Understanding Child Development

Psychology Editor Brian Foss

Professor of Psychology, Royal Holloway College, University of London
Understanding Child Development

Psychological perspectives in an
interdisciplinary field of inquiry

Sara Meadows
First published in 1986 by Unwin Hyman Ltd
Third impression 1989
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.

Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not available
for inclusion in the eBook.

© Sara Meadows, 1986

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0–415–08436–9 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0-203-13834-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-01487-1 (Glassbook Format)
Contents

Acknowledgements 7 sentences; Adults’ talk to children;

Language differences and social class;
Language at home and at school; The
Preface 9
functions of language; Children’s
metalinguistic behaviour; Word
Note on reading 11 meanings and concepts; Early concepts;
Literacy, language and thinking
Note on pictures 11
5 Personality 143
1 Introducing the study of child Physiology and personality;
development 13 Temperament; Stage models of
Conceptual issues; The ecology of child personality; Self-concept development;
development; Play Beliefs about control of events; Self-
efficacy; Aggression; The development
2 Perceiving and understanding 33 of pro-social behaviour; Moral
Cognitive development; Piagetian development
theory; Logic as a model for cognitive
development; Information-processing 6 Social relationships 173
approaches; Infants’ perception and Infant–adult interaction; Describing
cognition; Brain organization and relationships; Parent–child relationships;
Early experience and later effects;
development; Cognition in infancy
Sibling relationships; Peers; Sex roles,
sex differences, sex typing; Learning the
3 The development of cognitive skills 69 social world of school; Children’s
Attention; Remembering; Reading; independent social worlds; Adolescence;
Skills of learning from text; Writing; Delinquency; Overview
Arithmetical skills; Metacognition;
Social cognition
Further reading 209
4 Language development 117
Language; Methodology; Infants’ Bibliography 212
perception of speech sounds; Infants’
production of speech sounds; Beginning Author index 238
to use words; Using words as names;
Early vocabulary; From single words to Subject index 245

5
Acknowledgements

The author and publishers would like to thank the copyright Explorations in the development of writing, 1983,
holders below for permission to reproduce the following reproduced by permission of John Wiley and Sons
material: Limited; Figure 14 © 1972 by the American
Psychological Association, reprinted by permission of
Figure 2 from Advances in Child Development and the authors; Figure 15 and Table 4 by permission of
Behaviour, vol. 17, 1982, reproduced by permission of British Psychological Society and the authors; Figure 17
Academic Press; Figures 3, 4, 5 and 7 from M. M. Haith © 1980 by the American Psychological Association,
and J. J. Campos (eds.), vol. 2 of the Handbook of Child reprinted by permission of the author; Figures 18 and 19
Development, 1983, reproduced by permission of John by permission of The Controller of Her Majesty’s
Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publishers; Figure 9 from R. Kail, Stationery Office; Longman Group Ltd for pages 155– 6
The development of memory in children, 1979, Figure 13 of Houlbrooke, The English Family 1450–1700; Plate 1
from R. Mayer, ‘Mathematical ability’, in R. J. Sternberg © Bodleian Library, Oxford; Plate 2 © Henri Cartier-
(ed.), Human abilities: an information-processing Bresson; Plates 3, 4, 6, 7 and 15 © G. A. Clark; Plates 8
approach, 1985, both reproduced by permission of W. H. and 11 © John Bignell; Plate 9 by courtesy of the Board
Freeman; Figure 11, Table 3 and accompanying text, of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum; and
and Figure 12 from B. Kroll and G. Wells (eds.), Plate 12 © O. P. Marzaroli.

7
Preface

My concern in this book is to discuss the course of experiments or an instruction manual of child-rearing
child development. I regard understanding child techniques. I have tried to give references to the
development as uniquely important both for its research which substantiate my assertions so that
practical implications for minimizing unhappiness readers can evaluate them for themselves, as
and maximizing goodness and fulfilment, and for its limitations of space, and the need to keep the
intrinsic intellectual interest. All of us have been argument going, made it impossible to give much
children and most of us will be parents: more detail on the material I have used. Readers may
understanding child development may ameliorate the draw recommendations from these pages about what
human condition. All of us know a lot about child to do and what to avoid when dealing with children: I
development; few of us could make exact statements have not intended that they should do so, and I take no
about why a particular child or children in general responsibility for the results! Nor do I claim that my
should have developed in this familiar or that current understanding of child development is
unfamiliar way: understanding child development is correct, complete, or what I will myself believe
a riveting intellectual problem. I shall not propose forever. I am merely presenting a frame of reference
either child-rearing panaceas or stunning new basic which I think is worth trying, and material to fill it out
theories. My more modest aim is to look at work which seems to make a useful fit. I am not presenting
which is either current or fairly recent and some older a completely worked out and documented theory.
very influential work; and to consider how it may It is not a new theoretical frame, nor is there much
begin to be fitted together into a good theoretical dramatic new evidence. Experts in any of the fields I
flamework. There will be a lot of pointing out what discuss will find nothing in my discussion that they
we don’t know, but also, I hope, some pointing out have not known about for a long time, and may, I fear,
exciting new questions, answers and ways of be exasperated by my simplifications and omissions.
working. I hope that they will accept my account as an
I am a psychologist whose recent teaching has been approximation to what the non-expert might usefully
work with experienced school teachers doing higher think about, before and during the reading of the more
degrees that included courses on developmental detailed and advanced material I have tried to cite. I
psychology. My research career began with an have tried to bring together areas that have been
esoteric theoretical problem studied using worked on separately because I believe we are far
experiment and factor analysis, and moved to work enough advanced in our understanding of child
which was much more concerned with a tangle of development to try out what an overall picture might
‘real life’ issues and with the methodological be like. I also believe that such a trying-out may, even
problems involved in undertaking rigorous but if no coherent picture emerges, provide some insights
uninterrupted measurement and observation of the drawn from areas outside the expert’s normal range of
life of the child. These experiences have shaped my reference which will enrich further work in the area of
view of what the psychology of child development is detailed study. There are signs of this happening, for
and could be, and hence the approach I have taken to example in growing links between areas of
writing this book. It is about my current developmental psychology, and in two-way traffic
understanding of what child development is and why between researchers working on adults and
it happens as it does: it is not an encyclopaedia of researchers working on children.

9
Understanding Child Development

Prefaces are places for stating why one has done from them. My secretary, Maureen Harvey, shares all
what one has, and also for acknowledging the help these virtues, and deserves the highest praise. Among
one has had in doing it. I want first to offer my general the friends who read and criticized parts of the text
thanks to the international community of were Elizabeth Robinson, Maggie Mills, Sandy
developmental psychologists who, although they Acker, Peter Robinson, Brian Foss, Claire L’Enfant,
produce far more than I can keep up with, even Steve Whittaker, John Conroy, and John Cowley:
allowing for the repetitive, the bad and the boring, Philip Meadows helped with indexing. Mike Smith
have generated enough ideas and put forward of the History of Art Department, University of
sufficient data to fill my professional life and, more Bristol, and the staff of the Victoria and Albert
importantly, to move us further towards Museum, the Ashmolean, and the British Museum
understanding child development. Nearer home, I helped with the pictures. My thanks to them all.
owe an enormous amount to talking with friends, When I was 9, my best friend in the junior school
colleagues, teachers and students over the last and I ganged up on another little girl, and if I
eighteen years, and I am most grateful for this. While remember correctly I hit her, though I hope not with
writing this book, I was most generously provided the hammer I think I remember. Certainly she then
with unpublished material by members of the had to be placated so that we should not be reported to
Thomas Coram Research Unit, the Child Health and the teacher, and in the course of doing this I used as a
Education Study (Director Professor Neville Butler), bribe the promise to dedicate a book to her when I
the MRC National Survey of Health and grew up and was an author. While this is not the sort
Development, the South London Under Fives of book we then expected, it has benefited from my
Project, and others. I used libraries in London and in experience of children from my own childhood on,
Bristol which may have by their excellence misled and I do therefore feel it is appropriate to redeem my
me about the availability of material: the librarians of promise now. I was wrong to make it, but it is right to
the School of Education of the University of Bristol acknowledge the contribution of the young Margaret
were particularly helpful and clever despite being and the young Sara and many half-forgotten others to
seriously overworked; they were paragons of whatever progress I have made towards
patience and efficiency and I have learned a great deal understanding child development.

10
Note on reading Note on pictures

Although I have tried to make this text intelligible and The pictures in this book are there for three reasons.
sound enough to ‘do’ alone for readers who do not First, to provide agreeable resting places in the text.
wish to take things further, I am very anxious that Second, because each can be related to one or more
readers should go on from this book to the more important issues in developmental psychology (for
detailed information that lies behind what I have said example, the Cartier-Bresson photograph of children
here. I have therefore tried to give sufficient reference in Seville reflects the relation of play to the
for this to be done; as far as possible I have referred to ecosystem, in this case showing enjoyable play and
review papers which are worth reading in themselves classic ‘play faces’ in a city ravaged by civil war).
and also provide citations of further sources. Third, each has aesthetic merit or historic interest,
Limitations of space in many cases preclude citing possibly on a minor scale.
the original research papers: I hope readers will track
these down through the review sources given.
Among the criteria which guided me in choosing
references were their importance, intelligibility,
accessibility (a serious problem as libraries’ costs rise
and purchases fall) and how well they represented
their field. A few ‘non-psychology’ books are
included, mainly because they provide insights and
enjoyment complementary to that gained from the
‘standard works’.

11
Understanding Child Development

Image rights not available

Plate 1 An illuminated diagram from a Natural Science textbook compiled by the monk Byrhtferth at Ramsey Abbey
between about 1080 and 1090. It is used as illustration here because in its picture of the place of Man in the universe it links
the four ages (boyhood and infancy, adolescence, young manhood, and old age) to the influence of the signs of the Zodiac,
the four seasons, the four points of the compass, the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, and the four humours (hot,
cold, wet and dry). It might thus be seen as an early model of the developmental psychology of personality. Childhood and
infancy (bottom left dark circle), ages 0–14, lie between air and fire, west and north, Capricorn and Pisces, and are wet and
hot; adolescence (top left), ages 14–28, between fire and earth, north and east, Aries and Gemini, and is hot and dry. (Young
manhood lasts, readers will be glad to learn, until 48, and old age to 70 or 80.) Which of the four humours dominated the
body had implications for medical treatment and for ‘personality’ (see Chapter 5), and may have influenced concepts of
education and child-rearing.

12
1 Introducing the study of child development

Conceptual issues (Pollock 1983; Houlbrooke 1984). As more evidence

is examined, the picture of what was happening to the
Before we embark on either description or ‘crowds and crowds of little children [who] are
explanation of the course of ‘child development’, let strangely absent from the written record’ (Laslett
alone before we consider what efforts we might make 1971) becomes clearer and more complex.
to change its course, I must stress that neither ‘child’ Houlbrooke (1984, p. 155–6) summarizes the
nor ‘development’ could be said to be simple relationships between parents and young children (in
unproblematic concepts; in particular they are the English family between 1450 and 1700) in a
inextricable from beliefs about how to bring up picture which resembles what emerges from the
children. There are many variations between cultures mainly nineteenth century diaries reviewed by
on what they believe children ‘naturally’ are and how Pollock (1983) and the autobiographies from a later
they should behave (Laboratory of Comparative period collected by Burnett (1982).
Human Cognition 1983). There are also historical
changes within societies. The study of the history of The Middle Ages passed on an ideal picture of the
western childhood is only just beginning and its relationship between parents and their offspring. Children
picture is controversial. Philippe Ariès’ pioneering were welcome gifts from God. Parental love was the most
study (Ariès 1962) argued that strong concern and deeply rooted of all human instincts, and showed itself
affection for children, and a belief that childhood was especially in the mother’s tender and loving care of the
an intrinsically valuable period, were historically helpless baby. But it was futile to grieve in the face of infant
recent developments associated with the rise of the deaths. Rather should the truly Christian mother be glad
affluent household in the sixteenth and seventeenth that God had taken her child to himself. The child which
centuries. Previously, he claimed, there was no died before seven, the age of reason, was normally
concept of ‘childhood’: children were regarded with incapable of mortal sin and assured of paradise. Yet the
indifference by their parents or as inferior miniature child inherited original sin, which began to manifest itself
adults to be strictly reared and severely punished. De even in infantile greed and rage, and the inborn propensity
Mause (1976) put forward an even blacker model of grew with intelligence. So it was the duty of the solicitous
maltreatment and cruelty to children – infanticide, parent to correct his child with the rod. Successful
beatings, sexual abuse and a casual acceptance of parenthood largely depended upon the ability to curb one’s
high mortality through infection, accident or natural inclinations, and those who did not want their
childrearing practices such as wet-nursing or using children to become soft, truculent and good-for-nothing
opiates to quieten a crying child. Ariès and De Mause were wise to put them out in late childhood to undergo
have both been accused of selecting their data without further discipline and training at the hands of strangers.
much concern for their representativeness, and of Much of the inherited picture survived throughout this
interpreting dubious ‘facts’ in unjustified ways period, but it changed in important respects. The Protestant
reformers took over an emphasis on original sin and the
parents’ corrective responsibility. They also laid greater
* Full references quoted in text appear in the Bibliography on emphasis on the parents’ part in early and thorough
pp. 212–37. religious education. The humanists, on the other hand,

13
Understanding Child Development

believing as they did in the child’s capacity for good and the circumstances alone, very important though these were.
moral neutrality of its impulses, sought to protect The unquantifiable and still only partially understood
innocence and prevent deterioration rather than to correct elements of individual character were crucial in this period
inborn vices. To show natural parental affection seemed as they still are today (Houlbrooke 1984, pp. 155–6).
less dangerous than hitherto. Humanist readiness to give
expression to natural pleasures and sorrows made more The relationship between what is believed about
acceptable the display of delight in children in letters and of children, what is prescribed as appropriate child-
a qualified grief at their loss in memorial inscriptions. From rearing, and what is actually done, is not clear.
the sixteenth century onwards there was a greater variety of However different basic theories carry different
patterns of upbringing. Yet the fusion of Christian and practical implications. For example, if children are
humanist ideas encouraged a ‘middle way’ in upbringing, seen as firmly predestined from birth (because of
between the extremes of severity and indulgence. It innate qualities such as different levels of
enhanced the complexity of the task of nurture, and intelligence) to be intellectuals or technicians or
consequently of fine judgement on the part of those who general workers, the most efficient way of educating
undertook it. them may be to provide separate training in the
Actual experience and practice often stood in contrast appropriate roles. Such a system was recommended
with ideals. Children were not always welcome. Some birth by Plato in The Republic and might be identified in
control was practised, and the danger of infanticide was the tripartite secondary school system set up in
widely recognized. Yet despite the ease with which Britain under the 1944 Education Act. The research
infanticidal practices could be masked within families, problems will centre on how to make the initial
parish registers suggest that infant and child mortality were diagnosis of the child’s nature (various
relatively low and very largely explicable in terms of psychometricians – Burt, for example – were
environment and disease. There is much direct evidence of involved in this) and on how to run the education. If,
the reality of loving care in some families and of parental on the other hand, children are seen as changed and
grief in face of the loss of children. Women of the upper shaped by their experience, with little or nothing in
classes did not generally suckle their own children, though the way of predestined characteristics, initial
humanist and Protestant propaganda may have persuaded a diagnosis is irrelevant, and child-rearing and
minority to do so. But this did not preclude care and education are just a matter of providing the right
solicitude in the choice and supervision of wet-nurses. experience. Advocates of this view judge the
Differences between the life patterns of socio-economic ‘rightness’ of experience according to a variety of
groups had many other effects on the child’s prospects. The criteria: for Skinner in Walden Two and for the
offspring of the urban poor, rapidly growing in numbers inhabitants of Huxley’s Brave New World, the main
during this period, always had the poorest chances of criterion is fitting happily into and serving society,
surviving infancy. It was the poorer groups in society who and a major means to this end is pervasive and skilful
had to exploit their children’s labour in the struggle for conditioning. Huxley, unlike Skinner hostile to
survival at the earliest point. Only fathers and mothers who Utopias, incorporates in his techniques of child-
enjoyed the advantages conferred by economic means, rearing and social control elements of genetic
education and a certain amount of leisure were able to selection (and genetic engineering) and chemical
approach the ideal of intensive parenthood set out in the control of development and behaviour both before
literature of counsel, carefully polishing their children’s and after birth: he also suggests that for the highly
manners, inculcating the principles of religion and laying creative and innovative intellectual even this all-
the foundations of literacy. Such instruction for life as most enveloping system might not work. Skinner has not
children had from their parents was probably gained in byre seemed to be troubled by such libertarian qualms,
and field, at spinning-wheel and oven. But the quality of arguing that an effective system which would make
parenthood was not of course determined by material

14
 Introducing the study of child development

all development smooth and happy would be in human life, especially human development, since
preferable to the ineffective conflictfilled systems development is often said to be about how the
and the unhappy results which he believes exist now. ‘biological’ infant turns into the ‘social’ adult. How
Similar disagreements exist about the nature of to think of this crucial question is a very complex
human nature. Assuming that the infant is nearer to problem, bedevilled by the tradition of separating and
what is ‘natural’ than the adult (a dangerous opposing ‘biology’ and ‘society’, ‘heredity’ and
assumption which I shall seek to question later), ‘environment’, ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’. Once
infant ‘nature’ has been said to be innately good, opposed, one pole is valued highly and the other
better than adults’. Rousseau argued for an education denigrated, and, since neither can alone provide a
of maximum freedom so that the child’s innate satisfactory explanation of all human development,
goodness should not be spoiled or his creativity, there is a history of see-sawings between polar
spontaneity and ability to love curtailed. I say ‘his’ extremes. This is all the more unsatisfactory because
deliberately, since Rousseau saw women as inferior ‘biological’ and ‘social’ are not at all clearly
and fit only to be trained to serve males: the history of separable. Biological facts, such as the physical
his own children is unclear, but he claimed in his consequences of possessing a functioning Y
autobiography to have sent them as babies to chromosome, are acted on by society, which
orphanages. Despite this personal bad example, the classifies its members as ‘male’ or ‘female’. Social
progressive educational movement took up preferences have always been among the forces
Rousseau’s ideas and this model of the child has admitted as working for ‘natural selection’; social
dominated early childhood education. Non- changes, such as industrialization, have biological
interventionist ideas may also be seen in Piaget’s consequences, such as changes in what causes illness
accounts of learning, teaching and cognitive or death. Even at the level of the genes, exactly how
development. their instructions work may be strongly influenced by
An alternative view of child nature was the older the environment. Hofer (1981) gives an example:
one of natural badness, Original Sin, unsocialized
egocentricity, etc. This view emphasized children’s the amount of dark fur on the feet and nose of Siamese cats
unpleasant characteristics and prescribed strict, depends on the ambient temperature in which they were
punitive and intrusive childrearing and education: reared as kittens, the skin on the extremities being normally
these took some extraordinarily harsh forms (see de cooler than other skin areas. The expression of this genetic
Mause 1976; but also Pollock 1983). It is hard to find predisposition depends on the temperature of the skin
a contemporary example, though Sir Truby King’s during a critical period of postnatal development. Raised in
prescriptions in the 1930s of conditioning babies to a an incubator, Siamese cats turn out uniformly light, and if
rigid four-hour feeding schedule perhaps comes near. in an icebox, uniformly dark (Hofer 1981, p. 10).
Many psychologists have had in mind, however,
views of children as inferior to adults, being, for Thus even if there is a genetic difference between
example, egocentric, dominated by animal instincts, two individuals, exactly what its influence is will
irrational and so forth, and needing to grow out of, or depend on the environment. If every relevant aspect
be trained out of, these undesirable faults. of their environment has been identical, differences
between them can be attributed to how their genes
The ‘biological’and ‘social’ ‘causes’ expressed themselves in that environment. Reared in
of development a different environment, again exactly the same for
Underlying all the debate outlined so far are a knot of both individuals, the genetic difference may express
difficult issues. The core one is the question of the itself differently and the differences between the two
relationship between ‘biological’ and ‘social’ factors individuals’ behaviour be completely changed.

15
Understanding Child Development

Imagine, for example, that one of the two has genes aggression or even self-assertion is discouraged
which predispose that individual to highly aggressive except occasionally, in private, or when very
behaviour and the other does not. Both are reared in a indirectly expressed.
society which encourages aggression, like Margaret I have written here as though environments
Mead’s Arapesh or ancient Sparta. The former will impinged on passive individuals, but this, of course,
find this a congenial society, will be very aggressive is not the case. Individuals’ behaviour, idiosyncratic
indeed and will be regarded as a satisfactory or even as a result of genetic programming and past
admirable citizen. The latter will find it uncongenial, experience, will elicit reactions from the outside
will be less aggressive and less well-regarded, and social world which correlate with those
may have a lesser sense of self-esteem and social idiosyncracies. The child who has, for example, a
acceptability. Alternatively, suppose that both are genetically caused articulation problem, such as a
reared in a society which discourages aggression, as cleft palate, may be less rewarding to listen to, less
Mead said the Mundugumor did. Success and public encouraged to talk, less rewarded for social
approval will come to the genetically less aggressive interaction, more introverted, more reclusive and
person; dissatisfaction, low social acceptability and lower in self-esteem than the child whose
neurosis will come to the other, who is being required conversation has been more accessible to listeners.
by society to suppress genetically ‘natural’ There may be deliberate selection of one
behaviour. Heredity and environment will interact to environment rather than another; there may be
produce differences not only in aggression, the only selective attention to particular aspects of
part of behaviour where there is a genetic difference, environments. It has been suggested that much of
but in other areas of behaviour and thinking which are development is a process of negotiation or
related to social experience, such as self-esteem, transaction between the child and the surrounding
social role, and acceptance of social values. adults or other important social facts of life. This
This is quite obviously a gross simplification of the metaphor too has its dangers, but we will use it at
sort of interaction between genetic programming and times.
experience that really happens in development. In The implication of the interweaving in
particular, we would be rash to assume that any given development of ‘biological’ and ‘social’ is that
environment is ‘identical’ or works ‘identically’ for theory and research must deal with them together.
two individuals, or indeed two groups. If the Neither can be reduced to the other. Which is more
environment does differ, it may be these differences important in explaining a particular phenomenon will
as much as any genetic ones which cause differences vary, will be dependent both on the phenomenon and
in behaviour. To take aggression as an example a on the sort of explanation sought. It has often been
second time, it is possible that there is a genetically seen as a reason for studying children that they are
caused difference in aggression between males and nearer the ‘natural’, ‘biological’ state than the adult
females. In many species, our own among them, who has become a member of the ‘social’ world. This
males are more aggressive in more situations than is a misleading belief in important ways (Gottlieb
females are. However it is quite clear that at least in 1983). The feral child, the isolated monkey of
the human species there are systematic and pervasive Harlow’s experiments, surviving without any social
differences in the ways that males and females are contact, is not more ‘natural’ than the child or
treated, from birth on, which overlay any genetic monkey growing up in a family or other social group.
difference. By and large, males are treated as Harlow’s experiments show that social experience is
stronger, more independent, braver than females, and necessary for much social behaviour such as
their aggression is accepted or even encouraged: successful mating; similarly, physical experience
females are treated as softer and weaker, more such as movement is necessary for much of the
dependent, more in need of protection, and

16
 Introducing the study of child development

development of physical structures, as well as elicit and make use of learning opportunities.
behaviour (Hofer 1981). Although it may well have genetic programmes for
Scarr and Kidd (1983), in a useful review of certain behaviours, or genetically set goals, these are
‘developmental behaviour genetics’, discuss the likely to be modified by experience: that is the same
relationship between human biology and culture. function may be served first by a genetically
They point out that there have been no important programmed sequence of behaviour which later is
changes in brain capacity during the last 30,000 to superseded by a learned one. It also may have
100,000 years, though changes in the internal alternative routes to the same final state: not all
organization of the brain are possible. Culture has individuals will learn exactly the same sequence.
reduced some selective pressures, for example the Appropriate genetic information is necessary, but it
effects of climate which we can cope with by using is not at all clear that it should be regarded as in any
artefacts such as clothes rather than by having to grow sense more fundamental, the most essential cause
thicker fur. It has also imposed selective pressures, where other contributions are relatively trivial.
for example to be able to learn to use cultural artefacts Rather the ‘state of nature’ is more probably for
and to live in groups. The possibility of complex human beings to be brought up with other human
learning is seen as one of the most important of beings: a long evolutionary history and a cultural
evolutionary changes. Much of our genetic material history which is shorter in terms of years, but very
is very similar to that of other primates: what makes much faster (probably) in producing change, have
us different is not the instructions for making proteins combined to make this possible. It should also be
which our genes carry but the regulation of protein noted that ‘natural’ and ‘best’ are not synonyms: for
manufacture, in particular the prolongation of a clear discussion of the philosophical pitfalls of
infantile characteristics or ‘neoteny’ which I discuss equating the two see Radcliffe Richards (1982, pp.
in the section on play at the end of this chapter. The 67–80).
evolution of brain development has selected not for a The belief that it is sensible to concentrate on one
specific and limited brilliance, but for generalized ultimate essential cause of development can be
adaptability, including adaptability to culture. extremely strong. It is a belief allied to reductionism,
It seems likely in fact that much genetic the attempt to explain the subject matter of the social
programming for behaviour in human beings is sciences in terms of the subject matter of the
relatively unspecific (Scarr and Kidd 1983). Some biological sciences, or the subject matter of
animals, such as insects, do have rigid programming biological sciences in terms of the physical sciences;
of behaviour, but are only suited to relatively stable and also to historicism, a belief in tracing events back
environments. If the animal is to encounter an to the first in a sequence which is then identified as the
unpredictable environment, one with a variety of ultimate and most important cause of the final event
possible events and even experiences never before in the sequence. Attributing complex behaviour, such
encountered by any member of the species, it may do as acts of aggression, to genetic programming or
better if its genes have programmed into it a flexible separation from mother during infancy is both
repertoire of alternative tactics for coping with reductionist and historicist. The danger of such
events, and an ability to learn from its interactions attribution is that it overlooks other possible
with the environment. Learning by proxy, by contributing causes which may be just as important.
observing other individuals or by being taught by It increases the possibility that nothing will be done to
them, may be a particularly useful strategy. This sort intervene to break the sequence, as it is argued that
of animal will need experience in order to cope with people who had had the very early experience which
all the learning and development of behaviour that it ‘causes’ aggression much later will inevitably be
must do. It will have a relatively long learning period particularly violent, so that it is too late to prevent it.
– ‘childhood’ – and many characteristics designed to Historicism can thus lead to a very determinist view

