal operational tasks adopted from Inhelder and Piaget as well as two moral reasoning dilemmas from Adelson and Piaget. The formal operational tasks were: communicating vessels, oscillation in a pendulum, and a balance problem. Tasks are described. Scoring was adopted from Inhelder and Piaget. Two judges assigned one of four categorical ratings, two concrete and two formal, to each task. Results indicate that high ability in children over the age of 11 does carry over into formal operations; but that bright children under 11 years demonstrate a low rate of precocity in formal operational ability, with exception of the pendulum problem. These results and responses to the moral questions are discussed. (Author/SB)

This paper describes and evaluates an alternate day-full day kindergarten program. Through the use of Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) scores and surveys, two kindergarten groups were compared. One group attended school for a half-day daily; the other attended all day on alternate days, but for a comparable length of time. A summary of survey results from parents, kindergarten teachers, and elementary principals is presented. CAT scores turned up non-significant differences between the two groups. Teacher opinion surveys found a relationship between the teacher's attitude towards her all-day program and her students' performance. Opinion surveys from principals, parents, and teachers showed the largest factor for consideration to be the child's maturation level. Large motor and social skills were more easily taught in the alternate day-full day program; art and language skills in a daily program. Considering all variables, it was concluded that the type of program was not the contributing factor for its success. It was concluded that not every child will adjust to an all-day program. Teacher instruction and program, school curriculum, and skill development are factors to be considered before an all-day kindergarten program is adopted by a school system. Appendixed are survey questionnaires and the alternate day-full day kindergarten program daily schedule. (JH)

A group of 18 children from 5 to 12 years old in a FLES course in Mandarin Chinese were graded by three native speakers on their ability to repeat Mandarin Chinese sentences with which they were already familiar and on their ability to produce appropriate sentences to describe posters used in the Chinese class. These grades in Chinese were correlated with the children's age in months and with their scores on two subtests of the Wing Standardised Test of Musical Intelligence and five subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. All correlations between age, musical talent and psycholinguistic abilities on the one hand and achievement in Chinese on the other were positive, but only correlations with certain of the subscales of the ITPA were statistically significant. The results suggest a positive relationship between psycholinguistic maturity and potential success in foreign language learning. (Author)

This study provides evidence for the validity of the Social Adequacy subscales of the Psychosocial Maturity Inventory: Social Commitment, Tolerance, and Openness to Change. A group of students who invested substantial time and energy in social action projects directed toward helping others was compared with a randomly chosen control group. The group involved in social action projects scored significantly higher than the control group on all three subscales as well as the Social Adequacy summary score. (Author)

This study attempted to replicate the research results of Frances Fuller regarding concerns and emotional maturity of prospective teachers. The report focused on the questions (a) Do concerns of prospective teachers tend toward universality? and (b) What are the programmatic implications? Subjects for this study were education majors whose experience ranged from no education courses to certification. The survey results confirmed the Fuller findings, though between-group differences in terms of three concern levels were not statistically significant, and most majors tended to be at lower maturity levels. The implication is that education programs may well require revision to reflect student concerns. (The report includes tables depicting standard deviations and variances of the four sample groups, and figures illustrating respondents' concern scores.) (Author/JS)

A theory of energy forces developed in the USSR seems to substantiate the suggestion that academic learning before a child is maturationally ready will reduce his learning potential. The bioplasmic model explicates physical/mental development, cognition, readiness, and deprivation. The invisible but recordable bioplasmic forces facilitate physical growth and are the basis of cognition. The forces are gradually released from physical growth for cognition at ages 7 (concrete), and 14 (formal). Readiness--cognitive capabilities--are determined by the quantity of available forces. Premature learning is ineffective and robs the body (brain), of its full potentialities, causing premature plateauing of cognitive and learning capacities and emotional maladjustments later on. Educational methods and curriculum should be made more compatible with and supportive of the growth forces of the child. (Author/CS)