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Understanding Child Development

of development and extremes of optimism or later problems such as persistent juvenile

pessimism. It is clear, as we shall see, that in many delinquency or psychiatric illness is much increased.
areas early experience may have particularly marked On the other hand, if there are changes in the
effects so that an important cause of behaviour may environment (such as adoption produces) there are
be traced back through a sequence of several years. likely to be changes in development. For example,
Nevertheless it is rarely the case that early events like although in three large American studies the IQ
separation from mother or even physical deprivation scores at adolescence of adopted children are
invariably lead to inexorable late results. Early positively correlated with the IQs of their biological
disadvantage quite often but not by any means always parents, as theories which ascribe intelligence to
leads to late disadvantage. Early privilege quite often genetic influence would predict, they are also higher
(slightly more often) but not by any means always than would be expected from their biological
leads to late privilege (see, for example, Jencks et al. parents’, raised towards the higher IQs of the
1972). If there is continuity it may be because the adoptive parents (see Scarr and Weinberg 1983). A
early experience all by itself has such bad (or good) smaller British study of late adoption (Tizard 1977)
effects that nothing which happens afterwards can described children who had had the same emotionally
restore normal development, as is clearly the case in bleak orphanage rearing for the first few years of their
much early physical and perceptual development lives and were, at the age of 4, socially, emotionally
where, for example, rearing kittens without normal and intellectually retarded. Those who were then
visual input at particular periods in the first few adopted into well-off families who made great efforts
weeks of their lives will leave the cells in their visual to give them the best possible life improved; those
cortex fewer in number, unusually specified and who were returned to their natural parent, to families
unresponsive (see Chapter 2). This sort of effect which were much less rich in resources and were
cannot, so far as we know, be reversed, so the animals ambivalent about the return of the child, tended to
are blind for ever after. In human psychological deteriorate. Environmental changes for the better
development, however, it seems more likely that give opportunities for changes for the better in
there is continuity of the effects of an early experience development; changes for the worse do the reverse.
because it sets in train other later experiences which
have similar effects. Thus an embryo may have Continuity and discontinuity in development
inherited a high genetic potential for intelligence It is important to emphasize that ‘continuity’ in
from its intelligent parents; but intelligent parents are development is not a simple concept or simple to
more likely to provide their child with good antenatal measure. As I discuss in the context of temperament
conditions, a trouble-free birth, suitable stimulation (p. 144), it may not be clear what behaviour is
of language and cognitive development, a good ‘continuous’ with what precursor. Kagan (1984), for
school, support for school activities, a good diet etc., example, found in his longitudinal study that boys
while the child’s interacting genetic potential for high who were very timid and withdrawn at ages 3 to 8 had
intelligence and good early experience are likely to as adults chosen secure jobs with large employers
provoke stimulation, support and high expectation rather than choosing risky entrepreneurial
from parents, teachers, siblings and others. Similarly occupations. Aggressive boys were likely to be
it is well documented (Rutter and Madge 1976, Rutter bullying adolescents (see also Olweus 1979; and p.
1985a,b,c) that disadvantage all too often does not 153 this volume). However, the detail of behaviour in
come singly, but in battalions. Epidemiological a timid child just starting school and a young man in
studies suggest that single isolated events predict his twenties will involve many differences as well as
later psychosocial disorders very poorly, but that if some similarities: the young man will presumably
there are multiple difficulties, especially difficulties have given up thumb-sucking, if not a general
which last for a long period of time, the likelihood of

18
 Introducing the study of child development

unwillingness to take risks. Unless we have a very problems more or less likely, for example
good understanding of behaviour at several different susceptibility to alchohol, an impulsive temperament
levels of analysis we may not look at the right things or a low IQ, and some individuals would probably
when trying to assess continuity. function badly in most environments. Children affect
More importantly still, ‘continuity’ should mean their families as well as being affected by them; and
links over time not just a lack of change. In other both children’s and families’ problems may be
words, we need a fine-grained step-by-step analysis associated with some extraneous variable or event,
of what led to what, which will mean the inclusion of such as social disadvantage or war. Nevertheless,
many relevant variables and an assessment of how despite the validity of these alternative possibilities,
inevitable or how weak the links between steps were. family environments can cause problems in their
We need to examine how the ‘same’ behaviour children.
functions for the child at different points in his or her Among the general characteristics of families
life. We also need to know how long the continuity which are strongly associated with problematic
lasts, and whether it becomes unchangeable or can be outcomes for the children there are a few which have
broken by a change in circumstances. Preferably we turned up repeatedly, particularly in studies of
would also have a theory of the underlying causes of persistent delinquency and psychiatric disorder.
continuities or discontinuities and a system of social Discordant and disorderly family relationships,
or educational intervention or support which worked parent and peers who model maladaptive behaviour,
against bad effects and for good ones. lack of effective and warm prevention and control of
At this point I will sketch an example which will be misbehaviour and disputes, inability to deal with
returned to throughout the rest of this book (it is near crises without extreme stress or helpless collapse,
the centre of my professional preoccupations). We low intelligence, high socioeconomic disadvantage,
know from a great many pieces of research that there appear, when they occur, to make people function
is an association, perhaps a continuity, between miserably and to make life choices which increase
growing up in a disadvantaged home and showing their problems. I shall try to present some detailed
behaviour problems as a child and into early studies of relevant processes in my discussion of the
adulthood (for reviews of the literature, see, for development of cognition, personality and social
example, Rutter and Madge 1976; Rutter 1985a). relationships. An important and incisive paper by
Does the family environment cause the child’s Rutter (1985a) reviews family and school influences
problems, or are there alternative explanations such on the development of socially maladjusted
as a ‘born to fail’ child or the effects of other parts of behaviour.
the social system? What characteristics of the
environment are effective, for worse or better? What ‘Stages’ in development
characteristics of the child create, elicit, aggravate or ‘Stage’ models of development are relevant to the
tone down their effect? Are the effects short-term or concept of continuity and discontinuity in
long-term, reversible or permanent? What are the development. ‘Stages’ differ in type from theory to
mechanisms of continuities or discontinuities? theory. Some are purely idealizations, used by the
Tentative answers to these questions would be writer to evoke particular images in the reader, and do
roughly as follows: they are fully treated later in this not refer clearly to anything definite or measurable in
book, particularly in the last chapter. At present there behaviour. Erikson’s evocative stages of
are many gaps in the evidence which prevent a full psychosexual development (1950) are an example of
understanding. Family environments do affect their this sort of usage. Some ‘stages’ do refer to
members and may cause them to have problems, and measurable behaviour. ‘Stages’ here are synonymous
so too do other environments such as schools. There with particular behaviours in an age-related process
are however also ‘genetic’ influences which make

19
Understanding Child Development

of change; the ‘crawling stage’ might be separated model of the causal processes behind the behaviour,
out in the gradual change in ways of being mobile that but there are no measures of the oral stage
we all go through. Descriptive stages like this can be independent of behaviours like thumb-sucking and
rather arbitrary and they can be used tautologously – the sentence is descriptive not explanatory.
‘he’s being difficult because he’s in the 2-year-old Judgements of the merit of stage theories vary (see,
obstructive stage’, for example. The better for example, Piaget 1970; Brainerd 1978). My own
descriptive stage models include analysis of the feeling is that they can be useful shorthand but that
structure and interrelation of the behaviours which precisely this speed and simplicity makes them
make up a stage: if it is to be worth separating out from potentially dangerous. Unless the conditions I have
the flow of development, a stage’s behaviours should outlined in the last paragraph are fulfilled, ‘stages’
presumably cohere throughout the field of relevance tend to segment development in ways which may not
and be relatively separate from the adjacent stages. be justified, to simplify the complexity of behaviour
Piaget’s own stages of cognitive development do by overlooking the ways in which it varies from
have such underlying models of their structure, situation to situation, and to give an inadequate
though as we shall see in Chapter 2, there are many account of transition and continuities. I hope the
problems with his account: all too many of the remainder of this book will illustrate how much has to
attempts to extend ‘Piagetian’ stages into moral and be integrated into a developmental model before
social cognition fall down badly on this. Goldman stage analyses can be sound.
and Goldman (1982) for example, had interesting
discussions with a large number of children on their The ecology of child development
ideas about sex and various associated issues, but do
very little to justify their forcing of these data into There is little doubt that the environment children
‘Piagetian’ stages. We are not therefore able to judge grow up in is a source of influences on their
whether children’s thinking in this area really goes development. Work on defining the ‘ecology’ of
through an orderly sequence of wide-ranging and child development is a burgeoning field. There is a
separate stages as the analysis and presentation strong awareness of how complex ‘environment’ is.
propose. It is not just a collection of dyadic relations; in
Even if they do contain a decent description of the particular it is not a collection of mother–child
internal organization of a stage and of how it differs relations. While the ways in which people interact
from other stages, descriptive stage models often do even in large groups and institutional settings may
not account for movement from one stage to the next. bear some resemblance to the way a baby interacts
If they are to explain development, stage models must with its mother, the differences will be obvious, and
do this (as must models which do not draw they need a different explanation. The view taken by
discontinuities in the course of development). Again, Bronfenbrenner, that social experience is ‘as a set of
Piaget’s is the main stage model to try. Explanatory nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of
stage models must specify the behaviours subject to Russian dolls’ (Garbarino, 1982, p. 21), is to be
age changes which make up the stages: they must preferred. Bronfenbrenner’s ‘set’ forms a framework
propose variables which are responsible for the for discussing child development, which is relevant
changes between stages and the organization of each in more than just the social sphere.
stage: they must provide ways of measuring these
Bronfenbrenner (1979, pp. 21–8) emphasizes
variables independent of the behavioural changes
that for human beings the environment is much
they are supposed to produce. Unless this last
more than just ‘the immediate, concrete setting
condition is satisfied, stages risk being tautologous –
containing the living creature’, though this may
‘she’s sucking her thumb because she’s in the oral
possibly have been an adequate way to think of it
stage’ describes behaviour and has an elaborate
when studying animal behaviour. He asserts that

20
 Introducing the study of child development

the ecology of human development involves the scientific An exosystem refers to one or more settings that do not
study of the progressive, mutual accommodation between involve the developing person as an active participant, but
an active, growing human being and the changing in which events occur that affect, or are affected by, what
properties of the immediate settings in which the happens in the setting containing the developing person (p.
developing person lives, as this process is affected by 25).
relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts
in which the settings are embedded (p. 21). The macro-system refers to consistencies in the form and
content of lower-order systems (micro-, meso-, and exo-)
that exist, or could exist, at the level of the subculture or the
The ‘ecological environment’ of an individual
culture as a whole, along with any belief systems or
consists of micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrosystems.
ideology underlying such consistencies (p. 26).

A micro-system is a pattern of activities, roles and

interpersonal relations experienced by the developing Thus exosystems are settings which affect the child
person in a given setting with particular physical and but in which he or she takes no part, for example the
material characteristics (p. 22). parents’ work or their friendship networks, or local
government decisions about schools, housing,
playgrounds etc. Macrosystems reflect lifestyles and
The baby’s life at home with its family is one
belief systems which are in contrast in different
example; the baby’s microsystem is the pattern of
societies and which affect the smaller-scale systems
feeding, sleeping, bathing, playing, etc., of relations
in which individuals move. A belief in social
with parents, siblings, visitors, etc. (and between
competition rather than social co-operation, or in
these individuals, of ‘playing the role’ of baby in a
democracy rather than autocracy would be examples.
family playing other roles). As people get older, their
So would the degree of priority given to the needs of
range of microsystems increases: settings like
children.
playgroup, school, church, club, work place and so
Bronfenbrenner goes on to emphasize that life
forth involve a different range of activities, roles and
contains many transitions between ecological
interpersonal relations.
settings, which are a function of biological changes
such as increased maturity and of altered
A meso-system comprises the interrelations among two or environmental circumstances, and that these
more settings in which the developing person actively transitions are both consequences of developmental
participates (such as, for a child, the relations among home, processes and instigators of further change. He then
school and neighbourhood peer group; for an adult, among defines human development as follows:
family, work, and social life) (p. 25).
Human development is the process through which the
The nature of the links between an individual’s growing person acquires a more extended, differentiated
microsystems is what is involved here. Strong and and valid conception of the ecological environment, and
varied links between microsystems – such as other becomes motivated and able to engage in activities that
people who participate actively in both settings, reveal the properties of, sustain or restructure that
communication between settings, knowledge and environment at levels of similar or greater complexity in
attitudes being applicable to both – are seen as being form and content (p. 27).
an advantage to the people involved. A weak
mesosystem, minimal links between home and
school, for example, may place the child at risk. This is a definition which we will consider further in
The last two systems are more removed from the the remainder of this book. The rest of this chapter is on
child.

21
Understanding Child Development

Plate 2 Seville, 1933

22
 Introducing the study of child development

‘Play’, a topic which does not fall neatly into the organism will not expend energy on activities such as
categories which organize the rest of the book, but play which are neither obligatory nor obviously
illustrates some of the issues about the nature of useful in terms of drive reduction or immediate profit,
children and of development which I have discussed. it becomes a problem to explain why anyone should
play. I will discuss here some general theories of play
Play and the validity of the assertions that have been made
about its nature and functions: because ‘play’ will be
Children, like many other young mammals, spend a seen to have many different forms and functions,
considerable amount of time and energy playing. detailed accounts of their contributions to
This activity has been evaluated by adults in a wide development will be found in the appropriate sections
range of different ways. One view has been that of the following chapters. Thus the contribution of
although children’s play may be enjoyable to the play to cognitive development is examined in
participants and charming to fond parents observing Chapter 2: social play in school playgrounds in the
it, it is essentially frivolous, a pastime with no section on peer relations in Chapter 6.
intrinsic consequences, which is grown out of
without it having made much impact on
Defining play
development. At one extreme this view was stiffened
I have already implied that judgements of what is
by a sterner judgement that frivolities should be
‘play’ may be subjective and hard to agree on.
discouraged in favour of useful activities, that
Building a wall is likely to look like play if a 2-year-
children should play less and work or pray more. It
old does it with wooden blocks, and to look like work
has almost certainly been a fairly recent development
if an adult does it with bricks to earn a living or
to take a contrary view and see play as making
improve the look of the garden or even to acquire and
important contributions to the child’s development,
practice a new skill; though the effort, involvement
to consider it to be an important way of learning
and pleasure at the finished product may be
things that the adult will need to know. This view has
equivalent in each case. Dressing up in fancy clothes
had a period of considerable dominance in
and pretending to be someone else is certainly ‘play’
psychological and educational theory: the
in the nursery classroom’s Wendy house, and in a
paradoxical slogan ‘play is the child’s work’ has been
more subtle form it might still be so in the stalls at the
implicit or even explicit in many early childhood
National Youth Theatre: but on the other side of the
curricula.
footlights, or in the stalls at Covent Garden, is it
It seems to be common practice in our society to
‘play’? A casual knocking-about of tennis balls with
draw a distinction between ‘work’ and ‘play’. Parents
tennis rackets in a suburban street is ‘play’: the
do this, so do teachers: so do children, who come
Wimbledon championship matches barely are,
home from infant school and tell their inquiring
however much we may extol ‘amateurism’.
parent that they ‘just played’, though the teacher no
However, there are certain characteristics which
doubt defined their activities in the classroom as
we may see in prototype instances of play, though
educationally important and as work. The work/play
more marginal instances may lack most of them.
distinction is conflated with the distinction between
Garvey (1977) provides one useful list. First, play is
having to work and being free to do what one wishes,
essentially enjoyable and associated with positive
and ‘play’ is seen as voluntary and not obligatory.
affect. Second, it is an activity done for its own sake,
Voluntary activity is seen as free, absorbing,
rewarding in itself, and not dependent on extrinsic
spontaneous, enjoyable, not serious and done for
motivation or the achievement of goals outside the
oneself not for other people (see p. 85 for discussion
play. Third, it is spontaneous and voluntary, chosen
of similar approaches to study). Given a model of
and generated by the player not by outside authority.
motivation which rests on the assumption that an

23
Understanding Child Development

Fourth, it requires active involvement on the part of affectionate hugs, and of play which is most certainly
the player. Fifth, and very important, it is contrasted not egalitarian. Indeed ‘we were only playing’ is
with ‘non-play’ by being in a sense set aside from often used in an attempt to excuse too much damage
‘real life’: it is not intended literally, is not meant to be being done.
taken at face value. Play involves actions done out of Play is not necessarily always functional, either.
their normal pattern, perhaps fragmented, rearranged Fagen (1981) points out that animals take risks and
or repeated, carried out as the player chooses not incur injuries in play, and this is all too evident in
organized in ways specified by the achievement of an human beings. Sutton-Smith and Kelly-Byrne (1984,
outside goal. It is ‘framed’ by special signals that this pp. 314–16) give some rather shocking examples of
is ‘play’, not literally what it appears to be, not their students’ ‘deep play’: to their examples of
leading to the usual consequences, not to be reacted dangerous play arising from adolescent bravado, one
to by other people as if it were real fighting, real could easily add many other instances including the
boasting, real going shopping. Sutton-Smith (1979) statistics of injuries to young children from more
proposes that it is a sort of performance, not a solitary innocent playground activities. Play certainly
act but a communicative act directed at real or becomes less common if the individual is in adverse
imagined others, even if the ‘others’ are aspects of circumstances, ill, hungry, frightened or under stress
oneself. This contrast with ‘non-play’ allows play to (Smith 1984, Gould 1977), which might suggest that
be ‘buffered’ from its normal consequences so that it can involve a degree of additional stress to be
possibilities can be tried out without responsibility avoided when times are hard. Play, like any other
for what happens: ‘It’s all right, I’m only playing.’ behaviour, can contain negative aspects within a
While these ‘defining characteristics’ are certainly generally relaxed and positive ambience.
worth thinking about, cumulatively they lead to a A final characteristic found in many instances of
misleading idealization of play. It has been said to be play is the special quality or state of being which
free, outside ordinary life, not serious, not literal, not Csiksentmihalyi (1979) calls ‘flow’. ‘Flow’ involves
for profit: absorbing, spontaneous, voluntary, due to a blissful involvement in what one is doing, a loss of
intrinsic motivation: refreshing, flexible, egalitarian self-consciousness, being carried away by the
and showing positive affect. It is thus heavily activity but simultaneously participating fully in it
contrasted with the serious aspects of life, such as and not being out of control. This sort of experience
earning a living, passing examinations, getting can be found in many activities which are not ‘play’ –
promotion or an overdraft, fighting, feeding, etc., academic work, when it goes well, is an example, so
which are seen as lacking these essential qualities. might aesthetic experiences and sexual activities be –
While the general tendency may be for instances of and many instances of ‘play’ would be devoid of
play to deserve these pleasant adjectives, to require ‘flow’, but there is obvious overlap between the two.
them as constituents which must be present if Considering children’s activities in terms of ‘flow’
something is to be called ‘play’ is to pile up a very might also usefully decrease the idealization of play
large number of problem instances. Exactly what is and the artificial play/work distinction which has
meant by the free/voluntary/spontaneous cluster, for impeded useful analysis and provision for so long.
example? As Sluckin (1981) has observed, much of An alternative to defining play by constructing lists
what goes on in the school playground is strongly of its essential characteristics, such as I have just
constrained and coerced by other children (and to a discussed, is to construct taxonomies of different
much lesser extent by adult supervisors also): types of play behaviour. An early example is Piaget’s
‘freedom’ here (as elsewhere) is a nebulous concept. threefold scheme (Piaget 1962): practice play, which
The playground again provides many examples of involves repetition of actions with elaboration of
‘play’ behaviour characterized by negative affect, by means being more important than the ends served,
fights and tears and jibes rather than by smiles and symbolic play involving the manipulation of

24
 Introducing the study of child development

symbols, and games with rules. Hutt (1979) nonsense, was G. Stanley Hall’s recapitulation
distinguishes exploration and problem solving from model. There was at the time (the turn of the century)
play which is symbolic or rulegoverned. Other a belief that a species’ evolutionary history was
taxonomies have been devised, including some recapitulated in the development of the individual,
which specify the materials of play (Garvey 1977) or that ontogeny recapitulated phylogeny. (Some
its social interactions (Parten 1932). Some of my own apparently supporting evidence came from
work (Meadows and Cashdan 1983) rated ‘play’ embryology; for example, the embryo was seen at
behaviour, like other behaviour, on dimensions such one stage to have gill slits like a fish, and later looked
as social participation, degree of child’s involvement, rather like a monkey. Freud’s theory of psychosexual
number of operations, themes or skills involved, stages is also recapitulatory.) Hall proposed that the
extent to which materials were used, and apparent successive stages of children’s play recapitulated the
goals of the child, which did not reduce tidily to behaviour of their evolutionary ancestors. Babies
separate types of play. Approaches such as these are enjoyed splashing about in the bath because their
useful in that they stay close to observable behaviour distant ancestors had been aquatic creatures
and stress the variability intrinsic to the concept of splashing about in the primeval slime. The pre-school
play. child climbed, jumped, swung as monkey-like
It should be noted, finally, that ‘play’ needs to be ancestors had done. The hide-and-seek games and
studied in the context of its ecological environment. gangs of older children recapitulated the hunter–
As we will see, it is an important part of the gatherer activities of early man. Team games
microsystems of a young child in the family and of recapitulated tribal conflicts, stamp collecting the
children together in school, street or playground; it is ascendancy of capitalism. This model is historically
affected by the exosystems which, for example, crude, selective in the play it accounts for, and
decide to provide or not to provide playing fields, strongly resembles Kipling’s Just-So Stories. It is in
amusement arcades or cable television; it is allowed, any case rooted in a theory now known to be
curtailed or channelled by the macrosystem which fallacious, since ontogeny does not recapitulate
insists that children must contribute to the economics phylogeny (Gould 1977). Hall’s theory seems,
of their family from a very early age or not until they however, to have rooted itself in common-sense
are in their late teens, or encourages football in little theories of play: adults’ general comments on
boys and discourages it in girls, or fosters children’s play and professionals’ evaluations of
conceptions of children’s innocence which push their ‘natural’ materials like the sand and water found in
sexual or scatological interests underground. What many pre-school curricula often bear a recapitulatory
play is, and what it does, will not be understood resonance.
without consideration of its ecology. More recently, advances in evolutionary biology
have produced more sophisticated and better founded
Theories of the causes of play accounts of play. Recapitulation theories, which
Play is found in the young of many species. Because identified a series of adult ancestral forms in the
of this possible biological impetus to play, one strand immature baby and child who develops beyond them,
of interest in theories of why play happens is the have been replaced by models which see human
consideration of evolution and biological function. development as retarded, not as speeded-up and
Classic theories (for a review see Millar 1968 or extended. Instead of being like adult moneys when
Garvey 1977) described play as being ‘for’ getting rid we are children, and developing beyond where the
of surplus energy, or ‘for’ practising skills which will monkey stopped to be super-adult humans, we retain
be needed later in life. An early evolutionary theory many of the infant characteristics we (and monkeys)
of play, famous, picturesque, influential and total

25
Understanding Child Development

Table 1 Retardation in humans compared with other primates

Rhesus macaque Gibbon Chimpanzee Gorilla Human

Gestation 24 weeks 30 34 37 40
Complete hair covering During gestation onset during gestation, Never
completed after birth completed
Ossification centres All 2–3 2 — None
in wrist at birth
First teeth (months) 0.6–5.9 1.2–? 2.7–12.3 3.0–13.0 6.0–24.0
Second teeth (years) 1.6–6.8 ?–8.5 2.9–10.2 3.0–10.5 6.0–20.0
Growing period (years) 7 9 11 11 20
Life span (years) 25 33 35 35 70

had as infants, for far longer than the monkeys do. (Gould 1977, pp. 376–99). Retardation made both
Information from Gould (1977) illustrates this (Table possible and necessary some distinctively human
1). characteristics – particular body shapes, sizes and
This retardation in development reflects an co–ordinations, more elaborately developed brains,
evolutionary trend which has been pervasive among longer and better learning of a more open potential
large mammals: instead of having large litters of range of behaviour and ideas, longer and more
young which although born helpless dev elop rapidly elaborate parenting, more complex social
to independence, they have reacted to selection relationships – which have interacted synergistically
pressures and produced smaller litters of slow so that human development is more plastic and less
developers, a long gestation and a long period of the preset than that of other animals. We will return to
offsprings’ dependence on adults. The human pattern some of the implications of this at intervals
is an extreme version of this, and it includes a throughout this book: I will argue here that the causes
prolongation of infantile physical characteristics. To and functions of play can be fitted neatly into the
quote Gould (1977, p. 371): neoteny framework.
Recent evolutionary accounts of play (e.g.
In practically all human systems, postnatal growth either Burghardt 1984; Byers 1984) use more sophisticated
continues long past the age of cessation in other primates, concepts of how evolutionary processes work
or the onset of characteristic forms and phenomena is together (see, for example, Gould and Lewontin
delayed to later times. The brain of a human baby continues 1979). They make the important point that the
to grow along the fetal curve; the eruption of teeth is functions which play in the young of a particular
delayed; maturation is postponed; body growth continues species now serves are not necessarily at all the same
longer than in any other primate; even senility and death as the functions which similar behaviour served back
occur much later. in their evolutionary history. It will be difficult to
clarify the evolutionary functions of play avoiding
Gould sees retardation as of adaptive significance in the Just-So Stories which amuse but have no
human evolution because it allowed the retention of scientific foundation. However, the core is a
juvenile physical characteristics for longer than was recognition of the young animal as being born
otherwise possible (‘neoteny’); a psychologically immature and very able to learn, needing to live with
important example is skull shape and hence brain size its conspecifics and to learn many complex skilled

26
 Introducing the study of child development

behaviours, and possessing energy and curiosity and Is this explanation and function true? The answer is
social affiliativeness enough to do this. Play is a result yes and no. Human beings even more than other
of these characteristics and a facilitator of mammals have to learn complex sequences and
development. patterns of behaviour which are not genetically
programmed. As I discussed, evolutionary theories
Some possible functions of play note the contribution that play can make to this
learning because it is voluntary, flexible, and sanction
Arousal modulation free. The existence of play does serve the
One proposed function of play (Berlyne 1960; Shultz development of immensely complicated adult skills
1979) is to modulate arousal. If there is not enough such as food gathering, keeping with the herd, and
environmental stimulation to induce a moderate level parenting, but play is not ‘for’ these things. The most
of arousal in the child, he or she will play to increase prominent candidate for genetically programmed
arousal level. If arousal level is high, if the child is preparationfor-adult-skills play is rough-and-tumble
anxious or over-excited, play that is stimulus-seeking play (Humphreys and Smith 1984), which is clearly
will cease and the child may turn to play which is culturally influenced in who does it, and differs in
calming and reduces arousal level. Undertaking a many ways from the adult fighting for which it is
new behaviour will be arousing, and may, if it is too supposed to be a preparation. Children are very
much so, be mildly aversive, but anticipating or subject to adult pressures, both implicit and explicit,
achieving control over this novelty will reduce to play ‘properly’, and it is these that shape the
arousal to the optimum and be pleasant. content of their play, not an evolutionary plan. Thus
Obviously this theory of arousal is a very general play is rarely simply practising adult activities,
one which could apply to any sort of activity. The though it does allow the practice of behaviour and
model is particularly appropriate for play, however, roles which are not irrelevant to adult life.
in so far as it is a largely voluntary activity. The child
has opportunities in play to modulate his or her own Allowing behavioural recombination
arousal level autonomously, indeed to ‘play’ at Play activities tend to occur most in the early stages
arousal modulation by seeking over-stimulation and of the behaviour systems involved. They serve the
coping with it. The ‘getting over-excited’ in play, to mastery of complex behaviour which requires both
which children often succumb, is perhaps the practice and the integration of the behaviour into
converse of this function of play: arousal must not get other systems and knowledge. After the kitten’s play
too far off balance if what Csiksentmihalyi (1979) pouncing, pouncing behaviour is used by the cat,
calls ‘flow’ is to be preserved. more skilfully and better integrated into the whole
stalk–pounce– catch routine. But because play is
Practising adult activities ‘framed’, nonliteral, and concentrates on means not
Kittens play at chasing and catching mock prey. Colts ends, it allows the recombination of pieces of
race each other round their pastures. Little girls play at behaviour, ideas and consequences in innovative or
making tea, washing up and putting their dolls to bed. repetitive ways. The child has good opportunities in
Adults, watching, see all this as practising adult skills play for varying what are the normal conditions of
which the young will need when they grow up. Play is reality, breaking set, introducing new considerations
said to be ‘for’ developing behaviours and rehearsing and choices, and so coming to control in action and
roles which will be necessary for individual success understanding the rules of individual or social
and for the survival and propagation of the species: it is behaviour. It is important to stress that play may do
thus an important component of socialization, this but does not always do so: some play is rigid and
biologically programmed. inflexible. Further, behavioural and conceptual

27
Understanding Child Development

recombinations may be sought deliberately and non- As Piaget (1962) has described, infants play with
playfully, as in certain teaching programmes for the movements they can make and the results of these
cognitive development (see Chapter 3). movements. Such play seems to be enjoyable for its
own sake, but no doubt also contributes to the child’s
Emotional and social functions of play control and co-ordination of movements and to his or
A variety of emotional functions have been proposed her physical awareness, through kinesthetic
feedback. Movements are also commonly part of
for play, notably by Freud and his followers. They
parent–infant games, for example games of clapping
include wish fulfilment, anxiety reduction, and
hands or riding the parent’s knee. I discuss the social
mastering a traumatic event. Clinically these
structure of these games in Chapter 6; early on the
functions seem very possible. Play which could serve
adult is responsible for the maintenance of the
them seems to be displaced in time from the height of
movement game, as also of course for the recitation
the emotional crisis, which could be congruent with that often accompanies it, but as the infant learns the
the arousal theory discussed above. Whether play routine of the game he or she comes to take a more
does reduce anxiety or induce catharsis has been hard active part. Traditional rhymes provide not only
to assess, and no conclusions are possible on present opportunities for contrasting movement, but also
evidence (Rubin, Fein and Vandenberg 1983). linguistic and social information, as in this rhyme
Play is often engaged in with other people. It dating back several hundred years:
therefore offers opportunities of learning about other
people, adopting different social roles, establishing This is the way the ladies ride,
group structures, etc. As I discuss in the chapter on Nimble, nimble, nimble, nimble,
social development, even very young children seek This is the way the gentlemen ride,
social interaction and play with other children, and A gallop, a trot, a gallop, a trot;
those who lack play and social experience as children This is the way the farmers ride,
tend to have social difficulties as adults. It must not be Jiggety jog, jiggety jog;
concluded from this, however, that children’s social And when they come to a hedge – they jump over!
play is uniformly beneficial or that the solitary child And when they come to a slippery space –
is necessarily in developmental danger. They scramble, scramble, scramble,
Tumble-down Dick!
The development of play behaviours (Baring-Gould and Baring-Gould 1962)
Whether play contributes to the development of the
individual is a question to which we will return later.
Infants come to play with objects in a more and
The development of the child is certainly involved in more complex fashion. Initial object play is often said
the changing patterns of play which we can observe to be ‘indiscriminate’ in that infants assimilate
from infancy to adulthood. Garvey (1977) describes objects to their repertory of behaviours like grasping,
how new skills, experience and knowledge become shaking and mouthing without much adjustment to
‘the resource or materials’ for play. Infants play with the object’s particular characteristics (Kagan et al.
motion and in interaction with their caretakers, play 1978; Rosenblatt 1977). From the latter part of the
with objects develops then play with language, with first year onwards, play with objects becomes more
social materials and peers and eventually play with likely to involve the use of more than one object, to
rules. Those ‘resources and materials’ for play which show response to the characteristics and the normal
were available early do not necessarily become function of the objects, and to begin to involve
redundant as new ones are acquired: instead they are pretence, for example that a doll can ‘drink’ from an
combined in progressively more complex ways to empty cup. Pretend play increases rapidly at about the
suit the child’s purpose. same time as language development is taking off:

28
 Introducing the study of child development

several theorists have seen them as two facets of the The ‘scripts’ of ‘Playing house’ or ‘Superhero’
child’s new insight into the possibility of (Paley 1984) also provide a supporting structure for
representational behaviour (see, for example, Rubin, young children’s social play. Much of such play is
Fein and Vandenberg 1983). excruciatingly banal and stereotyped to the adult eye
Given the opportunity, children enjoy play with and ear, and many commentators have been worried
materials that allow them to make constructions. by its sexist and aggressive components, but it seems
Building with bricks, fitting bits of meccano together, to be very resistant to adult attempts to induce a new
glueing bits of paper to cardboard boxes, and the
role play of egalitarian sweetness and light (e.g. Best
slightly different activities of painting and
1983; Paley 1984). Script play no doubt reflects
completing jigsaws, all allow the child to set a goal
children’s social knowledge, which so far as sex role
and then achieve it. They also can fit into, indeed be
done in order to serve, social and pretend play. These goes tends to involve relatively rigid stereotypes
are favourite activities from the pre-school years during the infant and junior school years (see p. 197).
onwards, often producing especially long bouts of Scripts can become more elaborate as children get
concentration (Sylva et al. 1980; Meadows and older, often deriving from the stories they read.
Cashdan in press). Alison Lurie’s novel Only Children (Lurie 1980)
As they come to spend more time with age-mates, contains notable examples of such fantasies.
children come more and more to play with peers (see Play with rules, where the play depends on an
Chapter 6). Early play with peers is very much externally fixed set of regulations, is usually seen as
dependent on the ability of at least one participant, a late emergence in the development of children’s
and preferably all, to sustain a sequence of play, though it could be related to the structured social
interaction. During their pre-school years children routines of adult–infant play. The participants in
develop more efficient ways of recruiting, games with rules have to recognize, accept and
incorporating and directing peers in joint play (e.g.
conform to constraints imposed on their activity.
Asher and Gottman 1981), but some adjustments to
They have to take turns, for example, accept losing,
another’s presence and activity are made even in
not cheat, etc. Especially in Piaget’s account (Piaget
‘parallel play’, especially if the children playing side
by side are reasonably familiar with each other. Early 1962), play with rules centres on co-operating in
social play with peers is facilitated, as early adult– order to compete. (Competition is of course not a
infant play was, by social routines. Garvey (1974, salient characteristic of adult–infant routines.)
1977) provides many examples of ritualized Games with a competitive element and a rule-
exchanges of language. For example: governed structure may involve movement, language
(see Opie and Opie 1967, 1969, 1985), objects, social
X’s turn Y ’s turn interaction and even scripts. They are probably the
1 Hello, my name is Hello, my name is Mr most conspicuous activity in many junior school
Mr Donkey Elephant playgrounds, and in very sophisticated forms such as
Hello, my name is Hello, my name is football persist into many adult lives.
Mr Tiger Mr Lion There are marked variations between children in
the ways that they play. Individual differences in
2 I have to go to You’re already at
work work temperament and perhaps intelligence (Rubin, Fein
and Vandenberg 1983) are one source of variation:
No I’m not
the ecology of the play setting is another (Smith and
I have to go to You’re already at Connolly 1981): the materials available for play are
school school
also important (e.g. Meadows and Cashdan, in press;
No I’m not Fein 1981). Probably the most important source of

29
Understanding Child Development

variations in play is, however, culture. Schwartzman non-play activities, that it is not altogether essential in
(1978) provides an excellent review. development.
Nevertheless, play cannot be written off as useless.
On the importance of play In the first place, it is a source of enjoyment and
I began this section by saying that after a period when pleasure and may hence make a positive contribution
adults saw play as being frivolous and to the child’s emotional well-being. It is a potential
inconsequential, we have had a period in which play source of feelings of competence and achievement
has been seen as an important contributor to the and so a contributor to the child’s self-esteem and
child’s development. It is important to note that there feelings of self-efficacy. It is part of the child’s social
is little conclusive evidence for the case that play is of worlds of peers and of adults. The contribution of
unique importance. Experimental studies (see Smith adults to children’s play, through encouragement,
1984, Rubin, Fein and Vandenberg 1983; and pp. 65– support and resource provision, should not be
6) do not show for certain that more play causes better underestimated even if children do have a private
problem solving, language, imagination or social
world secluded from their parents and teachers. Play
adjustment. Children deprived of play who show
provides opportunities for trying out skills and
impaired development have almost always been
deprived of other things as well, indeed rather severe investigating the world. It may also be used to assess
deprivation is needed to stop play. Lack of more the child’s development, and through some therapies
suitable play facilities contributes to the sort of to enhance it. The proverbial wisdom of ‘All work
delinquency that is antisocial play. It is probably the and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ has considerable
case that the benefits of play could accrue from other truth in it.

30
 Introducing the study of child development

Plate 3
31
Understanding Child Development

Plate 4

32
2 Perceiving and understanding

Cognitive development ten, that the sum of objects was the same whatever
order they were counted in. He grew up to be a
Studying cognitive development, we are concerned professional mathematician, attributing his choice of
with ‘the child as knower’; with someone who thinks, career to this experience at 5. It had been an
understands, learns, remembers, and so forth. There excitement and a delight to achieve a new cognitive
is still no clear, complete and valid account of what control in the world by putting the pebbles in order,
adults do when they think, understand, etc., despite comparing that order with another pre-existing order,
hard work by philosophers over thousands of years, the string of numerals from one to ten, and so create a
more recently by psychologists, and very recently by property of the collection, their sum of ten, which did
computer scientists and neurophysiologists. not exist independent of the counter’s activity.
Accounting for cognitive development additionally
involves describing what develops, that is, noting Cognition as adaptation
what changes between different ages and explaining Piaget’s theory of the development of thinking has at
how these changes come about. Quite obviously its centre the child actively trying to make sense of the
these are extraordinarily formidable questions. We world, just as any organism must try to adapt to its
cannot yet answer them; but currently psychologists environment. According to the theory, ‘making sense
who have learned from Piaget’s partly correct and of’, at whatever intellectual level, is a special case of
partly incorrect answer are putting together an the adaptive processes which pervade all biological
exciting new account. existence and evolution. It proceeds through the twin
I will outline and discuss Piaget’s achievements ‘functional invariants’ of assimilation and
first, and then proceed to the post-Piagetian picture of accommodation. ‘Assimilation’ is the relating of new
what and how thinking develops. Good introductions information to pre-existing structures of
to Piagetian theory are provided by Brainerd (1978) understanding, and ‘accommodation’ is the
and Brown and Desforges (1979); for fuller accounts development of old structures into new ones at the
of Piaget’s work see Flavell (1963, 1977), Vuyk behest of new external information or problems. The
(1981) and Gelman and Baillargeon (1983). two occur together, though one may dominate the
other, and their functioning gives rise to a series of
Piagetian theory ‘structures’ of cognition, that is, cognition is organized
into systems of rules, categories, procedures and so
An anecdote which Piaget used many times gives a
forth which eventually amount to unified
good picture of the Piagetian child. A boy aged 5 was
organizations of logical operations. Cognitive
playing with his collection of pebbles. He laid them
development proceeds through the steady functioning
out in a line and counted them along the line from left
of assimilation, accommodation and organization,
to right: there were ten. Then he counted them from
which together give rise to a succession of increasingly
right to left, and ‘to his great astonishment’ the total
complex, differentiated, integrated and flexible sets of
was, again, ten. He put them in a circle and counted
ways of understanding the world. There are such
them first clockwise and then counterclockwise: ‘full
successions of qualitatively different structures in a
of enthusiasm’ he discovered that there were always
number of different areas of content, such as

33
Understanding Child Development

conservation, perspective-taking, causality and out to be rather important in understanding cognitive

number concepts: there is also, more importantly, the change.
succession of such stages in the global area of
cognition-in-general, in so far as the structures of Causes of cognitive development
thinking apply across different contents. Piaget’s Piaget’s model (see, for example, Piaget and Inhelder
model insists on the general application of cognitive 1969, pp. 154–7) of how cognitive development
structures: there are only minor differences in a child’s proceeds was complex. He lists four factors, which
level of thinking in different areas or different are of rather different types and not clearly
materials, and differences between children only in interrelated. The first relevant factor was organic
rate of progress through the invariant order of stages. growth, particularly the maturation of the central
The emphasis is thus on cognitive structures and nervous system. It is quite obvious that a properly
logical operations which are universal and abstract: functioning brain is normally necessary for adequate
inferred from behaviour, not immediately observable. cognition and that the immaturity of infants’ brains
Thus the Piagetian child is an active thinker who (brain development, most rapid before birth,
continually strives to understand the world in a proceeds rapidly for the first year or two after birth
coherent way. Trying to understand, constructing a and continues to some extent for much longer) makes
world-model, adapting to the demands of the them both unlike adults and capable of becoming like
environment, are constant in development and do not them. Very recent research is beginning to inform us
change. Insistence that knowing and thinking are both about brain development and about the brain’s
active not passive ways of coping with the world is role in cognition (pp. 58–9). At present theories of
Piaget’s first important contribution. The model of cognition flourish without much neurophysiological
assimilatory and accommodatory processes for base, but eventually, one might hope, we will know
taking in information, that is relating what one enough to link the different levels. Kinsbourne
discovers for the first time to what one knows already, (1980) addresses the problem.
would also seem to be an important one, indeed many Piaget’s second factor explaining how cognition
psychologists believe that a model without developed was ‘the role of exercise and of acquired
assimilation and accommodation would be quite experience in the actions performed upon objects’,
implausible, though they need much more precise including both direct physical experience, e.g. the
specification (see, for example, Gelman and weight of pebbles, and indirect reflective experience
Baillargeon 1983; Meadows 1983; Siegler 1983). of logico-mathematical rules and relations, e.g. the
From birth (or even earlier) to death we are total number in a collection of pebbles. Again, some
processing new information and fitting it to our old such necessary factor is incontrovertible, even if it is
knowledge, thus transforming old knowledge into a not entirely clear what and how much experience is
new improved version. needed. The restrictions of experience suffered by
As far as what does develop during cognitive some very severely deprived children (Skuse 1984)
development is concerned, Piaget suggested that or by children who are congenitally paralysed, blind
there was a move during childhood from thinking that or deaf, do not necessarily lead to deficient cognitive
was fragmented, partial and closely tied to development though there may be abnormalities and
experience, to thinking that was at least capable of problems. It has often been inferred from Piaget’s
being logical, abstract and very flexible, by account of the role of experience in cognitive
adolescence. We will see that there is good reason to development that young children can only learn by
doubt both whether young children are as active involvement, not through observation or being
unsystematic and illogical as Piaget supposed, and taught: we will see that a definition of ‘experience’
whether older children and adolescents (and indeed
adults) are as logical. The role of education will turn

34
 Perceiving and understanding

that restricts it to ‘hands-on’ experience is too also involved an insistence that the series of stages of
restrictive. equilibrated ways of thinking which he described was
Other sorts of experience are implicated in Piaget’s universal. Before the formal operational thought that
third factor, ‘social interaction and transmission’. is the pinnacle of human cognition can be achieved,
This was the least developed part of Piaget’s model, every human being must go in the same order through
but has received a great deal of attention in recent the sensori-motor substages, the period of pre-
years. We will discuss it later, and see that the social operational thought and then concrete operations.
ecology is of great importance to cognitive Because ‘equilibration’, ‘assimilation’,
development – and to its diagnosis by experimenters. ‘accommodation’ and ‘organization’ are complex
and abstract concepts, providing behavioural
Equilibration examples is difficult. I offer a fictional one, designed
Piaget’s final factor, equilibration, was invoked to co- to highlight three points I want to make about the
ordinate the diverse contributions of maturation and equilibration model, but not, I hope, a caricature of
what Piaget intended. At the outset, the protagonist of
physical, social and logico-mathematical
the example is a moderately experienced cook. He or
experiences. It was a central concept in his theory,
she has successfully cooked carrots and potatoes,
most important in accounting for how development
carrots by boiling them, grating them raw for salads,
occurred. Briefly, he postulated that organisms
and making carrot soup, potatoes by boiling,
needed to maintain a stable internal equilibrium roasting, frying, mashing and making chips. The
within the changes and uncertainties of the outside initial state of knowledge of ways of cooking carrots
world. Body temperature in warm-blooded animals is and potatoes could be represented as a matrix, thus:
a good example of the sort of process involved: the
feedback systems of thermostatically controlled Method Carrots Potatoes
central heating are also analogous. In equilibrated
systems, of which cognition is supposed to be one, the Boiling √ √
changes and demands of the outside world produce Chipping not tried √
small ‘perturbations’ or ‘conflicts’ in the system Frying not tried √
which automatically adjusts itself to cope with them Grating/salad √ not tried
and return either to the original steady state or in the Mashing not tried √
Roasting not tried √
case of cognition to a new and better equilibrium.
Soup √ not tried
There is a strong need for equilibrium: ‘durable
disequilibria constitute pathological organic or
mental states’ (Piaget 1968, p. 102). The cook now meets parsnips for the first time. The
The concept of equilibration explains how new vegetable is assimilated to the carrot repertory,
cognitive development occurs in terms of a ‘need’ for perhaps on the basis of similarity of shape and
a coherently organized and consistent way of texture. Parsnips boil very well, make a rather bland
thinking. This ‘equilibrium’ is gradually constructed soup, and although they taste quite pleasant raw are
as partially adequate ways of thinking conflict with not a visually attractive ingredient in salad. The cook
the data provided by the external world, or with their also assimilates parsnips to the potato repertoire:
own inconsistent processes and results, and have to parsnips are disastrous chipped or fried, mash well
be improved. ‘Equilibration’ implies that there and are delicious roasted. The knowledge matrix
should be a considerable degree of organization and after assimilation of parsnips would have one further
coherence in cognition. It also implies that conflict column, thus: Assimilation is always accompanied by
between ideas or models or ways of doing things will
be a major source of progress. Piaget’s account of it

35
Understanding Child Development

Method Parsnips Nutritionists, aware of the chemical constituents of

the vegetables, or cookery-book writers, aware of the
Boiling √
long history of ‘cuisine’, might have other
Chipping No
suggestions to make. There is no Piagetian answer,
Frying No
and indeed not much of an answer elsewhere, as we
Grating/salad maybe
know very little of how people’s conceptual systems
Mashing √
are organized.
Roasting √
The second point to be raised is how thorough and
Soup maybe
how wide ranging we should expect people’s
equilibrated knowledge systems to be. Are all gaps in
accommodation, however. The schema ‘vegetables knowledge really investigated or thought through,
you can mash’ is augmented with parsnips, for and are all internal contradictions really faced and
example, and the importance of butter is emphasized. resolved? Is there one unified system of knowledge in
The cook may accommodate further by extending the
which cooking is a small but integral component? Is
mashing schema to carrots, and hence to the full range
‘cooking knowledge’, even, systematic and
of vegetable purées. Since roast potatoes and roast
integrated? Piaget’s work implies the answer ‘yes’ to
parsnips are successful, the schema ‘roasting’ may be
tried out on carrots, with success. A fully equilibrated these questions: what evidence there is suggests local
knowledge system for cooking carrots, potatoes and organization with a lot of inconsistencies remaining
parsnips might look something like this: (Boden 1982).
My third point is about where knowledge comes
Method Carrots Potatoes Parsnips from. Cooking illustrates it particularly well. A truly
Piagetian cook would arrive at his or her knowledge
Boiling √ √ √
of ways of cooking vegetables from assimilating new
Chipping No √ No
Frying No √ No objects to the pre-existing repertoire of techniques
Grating/salad √ No maybe and accommodating the old repertoire to the new
Mashing √ √ √ objects, as I have described. Most of the cooking I
Roasting √ √ √ know of consists of doing things because other people
Soup √ maybe maybe have done them successfully, copying parents or
friends, following the instructions given in a recipe
This sort of procedure is obviously infinitely book or on the packet. Even though some cooks may
extendable. The same basic principles of vary recipes to fit their taste, pocket, time or available
assimilation, accommodation and organization ingredients better than the original, the origin of the
leading to a thorough equilibrated knowledge ‘knowledge’ is heavily social, and as I suggested in
structure will apply whatever new vegetable the cook the last paragraph, what is done, and probably what is
encounters – turnips, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, known, may be fragmented rather than unified.
and so forth. Piaget underemphasized, I think, the role of
The three points I want to raise from this example
apprenticeship to more knowledgeable others in the
are as follows. The first is the question of what criteria
construction of ‘knowledge’, and the possibility that
of content guide assimilation. Why are parsnips
much of what we know is what anthropologists call
assimilated to the carrot and potato schemas, and not
to the schemas for cooking aubergines or ‘bricolage’, or ad hoc ‘works adequately but not
cauliflowers, or indeed to schemas for playing chess perfectly’ ragbags. We will return to these points
or cleaning cars? I suggested similarities, of shape, later.
texture and, implicitly, being root vegetables.

36
 Perceiving and understanding

Problems with the Piagetian model and second, that correlations between tasks which are
Predictions can be derived from the equilibration said to require and be indicative of the same cognitive
model and examined. Is there a ‘need’ for thinking to structure are no higher than correlations between
be consistent and free of contradictions? Does tasks whose basic structures are quite different (e.g.
conflict between different ideas lead to their Meadows 1975; Klausmeier and Sipple 1982).
resolution into a better idea? Is there one universal Flavell (1982) argues that we need to think carefully
series of stages of thinking? There has been much about what sort of homogeneity and what sort of
debate over exactly what the philosophical heterogeneity we expect in cognitive development.
implications of these predictions are and what would Theorists who have clung to Piaget’s stage model
be relevant behavioural evidence (Rotman 1977; have suggested that transitions between stages may
Boden 1982; Meadows 1983). The issue is very be longer and the differences thus less clear-cut than
complicated indeed. Performance on tasks is less was originally proposed (e.g. Beilin 1980); it may be
consistent than Piaget’s competence model would more useful to abandon the notion of general stage
appear to propose, the competence model has structures for the moment, and pay more attention to
problems predicting particular performance, conflict the variety of cognitive processes used in different
leads to progress only sometimes, and equilibration is areas and at different times. It is this sort of approach
not an adequate explanation of development (Bryant which seems to be proving fertile at the moment.
1982; Gelman and Baillargeon 1983; Flavell 1982; (Freeman and Cox 1985 suggest it for the study of
Sternberg 1984). Here as elsewhere in Piaget’s theory children’s drawings also.)
there have been problems in translating his abstract Piaget’s accounts of children’s behaviour have
fundamental mechanisms into terms of measurable turned out to be problematic in related ways. No one
behaviour, and all too often the behavioural evidence disputes the brilliance and ingenuity of his
has not supported the existence of the abstract questioning, or that young children do indeed give the
mechanisms. bizarre answers he recorded on what have become
Probably the best known aspects of Piaget’s theory standard tests of ‘concrete operations’, though when
are the sequence of major stages and the accounts of his theory first made an impact on English language
children’s behaviour when given problems of psychology in the 1950s a great deal of effort was put
conservation, classification, perspectivetaking, etc. into replications of his experiments to see whether
It is, however, precisely these that are now seen as of what he had observed really happened. What is now
relatively less value, and Piaget himself developed disputed, and quite often refuted, is his account of
other theoretical areas at the end of his life (Vuyk young children’s failure in terms of the inadequacy of
1981). Although there quite obviously is a shift from their logic (and indeed of older children’s success in
sensori-motor action-dominated cognition to terms of their more adequate logic). Other
reflective abstract quasilogical cognition as explanations have been proposed for many of the
development proceeds, there is little experimental failures which occur. One particularly illuminating
evidence to suggest that it follows the picture of example is the case of the ‘transitive inference’.
discrete, integrated, general stages that Piaget
proposed. I have discussed the difficulties of stage Transitive inferences
theories in Chapter 1; in general the evidence on Piaget took over transitive inference problems from
‘stages’ in cognition suggests first, that cognitive his early work on Binet’s intelligence tests. They
performace is often inconsistent, varying across involve the combination of two pieces of relational
tasks, materials and brief periods of time (see, for information to infer a third relation. Binet’s test items
example, Brown and Desforges 1979; Miller 1982), were of the form ‘Suzanne is taller than Emilie.