This report contains national estimates of the prevalence of selected congenital and early development health problems. It describes the relationship of selected aspects of family background, infant health status, and early developmental history to the intellectual development and maturity of noninstitutionalized children 6-11 years of age in the United States, based on findings from the Health Examination Survey of 1963-65. The strong direct association between both the intellectual development and intellectual maturity of these children and the educational attainment of their parents found in this study were consistent with previous findings. Other significant findings were: (1) lower deviation IQ's for children whose mothers were under 20 and over 40 years; (2) negative relationship of family size to intelligence of children; (3) lower mean levels of both measured intellectual development and intellectual maturity among children below and above normal birthweight (5-10 pounds); (4) strong association between delayed walking and speaking, and the intellectual development and maturity of United States children. Statistical analyses and an extensive reference list are appended. (Author/PC)

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of Piagetian and psychoanalytic theories of infancy to establish the developmental relationships between cognition and affect. Theoretical points of similarity and dissimilarity are cited. Relevant reasearch studies (Bell, Gouin-Decarie, Fraiberg) are reviewed in an attempt to resolve contradictions between the two theories. A possible theoretical convergence is proposed which involves altering the motivational basis for analytic theory so that it is more in linewith the Piagetian model of internal drives for mastery and competence. Piagetian theory would necessarily expand from a consideration of only the physical world to include social and affective spheres. Other studies and Erikson's work conclude a discussion of how cogntitive development may influence affective behaviors and how affective drives may support the acquisition of new cognitive structures. (Author/CS)

This research report outlines progress made in the development of a conceptual framework (called "crystallization") which is intended to explain the conditions found to be critical to the child's potential for developmental change. The research completed and proposed on crystallization has centered around four main areas of activity: (1) a field experiment, (2) the development of a diagnostic map-drawing instrument, (3) the preparation of a series of theoretical and conceptual papers, and (4) a proposed study of "precociousness" in children. The overall research goal is an attempt to operationalize, or put into explicit language, the specific conditions under which developmental advances take place, especially advances which would probably not occur without educational assistance. Each activity undertaken in the project was selected for its probable contribution to this objective and is described separately in the report. (CS)

Described is an innovative program of noncategorical education for both normal and developmentally delayed infants and preschool children. Focused upon are such aspects of program design and operation as early intervention, integration of delayed and nondelayed toddlers and preschoolers matched on the basis of developmental level rather than chronological age, parent involvement and education, and developmental programing. It is noted that the educational curriculum covers sensorimotor, motor, social and language development for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Administration of the infant and parent training components are discussed, daily program activities for toddler and preschool classes are outlined, and the rationale for developmental programing is explained. (LH)

Presented is support for the existence of "Deaf English," a non-standard dialect common to the prelingually deaf; and reported is an investigation of the written English competence of deaf adolescents. In the first half of the document the author discusses the historical background of deaf education and the linguistic and cognitive abilities of the deaf; focuses on the linguistic competence of the deaf in sign language, English, and idiosyncratic (gesture) language (offering evidence that the deaf learn English as a foreign language); and describes some common "deafisms", comparing them with constructions found in non-standard dialects and pidgins. Reported is an investigation in which the performance of 15 profoundly prelingually deaf junior high school students on 2 written repetition tasks in "Deaf English" (DE) and Standard English (SE) was compared to the performance of nine fourth grade hearing controls. Among findings noted are that deaf Ss committed significantly more errors in SE than normal children 5 years younger; that the deaf Ss found the DE sentences no easier than the SE sentences to recall and repeat correctly. It is concluded that there is a variety of non-standard English that the deaf use instead of SE, and data on language patterns of the deaf are presented. (LS)

Reasons for the present emphasis on all-year operation of schools differ from those prevailing 30-40 years ago. During the depression emphasis was on economy. Recently, a more sensible reason for an extended school year is coming into focus--the year-round school has educational value. It is not just something to be considered in order to save money, though that certainly is one of the criteria. The year-round operation of the public schools is necessary for meeting the educational needs of an urban society. After a lengthy review of the research on and practice with the extended school year, the author presents extensive findings in favor of the extended school year. He addresses such areas of concern as academic achievement, remedial programs, graduation rates, mental health, student maturity, student social needs, handicapped children, and college admission. (Author/IRT)