37
Understanding Child Development

Suzanne is shorter than Claudine. Who is the tallest?’ failure. Memory is a result as well as a cause of what
Piaget’s easier task (Inhelder and Piaget 1958) is known.
involved three sticks of just noticeably different Further work by Trabasso and his colleagues
lengths and the spoken and/or demonstrated (Trabasso 1975; Riley 1976) suggests that the
information that ‘A is longer than B. B is longer than making of a transitive inference is not necessarily
C.’ The ‘transitive inference’ question was ‘Which is what children (or adults) generally do when faced
the longest, A or C?’ Children over the age of about 7 with a ‘transitive inference’ problem. It would seem
would be quite sure that A had to be longer than C; that it is normal procedure to construct a mental
children under 7 said they did not know, that they picture of an ordered array of the objects concerned,
would have to compare A and C directly. In related particularly if they bear physical relations of height,
tests they also had difficulty with measuring tasks and size, weight, etc., but also if they are related in degree
with seriation. Piaget attributed young children’s of characteristics such as ‘niceness’, and to scan it and
failure on the task to their inability to integrate two ‘read off’ the answer to the question. Here, as in other
pieces of information and make the required instances which we will come to later, it is not that
inference, and older children’s success to doing children fail to be logical while adults succeed, but
precisely that. that both children and adults may sometimes use non-
Peter Bryant and Tom Trabasso suggested that both logical procedures to solve ‘logical’ problems.
success and failure might have different
explanations, and in a series of experiments Logic as a model for cognitive
demonstrated both what such explanations might be development
and a number of other rather important points for the
This possibility is particularly interesting because
diagnosis of cognition. Bryant and Trabasso (1971)
argued, among other things, that failure to know the philosophers and psychologists from Aristotle to
Piaget have tended to assume that there was a close
relation between A and C might be due not to an
relationship between logic and reasoning, even that
inability to infer that given A>B and B>C then
the rules of logic were the laws of reasoning.
necessarily A>C, but to simply not remembering one
Developments over the last hundred years, as new
or both of A>B and B>C. They also argued that
forms of logic were invented and as psychology grew
success might be due to having attached the label
‘long’ to A and the label ‘short’ to C. In their away from its philosophical roots, have left this
relationship looking rather different from what was
experiments they ruled out both these possibilities by
assumed (Braine and Rumain 1983, Wason and
training children on the longer/shorter relation of all
Johnson-Laird 1972). It is not clear whether
adjacent pairs of the series A>B>C>D>E (and testing
reasoning is itself non-logical but logic is the
their memory of these pairs), and questioning them
normative standard for evaluating the validity of
on the crucial relationship between B and D, which
had never been seen together and which had each reasoning, which the transitive inference data might
suggest, or whether reasoning is logical but error-
been ‘longer’ and ‘shorter’ equally often. Children as
ridden, a more Piagetian position.
young as 4 were successful on the B>D comparison if
The development of children’s handling of logical
they remembered B>C and C>D: and in further
problems is obviously relevant here. Braine and
experiments they were also successful on
Rumain (1983), summarizing a substantial amount of
comparisons they had only been told about, not seen
for themselves. Memory difficulties are quite clearly work on propositional logic and some on predicate
logic, suggest that there is a considerable
implicated in ‘transitive inference’ failure – though
resemblance between the reasoning of children
not necessarily in all cases or as the only cause of

38
 Perceiving and understanding

entering school and that of older children and adults. reasoning involves utilizing a previously learned
Some logical problems are handled correctly even by ‘inference schema’ to reach a valid conclusion.
very young children, and these are easy for older Braine and Rumain (1983), summarizing the
people too, while some other logical problems are evidence, suggest that some inference schemas are
handled incorrectly or inefficiently by most people learned very early, possibly through normal language
young or old. learning, some only late and through special training.
A classic logical problem is of the combining of Using them involves getting the starting information
pieces of information and testing the validity of into the form of a suitable schema and working
inferences from them. For example, we have a through the schema, resisting errors from
statement of the form ‘If p, then q’ which we assume misinterpretation of language or context or response
to be true (‘If it rains, then we get wet’). This is bias, and neither importing extraneous information
followed by another statement, which tells us nor forgetting what is relevant. All these errors are
whether one of p, not–p, q or not–q, is the case at the common in children and adults. Language may give
moment, and from this we have to draw a conclusion rise to particularly severe problems in young children
about what else about p, not–p, q or not–q we can be because the language-processing needed in logic
sure is also the case. Any reader who does not know tasks requires purer analysis than they are used to. In
the answers may like to try the problems set out as understanding a normal sentence (see Chapter 4)
Figure 1, remembering that ‘If p, then q’ must be listeners process the words but also use other
taken as unquestionably true. information available about the speaker, the world,
Children as young as 6 can draw the correct the subject matter and the conversation, a much-
inference in the modus ponens problem, ‘If p, then practised and very skilled comprehending of
q:p, therefore q’; children and adults alike commonly language-in-context. In understanding a sentence in
draw incorrect conclusions on problems such as ‘if p, a logical problem listeners must not do this: instead
then q: not p, therefore ?’ or ‘if p, then q:q, therefore they must concentrate on the words and segregate the
?’ let alone on more complex inferences involving information they give. What is important is what is
chains of reasoning. Analysis of errors in terms of the said, not how it is said, what might be intended, what
logical structures of problems, the language and was said previously or what is generally known.
various context effects, has suggested that logical Logical problems require slow careful analysis at a
high level of verbal skill, a sort of analysis which is rare

If p, then q If it rains, then we get wet

p, therefore ? It is raining, therefore ? q we get wet

not p, therefore ? It is not raining, therefore ? ? no conclusion possible (we

don’t get wet from being rained on, but we may not
be wet or we may be wet from some other source
such as swimming)

q, therefore ? We are getting wet, therefore ? ? no conclusion possible (we

may be getting wet from rain or from some other
source such as having buckets of water thrown at
us)

not q, therefore ? We are not getting wet, therefore not p it is not raining

Figure 1

39
Understanding Child Development

culturally and associated with scholarly or highly ‘knowledge’. While current research does pay more
literate pursuits. Young children, used to employing attention to differences between tasks and between
context and general knowledge to understand thinkers, as we shall see, there are as yet no
language, employ them too in logic problems. satisfactory high level models which integrate
There are other aspects of the ‘ecology’ of logic findings from different areas and approaches.
tests which have to be considered. One common error
in propositional logic is to accept a conclusion as Information-processing approaches
valid when the problem is formally undecidable. In
the conditional syllogism ‘if p, then q: not p, therefore A major contribution to the study of cognitive
?’ it is a common error to complete it by saying ‘not p, development has been made by ‘information-
therefore not q’ (‘If it rains, then we get wet: it is not processing’ approaches. Work in this tradition
raining, therefore we do not get wet’). People faced emphasizes precise analysis of how information is
with undecidable problems like this tend to come to recognized, coded, stored and retrieved, and because
computer simulation techniques are often used the
an invalid conclusion, to be unwilling to say that one
‘structures’ and ‘processes’ involved in handling
can’t tell whether q or not–q is the case. There may be
information are relatively tightly specified and
various reasons for this, including expectations that
testable. Information-processing studies typically
‘logic’ leads to clear conclusions and that testers do
present people with a problem and examine what
not ask questions which have no answers, and information they select, how they store and organize
unwillingness to admit to the tester (an authority it, what models or hypotheses are involved, and what
figure) that one ‘can’t tell’ which in other situations is cognitive processes they use to reach a solution.
an admission of ignorance. Similarly, understanding
what has to be the case and what merely may possibly Capacity, processes and knowledge
be the case is important. Logical necessity,
Pascual-Leone (1970) and Case (1978, 1984, 1985)
incompatibility and entailment are crucial notions
have proposed neo-Piagetian models of cognitive
which are relevant to various issues in the areas of
development couched in information-processing
language and logic. Children’s understanding of terms. They propose that what develops is, on the one
these problems develops gradually (Russell 1978, hand, a series of distinct executive strategies for
1982).
solving problems, and, on the other, the size of
It would appear then that although some aspects of
‘working memory’ or the amount of mental ‘space’
logical reasoning appear very early in children’s
available for information-processing strategies to
development, possibly being derived from ordinary
work in. It is certainly the case that the number of
language use, there is a distinction between formal
things a person can do at one time increases as they
reasoning, based on analytic processing, and
grow older or more expert in a task, and that
ordinary everyday reasoning which is often based on
intelligent guesses about plausibility. Guessing, overloading working capacity interferes with
importing information, using common sense, are performance and may disrupt it (e.g. Baddeley 1976).
strategies often brought to bear on formal reasoning As we shall see when we discuss metacognition and
tasks. ‘Disembedded’ formal reasoning appears to be study skills, even quite young learners can recognize
rare except in highly educated groups but is probably the need to avoid distraction. It is not clear, however,
quite easily taught (see Donaldson 1978). It is not, on whether the developmental increase in the
the whole, likely to be perfectly representative of functioning of memory and information-processing
ordinary everyday cognition: a model which is due to an increase in the capacity of working
encompasses a wider range of task variables and memory or ‘M-space’. Pascual-Leone proposes that
thinker characteristics is necessary. It seems clear that M-space gets bigger with age and development, that
‘ordinary cognition’ is inseparable from is it becomes able to handle more strategies or

40
 Perceiving and understanding

programmes or schemes at the same time. The the first of these is the least important in cognitive
person’s repertory of strategies, etc., also increases development, indeed that the limits of information
with age and development: each strategy may also processing change little though there are enormous
develop so that, for example, it becomes slicker and changes in what goes on within them (Brown,
more automatic. Pascual-Leone claims that changes Bransford, Ferrara and Campione 1983). Case’s
in strategies only account for improvement within a recent developments of his model take this line and
stage of cognitive development: changes between include experimental evidence which supports it
stages are due to increases in M-space. (Case 1984, 1985), though Sternberg (1983, 1984)
It is a serious problem however to distinguish still argues for an increase in total capacity.
between changes in strategies and changes in M- Information-processing approaches to cognitive
space either in terms of behaviour or in theoretical development assume that ‘people are in essence limited
terms, because they necessarily interact. Children’s capacity manipulators of symbols’ (Siegler 1983, p.
performance on a cognitive task will be a function of 129). Over the course of development the processes
the strategy used, the demands which that strategy which people use to ‘manipulate symbols’ become
makes on M-space and the size of M-space itself. We more complex, more accessible, more exhaustive, more
know that the first two of these develop with age: flexible and faster, in ways which may be analogous to
attempts to measure the size of M-space have to hold the changes which happen in the move from being a
strategy and strategy demands constant if they are to novice to being an expert. There are also developmental
distinguish between changes in the size of M-space changes in symbol storage as more knowledge is
and changes in the way a stably-sized space is used.
acquired and as it is organized differently. We will look
Let us suppose that the transitive inference task
at some aspects of how children organize their
requires four units of processing space: one each to
knowledge later. Recent information-processing work
store A>B and B>C, one to store the information that
is giving more attention to ‘knowledge-rich domains’
‘longer than’ is a transitive relationship as opposed to
such asmathematics. Early work used artificialdomains
one such as loving which is not (‘Tybalt loves Juliet’
because they did not call on subjects’ prior knowledge
and ‘Juliet loves Romeo’ do not combine transitively
into ‘Tybalt loves Romeo’), and one to make the and thus complicate the picture with uncontrollable
inference. Children may come to be able to deal with variation between subjects. It is not clear how
the transitive inference task by achieving an M-space ‘knowledge’ and ‘processes’ interact, notevenwhen the
of four units. They may also come to be able to do it knowledge is knowledge about processes (see Chapter
by having their inferential strategy use up less space, 3, section on metacognition). Prior knowledge has been
for example by learning the relative sizes of A and B shown to influence recall, increasing the frequency of
and of B and C so well that they require only half as ‘intrusion errors’ where recall includes information
much storage space. Or they could be able to deal with which is correct and relevant but comes from what was
the task by using a non-inferential strategy – such as known before the experimental presentation of the
reading off from a visual image – which needs less M- material to be learned. More prior knowledge may
space. Only very precise analysis of tasks, of learner sometimes produce more efficient processing, perhaps
activities and of the interdependencies between because it reduces memory load to deal with
knowledge, strategies and processing can explain the overlearned information, or perhaps because the
contributions to cognitive development of growth in connections between items are more accessible, or
processing capacity, growth in the information perhaps because the important characteristics of the
archives, greater sophistication of processing, input are more obvious and their irrelevant aspects can
greater sophistication of the catalogue and cross- be more easily set aside. Knowledge of the task and of
references of the archives, and interaction among all
these. At the moment the ‘best guess’ seems to be that

41
Understanding Child Development

one’s own abilities are particularly important aspects of processed by children of different ages. Changes
performance (see Chapter 3, section on metacognition). would seem likely to be related to the development of
the ways in which concepts are linked in children’s
Mechanisms of cognitive development knowledge (see p. 139 below). Information
It is not yet clear in what ways children’s cognition processing theories assume that concepts are linked
comes to develop from immature cognitive processes in a network of associations. In the course of
to more mature ones. Answers to questions of the development the network comes to include more
‘mechanisms’ of cognitive development are still very elements; superordinate conceptual links between
tentative indeed; all that is clear is that it must be them become stronger and more important than
‘mechanisms’, plural (Sternberg 1984). Kail and perceptual ones, and processing can involve larger
Bisanz (1982) outline the general features which will units of information. Kail and Bisanz (1982, p. 60)
characterize information-processing models of illustrate this with the knowledge-of-fruit structures
cognitive development as they emerge over the next of two children (Figure 2).
few years. First, they will be concerned with how For the younger child, both apples and peaches are
information is given internal representation in the characterized as fruit (an is a relation) but their
organism. While it is agreed that much information is perceptual characteristics (is round, has a stone or
represented in symbolic form, there is much debate seeds) are stronger, and the child would say that
about what symbolic systems are used, and when apples and peaches are alike because they are both
(see, for example, Cohen 1983 for an introductory round. For the older child, in contrast, apples and
account of this debate). The problem of how external peaches are more strongly linked to the superordinate
stimulation is turned into internal representation is category of fruit than they are to their perceptual
also still a serious one. Developmental theories will characteristics; the is a relation is more important.
have to describe what features of complex stimuli are

Figure 2 Portions of the knowledge base concerning fruits. (a) The knowledge of a 5-year-old, for whom peaches and
apples are alike primarily because they are both round. (b) The knowledge of an 8-year-old, for whom peaches and
apples are similar primarily because they are both fruits.

Source: From Kail and Bisanz (1982), p. 60.

42
 Perceiving and understanding

The organization of knowledge in real cases is availability of attentional resources? Even if we

likely to be far more complex and hard to discover reduce the scale of the change by allowing, on the one
and describe. A pioneering but methodologically hand, that very young children are cleverer than some
flawed study by Chi and Koeske 1983 seeks to map a theorists had supposed, and, on the other, that adults’
4-year-old’s knowledge about dinosaurs. Repertory cognition is often enough inefficient, insufficient and
grid techniques hold promise but are difficult to use an unsystematic sort of ‘bricolage’ or botching
with children (Ravenette 1975; Fransella 1976). together, rather than brilliant craftsmanship, the
The second aspect of information-processing phenomenon of cognitive development is worth
models of cognitive development which Kail and admiration. What sort of system would allow such
Bisanz (1982) discuss is their account of changes in changes?
the cognitive processes which generate, transform or The explanatory framework Kail and Bisanz
manipulate representations of knowledge. They (1982) propose has two general components. The
anticipate that research in this area will identify a very first is increases in attentional resources, which I
large number of complex procedures specific to discussed above. They see increases through growth
particular tasks, domains or persons but a relatively in the total resources available (cf. Pascual-Leone) as
small set of elementary procedures underlying them. being compatible with increases without total
I discuss some of the specific cases below. The growth, due to better automatization and chunking of
general developmental change is, they suggest, information (cf. Case), though as we saw it may be
towards an increasing use of rules which are hard to distinguish between them. Their second
sufficient, that is they apply correctly to all cases and general component is a set of processes which modify
the knowledge base. During conceptual development
do not need supplements or exceptions, rather than
new elements and characteristics are added to the
rules which are only partially correct and apply
knowledge base, that is there are new ‘nodes’ in the
successfully only in a limited range of tasks or
associative network. Some old nodes are deleted, and
settings. Siegler’s analysis of the balance task
there are new or changed links between nodes.
(Siegler 1981, 1983, 1984) is one example; the
Among the modifying processes are addition/
history of science provides many others, such as the
deletion processes and processes for strengthening or
replacement of Newton’s model of gravity by weakening links. There are also important processes
Einstein’s. There is a similar developmental shift for determining that change is needed. They suggest
towards using more efficient processing, to using that these involve the detection of inconsistencies,
procedures which are more powerful and require less that is there are processes which compare processes
role repetition and ‘unskilled labour’. Such with other processes or with goals or external events.
procedures need fewer resources of attention and An obvious example is what happens inside a child in
effort to run successfully, at least once they are a conservation test, when judgement on the basis of
established (see Chapter 3); using them thus frees the changed appearance of the array is inconsistent
attentional resources for other bits of processing. with judgement based on the knowledge that nothing
Finally, development in cognitive processes may be has been added or taken away. A need to resolve
an increase in the speed of the processes used rather inconsistency is, of course, at the core of the Piagetian
than in what the processes themselves consist of. notion of ‘equilibration’. Inconsistency detection is
How might such changes come about? How do we not, however, the only monitoring process Kail and
manage a development, continued over many years, Bisanz include in their account. Another analysis
which gives us an increasingly full and flexible involves detecting regularities which recur and
conceptual structure, increasingly efficient and demand resources. If there is repeated use of the same
sufficient cognitive processes, and an increasing sequence of processes, or if the activation of one node

43
Understanding Child Development

in the concept network always involves the activation conflict and confirmation in conservation (Bryant
of the same set of representations, it may make fewer 1982) and the difficulty of negative instances in
demands on resources to modify the knowledge base concept formation and scientific problem solving
and set the recurrent regularities up as a sort of (e.g. Bruner, Goodnow and Austin 1956; Wason and
package which can be called up en bloc. Detection of Johnson-Laird 1972).
regularities may also be useful in detecting The final point Kail and Bisanz make about their
redundancies and so streamlining processes. It may knowledge modification processes is that they
also show up occasions when different processes interact with the resources available, and each
have the same result, thereby enhancing the modifies the other. Changes in the knowledge base
possibility of higher-order organization of processes, alter the ways in which the cognitive system
and perhaps also increasing one’s confidence in the investigates or interprets its environment, which in
correctness of the result the processes have reached turn alters the internal and external feedback
(Bryant 1982). monitored by the regularity and inconsistency
Monitoring processes are seen as being heavy on detectors – a formulation very reminiscent of the
resources, however. Thus there may not be any Accommodation and Assimilation model, though
developmental change, even though an inconsistency perhaps potentially at a more specific level. Thus
or a recurrent regularity has been detected, unless changes in the knowledge base may allow the system
sufficient attentional resources are available. If total to identify inconsistencies and regularities which
resources available do increase with growth, growth were previously undetectable – an account of the
may make the use of monitoring processes possible phenomenon of sudden insight, perhaps?
where they could not be implemented before. I have dealt with the Kail and Bisanz model at some
Resources also become available through the length because it seems to me to be an unusually
automatization of content in the knowledge base. intelligible account of what sort of account the
Automatization is to be associated with repeated use mechanisms of cognitive development may be
of processes and with the strengthening of links expected from the information-processing approach.
between conceptual nodes and hence should, I would It is not the only model in the field; Sternberg (1984)
suppose, be positively related to the detection of contains six more, with Flavell’s comments on each.
regularities and consistencies. As I read their It does have some notable omissions or
account, it would not seem to be as closely related to underemphases which need some further
the detection of inconsistencies and conflict, so it is elaboration. One of these is the area of the
possible that in Kail and Bisanz’s model, accessibility and difficulty of cognitive processes,
development through confirmation, practice, which is likely to be of particular interest to people
positive feedback and more polished and efficient concerned with individual differences but will also
performance of established processes may be easier have to be dealt with by models of general cognition.
than development through detecting inconsistencies Another, which I shall discuss at more length
and conflicts, and enforced change in processes or (Chapter 3), is the currently lively area of executive
knowledge organization. This reading goes against control, metacognition and strategic thought. The
the Piagetian emphasis on conflict-led equilibration, underemphasis is surprising, since information
which I argued against at the beginning of this processing in computers is one main source of the
section; it accounts quite nicely, however, for various ‘executive control’ metaphor. It is quite clear that in
observations, such as people’s difficulty in giving up cognitive development thinking becomes more
a practised but insufficient strategy for a better one strategic and more controlled by the thinker, as we
(e.g. Brown et al. 1983), Bryant’s arguments about will see in areas such as attending, remembering, text

44
 Perceiving and understanding

processing and problem solving discussed in Chapter in themselves, and may illuminate performance.
3. Children also know more about cognition as they What they do omit, perhaps inevitably, is, of course,
get older, and this too is a flourishing area of research. much consideration of the context of cognition.
Models of ‘cognition’ will have to account for Questions of why cognition proceeds as it does, how
‘metacognition’, though the interaction of the two is it is shaped and constrained and fostered in
development, how biology and social experience are
unlikely to be simple: it is quite clear that one can
involved, seem very important to me, and hard to deal
know but not do, and do without knowing, as well as
with in the traditional information-processing terms
the two consistent positions of know and do, not
– computers do not have much in the way of ecology.
know and not do. Some philosophers argue anyhow that the computer
I have described three different models of metaphor is seriously inadequate in that it sets aside
cognition, the Piagetian, what one might call ‘the as negligible the roles of consciousness, experience
logicians’ account’, and information processing. The and intention (Searle 1984; Russell 1984). I can do no
second of these is not a contender as an account of more here than refer back to the second sentence of
how we reason in general; rather, logical problems this chapter – ‘there is still no clear, complete and
seem to be a restricted domain where general valid account of what adults do when they think,
processes have to be used in rather specialised ways. understand, etc.’ and add that there is none for
Piaget’s model remains an immense intellectual children either, let alone an account of the change
achievement, worthy of great admiration. Some of its from child to adult. It is, however, the case that we are
features now seem to be rather seriously dubious (e.g. increasing our understanding in some more limited
automatic equilibration, the groupings model), and ways, as I shall go on to discuss.
some need to be given a much more specific form
(e.g. Assimilation and Accommodation): some, like
the tendency to play down the possibility of
Infants’ perception and cognition
development through social interaction and being I must preface my brief account of perception and
taught, have distorted our view of children’s thinking cognition in infancy with two remarks to guide the
and education and need to be reversed. The reader throughout the rest of the discussion. The first
information-processing approach has not yet
is that I am not myself involved in research on infants:
achieved a satisfactory model of cognitive
I have thus had to rely on the work of others to an even
development. It has produced some very interesting
greater extent in this section than elsewhere. The
accounts of processes and rules involved in solving a
number of problems, some of which were derived second is that the degree of controversy in infant
from Piaget’s tasks (see, for example, Klahr and perception and cognition seems to be higher than in
Wallace 1976), and I would expect there to be most other research areas: there is profound
considerable progress in the next few years on higher- disagreement not just about ideas or interpretations
order modelling of general cognitive systems. but about behavioural facts. Do infants imitate facial
However, there are certain reasons for caution rather expressions, babble more if given contingent
than optimism about this approach. One important reinforcement, search for an object that has moved
problem is the difficulty of observing thinking: there out of sight? Yes, say researchers on one side: no, we
is a tendency for some work in this area to base its cannot replicate this finding, say researchers on
model on data which are only very distantly related to
another. Non-replications such as these are not
the observable behaviour of real children. This was a
always attributable to methodological changes or age
problem for Piaget too, of course, and it still needs to
differences, or even to experimenter bias:
be guarded against. It is, of course, a perfectly valid
choice to concentrate on providing a model of someremain mysterious, and the experts as yet
idealized competence rather than actual cannot resolve them. A non-expert, I have not tried to
performance; competence models may be interesting

45
Understanding Child Development

Plate 5

46
 Perceiving and understanding

do more than point out issues and indicate useful Seeing and hearing
sources. Most of the material and evaluation in this
section derives from the second volume of the The ‘hardware’ of vision
Handbook of Child Psychology (Haith and Campos Banks and Salapatek (1983) review infant visual
1983). I will begin by discussing what is known of the perception. Human infants are born with eyes that
infant’s perceptual capabilities (visual, auditory and are moderately mature in anatomical and
olfactory, and some aspects of brain development) physiological terms, more mature than cats, for
and then proceed to the cognitive development that example, and less mature than macaque monkeys
ensues. Throughout I would wish to emphasize that (Figure 3). As in adults, light passes through cornea,
ultimately we should link development at lens and the body of the eye to the retina at the back
anatomical/physiological levels with development at of the eye. One layer of the retina is of light-sensitive
behavioural levels, and explain developmental cells, the ‘rods’ and ‘cones’: when light reaches
changes with reference to their functions as part of the these receptors, signals are sent via the other layers
evolutionary ‘push’ and the environmental ‘pull’. of retina to the optic nerve and thence to successive
Our present understanding being distinctly limited, parts of the brain. Compared to adults’, the infant’s
however, we will have to be cautious about the nature eyes are relatively short from front to back, there is
of these links, and particularly about their causes and less possibility of adjusting the focal distance of
directions. their lenses, and there are immaturities in the retina.
In particular, in the adult eye there is a central area,

Figure 3 Cross-sectional drawings of the adult and newborn eye. The adult eye (a) is a horizontal section of the right
eye. Important structures are labelled. The visual axis is represented by the broken line and the optic axis by the solid
line. The newborn eye (b) is also a horizontal section of the right eye. It is drawn to scale to represent its size relative
to the adult eye.

Source: From Banks and Salapatek (1983).

47
Understanding Child Development

the fovea, which differs in cell type and in sensitivity parts of the brain. In ‘the next major structure in the
from the rest of the retina. In this area visual acuity is ascending visual pathway’ (Banks and Salapatek
better than in the periphery; as we are all aware, we 1983) (see Figure 4), the lateral geniculate nucleus,
normally see objects more clearly when they are in which is essentially a relay station between eye and
the centre of our visual field than when we use our cortex, there are post-natal anatomical changes, as the
peripheral vision. The newborn baby has a much less neurons grow, and functional changes, as response to
differentiated fovea, and therefore probably does not stimulation becomes less sluggish and less easily
see shapes and contours as clearly, or discriminate fatiguable, and as visual acuity increases in the cells
them as finely, as adults can using their foveal vision. serving the developing fovea, the nerve pathways
The retina develops quite rapidly after birth and is connecting structures slowly grow a sheath of myelin,
anatomically mature by about the end of the first year. which allows better transmission of signals. In the
Babies’ vision gets more acute quite rapidly as visual cortex itself, structural development, which
developments in the retina (and better control of the began before birth, continues fora considerable period
lens) are accompanied by developments in various

Figure 4 Major pathways from the eyes to the central nervous system. Fibres of the optic nerve from the temporal halves
of each retina remain on the same side of the head; that is, they project to the ipsilateral hemisphere of the brain. Fibres
originating from the nasal halves of each retina cross at the optic chiasma and then project to the contralateral hemisphere.
The lateral geniculate nuclei are part of the thalamus. The superior colliculi are part of the mid brain. The striate cortices
are part of the cerebral cortex.

Source: From Banks and Salapatek (1983), p. 446.

48
 Perceiving and understanding

after it. Evidence from studies of kittens shows that reflexes in adults. Some of these reflexes are present
although capabilities often appear before they are in newborns, including blind infants, but not until
needed, and some structural organization emerges about 3 months of age are they well coordinated with
without needing experience, much later-appearing other movements, or accurate. Eye movements
organization and visual capability is guided by visual which follow a moving object are also possible at
experience: neither cats nor monkeys (nor, possibly, birth though they are jerky like saccades. Smooth
humans) develop the normal population of cortical visual pursuit appears first when the target object is
cells which deal with visual input in terms of moving slowly, but by about 12 weeks infants can
binocularity unless they have had experience of both track even fairly rapid movements quite smoothly.
eyes seeing together. Again, animals raised in Human eyes, like cameras, can only be focused for
environments dominated by lines at a particular
one viewing distance at a time. Objects at this
orientation develop a disproportionate number of
distance are in sharp focus, objects nearer or further
brain cells sensitive to that orientation (Banks and
away are blurred. Adult eyes adjust automatically
Salapatek 1983, pp. 458–9).
and accurately, largely by changing the curvature of
the lens (accommodation). Newborn infants do not
The ‘mechanisms’ of vision
do this with any accuracy; like a pinhole camera they
Eyes are often compared to cameras, but there are
have a fairly good depth of focus but at longer and
significant differences in how they work. For
shorter target distances than this range they see less
example, prolonged stimulation leads to fatigue: if an
clearly and do not accommodate well. There is a rapid
eye is immobilized so that light falls on the retinal improvement in accommodation over the first three
receptors for a prolonged period, they cease to months of postnatal life.
respond to it until the input light changes. Further, the
Infants able to support themselves sitting or
central foveal area of the retina is more sensitive than
standing use visual feedback as information not just
the periphery. These characteristics mean that in
about the movement of other objects but also about
order to see something clearly we have to move our
their own movements. If we move forward,
eyes: in one sort of way to move the retinal image
particularly if we fall forward, things initially near the
enough to stop it fading, and in another sort of way to
centre of our visual field move outwards towards its
get the image on the fovea rather than the outer parts
edge and things initially near the periphery move
of the retina where our acuity is less. Furthermore,
outwards out of sight. Conversely, if we see a
since we have two eyes, we have to co-ordinate them
centrifugal visual field, we may feel we are falling
and their movements: and compensate for
forward (a feeling Stanley Kubrick used in his film
movements of our heads and bodies: and for any 2001). Experiments with babies (e.g. Butterworth
movements of what we are looking at. Adults manage and Hicks 1977) showed that they felt like this when
to do all this with only occasional difficulties: how do
the room wall in front of them moved forward, and
these skills develop?
adjusted their posture appropriately, swaying or even
The saccadic eye movement system of rapid
falling in the direction of the room’s motion. We do
changes in fixation, which relocates targets first seen
not yet know how much experience of one’s own
in peripheral vision on to the more sensitive fovea, is
motion is necessary for this.
functional at birth, provided the peripheral target is
not too far off the centre. The effective visual field
Looking at objects and patterns
which will elicit saccades, so that the eye moves and
I have outlined the basic anatomy, physiology and
the target comes to the centre of the retina, grows
mechanisms of the infant’s visual system: we have
postnatally, and so does the accuracy and speed of the
seen that even very young infants can detect and look
eye movement. Eye movements which compensate
at objects, but that only postnatal development allows
for the observer’s movements are made via various

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Understanding Child Development

babies to see as clearly as adults do. As far as acuity is combines the infant’s perceptual/cognitive state and
concerned, to begin with babies have difficulty the stimulus characteristics: infants of different ages,
detecting stimulus differences which convey detailed with different capabilities and different knowledge
information about patterns. The rapid development prefer different patterns (Kagan et al. 1978).
of the fovea is one area of improvement, but beyond In one instance of pattern preference, evolutionary
that there are probably difficulties due to limitations adaptiveness and ecosystem demands both seem to
in the nervous system’s ability to process the retinal be potential explanations and contributors. Infants
image. There is extensive evidence that visual acuity look at, and smile at, faces. There is controversy over
improves dramatically over the first year of life: how they process the complex information that a face
neonates seem only to attend to large objects, provides (Harris 1979, 1983) though detailed
apparently not discriminating their details, while observation has shown agreement on exactly what
older babies notice fine detail much more readily. they attend to. Under about 2 months old, infants
A most useful paradigm has been developed for looking at a face look most at areas of high contrast
investigating infants’ ability to discriminate between such as its outside border. Next they attend most to
patterns: pioneered by Fantz, it is the visual features, particularly the eyes, and may differentiate
preference paradigm. Two patterns are presented between artificial faces in terms of ‘eyedness’
simultaneously to the infant and he or she is observed (Kagan et al. 1978). Then a face comes to be attended
to determine whether the two objects are looked at for to as a whole, and infants develop ideas about the
different lengths of time. Provided controls for relative familiarity or novelty of faces (Fagan 1976).
position preferences, etc. have been properly A preference for faces which leads to more looking at
implemented, if one object is looked at significantly them would both give the infant more opportunities
longer than the other the infant must have for social learning and increase his or her
discriminated some difference between them, and attractiveness to caretakers (see Chapter 6). Parents
may perhaps be said to prefer the one looked at more commonly say that they begin to regard their baby as
(if we assume that infants are not given to mortifying ‘a real person’ once mutual gaze and smiling has
themselves by looking more at objects which are begun. Infants who do not look at your face, and
liked less). Indices like smiles may also be used. The
anyone whose facial expression does not respond to
habituation paradigm is also used for investigating
yours, are unattractive or even aversive stimuli. On
visual discriminations: habituation indicates that the
the whole, infants find blank faces less attractive than
pattern is seen as being the same, dishabituation that
responsive ones, as adults do.
a difference is discriminated.
There is now an extensive literature on infants’
preferences in patterns (though little on older Infants’ scanning
children’s or adults). Other things being equal, infants Eye movements are necessary for seeing. As we
tend to prefer red and blue to green and yellow, some look at a scene, saccadic eye movements continually
pattern to no pattern, curved lines over straight ones, move the fovea from fixation to fixation, from one
concentric patterns over non-concentric ones, feature to another. Observation of where these
symmetry to asymmetry, and so on. Some of these fixations fall, usually by photographing reflections
‘preferences’ are no doubt due to ‘hardware’ and on the cornea relative to the pupil, indicate what
‘mechanics’ properties of the visual system: some features are being looked at in what order. Although
have been explained in terms of a general preference in adults can certainly get information from peripheral
the infant for ‘complexity’. While such an explanation vision, and infants may do too, studies of foveal
has intuitive appeal, it has proved hard to define and scanning do illuminate how information is gathered
measure ‘complexity’ (Banks and Salapatek 1983, pp. from the stimulus.Bank and Salapatek (1983)
497–506). It is clear that predictions work best, review their develpoment (pp.507–15).
however, when based on a model of preference which

50
 Perceiving and understanding

Figure 5 Scanning patterns of newborns. The left portion shows scanning patterns when newborns were presented a
homogeneousfield.Eachdotrepresents eye position at one timesample.Thelines connectingthe dots simply connecteye
positions at adjacent time samples. The vertices of the triangles represent infra-red marker light positions. Thus, the
trianglesshown wereactually not present duringthese trials.Theright portion of this figureshowsscanningpatterns when
newborns were presented a solid black triangle on an otherwise homogeneous field. The outer triangle on each record
represents the triangle’s contours. The vertices of the inner triangles represent the marker light positions.
Source: From Banks and Salapatek (1983), p. 511.

Given a simple vertical or horizontal line or edge to Auditory perception

look at, newborn infants fixate more in the region of I will describe the development of hearing more
the contour than in the rest of the visual field, briefly than I did the development of vision.
particularly if it is a vertical contour. This is probably Discussion of infants’ speech perception may be
because it is easier to make horizontal eye found in the chapter on language development. Aslin,
movements across a vertical contour, as infants do, Pisoni and Jusczyk (1983) review auditory
than vertical eye movements across a horizontal one. development in infancy and were the main source for
Given a figure to look at, newborns tend to fixate a this section. They point out that despite much recent
point which has a high degree of contrast (Figure 5). relevant research, many basic questions about the
In the left-hand side of the figure, newborns were development of auditory function remain
looking at what to them was a uniform visual field, unanswered, and indeed our understanding of
and they made no consistent fixations. In the right- hearing in adults is much less complete than our
hand side, the newborns looked at a solid black understanding of vision.
triangle on an otherwise uniform field, and fixated So far as the outer ear is concerned, the main
one corner of the triangle. Older infants began to scan difference between the adult’s ear and the infant’s is
more widely, for example along the edges of the that the latter is smaller in size throughout. This may
triangle, but not randomly. Their scanning came to be lead to the infant hearing best sounds which are at a
concentrated on areas of maximum information, as slightly different frequency range from the sound the
that of adults is. There is an increasing degree of
perceptual organization. Cognition has become
inextricably mixed with perception.

51
Understanding Child Development

Figure 6 Cross-section of the human ear showing the three major divisions (outer, middle and inner ear), their mode of
operation, and their presumed function.
Source: From Aslin, Pisoni and Jusczyk (1983), p. 586.

adult hears best, sensitivity possibly being shifted changing and they will need to adjust to this
towards higher frequencies. Because sound sources continuing change when localizing sound.
are localized using differences in the times at which The functioning of the middle ear and the inner ear
the sound reaches left and right ear, the fact that the is complex and not perfectly understood. Much of
infant has a smaller head between his or her ears than middle ear structure seems to be adultlike at birth, but
the adult means that the time difference is smaller and its smaller size may shift sensitivity towards higher
infants may therefore have more difficulty localizing frequencies. Anatomical comparisons between adult
sounds. Bower (1974) points out that because their and infant inner ear structures might also lead to
heads are growing the inter-ear distance of infants is predictions of sensitivity to high frequencies

52
 Perceiving and understanding

developing before sensitivity to low frequencies, but to a sound, particularly for a reward of a pleasant sight
research studies have not yet tested these predictions. or food, as in the classic work by Papousek (1967).
What functional differences there are is very unclear: Animal evidence suggests that binaural experience is
certainly infants and children from 5 months old necessary for sound localization, much as binocular
onwards are better at detecting high frequency vision seems to be necessary for normal visual
sounds such as bats’ squeaks than people with ageing development.
ears but this may be because the latter have lost their
sensitivity. Infant insensitivity to low sounds has not Summary
been demonstrated. So far as the best-studied senses, vision and hearing,
The complexity of brain involvement in hearing is are concerned, it is a simplification but not a
very great. Research on cats and rats done in the last falsification to say that even newborn babies have a
decade or so suggests that there are big postnatal capacity to function which is not very different from
developments of many different sorts in these that of an adult. Developments in the brain, and
animals. There is little evidence on the functional growth of knowledge, account for most of the
development of the auditory brain in humans, so we developmental changes in perception: developments
do not know whether postnatal changes in sensitivity in the peripheral organs or perception seem to be less
and responsiveness to sounds are due to an important.
improvement in perception or in neural connections
and interactions. Development in other sensory modalities
Pregnant women have long since reported that I have briefly described the development of vision
sudden loud noises led to sudden movements of the and hearing in the two previous sections. There has
foetus in the womb. Recently, convincing evidence been much less work on the other senses; indeed they
has been presented that the foetus moved because it are much less emphasized by people generally. Not
heard the noise, not merely as a response to its being able to see or hear is regarded as a significant
mother’s reaction to the noise (Aslin et al. 1983, pp. handicap, but having no sense of smell or taste is not
602–3). The infant in utero can hear noises from felt to be more than a trivial disadvantage. While it is
outside, particularly perhaps loud noises at low certainly true that human beings make much less
frequency, and the ambient noise in the womb turns conspicuous use of smell, taste and touch than of
out to be fairly loud (85 decibels or so). Recodings of vision and hearing, it would be wrong to assume that
these ambient rhythmic noises have, of course, been these other senses are unimportant, or that they play
quite a commercial success as lullabies, marketed as no part in the development of behaviour.
soothing noises to be provided to the baby who has Very little can be said at present about the
lost them by being born. development of taste and of touch. Some
From at least a few weeks before birth, then, infants discrimination between sweet and salty taste is found
can hear, but the threshold of stimulation needed to at birth or even in utero (Crook 1978), and babies are
produce a noticeable reaction is higher than adults said to discriminate between breast milk from
need. Newborn infants can do some crude different mothers (Macfarlane 1976). It has been
localization of sound sources, orienting reliably to suggested that there are developmental shifts in
sounds at 90 degrees left or right of their midline, but liking and disliking the taste of later foodstuffs,
their reactions are slow, and they do have problems reputedly that young children positively enjoy the
controlling their head movements. Older infants, 1 to cod liver oil which adults find disgusting. How clear
3 months old, may turn their heads less towards a such changes are, and how they come about, is not
sound source, but after this period orientation to the known. Sensitivity to touch is present from birth:
sound picks up again. Babies can fairly easily be infants needing to be nursed in incubators thrive
conditioned to turn their heads to one side in response much better lying on a soft fleecy surface than on a

53
Understanding Child Development

smooth hard surface (Harlow’s infant monkeys also volume). The evidence on whether mothers who
preferred a soft surrogate mother to a hard one which were treated with oestrogens or progesterone when
fed them). Skin-to-skin contact with the mother they threatened to miscarry early in pregnancy have
directly after birth has been claimed to be an ‘feminized’ offspring is also not clear (Ehrhardt and
important contributor to mother–infant bonding Meyer-Bahlburg 1981). Measures of ‘sex-typed’
(Klaus and Kennell 1976), but there is reason to doubt behaviour and attitudes in humans are problematic,
its necessity (Sluckin, Herbert and Sluckin 1983; and and sex differences due to social and cultural factors
Chapter 6, this volume). could be argued to be far more important than any
Recent work has begun to illuminate the hormonal base. These difficulties would appear not to
developmental importance of the sense of smell. be so great in mice: the mother mouse (or foster
There is not a great deal of evidence from humans, mother) probably does not treat her infants
although Macfarlane (1976) showed some time ago differently on the basis of the hormones they were
that neonates can discriminate between the smell of exposed to prenatally. It is hard to interpret the
their mother’s breast milk and that of another mother. differences in mice’s behaviour, growth rate and
Work on mice however indicates that their anatomy as the result of cultural influences!
maturation rate is affected by their olfactory So far as the development of olfaction is
experience. Specifically, female mice exposed to the concerned, then, there seems to be an interesting
odours of natural secretions from male mice reach possibility that some naturally occurring substances
puberty earlier than average (and may possibly, may affect development through the olfactory
though there is some controversy about this, be larger pathways. Further research is needed.
in size), while female mice exposed to smells from The last sense I want to mention is the kinaesthetic
adult females mature sexually more slowly than sense, which tells us about the body’s movement and
average (for a review see Johns 1980). Behaviour and position. Receptors in muscles, tendons, joints and
morphology too are shifted, towards the norm for elsewhere send messages about their activity to the
male mice in females exposed to male secretions, and cortex; we perceive the relationship between these
in the female direction for mice exposed to female messages in a pattern over time which depends on the
secretions. size, direction and speed of body and limb
Prenatal exposure to hormones also affects movements, as well as on the resistance to movement
behaviour. Female mice who were adjacent to males that we encounter. We do not know a great deal about
in utero (mouse foetuses are lined up like peas in how kinaesthetic perception develops. Messages
pods) tend to behave more like male mice, and male from muscles, etc., are emitted automatically, but
mice who were between females in utero behave what they are understood to mean depends on
more like females. There may have been a similar experience. Infants, for example, spend quite a long
result in humans in the cases where female foetuses time watching their hands and learning to correlate
were exposed to high levels of androgen prenatally. visual and kinaesthetic information. Deliberate
In childhood and adolescence these girls were said to skilled movement requires the use of kinaesthetic
be ‘tomboyish’ in their behaviour and ‘masculine’ in feedback; children who are clumsy and poorly co-
their outlook (Money and Ehrhardt 1972). Their ordinated often seem to have particularly poor
parents’ knowledge of the congenital syndrome awareness of their posture and movement (Laszlo
which caused excessive productions of androgens and Bairstow 1985). Kinaesthetic awareness, and
and its ‘likely effects’ complicates the picture so that skilled precise motor action, take practice as a major
conclusions are very hard to draw (see Huston 1983; contributor to their development.
and the section on sex differences in Chapter 5, this

54
 Perceiving and understanding

Some aspects of brain development in infancy controlling the breathing, sleeping and waking of the
I emphasize again my assumption that mind and organism to abstruse cognitive, linguistic, affective
behaviour depend on brain and body, that without the and spiritual activities. Much of the development of
latter the former would not exist. Nevertheless, there cells and structures originates prenatally, and
are real problems in relating brain and behaviour, throughout early life the brain is nearer its mature
which are particularly sharp in the study of state than any other part of the body (Tanner 1978).
There is however substantial postnatal development
development. In most of the cases where we find a
of many anatomical, neurophysiological and
change in brain and a change in behaviour which
functional features of the brain. Parmelee and
coincide in time, we may wish to infer a causal link
Sigman (1983) review recent work: I will sketch the
between them, but there is rarely evidence to test the extent of the work and indicate some interesting
inference of causality. The central empirical problem developmental findings.
is how much and for how long do the two causal Brains contain two sorts of cells, the neurons or
chains below occur. nerve cells, which transmit impulses, and the
neuroglia, which form a support system for the
genetically predetermined environmental neurons both by forming a guide for their
brain development stimulation development and by supplying substances needed for
↓ ↓ the manufacture of nerve fibres and their insulation
new behaviours new behaviours and of neurotransmitters. A neuron has a nucleus and
↓ ↓
surrounding cell body, like any other cell, but part of
more complex interactions developmental changes in
its substance is drawn out into long threadlike
with the environment the brain
processes called dendrites which branch intricately to
make many connections with dendrites from other
The answer is probably different at different stages of cells (Figure 7).
maturation: for example, foetal development before There are about a million million (1012) neurons in
thirty-six post-menstrual weeks, about four weeks the brain, and a cortical neuron has about 30,000
before term birth, is not much affected by sensory nerve processes from 3000 or so other neurons
input, because of limitations in foetal sensory connecting with it (Tanner 1978, pp. 105–6). By the
receptors and transmission to the cortex. time a foetus is eighteen weeks old, its developing
Subsequently, development shifts towards a brain contains almost as many neurons as this, though
predominance of environmental factors in not the full mesh of interconnecting dendrites:
connections between neurons continue to develop for
behavioural and cognitive development: genetic
a long time after birth. In rats and kittens
programming does not explain a great deal of the
environmental stimulation after birth can increase
variance in behaviour such as reading, chess playing
dendritic growth and interconnections. Neuroglia
or ability to run marathons. Even if there is
begin to appear a little later than neurons, and new
neurological dysfunction or damage, such as cerebral ones continue to develop until the second year of life,
palsy, cognitive skills can develop in a strikingly accounting for some of the postnatal increase in the
normal way, given a favourable environment. brain’s weight. Postnatal development also involves
Recovery from brain damage at birth is very much the formation of an insulating sheath of myelin along
positively correlated with how good an environment the neurons’ processes.
is provided for the infant and young child (Shaffer Certain infections in the mother, or deficiences in
1985). her diet, may lead to the foetus developing fewer
Brains consist of millions of nerve cells, intricately neurons, and hence also fewer dendritic branches and
interconnected, and making up various structures fewer connections with other neurons. Behaviour
which are involved in functions ranging from may be disturbed and intellectual retardation result.

55
Understanding Child Development

Figure 7 A typical Golgi-stained pyramidal neuron whose cell body is in Layer 5 of the cortex. The dendrites (apical,
oblique, basal) receive synaptic input from other nerve cells. The axon conducts the neuron’s output to other nerve cells.
The enlargement presents a segment of the apical shaft as it might appear in the electron microscope. At high magnification
(30,000 to 40,000 power) the dark projections from the dendrite appear as protoplasmic extensions called spines. These
spines form synapses with the vesicle-filled axom terminals,or boutons,from other neurons.Synapses on the cell body do
not utilize spines and hence cannot be visualized with Golgi-staining techniques.

Source: From Parmelee and Sigman (1983), p. 99.

56
 Perceiving and understanding

Other genetic or environmental difficulties may lead best known of these poisons/ pollutants and so there
to malfunctioning of the brain. Among the best has been some public concern about its effects.
known of these is the genetic defect which causes Petrol has been thought to be an important
phenylketonuria (PKU). This means that the contributor to environmental lead levels since lead
sufferer’s body cannot metabolize the amino acid use in cosmetics, in canning and in paint has declined
phenylalanine. Normally phenylalanine from protein in recent years. Airborne lead levels are high near
is converted into tyrosine by an enzyme called roads with heavy traffic, and lead dust also
phenylalanine hydroxylase: this enzyme is defective contaminates the people, clothes and food it falls on.
in PKU so phenylalanine from the diet builds up in the Children probably ingest a considerable amount of
body and cannot be got rid of. Developing nerve cells lead by licking dirty fingers, dropping and eating
are vulnerable to it: it strips off the dendritic spines, sweets and so forth, in addition to the lead inhaled in
breaking down the connections between neurons, and petrol fumes. Plants grown in contaminated soil may
severe behavioural disturbance and mental take in lead from it, and lead dust is not altogether
retardation result. If the infant is fed on a diet which easily washed off leaves. The evidence on what
does not contain phenylalanine, no excess is built up, percentage of the lead found in children’s blood
and the brain can develop more or less normally. The samples comes from petrol is circumstantial, but it is
genetic defect is still there, but it has no effect in the certainly a major contributor and probably the major
special environment where there is little or no one (Rutter 1983).
phenylalanine. Once brain development is complete, High levels of lead in the blood or the teeth are
the individual with PKU is not harmed by a normal associated with intellectual impairment, behaviour
diet. However, if a woman with PKU, whose own problems such as hyperactivity and, at the highest
retardation has been prevented by a restricted diet in levels, gross neuropathology. The severity of these
infancy and childhood, takes an unrestricted diet effects is greatest at highest lead levels, and decreases
during her pregnancy, the foetus may be born with as they decrease. Until recently it was thought that
severe mental retardation even though it has inherited lead levels below 40 micrograms (µg) per 100 ml in
the normal gene for phenylalanine hydoxylase from the blood had no adverse effects. Recent work
its father. The build-up of phenylalanine in the reported in Rutter and Jones (1983), however,
pregnant woman does not affect her because the suggests that levels lower than this were associated
mature nervous system is relatively resistant to it, but with impaired psychological function, such as
it swamps the neurological development of the systematic in-attention in the classroom and lower
foetus. The child is born with PKU mental verbal IQ. Measurement difficulties, and differences
retardation, although it does not itself have PKU between different studies, mean that this association
(Konner 1982, Scarr and Kidd 1983). at low levels is not certain, but Rutter (1983)
summarizes the evidence so far as showing a
Brain development and environmental pollution: consistent small effect of low levels of lead on
the case of lead psychological functioning. Harvey (1984) regards it
High dosages of certain substances, for example as non-proven.
mercury and lead, are known to poison the nervous Interesting problems arise over the cause of the
system. Some of these substances are, at a low level, association. There is evidence on the
common environmental pollutants. It has been neurophysiological damage caused by lead
suggested that their pervasiveness may be such that poisoning (it impairs nerve conduction velocities and
they cause brain damage, particularly in the EEG patterns also change), but not on what might be
developing brains of children. Lead is perhaps the the psychological deficits linked with these
neurophysioiogical ones. Damage from exposure to
lead over a long period of time may be more like

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Understanding Child Development

damage from chronic malnutrition than damage from both the causal sequences sketched at the beginning
a severe acute injury to the brain. There is usually of this section are involved.
considerable recovery from the latter, but persistent Recent studies have looked at the metabolism of the
impairment may be more common after lead brain, including changes in the metabolic activity of
poisoning as after malnutrition. The effects of lead the brain during specific activities. New techniques are
almost certainly interact with the effects of other allowing identification of which parts of the brain are
socio-economic variables, being more severe for most active during the processing of particular stimuli.
socially disadvantaged children than for middle- There are some interesting results from adults
class ones, indeed being negligible for advantaged (Parmelee and Sigman 1983, p. 106; Blakemore,
children (Shaffer 1985). personal communication) but not as yet any
We do not yet know very specifically what developmental studies. There are now known to be
cognitive or behavioural problems lead is associated developmental changes in the speed and efficiency
with: most of the research is on its association with with which nerve impulses are transmitted and in the
attention deficits, emotional reactivity and biochemistry of neurotransmitters. Further research is
hyperactivity, where there is a consistent association. needed here, but changes in which neurotransmitters
It is not, however, a strong association: lead level are present, and in their strength, would help to explain
does not all by itself cause inattentiveness or why certain drugs have one effect on adults and the
educational retardation or delinquency, but it does reverse on infants.
contribute to some such problems. Preventing lead Most of what I have said so far concerned neurons or
poisoning, provided the substitutes have fewer even parts of neurons. However, they do, of course, work
adverse effects, will lead to small but significant and together in complex networks. Electroencephalogram
not trivial benefits. recordings(EEGs)reflecttheneurophysiologicalactivity
of networks of neurons in the cortex. The rhythm of
Brain organization and development activity in EEG recordings changes with what the person
recorded is doing (for example sleeping, sitting quietly,
The brain is organized into different structures thinking about a difficult problem), and developmentally.
characterized by different clusters of neurons. Most For example, adults have quite different EEG activity
of this general organization is recognizable by the during sleeping and waking, while newborn infants have
seventh month in utero, by which time there has been much less consistent patterns, and at a behavioural level
a long and complex progress in development, from an go from sleeping to waking much more rapidly. EEG
initial pool of undifferentiated neurons to specialized scans can show up pathological brain activity but do not
neurons located in their proper places, a progress help much in distinguishing within the normal range of
whose mechanisms are not yet understood. Different behavioural development, temperament or intelligence
parts of the brain develop at different rates, and so are (Parmelee and Sigman 1983, pp. 114–17).
most sensitive to environmental influence at different EEG patterns can be analysed, perhaps by
times. The most advanced parts of the cortex are the computer, to assess the time link between
primary motor and sensory areas: the areas where presentation of a stimulus and cortical response to it.
impulses are compared and integrated develop later. Embedded in the spontaneous EEG activity is a peak
The brain areas which control movements of the which is due to the presented stimulus, the sensory
hands, arms and upper body mature earlier than those evoked potential. In the immature nervous system,
which control the legs, a difference mirrored in the these responses tend to be rather slow, and less
varying control infants and young children have over definite in their shape than in adults. They mirror the
different movements. There are general positive long transmission time taken over immature synaptic
correlations between maturity of brain structure and junctions and along immature axons which are not yet
maturity of behaviour, but after the earliest stages fully myelinated. The existence of sensory evoked