The main problem of this study was to examine the set characteristics of children at various age levels. Subjects were observed according to their ease of excitability and extinction in the haptic and visual modalities. Set patterns were examined at different age levels to determine if there was any trend from one age to another. The findings support those of Uznadze's in that excitability is a distinguishing feature in all children. Although the subjects did not vary in rate of excitation haptically and visually, there were significantly different rates in the number of trials it took before extinction took place. The data indicate that, as subjects increase in age, there is a drop in the number of assimilative illusions in both modalities. The study demonstrated that there are significant age differences in the way children develop and maintain sets, particularly in the haptic modality. The study suggests that the development of set has little meaning outside the context of the physiology of the nervous system and its relation to maturation and the learning of cognitive operations. (SJL)

The primary purpose of this study was to establish normative data for the cognitive style behaviors of children from kindergarten through the ninth grade. Approximately 400 students served as subjects. The measures used were a free response pictorial-, a multiple choice pictorial-, and a multiple choice verbal-test. Cognitive style behavior was found to progress developmentally from relational to descriptive to categorical modes for pictorial stimuli and from relational to categorical to descriptive modes of information processing for verbal stimuli. The consequences of individual differences in cognitive styles for school learning were discussed within a developmental framework. (Author)

To study the development of syntax in the language of deaf students, the Test of Syntactic Ability was constructed and administered to approximately 450 deaf students (10-18 years old) and 60 normal children (8-10 years old). The test contained 22 subtests covering seven major syntactic structures: relativization, conjunction, complementation, pronominalization, question, formation, negation, and the verb system. Although results showed gradual improvement of deaf Ss' performance, the improvement was slight and the retardation in comparison to hearing Ss was large. Developmental stages for deaf Ss on the structures tended to parallel the stages reported for hearing children. Certain distinct structures, apparently rule ordered, were found to appear consistently in the language of the deaf Ss but rarely or never in the hearing Ss. Comparison of the deaf Ss' knowledge of the various structures with the appearance of those structures in a series of reading texts analyzed during the project revealed differences so large as to make it unlikely the deaf subjects could read the texts. It was concluded that instruments for the assessment of syntactic structure, and curriculum materials tailored to the language of deaf children, need to be developed. (Author/LS)

Many preschool children with developmental delays in cognition and language are in the preoperational stage as defined by Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. The preoperational stage is divided into the preconceptual and the intuitive phases. During the preconceptual phase, the preschooler is unable to form true concepts and often reasons in the form of unrelated judgement without logical organization. In the intuitive phase, the child's reasoning is tied to his perceptions and therefore his thinking is often distorted. Implications for parents and teachers are that in a special preschool class, activities should be of a wide variety and should include exploring with all the senses (such as imitating the actions of people, animals and objects); that at home, parents can emphasize real experiences (including planting seeds and cooking); and parents and teachers should use language related to what the child is experiencing as well as to his general level of language functioning. (SB)

The performance of 75 congenitally blind and 75 sighted subjects (6- to 18-years-old) was compared on 32 Piagetian measures of reasoning, moral judgment, and moral conduct. Among major findings were that blind Ss did not achieve the reasoning processes characteristic of concrete operational thought with the facility or completion that would be expected for persons of their age and IQ (an average delay of 8 years was noted) and that few significant differences occurred between the blind and sighted groups on measures of moral judgment and moral conduct. Deficiencies found in the reasoning of blind Ss indicated a need to provide these persons with opportunities to interact and reason in ongoing situations. (Author/LS)

Videotapes of a deaf child of deaf parents were used to study the developmental stages and underlying processes involved in the child's acquisition of negation from age 28 months to age 41 months. The S was videotaped in spontaneous interaction with her mother or the experimenter for approximately 1 hour each month, and the films were transcribed into an English gloss notation by a team of deaf adults. Use of the negative headshake, a linguistic component of sign language, was the primary focus of study. Results revealed that the S acquired negation through stages comparable to those involved in hearing children's language acquisition. Findings suggested that the deaf are fully capable of learning to understand and use negation, and that a deaf child of deaf parents should not be considered to be communicating in a primitive or gestural manner if he negates sentences by using only a headshake. (LS)