58
 Perceiving and understanding

potentials even in pre-term infants indicates that the perception and visual memory. A small proportion of
sensory receptors can respond to the stimulus, that right-handed people, and something under a third of
there are functioning connections between receptors lefthanded people, have other patterns of
and cortex, and that the neurons in the cortex can lateralization of speech, some in the right hemisphere
respond too, even if the whole process is on the slow and some in both hemispheres. Recent EEG studies
side. They do not, however, indicate what processing suggest that the left hemisphere is more active when
is being done at any of these stages unless tasks which are highly verbal are being done
comparisons between stimuli are made. Recent (Kinsbourne and Hiscock 1983, pp. 183–9). There
studies (Parmelee and Sigman 1983, pp. 120–2) have are anatomical differences between left and right
begun to do this, in some cases as a measure of hemispheres, though how these are related to
‘intelligence’. behavioural differences is generally not clear.
The last aspect of brain development I want to refer Although there are some changes between
to is the functional lateralization of the brain childhood and adulthood, both in anatomical
(Kinsbourne and Hiscock 1983). Much has been differences between the hemispheres and in
made of differences between the left and right halves behaviour such as recovery from brain damage,
of the brain: the popular literature on the subject Kinsbourne and Hiscock argue that the development
abounds with suggestions that the left hemisphere is of functional lateralization of the brain does not begin
abstract, analytic and verbal while the right with two neutral hemispheres of equal potential and
hemisphere is intuitive, artistic and concrete, or that end with two definitely differentiated and specialized
educational failure is caused by being ‘right-brained’ ones. They read the evidence as suggesting
in a ‘left-brained’ school system. We will see that asymmetry from at least the first few postnatal weeks;
such assertions are not well founded. as well as anatomical asymmetries rather similar to
One very basic reason for this is that although some adults’, infants seem to have a bias towards
mental functions, such as perceiving the orientation movement to the right, preferences for using their
of a bar of light, can be very precisely located in the right hand or right foot, and better perception of
brain, most higher mental functions are represented speech sounds in the left hemisphere and of non-
in several brain structures not localized in a single speech sounds in the right (Kinsbourne and Hiscock
brain centre. Doing an arithmetic problem, for 1983, pp. 213–36). They attribute changes in
example, such as ‘2 + 3 = ?’, will involve reading, apparent laterality not to changes in structural
memory, reasoning, computation and a variety of properties of the brain, but to different approaches to
movements of eyes, head and the hand that writes the task, shifts in the strategies employed.
down ‘5’. Each of these is certainly complex enough
to involve many brain processes. (There is some
Although developmental changes in asymmetry of visual
discussion of their complexity in the next chapter.) It perception have been attributed to an emerging
will be obvious that we cannot sensibly talk about hemispheric specialization for certain functions, it is
how ‘arithmetic’ is lateralized when many areas of curious that a brain that is lateralized from birth for the
the brain are involved and when indeed ‘arithmetic’ processing of speech sounds should become lateralized for
and ways of doing it vary in complexity so much. other functions only after the passing of several years.
Evidence from a large number of studies has now We suggested in the previous section of this chapter that
developmental changes in degree of asymmetry probably
shown that most adults have their speech control in
reflect developmental changes in the behavioural
the left hemisphere, though the right hemisphere has organization of the skill rather than a shifting neural base
a substantial capacity for language comprehension for a constantly organized set of component skills. As a skill
and some for control of expressive speech if the left develops in the maturing brain, additional lateralized
hemisphere is not functioning. The right components may be recruited to the performance of the
hemisphere’s functions include control of tone skill and asymmetries observed for the first time. When

59
Understanding Child Development

performance of the younger child is symmetric, this need systematic study of infants began: Hamlyn (1978)
not imply that the lateralized components have not yet reviews the course of the arguments between the
become lateralized; instead the lateralized components empiricists and the rationalists.
may not yet be functional or integrated into the organization
of the skill. In support of this explanation, we can point to
evidence (previously described) that perceptual tasks are Piaget’s theory
susceptible to influence from nonstructural variables, such
The central theory of infant cognition has been
as strategy, expectancy, and previous experience with the
stimulus material. Piaget’s. He emphasizes the importance of action for
Perceptual tasks are not merely measures of some the development of thought. The infant acquires
structural property of the brain. It seems plausible that age- knowledge of the world by acting on it, actions which
related changes in degree of asymmetry reflect different are initially crude reflexes but which develop into
approaches to the task rather than different degrees of organized acts linked to their consequences. These
cerebral lateralization (Kinsbourne and Hiscock 1983, pp. are what Piaget calls ‘circular reactions’, that is, acts
230–1).
which tend to produce results which lead to the re-
elicitation of the initial action. An example is
I cannot assess the merits of their evidence and
sucking: this produces (among other sensations)
reasoning, but they are emphasizing yet again the
mouth pressure which tends to elicit further sucking,
problems of linking brain structure and behaviour in
so that the initial reflex meshes with feedback from its
developmental theory. No facile conclusions can be
drawn. results. The circular reaction becomes differentiated
and refined, so that the infant learns, for example, to
suck in different ways suited to different objects.
Cognition in infancy They also become integrated with other circular
I have outlined what is known about the physical reactions, as in Bruner’s experiments when infants
status and the functioning of infants’ perceptual co-ordinate the sucking which brings an attractive
apparatus in the preceding section. It would seem that picture into focus with their looking at the picture
they are able to get perceptual experience from birth, (Bruner et al. 1966). The increasing differentiation,
and in some modalities from before birth, indeed that refinement, integration and deliberateness of circular
perceptual experiences of various sorts are needed for reactions lead to progress in the infant’s construction
the proper development of the sensory apparatus. of a sensori-motor action-based representation of the
However, there is a difference between the objective world. The functional invariants of Assimilation and
physical stimulus and what is made of it in the course Accommodation are central to this progress, as new
of perception and cognition. Most stimuli are stimulation is interpreted in terms of old knowledge,
interpreted by the organism which perceives them, and old knowledge extended by new information.
whether that organism be human or non-human, Thus Piaget’s infant sets out into a world of varied
infant or adult. Sometimes the stimuli need little stimulation equipped with a number of reflexes and
interpretation to be meaningful and effective, assimilatory/accommodatory powers, and makes
sometimes a great deal is needed. Sometimes the good cognitively by hammering out of the world a
interpretation made is objective, derived from the construction derived from his or her own actions
stimulus more than from the perceiver and likely to be upon it. The activity of the infant is what is
identically derived by any other perceiver: emphasized, more than the possible structuring of
sometimes the interpretation is subjective, a result of information offered by either the physical or the
the perceiver’s idiosyncracies not of the stimulus. social world. These possibilities are put nearer the
Debates about the extent and the sources of centre stage by two other theories; Gibson (1979)
interpretation of perception have been active in emphasizes the orderliness of the physical world and
philosophy since well before any psychology or any the contributions that this makes to cognitive

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 Perceiving and understanding

development: Bruner (1973) and others emphasize a car affords information about how well the car is
the contribution made by the infant’s caretakers. I running: someone knowledgeable about the car will
will spend more time on the former here, as the perceive this affordance, a nondriver will not.
contributions of adults to infants’ cognition are most Gibson’s theory suggests that many of these
obvious in the social and linguistic spheres and are relationships and affordances are perceived quite
therefore discussed in Chapters 4 and 6. directly. The infant has, from birth, a perceptual
system capable of detecting the rich organized
Gibson’s theory information which the environment provides. Where
James J. Gibson is primarily concerned with Piaget suggests that information from different
nondevelopmental work on perception but the modalities or different moments of experience are
epistemological implications of his work are in some separate to begin with, and have to be brought
contrast to Piaget’s, and are very relevant to together by the infant’s construction, Gibson
understanding cognitive development in infancy. An suggests that environmental information comes in
important assertion is that the environment is rich in already organized and synthesized, in meaningful
organized information. For example, changes in the and useful packages, and little construction and
apparent texture of objects indicate distance, as when reinterpretation is needed. Experience leads not to
we can see the separate blades of grass next to us but new insights but to clearer tuning and better
as we look further away the grass blades merge into a discrimination of which features are most distinctive:
smooth uniform green. There is also a great deal of the child becomes a more skilled and systematic
organization in features like the relative sizes of observer, rather than Piaget’s active little
objects. If object A alone is getting bigger as we experimentalist.
watch, while the rest of the visual field remains the
same size, we see A moving towards us: if A and field Some cognitive developments in infancy
both get bigger, remaining the same size relative to Harris (1983) reviews much of the literature on infant
each other, we see A and the field getting nearer to us cognition in the light of these different theoretical
or ourselves moving nearer to the field. Treating emphases. I will discuss cross-modal integration,
perception by analysing it into separate bits of development of space perception and the
stimulation tends to obscure this organization. development of the infant’s understanding of the
Another important concept is that of ‘affordances’ existence of objects, as these areas have received a
(E. J. Gibson 1982). An affordance is a collection of great deal of attention and raise important theoretical
properties of part of the environment relative to the points.
organism being considered. For example, if a surface
is more or less flat and horizontal, rather than sharp, Cross-modal integration
slanted and vertical, and is large enough in extent Piaget, like the empiricist philosophers, argues that
relative to your size and rigid relative to your weight, perception of space is gradually constructed from an
then it affords support. ‘It is stand-on-able, integration of visual information into action. As a
permitting an upright posture . . . it is therefore walk- result of failure and success in reaching, and later
on-able and run-over-able. It is not sink-into-able’ (J. locomotion, the infant comes to understand depth and
J. Gibson 1979, p. 127). This affordance is an distance. The integration of vision and touch, which
objective physical property of the world, but it is began as separate modalities, leads to cross-modal
relative to you. A larger heavier animal might not be perception, and an understanding that objects may
able to stand on the chair which affords support to continue to exist although no longer visible arises from
you: you cannot be supported by the twig which multimodal knowledge and active experience of
affords support to the insect. A noise in the engine of moving and finding objects. At first the world is

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Understanding Child Development

haphazard, varying unstably from moment to moment deeper level. Infants have been shown to have more
and full of unintegrated stimulation: gradually the inter-modality coordination than Piaget allowed
infant constructs a world of integrated schemes and them, but they have to learn when to expect that
permanent objects. information from different modalities should be
The Gibsonian infant has the benefit of linked correlated and when it need not be. For example,
sensory systems dealing coherently with linked although voices often come from faces, non-speaking
information in the outside world. It is not necessary to faces are quite common, and the infant will
construct correspondences between sound and sight, sometimes hear a voice without seeing a face. Lip
vision and touch: the physical world ensures that they movements, on the other hand, should always fit
often co-vary for the objects that surround the infant. speech sounds.
What he or she has to do is learn which bits of co-
varying information are most reliably associated with Depth perception
objects or events: this sort of discrimination does not Depth perception is thought by Piaget (and by the
have to be derived from the infant’s own actions. empiricist philosophers) to be gradually constructed
As far as the infant’s ability to make links across from the infant’s experience of reaching, grasping,
sensory modalities is concerned, even infants in their and moving, which are constructively integrated with
first month of life can use information in one visual experience. Gibson suggests that depth is as
modality to guide another. For example, infants will directly perceived from environmental information
probably look towards a sound, though it is not clear as colour or shape is, and precedes the infant’s
whether they also expect to see something at the place experience of movement. As we saw when reviewing
where the sound was heard. By the time they are about visual perception, the neonate has some capacity to
4 months old they prefer to look at an object which is achieve binocular vision which is one of the visual
moving at the same tempo as the sound they hear cues to depth, and can certainly achieve exact eye
(Harris 1983, pp.708–9, 740–1). Coordination convergence well before accurate reaching is
between sight and touch also seems to originate very possible. From about 5 months old infants are
early, though there have been many replication unlikely to reach for objects which are beyond their
failures here. Bower, Broughton and Moore (1970) reach, and at about this age also react by moving their
reported that 2week-old infants reached in the arms between themselves and the object which is
appropriate direction for the object they saw, shaping apparently on a collision course with them (Harris
their hand appropriately to the object, and showing 1983, pp. 710–5). It appears, therefore, that infants
surprise and distress when, owing to some optical show behaviour adjusted to spatial distance before
trickery, they reached to the place where the object they have had much opportunity to practise moving
appeared to be but really was not. Harris (1983, pp. themselves, behaviour more consistent with
709, 742) cites only failures to replicate this study. Gibson’s theory than with Piaget’s. They certainly
More recently, Meltzoff and Borton (1979) have learn more about distance and depth perception with
produced data which suggest that neonates can experience of locomotion, however.
recognize a visually presented object after a prior
tactual experience; Bryant et al. (1972) showed that Infant search and object permanence
8-month-olds can certainly do this. Thus the evidence Piaget claimed that infants for most of their first year
is not easy to interpret. believed that out of sight meant not just out of mind
Nevertheless, Harris concludes that sight probably but out of existence. Objects, including people,
does trigger reaching, and sound trigger looking. existed while the infant looked at them and ceased to
What is not clear is whether the infant really expects exist if not looked at. When the infant looked again,
to see the source of the sound or touch the seen object, the object began to exist again, or a new but identical
that is whether there is cross-modal integration at a

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 Perceiving and understanding

object began to exist. When the infant did not look, visible displacements to new hiding places, and from
the object had no existence. about 18 months old the stage 6 infant can search for
(While this belief seems bizarre and indeed an object whatever displacements have been made.
infantile, it has been a real philosophical problem to There is some suggestion that infants at object
determine whether something would exist while no search stages 1–3 may be a bit more sophisticated in
one is aware of it. Two of the nineteenth-century their search than Piaget proposed, in that they do
Oxford limericks propose the problem and a solution seem to treat objects which disappeared by being
to it which Piaget does not attribute to the infant. gradually covered up differently from objects which
disappeared more suddenly or by fading or shrinking
There once was a man who said ‘God to nothing, and they may seem slightly surprised if the
Must think it exceedingly odd
object when it reappears looks different. This
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be suggests a Gibsonian position of the infant using rich
When there’s no one about in the Quad.’ information and gradually becoming more
knowledgeable about the possibilities of objects may
‘Dear Sir, Your astonishment’s odd:
be tenable, but Piaget’s observations of stages 1–3 are
I am always about in the Quad.
And that’s why the tree
not in dispute. Replications of stage 4 do, however,
Will continue to be, suggest that infants do not invariably make the
Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.’ perseverative error which is central to his account of
the stage. The Piagetian infant, having previously
We only ‘know’ that something continues to exist seen and found the object at A, then watches the
even though neither we nor anyone else are object being hidden at B but searches for it only at A,
perceiving it because we have a theoretical model of apparently believing that the existence of the object is
the world which assumes objects have a stable contingent on looking for it at A. Replication infants
existence, and we have learned a great deal about quite often search at B (about 50 per cent)
different sorts of disappearance and reappearance.) (Butterworth 1975, 1977, 1978); they sometimes
There is a well-replicated sequence of infant search search at A even if the object is visible at B; they make
behaviours. To begin with, infants do not actively very few errors if they are allowed to search
search at all, they simply stare in the direction of immediately the object is hidden rather than being
where the object was before it moved or disappeared. forced to wait (Gratch et al. 1974); they search more
Next, they show some anticipation of the direction of correctly in a conventional container such as an
movement of a moving object, follow it visually and upright cup than in an unconventional one or under an
manually if it is taken from them, and will retrieve an inverted container (Freeman et al. 1980). That is, the
object from a hiding place which only partly hides it. infant’s search is not so unreasonable or egocentric as
Later, they search for an object which has Piaget implies, and the AB error may occur because
disappeared from view completely, but mainly in the the infant is confused about the object’s whereabouts,
place they are used to seeing it at, not in the new not because he or she believes its existence is linked
hiding place where they have just watched it being to A.
put. ‘Faced with the disappearance of the object, the Harris (1983) places the emphasis on the infant
child immediately ceases to reflect and merely coming to know where to search and what sort of
returns to the place where action was successful the thing he or she is searching for. A distinction has to be
first time’ (Piaget 1954, p. 61). This is Piaget’s stage learned empirically between single objects and
4, the most striking part of the infant search/ object multiple identical objects. The former behave
permanence data, and a popular research problem. In lawfully as to their position: an individual biscuit
stage 5 the infant does not make this perseverative cannot be simultaneously in the tin and on the plate.
error but has difficulty with successive not fully The positions of multiple exemplars are not lawful:

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Understanding Child Development

taking Biscuit One out of the tin does not preclude reviews the evidence on how infants deal with
taking another biscuit out of the tin unless Biscuit invariance across changes of orientation and with
One is the only biscuit there is. The infant has to learn objects which are different in some respects but
how the successive positions of an object are related, invariant in being members of the same category.
which will involve considering these positions in Habituation techniques show that infants can
relation to the infant, who can move and so change the distinguish different orientations of faces and
relative position of the object, and in relation to a less geometric shapes, and, if they have seen several
mobile external framework. The biscuit is first seen orientations of an object, they can react to a new
in front of me, on the table; next in Daddy’s hand, object as if it were different from all that they have
closer in front of me; next in my hand, moving to my previously seen. That is, the old object, whatever its
mouth; next on the floor underneath my chair. It is orientation, is more familiar than the new object. The
suggested (e.g. Butterworth 1975, 1978; Bremner age at which this distinction is made depends very
1980) that infants initially code position relative to much on the objects used. Infants shown several
their own body, a strategy which works less well once different exemplars of a category, for example male
they begin to crawl and hence to alter the relative faces in a study by Fagan (Harris 1983, p. 732), show
position of the object and their body. A spatial dishabituation to a member of a different category, for
framework specifying position relative to distinctive example a female face, but not to a new exemplar of
landmarks is developed. Some notions of the the original category. The breadth of familiarization
physical characteristics of landmarks and objects which they are given is related to the breadth of the
may be included; for example, Freeman et al. (1980) concept they construct. There is some evidence that
show that infants search more for an object hidden they use either the most frequent features or a form of
and moved about under an inverted container. averaging to build up a prototype example, just as
Certainly there are differences later in understanding adults do. This suggests that abstraction and
prepositions such as ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘under’ (Clark deduction are involved in the detection of invariance,
1983). not just the detection of features which the Gibsons
propose.
Recognizing the identity of objects
Detecting the invariant qualities of an object among Recognizing the separation of self from objects
the qualities which vary in appearance as the object The dominant theory has been for a long time that
moves, or is partially transformed, is an important infants do not distinguish between themselves and
cognitive activity in both Piaget’s and Gibson’s the outer world. They feel certain sensations but do
theories. For Piaget, the infant attains the object not know where they come from, they cannot
concept by deduction from his or her active distinguish events which they are responsible for
experimentation on objects, gradually deducing that from events which are independent of them. They are
objects are permanent, external to the self and retain utterly egocentric, subjective and solipsistic, with no
their identity whatever their changes in position way of distinguishing between internally-generated
(Piaget 1954). Later, this understanding of qualitative and externally-given information.
identity is developed into appreciation of what Recently, Gibson has argued that, on the contrary,
quantitative aspects of the object are conserved (see infants do have a number of sources of information
Chapter 3). For Gibson, on the other hand, much which would allow reliable distinctions to be made
information about identity is given by the between them and the outside world. One source of
environment, and little deduction is needed. information is the kinesthetic feedback supplied by
Invariance is detected not constructed (E. J. Gibson any movement of the body. Another is the bits of body
1969; J. J. Gibson 1979). Harris (1983, pp. 731–9) which provide boundaries to the visual field, the nose,
the eyebrow ridge and the infant’s fat cheeks. These

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 Perceiving and understanding

are a fairly constant part of the visual field; they move flexibility and lack of constraint that are assumed to
whenever the head moves, faster than objects in the characterize play would be expected to have this
world beyond, and do not move when the head is still. effect. However the experimental studies suffer from
Thus the infants can feel their own actions and see methodological problems. First, it may be doubted
part of themselves, including of course the mobile whether what the children do in the ‘play’ condition
bits of body such as hands. is ‘play’, in the sense of flexible, intrinsically-
While there is as yet little evidence to test Gibson’s motivated activity rather than, for example,
model, Harris (1983, pp. 744–7) proposes that it ‘exploration’ which typically precedes ‘play’ and is
suggests that from the early months of life the infant necessary if all the potential of the material is to be
is indeed sensitive to the ways in which the visual discovered (Hutt 1979). Second, the demonstration
field specifies the existence, location and movements that ‘play’ is as good an inducer of learning as the
of the observing self. Full recognition of oneself as a training given does not mean that play is as good a
person involves more than a separation of self from way of learning as any training would be. In at least
the external world, of course, and is discussed in the some of the studies reviewed the training is clearly
section on the self-concept (Chapter 5). not optimal for the subjects, and controls do not seem
adequate. Smith and Simon also express concern
Play and cognitive development about possible experimenter effects such as
It has often been suggested that play is the child’s way differential provision of hints to ‘play’ and ‘training’
of learning. This suggestion has been implemented in groups or simply a more relaxed style of testing in the
the classic early childhood curriculum of ‘free play’, problem-solving phase for children from the more
which provides children in settings such as relaxed ‘play’ group. There is room for doubt also
playgroups and nursery schools with materials and that one brief ‘play’ or ‘training’ session could be
opportunities for play and encourages them in self- long enough to do any more than help the child feel at
chosen meansdominated activities rather than ease with the experimenter. After concluding that no
involving them in achievement-directed training. conclusion on the question of the contribution of play
Directive or didactic intervention by adults is seen as experience to learning is possible from the
inappropriate for young children. The ‘play way of experimental evidence available at present. Smith
learning’ is backed up by the idealization of play (see and Simon call for more ecologically valid work.
p. 24), by ideas derived from Piaget’s views on A considerable amount of observational data is
learning (p. 34) and from Freudian ideas about play as available now from studies of British pre-schools
therapy (p. 28) and more recently by suggestions done during the late 1970s (e.g. Sylva, Roy and
from psychology experiments and observation that Painter 1980; Hutt et al. 1979; Meadows and
play with objects is an efficient way of learning how Cashdan 1983; Tizard, Philips and Plewis 1976).
to solve problems (Sylva 1977; Sylva, Roy and These studies have tried to assess the quality of
Painter 1980). Smith and Simon (1984) review a children’s play in part because of concern with its
number of such experiments which have compared contribution to cognitive development. Sylva et al.
the effects of a few free play sessions and a few (1980) used a binary categorization of quality, Tizard
directed training sessions on convergent or divergent et al. (1976) two composite scales, Meadows et al.
problemsolving. Reviewing these studies they (1983) four ‘cognitive’ scales. These involved
summarize them as suggesting that experience in discrimination of symbolic, goal-directed and
‘play’ and ‘non-play’ conditions contributes about unfocused instances of play, four levels of how
equally to convergent problem-solving, where there involved the child was in the play activity, how much
is only one solution, and ‘play’ experience use was made of play material, and how many
contributes more to success on divergent problems operations were brought together in the activity.
where many and novel solutions are required. The Rating play on these four dimensions showed

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Understanding Child Development

positive but low correlations between dimensions, made it easy to define a goal and one’s progress
and differences between materials and children in towards it (art activities are the clearest example),
which sort of ‘complexity’ characterized them. There children showed play which was at higher levels.
are some problems in making detailed comparisons It would be possible for those who are the greatest
between studies, differences in how the ‘quality’ of enthusiasts about the value of spontaneous play in
play was assessed being one, but on the whole they cognitive development to dismiss this picture of how
agreed in two ways important for our present children play in pre-school groups as having managed
purposes. First, the general level of cognitive to miss the learning that children were really doing,
complexity of children’s play in the wide range of during what looked uninspired to someone not partic-
pre-school groups observed was disappointing. ipating. However the research on different forms of
Much of what children did when playing was early childhood education and the work on cognitive
pleasurable but simple, repetitive, unstructured, skills which I discuss in the next chapter both suggest,
uninventive, uninvolving, brief and generally I think, that although children can and do learn
uninspiring. Second, on the rather rare occasions through their play we need to recognize more explic-
when teachers were more than casually involved, and itly what is learned through social interaction with
in association with a limited range of materials which adults and their deliberate teaching or model-giving.

66
 Perceiving and understanding

Plate 6

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Understanding Child Development

Plate 7

68
3 The development of cognitive skills

In the previous chapter, I discussed the current best current review of cognitive development that I
theories of what ‘cognitive development’ consists of, know. I give here a slightly elaborated version of their
and described perception and cognition in infancy. In tetrahedral framework (Figure 8).
this chapter, I am going to outline what we know
about the development of cognitive skills. After the Attention
influence of Piaget’s very abstract and general theory,
interest has moved towards research which provides Bearing this interaction in mind, then, we can look
detailed accounts of children’s behaviour in more at some of the components of cognition and how
limited areas of cognition. I will describe some of they develop. ‘Attention’ seems a good aspect to
these areas, and draw some conclusions about the start with since it could be taken as a necessary
developmental processes involved. condition for further cognitive activity. It is
It may be helpful to the reader to have in mind what however a somewhat vague concept, certainly
I have emphasized already, that neither ‘cognition’ polymorphous. Taylor (1978) gives examples:
nor ‘development’ is simple, and that learner ‘Attention can be directed, switched, captured,
characteristics and task characteristics interact. distributed, divided, narrowed, sustained or
Indeed, there should perhaps be implicit in our withheld. . . . “Distractibility” may imply that the
discussion something like the organizational child is not motivated to do the tasks he is given, or
framework proposed in a chapter by Brown, that they are too difficult for him to persist at; it may
Bransford, Ferrara and Campione (1983) which is the mean that he explores all stimuli,or all prominent

Figure 8

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Understanding Child Development

stimuli, or simply that the values he gives to stimuli are not Cashdan 1983; Galton et al. 1980) show that
that of the rater; it may mean that he becomes fatigued very alternation of concentration with daydreaming,
rapidly and changes task frequently as a result’ (Taylor social chat and other activities less tightly related to
1978, p. 185).
the task is common. Hard work and rapid progress
Nor is ‘attention’ simple to measure: overt
during concentration makes up, on most tasks, for
behaviour, task achievement, introspection and
periods of distracted or unfocused attention. (The
physiological indices of concentration such as
accounts given of creative thinking and the role of
changes in heart rate or EEG have all been used, and
subconscious activity are similarly comforting.)
are all problematic. They do however give a
Sustained vigilance in the sense of attention which
moderately coherent picture of development. As
never omits to respond to target stimuli and never
development proceeds the direction of attention
makes incorrect responses seems to be learned late, as
becomes more independent of what is conspicuous in
a deliberate cold-blooded skill, and, at least in the
the environment, more systematic and more flexible.
forms which military tasks can require, needs special
In looking at a picture, for example, young subjects
training. Given high motivation in daily life,
tend to focus on a point and work haphazardly away
however, children can be sufficiently vigilant: ‘little
from it, while older subjects are more likely to scan
pitchers have big ears’!
the picture exhaustively or to attend more to
‘Low attention span’ and ‘distractibility’ have
information which is relevant to the task they have
been related to neurological damage and immaturity
been set. One paradigm which shows this up very
and linked to ‘hyperactivity’, but there is little
usefully is that of ‘incidental memory’ (e.g. Hagen
consensus about how strong the links are or to how
and Hale 1973). Children are shown an array of cards
physiological and psychological measures interact.
and asked to recall where members of a specified
Here as elsewhere (see, for example, discussion of
subset (e.g. animals) are, while no instructions are
aggression, Chapter 5) physiological (or
given about the need to recall another subset (e.g.
biochemical) changes may cause or be caused by
toys). They are then tested on their recall of both the
psychological ones, or both may be caused by some
subset they were told to learn (‘central task’) and the
third sort of change. Psychosocial factors are also
subset which they weren’t (‘incidental task’).
involved, both in choice of what is voluntarily
Performance on the ‘central task’ improves very
attended to, and in the strategic aspects of attention.
much with age: performance on the ‘incidental task’
Family interaction and communication are probably
does not change, and may decline in older, better
involved, though a far more precise analysis of the
educated or more effective learners. The older
ecology of homes is required than has been carried
children have succeeded in directing their attention
out so far (McGurk 1977).
and their effort to learn where they are most needed:
‘Attention’ is a component of two of the best-
the younger children have not. As well as being less
known theories of ‘cognitive style’. Witkin’s ‘Field
able to direct attention selectively they are less able to
dependence vs independence’ model (Witkin et al.
resist distraction (Taylor 1985).
1979; Witkin and Goodenough 1981) involves
Many school tasks require persistence and
selective attention in the ability to process
accuracy over a long period of time, and so ‘he has a
information analytically rather than holistically. The
short attention span’ is quite a serious complaint
‘impulsivity vs reflectiveness’ model of Kagan et al.
about a child. Sustaining attention, ‘vigilance’, is
(1964; Kagan 1984) also implies differences in what
known to be affected by many different factors in
is attended to and how. Neither model seems to be
adults: difficulties in remaining vigilant are
making much progress at present (Kogan 1983), and
commonly found in adults and children with
doubts remain about the conceptual and
psychiatric symptoms. However, observations of
methodological usefulness of rather simple models
children doing school work (e.g. Meadows and
of cognitive style which are supposed to pervade all

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 The development of cognitive skills

functioning. There is some danger that they become consensus over the details of these models and they
seen as important independent entities and so precise are in any case derived mainly from work done with
study of tasks and processes is precluded. Taylor adults, indeed mainly with undergraduates, rather
(1978), concluding his review on the development of than with children. However some distinctions and
attention, and indicating how many gaps there are in some processes drawn from these models appear in
our understanding, emphasizes that attention is not developmental studies, and point up both changes
unitary and it is not something we simply get more of and lack of change with development.
as we get older. He suggests that age (presumably he
means the correlates of age, such as maturation and Recognition memory
experience) ‘brings an increase in the use of One distinction, due in part to differences in
systematic, logical strategies of exploring the world; experimental method, is between ‘recognition’ and
in the ability to be flexible and selective in one’s ‘recall’. Recognition memory is investigated by
approach to information; and in maintaining one’s presenting subjects with the material they are to
responsiveness for longer periods’ (Taylor 1978, p. remember, and then after an interval representing it,
195). either asking the subjects to judge whether it is
As the reader may already have anticipated, this familiar or novel, or requiring them to discriminate it
sort of conclusion – lots of gaps in the evidence, but a from material which they have not seen before. In
picture of initial strategies and skills become more ‘recall’ tests, the material is not presented a second
flexible and polished, in large part as a result of time, and subjects are required to retrieve and
practice – will pervade my account of cognitive describe it from memory. All other things being
development. equal, most people find recognition tasks easier than
recall, and adults’ recognition of meaningful material
Remembering (such as pictures of familiar objects) is extremely
good (Shepard 1967; Standing 1973; Bahrick et al.
It is obvious that remembering of some sort is 1975). Recognition memory is virtually as good in
necessary for virtually any human cognitive activity. children of 4 and older (e.g. Brown and Scott 1971;
As we saw earlier it is hard to believe in the possibility Brown and Campione 1972). In Brown and
of an intelligent organism which did not use Campione’s study, 4-year-olds were shown eighty
accommodation and assimilation in its functioning, pictures of familiar objects. After an interval they
that did not make some comparison between the were shown 120 pairs of pictures; in sixty pairs one
present stimulus and stimuli encountered earlier. This picture had been in the original set of eighty while the
would be impossible without memory. Conversely, other picture had not but showed the same object (if,
memory is rarely an isolated intellectual skill. Early for example, the original picture showed a dog eating,
researchers found it necessary to concentrate on it was paired in the recognition test with the same dog
memory for meaningless materials such as nonsense running). The other sixty pairs were entirely
syllables in part because this was the only way to composed of new pictures. Recognition was highly
control for differences in subjects’ knowledge, accurate; after a two-hour interval, after a day and
understanding and so forth (see, for example, after a week. This is comparable with results in work
Baddeley 1976). It is partly because of the interaction with adults, though adults would often be shown
of remembering, understanding and acting that more pictures.
developmental changes in memory are important. Children as young as 4, then, have an impressive
It is also obvious that ‘remembering’ is not one ability to say correctly whether or not they have seen
simple activity. There have been many suggestions a picture of an object before. Testing recognition
about the structure of memory and the processes memory in younger children by asking them to say
which are involved at each stage. There is no clear

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Understanding Child Development

whether pictures were novel or familiar would be development of recognition memory. Although
problematic as it might be hard for a young child to recognition memory for simple objects is almost as
produce the right words or to understand the good in pre-school children as in adults, and there is
instructions. A paradigm which allows the child to not much more difference between them on harder
use well-mastered behaviour, particularly non-verbal stimuli such as abstract pictures or puzzle pieces
responses, is more suitable for investigating (Nelson 1971; Nelson and Kosslyn 1976), older
recognition memory in babies and toddlers. children and adults out-perform younger children on
Habituation techniques and measurement of the recognition memory of complex scenes (Newcombe,
attention a baby pays to novel and familiar objects Rogoff and Kagan 1977). Young children seemed to
have produced some useful results. make less use of the meaningful relationships
In habituation experiments, subjects are repeatedly between items in the scene: they may also have
shown the same stimulus. On its first showing the scanned the picture less exhaustively, even omitting
stimulus evokes a lot of attention, as measured by to look at some parts of it. We will see that meaning
how long it is looked at or by physiological measures and processing strategies play an important part in
such as deceleration of heart rate or changes in EEG. memory, a part which becomes more prominent as
If on each successive showing it evokes less children develop. Discussion of these points will
attention, the subject is said to have habituated: pervade the rest of our discussion of memory.
eventually the stimulus which was initially absorbing
receives only a brief glance. This decline in interest or Recall Memory
‘habituation’ could only happen if the subject We have seen that meaning and strategy become
remembered the stimulus from one occasion to involved in recognition memory, but that even in
another. Since habituation to simple patterns can be cases where no particular effort is made to remember
demonstrated in babies from the age of 10 weeks, recognition memory may be very good indeed.
when babies start to prefer to look at novel patterns Recall memory seems to be, on the whole, a much
rather than ones they have seen before (Wetherford more difficult proposition. If adult subjects are shown
and Cohen 1973), there is clearly some recognition a dozen or so unrelated stimuli once, and asked to
memory capacity in babies under 3 months old. The recall them in any order immediately afterwards, they
possibility of conditioning in neonates (e.g. are likely to recall about seven items correctly; the
Papousek 1967) suggests that there may be last few items and perhaps the first few are most likely
recognition memory earlier still. At these young ages, to be correct (‘recency’ and ‘primacy’ effects
however, the time interval between stimuli must be respectively). Only if the stimuli can be grouped, or if
very short if the baby is to show any remembering. As some deliberate mnemonic work is put in, or if the
babies get older, they can recognize stimuli over a sequence has a meaningful structure, will the number
longer interval: in a study by Fagan (1973) 6-month- of items recalled rise much above seven. There are
old infants looked more at a novel black and white developmental changes in this number, and indeed
photograph of a human face than at a familiar one recall memory for a series of numbers– ‘digit span’ –
after an interval as long as two weeks. They can is a standard intelligence test item. Children aged 3
probably also as they get older remember more years have a digit span of about two, 4-year-olds of
information about the stimulus and therefore notice three or four: the items they remember are likely to be
and attend to smaller differences between the familiar from the end of the list not the beginning, that is they
and the novel stimuli (Kagan, Kearsley and Zelazo show a recency effect but not a primacy effect (Myers
1978). and Perlmutter 1978; Dempster 1981). The primacy
This dimension of complexity of stimuli, and the effect in adults is thought to be due to subjects quietly
associated dimension of meaningfulness, may be naming items to themselves as they try to learn the
among the most important aspects of the

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list: that it is absent in young children implies that experimenter required them to use it, so inability to
they do not do this naming. Naming or ‘rehearsal’ of rehearse, use cues, etc., was clearly not their main
items is one of the strategies which adults use to problem. However, a substantial proportion did not,
improve their memory. If children failed to use such even after training, use the strategy spontaneously.
mnemonic strategies, this might account for their There is a gap between what they do off their own bat
poorer performances on recall tasks. and what they can be trained to do. While this is
probably true of us all (my memory for references,
Children’s use of mnemonic strategies say, and I daresay the reader’s, could certainly be
There is a great deal of evidence now that children improved by the practice of certain mnemonic
under the age of 7 or so rarely use memorizing strategies) one reason for the gap in small children is
strategies in memory tasks. Kail (1979) reviews particularly important and interesting. It is that they
findings on children’s use of rehearsal. There is little do not appreciate how useful and necessary
spontaneous rehearsal in under-7s; while 7-year-olds mnemonic strategies are.
sometimes do some rehearsal, it is likely to be
rudimentary and inefficient, for example limited to Knowledge about memory
repetitions of only one name. Older children and In order to know whether it is worth putting special
adults are more likely to rehearse several items, to effort into memorizing something one needs to know
rehearse members of the same category together, and quite a lot about what the task demands and about
to adapt their rehearsal strategies to the particular one’s own capacities. If the task is judged to be easier
demands of the task. Thus as subjects get older, their than it really is, or one’s capacities are judged to be
rehearsal techniques become more flexible and greater than they are, then one may conclude that no
efficient. Rather similar results are found for other effort is necessary to succeed. Young children make
mnemonic strategies. Before school age children mistakes on both these judgements. A graph from
rarely use them at all. When the strategies are first Kail (1979) illustrates this (Figure 9).
used spontaneously, they are not used very well, but
as children get older they use them more efficiently
and more flexibly, and performance improves.
Papers in Kail and Hagen (1977) review research on
various mnemonic techniques: another improvement
with age is the combination of mnemonics– a ‘belt
and braces’ approach which also augments
performance.
Why do young children rarely use mnemonics?
One explanation would be that they are not capable of
doing so. Work by Flavell and his colleagues
demonstrates that this is not the case for rehearsal,
since children of 6 or 7 can be trained to rehearse
successfully. Similarly they can be taught to use
categorization during learning, and during the recall
phase to use cues, category labels and the strategy of
Figure 9 Predicted and actual memory spans as a
exhaustive search of successive categories (Kail
function of grade level. N = nursery school children;
1979, pp. 18–25). These young children showed K = kindergarten children.
themselves perfectly able to use the mnemonic
strategy they had been trained in while the Source: From Kail (1979), p. 42.

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Understanding Child Development

The young children from nursery and kindergarten One of the important considerations here is the best
believed that they would be able to remember many way to remember in a particular memory task. Tasks
more items after a brief exposure than they actually vary in how easy the stimuli are to remember and in
managed. This inaccurate overconfidence about how easy different ways of demonstrating
performance seemed to be due to ignorance about remembering are. These aspects too show
memory limitations, not to a general overestimation developmental changes (Kail 1979). Pre-school
of abilities, since estimates of jumping distance were children know that, all other things being equal,
much more accurate than estimations of memory familiar items are more memorable than unfamiliar,
span, and the latter were slightly reduced by and long lists are harder than short ones. They do not
information about how well an ‘average peer’ would appreciate that a homogeneous set of items which
be likely to do (Kail 1977; Yussen and Levy 1975). It show a consistent relationship may be very easy to
is fairly obvious that over-confidence is likely to lead learn irrespective of its length, thus they predict that
to not making the extra effort which a more realistic a short paired associate list where there are arbitrary
assessment would show is needed for success, and pairings will be easier to learn than a longer paired
hence to failure on the task. Failure on a memory task associate list where all the pairs are common
is peculiarly hard to judge, however; one may know antonyms. By the age of 9 or 10 children judge the
that one has not remembered everything but not quite antonym list to be easier (as it would be to adults), and
how many items one has failed to remember. Thus if asked to generate a list which would be ‘easy to
over-confident children may do badly on memory remember’ invent one with highly related items. Pre-
tasks but not notice their deficit: ecological studies of school children know about the rapid decay of short-
pre-school children might well show that they are term memory, so they advise that having looked up a
rarely asked to do recall tasks and even more rarely telephone number one should use it directly, not stop
have their failure brought home to them. and do something irrelevant to telephoning; they tend
Improvement in estimating memory span and in the to agree with adults that recognition is easier than
use of mnemonic strategies comes after entry to recall. It is not until the age of about 10 that they say
school, where accurate memory performance that to ‘remember word for word’ is harder than ‘to
increases in importance. A child who goes to school tell you in my own words’, i.e. that paraphrase is
is also having to live in the two micro-systems of easier than verbatim memory. These results suggest
home and school, which will involve both relatively that although children have achieved some
spontaneous reporting of school events at home and understanding of the demands of memorizing by the
vice versa, and the deliberate carriage of information time they enter school, considerable further
from one to the other. No longer can one caretaking experience of memorizing is necessary before they
adult take all the responsibility for the child’s can gauge task demands with accuracy.
remembering; it is only the child who inhabits both In addition to knowledge of oneself and the
micro-systems and knows all their details. particular problems of the task set, performance is
Improvement in memory estimation and in the use likely to benefit from self-monitoring of progress so
of mnemonics can be induced in the experimental that under-learned items are not neglected and no
situation by giving children feedback on their item is over-learned from too much attention. Young
performance and showing that improvement is children do relatively poorly in their memory
attributable to the use of mnemonics (Flavell and monitoring: they frequently stop their efforts to
Wellman 1977; Whittaker 1983). Continued use of memorize prematurely, and on a second trial they
mnemonics is more likely if the demonstrated relearn items already learned and neglect items which
improvement is large, as if the mnemonics have to be they have failed to learn first time. Here too feedback
seen to be cost-effective, and some generalization to can improve performance (Kail 1979). Developing
other tasks may occur.

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 The development of cognitive skills

‘meta-memory’ skills seems to be a necessary but not stage (Kail 1979; Kobasigawa 1977), unless the
sufficient condition of good performance on memory instances of a category are prototypical members
tasks. ‘Metacognition’ is discussed later in this such as ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ rather than ‘snail’ and
chapter. ‘giraffe’. This may be associated with lack of
knowledge, for example, that snails and giraffes are
Knowing and remembering animals. The degree to which children’s categories
The first point I made when introducing discussion of are the same as adults’ is not yet clear (Rosch and
the development of memory was that memory and Lloyd 1978; Clark 1983).
knowledge are not independent (except in certain It must, however, be pointed out that prior
convenient laboratory techniques such as learning knowledge may interfere with memory as well as
nonsense syllables where knowledge is deliberately help it. One classic example of this is Bartlett’s
made irrelevant to the situation). Chi’s elegant ‘constructive recall’ evidence (Bartlett 1932) where
experiments with chess players illustrate this point subjects heard a strange little folk-tale of an
particularly neatly (Chi 1978). She compared encounter with ghosts by some North American
children (average age 10) with adults on immediate Indians. When asked to re-tell the story they
recall of a string of digits and on immediate recall of gradually anglicized it, losing or changing details
stimuli placed within an eight by eight array. The which had significant meaning in the Indian
adults performed better than the children on the digit mythology but had none to English minds. The
list, as expected; but the children remembered more distortion produced in this case is an informative but
about the stimuli in the eight by eight array. This extreme example; usually in memorizing text the gist
unusual finding of better performance by children is is retained even though the wording and some details
explained by the fact that the children were may be lost. The error that increases with age is that
experienced chess players and the adults were not, information which was implied, but not explicitly
and the ‘stimuli placed within an eight by eight array’ stated, is inferred by the listener, so that implicit
were chess pieces in a mid-game position on a information is believed to have been made explicit.
chessboard. This array was meaningful and thus Acceptance of true inferences becomes more
memorable to a chess player, meaningless and frequent as children get older, though false inferences
difficult to someone ignorant about chess. continue to be rejected. Memory is normally holistic
Experience highlights the salient points of an event and inferential and in most cases this is advantageous,
which are most crucial for understanding and though it must contribute to the inaccuracy of eye
remembering it (Brown and De Loache 1978) and witnesses which so concerns criminological
also makes complex events intelligible and easy to psychologists (Loftus 1979).
remember because reconstruction and inference can
be used where otherwise it would be necessary to Cultural demands for memory skills
learn every detail. The novice/expert distinction It is speculative but possible that literal and verbatim
(Brown and De Loache 1978; Flavell 1978) needs memory require special skills rather different from
more specification (Robinson 1983) but may be what is done in ordinary daily remembering. (Tulving
useful in discussing cognitive development. Another (1972) has made a possibly analogous distinction
example of the fact that knowing more makes between episodic and semantic memory.) What is
remembering easier is the increased use of category- commonly called a ‘photographic memory’ or
related mnemonics as children get older. Pre-school ‘eidetic memory’, is rare in adults but apparently
children may be relatively unlikely to use taxonomic commoner in young children who appear to be able to
categories either at the learning or at the retrieval examine a stable mental image of the picture they
were required to remember and ‘read off’ from it

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Understanding Child Development

details, including details which have no meaning to being virtually a by-product of this. Their unusually
them. Eidetic memory is, however, a somewhat extensive practice of verbatim memorizing, either by
elusive phenomenon and a simplistic model of rote or by the organization of accumulated
memory as stored images which are like photographs meaningful material, had no effect on their short-term
is untenable (see, for example, Bransford 1979, pp. recall or recognition of pictures of animals or of
190–2). The possibility of verbatim memory for large oriental rugs. It is to be regretted that they were given
amounts of material is one which interacts no opportunity to show how they remembered
interestingly with the availability of external memory material more like the Koran; whether, for example,
stores. It has been suggested that the possibility of they showed better discrimination of explicitly
recording information in writing and retrieving it by presented information from information which is
reading transforms cognition (e.g. Bruner 1966; inferred not given. Groups of Moroccan boys who
Goody 1977; Cole and Griffin 1980; Olson and had had a more western type of schooling did rather
Torrance 1983). This is a controversial subject which better on the picture recognition and recall tasks.
receives more attention later. There are, however, They also showed signs of the primacy effect in the
certain groups of people in a variety of cultures, both recall task, which may indicate that they had used
literate and non-literate, who are required to recall rehearsal as a mnemonic technique.
long passages of words verbatim. One group studied It would be very premature indeed to come to any
– though by an ethnographic linguist (Lord 1960) conclusions about cultural effects on memorization
rather than a psychologist – was the itinerant ballad or possible universals in memory structure or
singers of the remoter parts of Yugoslavia, who memory processing. All that can be said at present is
moved from village to village entertaining the men that training with feedback can induce children to use
with traditional folk tales just as earlier reciters did mnemonic strategies and to persist in using them if
Homer’s poems, composed long before they could be they are efficient; and that a high degree of practice of
recorded in writing. It had been believed that such a particular mnemonic technique can produce
storytellers must have achieved phenomenal powers phenomenal remembering of material suited to that
of verbatim recall. A closer look at what they did technique (see Luria 1969). Practice of one sort of
showed that actually they remembered not every technique on one sort of material may or may not lead
word but the order of events and a limited range of to improved performance of other techniques or on
stock epithets, and with these and the help of strict other materials. If children are to be set to learn reams
rules of rhyme and rhythm they reconstructed a of poety, for example, this should be done for the sake
version of the story which differed slightly from of the advantages of remembering reams of poetry
previous versions, rather than remembering verbatim (which are various and by no means negligible) not
an unvarying text. Exact verbatim recall is required in because the memorizing is expected to ‘train their
the memorization of sacred texts, laws and property memory’ in any general way. That it may do so should
lists, which as Goody (1977) points out were among be an incidental bonus.
the earliest products when writing was invented, and Although experimental research has told us a great
also in the memorization of literary products such as deal about the structure of memory and about
poems and plays. There has not been much study of remembering processes, we do not know as much as
how this is done and whether it develops particular might be desired about memory in ‘ecologically
mnemonic powers. Wagner (1982) provides a rather natural’ settings. Early work by Istomina (1975)
brief account of a study of Moroccan boys, suggests that young children may do better on
comparing various groups differing in educational memory tasks which make sense to them than they do
experience and including boys from a traditional on artificial ones. In her study the comparison was
Islamic school where the curriculum centered on between recalling items while playing ‘shopping’
learning the Koran by heart, elementary literacy and recalling the same items as a formally presented

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list. There are probably motivational differences in faced with different sorts of reading task or text. The
the two settings, and more knowledge of the demands ‘reading’ involved in recognizing ‘cereals’ in a
of shopping meant more efficient strategies were supermarket is probably not quite the same as the
recalled as appropriate. Work like this, a more ‘reading’ involved in understanding the same word in
sensitive approach to cross-cultural comparisons, a newspaper article on the government’s farming
and further investigations of ‘the child as policy, and the ‘reading’ might well be different again
psychologist’ (Harris 1983a) would be welcome. when ‘cereals’ appears in a scientific article or a
poem. Similarly, children learning to read may use
Reading different processes to make sense of the written
message, varying according to, for example,
Frith (1980a) calls reading and spelling ‘complex and familiarity, the availability of context, and the child’s
astonishing accomplishments’, a description which own preferences such as willingness to guess
is obviously correct. We do not yet have a full account (Francis 1982).
of what people do when they read. Researchers agree
that very many linguistic, perceptual, attentional, Development in reading processes
memory and cognitive skills are involved, but they Although we cannot yet specify the developmental
vary considerably in which they emphasize. course of interacting reading processes, it does seem
Research in experimental cognitive psychology likely that it is the basic perceptual processes which
often concentrates on ‘bottom-up’ analyses (see, for change least. Visual discriminations between
example, Crowder 1982) and emphasizes the symbols like b and d, for example, can be shown even
reader’s use of, for example, eye movements or in infants (see Chapter 2; and Banks and Salapatek
pattern recognition processes. Other investigators 1983). There is, on the other hand, obvious and
may assert that the reader’s knowledge of what is enormous development in the child’s knowledge of
likely to be the meaning of a word or piece of text may language, of the world, and of reading and literature.
be crucial in whether it can be read, and emphasize Variations here are predictive of success or failure in
‘top-down’ models (e.g. Smith 1978). In some cases learning to read. I shall have more to say about these
there has been a regrettable tendency to make the ‘top-down’ constituents of reading than about the
‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ emphases too strong, so perceptual basics, but I would not wish to imply either
that some accounts of reading as a matter of that the latter are unimportant or that they remain
comprehension have taken the perceptual unchanged throughout the development of reading.
components as uninteresting and mechanical, and Children as they begin to learn to read probably
some accounts of reading as a matter of decoding have, then, most of the perceptual capacities – eye
visual information into a verbal form have excluded
movements, pattern recognition and discrimination,
anything more ‘cognitive’ than word recognition.
attention – which they need. They are also very well
‘Top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ have to be co-ordinated
used to dealing with the language that they hear. They
in theories as they are in ordinary reading, where most
have had much practice in extracting meaning from
of the time processes at all levels are used. Recently
it: they have also probably analysed it into segments
theories which integrate different levels have
at the levels of phrases, words and morphemes
appeared. Morton’s ‘logogen’ system (Morton 1969,
(McShane, personal communication). In reading,
1980) and Rumelhart’s model (Rumelhart 1977; Ellis
they have to do rather similar things to language
1984) are important examples. It is clear that
which they see rather than hear. There has been much
‘reading’ includes many different activities at
different perceptual, linguistic and cognitive levels, debate over whether writing is decoded into imagined
which no doubt interact in changing ways as the speech which is then processed as if it were really
reader becomes more skilled, or when the reader is heard, or whether reading goes straight from symbol

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Understanding Child Development

to meaning. The possible relationships between and ‘bombardment’). Stubbs (1980) argues that the
speech and reading are complex, and the evidence is English spelling system works extremely well for a
so too (Crowder 1982; ch. 9; Ellis 1984). The debate native speaker who knows its phonological and
may perhaps be resolving into an agreement that the morphological rules, that is it is better suited to adult
skilled reader, at least, may use imagined sound or fluent readers than to children (or foreigners)
may go direct from written word to meaning. What is learning to read English. Awareness of language
done depends on the reader’s skills, the novelty or would thus appear to be a most important component
familiarity of words, the difficulty of the text and the of learning to read. Awareness of sounds is a predictor
purpose of reading, among other variables. of speed of becoming a reader: teaching about sounds
(‘phonics’) seems to be a useful part of teaching
Sound–letter correspondences reading (Bryant and Bradley 1985). Phonemic
Children learning to read often have problems over analysis is quite hard to learn but becoming able to do
the relationship between sound and letter. In English it is an important breakthrough in the early stages of
there are many complexities in the correspondence reading. ‘Sounding out’ words, if successful, reduces
between phoneme and grapheme – consider for dependence on recognizing their visual pattern and
example ‘a’ in ‘cat’, ‘fate’ and ‘arm’, and ‘c’ in ‘cat’, supplements the child’s knowledge of likely meaning
‘ceiling’ and ‘chuckle’. There may be more and vocabulary. Experience of reading increases both
regularities in combinations of graphemes. As Stubbs the child’s general knowledge and his or her
(1980) points out, Bernard Shaw overstated his case knowledge of the underlying rules of written
for spelling reform when he suggested a language so that gradually correspondences between
pronunciation for ‘ghoti’ which followed precedents letter and sound become less crucial to understanding
in other words (‘gh’ as in ‘cough’, ‘o’ as in ‘women’, what is being read. Adult fluent readers may only use
‘ti’ as in ‘station’, hence ‘ghoti’ is pronounced ‘fish’), sound deliberately in their reading when they are
as ‘gh’ is always pronounced as a hard ‘g’ when it having problems with understanding or
appears at the beginning of words (‘ghost’, ‘ghastly’, remembering what they read.
‘ghetto’). There are however many irregularities
even in common words. The letter string ‘ough’ has a Language awareness in learning to read
different pronunciation each time it appears in the Various studies have now picked up linguistic
words ‘bough’, ‘cough’, ‘dough’, ‘lough’, ‘nought’, awareness and experience as an important predictor
‘rough’ and ‘through’. Further, Liberman et al. of learning to read, perhaps even a prerequisite for it.
(1977) show that it is unlikely that speech sound is Wells (1981) found significant positive correlations
experienced as ready-segmented phonemes or that between parents’ and children’s interest in literacy,
phonemes blend obviously into words. Young particularly the frequency with which stories were
children and illiterate adults find it relatively easy to read to the child, and the child’s progress in learning
segment words into syllables and almost impossible to read, for his representative sample of 120 children.
to segment into phonemes. Symbol-sound Francis (1982), in a sensitive case study of ten
correspondences are somewhat easier to learn in children, found that understanding the task of reading
regularized alphabets such as the Initial Teaching and writing was crucial both for doing it successfully
Alphabet (i.t.a.) (Downing 1979) but such alphabets and for appreciating why it was worth doing.
do not allow for regional pronunciation differences, Children who learn to read early and easily (Clark
nor do they preserve the lexical and syntactic 1976) tend to have acquired such an understanding
information which irregular spelling carries (for before beginning school. How much the child is read
example the semantic relationship between ‘bomb’ to, how much he or she sees other people reading,

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 The development of cognitive skills

how much and how explicitly written material is used learning to read is often to ‘glance-and-guess’: a few
in daily activities like shopping, knowledge of words are recognized by shape, otherwise an
concepts like ‘sound’, ‘word’ and ‘sentence’, are unfamiliar word is guessed using the context as a
related to rate and efficiency of learning to read. guide, its graphemic or phonemic characteristics
These activities seem to contribute to achieving being rather unimportant in the guess. Unfamiliar
insight into the links between written symbol and words without context cannot be read at all. Errors
word meaning: they also serve to establish that tend to preserve meaning but look and sound different
reading is or can be useful and entertaining. from the correct word. Later, in the second step of
Children who lack these experiences tend to be ‘sophisticated guessing’, the vocabulary recognized
slower in learning to read. For some, lack of reading- by sight is larger, and unfamiliar words met in or out
related experiences may be due to a home of context are guessed in terms of their visual
background which also does not provide experience similarity with familiar words, with contextual cues
related to other school activities. Children from such used where possible. Visual cues from the beginnings
homes may not know, when they first enter school, of words are probably more easily used than those
what is required of them. Classroom tasks may be from the middle or end of words: words in context are
relatively strange and incomprehensible. It is harder easier than words isolated in word lists (an instance of
to learn to do something which makes no sense in the usefulness of top-down cues). Poor readers
itself and which you cannot link to your other incidentally may tend to rely on pictures for cues, or
experience than something part familiar whose even believe that the story is contained in the pictures
purpose you appreciate, and when the ‘something’ is rather than in the text (Francis 1982; Yule and Rutter
as complex and artificial as learning to read, it may be 1985).
the best you can do to do it slowly, weakly and by rote, Francis (1982) also reports that even her quicker
as some of the children described in Francis 1982 did. readers rarely used phonic cues until they had a fair
Only when the children achieved an insight into the grasp of visual and contextual cues. They then used
general relation between reading and writing on the sounding out unfamiliar words largely to supplement
one hand and spoken language on the other, only a not-quite-adequate visual and contextual analysis.
when reading and writing became meaningful Realizing, or being taught, that there is some
activities, did they make much progress. consistency between words in how letters or groups
of letters are pronounced, increases the child’s
Reading stages and strategies chance of decoding written word into meaning. It
The problem is certainly not a simple one of deficient may be particularly useful to do left-to-right
home background, and it is not so much one of sounding-out on words which are phonemically
inadequacies of language or of concentration on the regular but visually nondescript, such as ‘bun’; words
part of the child as of inexperience in reflecting on which are phonemically irregular but visually
language and how it is used: in other words it is often distinctive, such as ‘light’, may be more easily
essentially a metacognitive and metalinguistic recognized by their shape than by sounding-out.
problem, interacting with the social problem of Bryant and Bradley (1980, 1985) report that some
adjustment to school life. Children solve the problem young children have separate reading and spelling
of learning to read in different ways. Ellis (1984) strategies, and hence can read some words (such as
sketches a common developmental course. The 5- ‘light’) which they cannot spell, and spell others
year-old beginning to learn to read recognizes and (such as ‘bun’), which they cannot read, a
uses a spoken vocabulary of several hundred words, phenomenon found also among Francis’ sample.
and speaks grammatically. The first step made in Insight into analysing words into phonemes,

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Understanding Child Development

Table 2 Stages of reading development: an outline of the major qualitative characteristics and how they are acquired

1 2 3 4 5
Stage Grade Major qualitative characteristics How acquired Relationship of reading to listening
designation range (age) and masteries by end of age

Stage 0: Preschool Child ‘pretends’ to read, retells story Being read to by an adult (or older Most can understand the children’s
Prereading, ages 6 when looking at pages of book child) who responds to and warmly picture books and stories read to
‘pseudo- months–6 previously read to him/her; names appreciates the child’s interest in them. They understand thousands of
reading’ years letters of alphabet; recognizes some books and reading; being provided words they hear by age 6 but can read
signs; prints own name; plays with with books, paper, pencils, blocks, few if any of them.
books, pencils, and paper. and letters.

Stage 1: Grade 1 & Child learns relation between letters Direct instruction in letter-sound The level of difficulty of language
Initial beginning and sounds and between printed relations (phonics) and practice in read by the child is much below the
reading Grade 2 and spoken words; child is able to their use. Reading of simple stories language understood when heard. At
and (ages6 read simple text containing high using words with phonic elements the end of stage 1, most children can
decoding &7) frequency words and phonically taught and words of high frequency. understand up to 4000 or more words
regular words; uses skill and insight Being read to on a level above what when heard but can read only about
to ‘sound out’ new one-syllable words. child can read independently to 600.
develop more advanced language
patterns, knowledge of new words,
and ideas.

Stage 2: Grades2& Child reads simple, familiar stories Direct instruction in advanced At the end of stage 2, about 3000
Confirmation 3(ages7 and selections with increasing fluency. decoding skills; wide reading (with words can be read and understood
and fluency & 8) This is done by consolidating the instruction and independently) of and about 9000 are known when
basic decoding elements, sight familiar, interesting materials heard. Listening is still more
vocabulary, and meaning context in which help promote fluent reading. effective than reading.
the reading of familiar stories Being read to at levels above their
and selections. own independent reading level to
develop language, vocabulary, and
concepts.

Stage 3: Grades4–8 Reading is used to learn new ideas, Reading and study of textbooks, At beginning of stage 3, listening
Reading for (ages9 to gain new knowledge, to experience reference works, trade books, comprehension of the same material
learning –13) new feelings, to learn new attitudes; newspapers, and magazines that is still more effective than reading
the new generally from one viewpoint. contain new ideas and values, comprehension. By the end of stage
unfamiliar vocabulary and syntax; 3, reading and listening are about
Phase A Inter- systematic study of words and
mediate, equal; for those who read very well,
4–6 reacting to the text through reading may be more efficient.
discussion, answering questions,
Phase B Junior high writing, etc. Reading of
school, increasingly more complex fiction,
7–9 biography, nonfiction, and the like.
Stage 4: High Reading widely from a broad range of Wide reading and study of the Reading comprehension is better than
Multiple school, complex materials, both expository and physical, biological, and social listening comprehension of material
viewpoints grades10– narrative, with a variety of viewpoints. sciences and the humanities; high of difficult content and readability.
12 (ages quality and popular literature; For poorer readers, listening
15–17) newspapers and magazines; comprehension may be equal to
systematic study of words and word reading comprehension.
parts.

Stage 5: College Reading is used for one’s own needs Wide reading of ever more difficult Reading is more efficient than
Construction and and purposes (professional and materials, reading beyond one’s listening.
and beyond personal); reading serves to integrate immediate needs; writing of papers,
reconstruc- (age 18+) one’s knowledge with that of others, to tests, essays, and other forms that
tion synthesize it and to create new call for integration of varied
knowledge. It is rapid and efficient. knowledge and points of view.

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phoneme–grapheme correspondences and the Sometimes the child is required to be a passive

integration of phonic strategies, visual memory and audience. Sometimes adults encourage a great deal of
use of context, with of course further vocabulary active participation from the child, requesting
growth and increasing knowledge of the worlds identification of objects in pictures, comments on the
which reading conjures up, combine to form the basic action, and predictions about what will happen next.
achievement of reading. Top-down and bottom-up Sometimes analogies will be drawn between the
strategies can now be used interdependently. They events of the story and the child’s own experience. If
become, no doubt, more fluent with practice just as such elaborations of the reading and listening activity
any other skills would, and the balance adopted are sensitively used, children become adept at
between different reading strategies probably relating stories to a wider context and dealing with
becomes more flexible and more efficient. There is their implications more deeply, skills useful in the
considerable development, in other words, in the uses classroom (Hayward 1980; Heath 1982, 1983; Mills
to which reading is put. Chall (1983) provides a table and Funnell 1983). Stories are a constant part of
(Table 2) to illustrate this point: reading is an classroom social life, and a delight in many children’s
instrument for knowing, heavily influenced in its home lives.
development by the demands of the ecosystem, and Stories socialize children in other ways besides the
both an object and a result of practice in ‘study skills’ interaction which is required of a reader or listener.
(Chall 1983, pp. 85–7). They can convey the culture to the child and socialize
him or her into culturally approved patterns of
Children and stories attitudes and values. They can do this both overtly
There is a history several centuries old of producing and covertly, and can carry both admirable and
special story books for children, and behind that a deplorable messages. Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary
longer tradition of folk tales and rhymes and other Tales for Children, for example, has overt morals
narratives which also took children for their such as ‘don’t tell lies’, ‘don’t slam doors’ and ‘don’t
audience. Most children hear stories and tell them play with loaded guns’, which are, however, less
themselves: many read them or write them. In this memorable, and less enjoyed by children, than his
country, at least (see Schieffelin and Cochran-Smith gleeful callousness. Louisa May Alcott’s Little
1984 for notes on two other cultures), there is a Women proposes that girls should be quiet, ladylike,
positive correlation between being read stories self-sacrificing and dominated by men, a mode of
during the pre-school years, on the one hand, and both existence which was impossible and destructive for
metalinguistic competence (p. 137) and prospects of Alcott herself (Saxton 1978).
learning to read and write easily, on the other. This sort of socialization is hard to quantify. Its ex-
Children learn a great deal about written language istence has however been a source of anxiety to many
and about the structure of stories from being read to adults who wish to censor the ‘unsuitable’ out of their
(e.g. Clay 1979; Clark 1976; Wells 1985). They also children’s reading (and indeed out of other adults’
take part in a shared activity with the older person too), and often have wished to substitute more ‘suit-
reading to them (and indirectly with the author). able’ reading. There are a number of discussions of
Where this is enjoyable for both parties, it doubtless the socializing effects of traditional fairy-tales, for
provides motivation for further reading. Involving example (Tucker 1981; Steedman 1982; Zipes 1983).
parents in hearing their older children read to them We do not know whether women were more self-ef-
has proved a most effective way of improving facing and long-suffering as a result of being told the
children’s reading skills (e.g. Tizard, Schofield and story of Patient Griselda, the archetypal victimized
Hewison 1981). wife whose patience wins her back the affections of
Being read to can involve children in several her back the affections of her dreadful husband, or
different ways of ‘taking from text’ (Teale 1984). whether there was more adultery between wives and

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Plate 8

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 The development of cognitive skills

servants after the publication of Lady Chatterley’s and more knowledge of the conventions of stories.
Lover. Many of us may remember being (less They begin to appreciate the distancing, reassuring
strongly!) influenced by a story we have read. In so opening ‘Once upon a time’; they expect there to be
far as stories reflect the entire culture, and so are good characters who triumph over their troubles and
reinforced by other experiences, they may have a bad characters who get their due come-uppance; they
powerful effect. There is little clear evidence. know that foxes are ‘sly’ and witches are wicked.
It is also argued that stories are important in Traditional stories create a world simpler than the
children’s emotional development. There are famous child’s own but not entirely unlike it, so that they can
psychoanalytic interpretations of fairy stories in try an alternative ‘reality’ just as they do in play.
terms of children’s need to resolve their Oedipus
crisis or their penis envy, notably Bettelheim’s The Skills of learning from text
Uses of Enchantment (1978). Since these resolutions
are normally of unconscious feelings and problems, Being literate becomes increasingly important as one
it is again hard to demonstrate that stories have the progresses through the educational system, both
‘uses’ claimed. Stories may also model emotions because of the possibilities of gathering, rearranging,
more directly, as they illustrate their characters’ comparing and passing on knowledge which it
behaviour. Hayward (1980) told a slightly simplified provides, and because it is one of the commonest
version of Watership Down to her class of 4-year- social ‘measures’ of intellectual adequacy. As we
olds, and later observed a little boy with aspirations to have seen, reading involves many different levels of
toughness and bravado bump his head, and instead of cognitive processing. Reading a text in order to learn
crying say ‘Miss Hayward, I’ve hurt myself bad, but from it requires the use of comprehension and study
don’t worry, I’m Bigwig the strongest rabbit – I’m skills.
brave like Bigwig.’
Stories obviously commonly evoke emotions – like Comprehension
play, they provide a relatively risk-free and Collins and Smith (1982) describe some of the
controllable form of being frightened, excited and important comprehension skills necessary for
exhilarated. dealing with written information. The first group are
Children begin to understand the form of stories concerned with monitoring comprehension, that is
quite early in their experience of them. They are not checking whether the text is being understood, being
as dependent on temporal order as Piaget (1969) aware of a breakdown in understanding and taking
suggested: given a logically structured story (his appropriate action to remedy it. The reader may fail
were ill-formed) they make inferences and build up a to comprehend text at the level of a particular word,
coherent shapely sequence of events even at the age phrase or sentence, or at the level of fitting bits of text
of 4 (Wimmer 1980; Mandler and Johnson 1977). together. Children have limited vocabulary and
They develop ‘story grammars’ just as they develop general knowledge, compared with adults, and may
‘scripts’ of familiar events in their lives. Although make over-simple assumptions about grammar.
their initial re-telling of stories contains mainly When acting out the spoken sentence ‘The cat was
surface events, probing with ‘why’ questions elicits bitten by the dog’, for example, they proceed as if the
much inference about the characters’ motives and passive sentence had the subject–verb–object order
intentions. Young children’s limitations may be characteristic of simple active declarative sentences.
attributed to lack of world knowledge and memory Similar problems may be found in many early
problems rather than to lack of an ability to make readers: unusual grammar upsets the child’s
inferences and other logical connections (Trabasso comprehension. Unusual vocabulary items may
and Nicholas 1980). As children encounter more puzzle the child too, but they are probably more easily
stories they gain both more ‘real world’ knowledge clarified, and children often enjoy grand long words.

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Understanding Child Development

However, children may have more marked Collins and Smith (1982) point out that as well as
comprehension problems than adults, even at the guessing at the meaning of particular words or
simplest levels. Ellen Markman suggests that they phrases, the reader will guess about the meaning of
have major problems over comprehending the more global aspects of the text. Guesses will be made,
integration of separate bits of text into a consistent or hypotheses constructed, about matters like what
whole. They often do not notice, she says, what are to sort of story this is, what will happen in this situation,
the adult glaring inconsistencies or omissions in who are the ‘goodies’ and who the ‘baddies’, and so
verbal material, for example incomplete instructions forth. (In many cases authors consciously use these
about how to play a game (Markman 1979; Robinson hypotheses either to support the plausibility of their
and Robinson 1983). narrative (as in romantic novels) or to mislead the
Children’s comprehension of text, then, runs into reader in a sequence of bluff and double-bluff (as in
difficulties and the problem arises of how to solve ‘whodunnits’). Jane Austen’s presentation of Mr
them. Possible strategies include ignoring the Darcy and Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice is a
uncomprehended words or passage; waiting to see if particularly brilliant example of both uses.) Again,
its meaning later becomes clear; guessing, the guess children beginning to read will have developed
being confirmed or disconfirmed later; re-reading the strategies of making sense of stories or events in
immediate problem passage or the larger part of the terms of broad hypotheses which define what this sort
text in which it occurs; seeking outside help, from of story is likely to be about, or what happens in this
peer, teacher, dictionary or another text. Which of sort of event. Schank and Abelson (1977) called the
these strategies the child uses will depend on the task latter ‘scripts’ (see section on social cognition,
requirements; casual reading uses the simpler below). Careful observation of young children at
strategies at the beginning of the list, while detailed home shows that they both use and seek to clarify
mastery of difficult texts requires much more re- ‘scripts’ (e.g. Tizard and Hughes 1982, 1984) and it
reading, analysis and comparison of different has been argued that this use is a major opportunity
sources. Which strategy is used will also depend on for the development of reasoning (Mills and Funnell
the characteristics of the reader, and in the case of the 1983). Children’s experience of stories gives them
very young reader on how he or she is being taught to something like ‘scripts’ for stories, as their filling-in
read. However new reading is, the child has used of the frame ‘Once upon a time . . . and then they all
skills very much like many of these for several years lived happily ever after’ shows (e.g. Applebee 1978,
while trying to understand spoken language. The and discussion of stories and of writing elsewhere in
most obvious skill to be applicable to written this chapter).
language but not so readily to spoken language is re-
reading, both because spoken words are much more Study skills
ephemeral and because requests for repetition of an Even when the reader understands the text bit by bit
uncomprehended utterance often produce a and as a whole, a considerable amount of work will
rephrasing of what was said, not a verbatim have to be done on it if the learning task involves the
repetition. Guessing, ignoring and seeking outside memorization or the use of information from the text.
help (sometimes from the same sources) are however Verbatim memorization requires rehearsal;
well-practised strategies. Children, like all who are remembering which is not verbatim requires other
relatively ignorant or novices, must rather often fail activities, which may also be appropriate to using the
to ‘comprehend’. It is, however, a question of some original text in creating one’s own account of the area.
interest to identify what and when they know that These activities have been called ‘study skills’. Ann
they don’t know, and what and when they know why Brown and her colleagues (Brown et al. 1983) have
they don’t know. This and other questions of been investigating the types of knowledge and
‘metacognition’ I will discuss later.

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 The development of cognitive skills

strategies which students bring to learning from texts. verbatim-with-deletions, is to some extent effective
We are some way from the novice information- in that it does produce a recognizable summary or
processors described in the earlier parts of this outline. However it is very passive and reduces the
chapter, but Brown et al. conclude that there is a chance that understanding of the particular text will
sequence of emergence of ‘study skills’ very like the be linked to understanding of other texts. Experts are
sequence of emergence of remembering, attending much more likely to depart from the text, to combine,
and reading skills. There is an early period of sporadic rearrange, and interpolate information, to make
use of appropriate activities; these activities become synopses in their own words and to argue with what
more and more stable, systematic and consolidated, they read. This approach is more effective as a way of
and more easily applied flexibly to a range of tasks understanding text, but requires more cognitive
and situations, as development proceeds. ‘Mature resources (both process and knowledge). Students
learning is in large part the result of strategic who are managing fairly well by using passive
application of rules and principles, and the summaries (and who are not in their education
suppression of serviceable, but less mature, habits’ required to do more) may never give up their partially
(Brown et al. p. 90). adequate strategy in favour of one which is more
It is worth going into some detail on the ‘study efficient (and more fun, if risky). The general public
skills’ reviewed because they illuminate level of information gathering and reading is not at all
developmental questions through their progress in clear: sophisticated evaluation, comparison,
schoolchildren, and because using them at a high and criticism and recreation of texts is probably a
conscious level contributes to intellectual effort well minority pleasure. However it is clear that both these
beyond school level. Among the skills studied are: highly elaborated ways of playing with text and the
identifying the main points, the most important parts, humbler study skills that underly them can be taught
of a text: identifying the organizing features of the (Brown et al. 1983, 1984; Howe 1984; Biggs 1984/ in
text: paying more attention to and using more press). They are implicit in much school activity, and
mnemonic activity on important and organizing many children gradually learn to use them through
features: accurately estimating one’s current state of schooling, but they can also be deliberately
mastery and taking the appropriate action. Among developed. My own feeling is that they should be,
other investigations, Brown et al. looked at how more often than they are at present: this is an area
students worked on the task of summarizing a text. where I regret my own state of bricolage!
They compared schoolchildren of 12, 14, and 17,
college students and teachers of rhetoric (‘experts’). Metacognition, motivation and study skills
Two simple rules of summarizing which even the I want to return for a moment to the Brown et al.
youngest children used quite accurately were 1 delete tetrahedron model of interactions between the
trivia and 2 delete redundancy. Further rules were 3 characteristics of learner, material, criterial tasks and
substitute a superordinate term or a superordinate learning activities, by which at present I mean study
event for lists of examples or episodes, a process skills. Recent work by John Biggs (1984/in press)
which can easily be related to the use of category cues illustrates that these interactions are crucial to
in recall; and 4 use (or invent) a topic sentence. There performance, and highly complex. He describes three
was more use, and more effective use, of these basic motives for study: to obtain a qualification with
strategies as practice increased, but even college minimal effort (Surface motive), to actualize one’s
students did not invent topic sentences on many interests (Deep motive), and to manifest one’s
occasions when it was appropriate to do so. excellence publicly by obtaining the highest grades
One important point to come out of these studies of (Achieving motive). (He is mainly concerned with
summarization and note-taking was that the simple motives for study in secondary and tertiary
strategy 12-year-olds mostly used, that of copy-

85
Understanding Child Development

education, but the same motives could no doubt apply categories. Motives result from the interplay of
in primary education; young children may read to get student personality and the task situation.
through the reading test, or to develop their own skills The different motives are paired with different
or interest, or to show off what good readers they are.) strategies. Thus the Deep motive tends to be
There are cases of mixed motives, particularly of associated with strategies which emphasize under
Achieving motives mixed with the other two

Figure 10 An elaborated model of student learning.

86
 The development of cognitive skills

standing the meaning of the task and the material, the much less impact on the rest of the student’s
Surface motive with reproducing what is seen as the understanding: it may be useful for quiz games such
essential information or performance and ignoring all as Mastermind but will never win you an FRS.
that is superfluous to getting by, the Achieving
motive with organization which optimizes the use of Writing
time and effort. They have different outcomes.
Surface learners’ work is factual and superficial, and I have described some of the recent work on reading
has little intrinsic interest to the student who may and using text. I want now to consider the ‘second R’,
forget it the moment the qualification is obtained: writing. Like reading, this is an activity which
Deep learners’ is more complex, more structured and integrates many different processes – physical,
more affectively satisfying, hence more permanent; linguistic, cognitive, even social – in different ways
and so forth. The same study skill behaviours are according to the writer’s age, experience and
purposes. Scardamalia (1981) lists the
differently effective for students with different
interdependent skills involved, among them
motives; an Achieving motive student using an
questions of handwriting, spelling and punctuation,
Achieving strategy generally does well, but a Deep
considerations of word choice, syntax and textual
motive student using the same strategy is likely to feel
connections, and of overall purpose, organization,
dissatisfied, aware of the discrepancy between desire
clarity and euphony. Each of these is itself of course
and performance. Different educational institutions
highly complex and subject to developmental
foster different motives and strategies, through their
change. I shall focus here on the more cognitive
control of task materials and criterial tasks, and the
issues, discussing the relation of writing to reading
different learning activities they propose or require.
and speaking and the production problems,
Thus there is a complex interaction between
particularly the composition problems this involves.
student characteristics such as ability and self-
concept, situational factors such as course structures
Writing in relation to speaking
and type of evaluation, the degree to which the
student is aware of his or her learning strategies and Written language and spoken language differ, though
activities, and the sort of knowledge and satisfaction linguists disagree about how far the former is
that results, via the approach that the student takes to dependent on the latter. Stubbs (1980), reviewing the
the learning task. Biggs (1984) provides a model debate, points out that the relationship between
(Figure 10). written and spoken language differs for different
This picture suggests that a Deep approach to study writing systems, different authorial purposes, and
is more closely tied to the personality of the student, different cultures. One consistent difference,
who feels ‘I am doing this for me, and not because the however, is that the writer must construct the text
school makes me’. A Surface approach tends to be without the assistance of signals from the recipient
seen as distant from the self, adopted in order to get a about whether the meaning is being understood,
task done when it has been imposed from outside. The whether more information is needed, whether jokes
former is likely to involve more positive involvement are being appreciated or persuasive arguments are
on the part of the learner, a greater awareness of his or having the desired effect. The reader has to get
her learning activities, needs and achievements, and meaning from the text in the absence of many of the
an outcome which shows more understanding and signals that accompany spoken language: cues from
more links with other knowledge and less role the speaker’s ‘body language’, pitch, speed of
learning of facts. Surface learning will be less speaking, facial expression and so forth are not
involving, less enjoyable, often undertaken to cope available in conventional written text, though devices
with the demands of outside authorities, and will have of punctuation and typography may be used to make
up for some of this loss. Literary theorists debate how

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Understanding Child Development

far ‘the meaning’ of a text is in the text itself, in text their failures because they do not use their
plus additional information about the writer and the phonological and visual recognition strategies
context of writing, in the reader (with or without the together: reading and spelling were unfortunately too
context of reading), or in all of these in independent. As reading progresses beyond the 8-
complementary or contradictory fashion. These year-old level, the different processes intertwine, and
debates are typically rather distant from psychology, the experienced writer may find it commoner to know
though they do point to complexities which will be that a word is spelled incorrectly because it looks
relevant to children’s response to stories. My present wrong rather than because it sounds wrong. Given the
point is that writers and readers interact much more complexity of the relations between phoneme and
distantly than speakers and listeners. Writers cannot, grapheme in English, embodying as it does an
alas, monitor their readers’ understanding. If they immense amount of historical information, and
wish to be effective, they must therefore compose and overlooking as it does considerable regional and
review their writing more carefully than most subcultural differences in pronunciation, sound may
speakers need to do, lest problems in any of the skills be a less reliable index of spelling correctness than
which Scardamalia (1981) lists should prevent sight in many cases. Readers certainly come to
satisfactory communication. They also need to recognize, understand and spell correctly words they
appreciate some of the conventions which differ have never heard. The hero of How Green Was My
between spoken and written language. Normally, Valley reads ‘misled’ as the past participle of a verb
children learning to write have a good basic ‘to misle’, pronounces it to rhyme with ‘drizzled’,
command of spoken language, which they have been and is beaten by his schoolmaster despite his
using since early childhood and which they can use to comprehension of the word.
serve a variety of social functions. Their
communication in speech is, however, still Writing as a physical skill
commonly dependent on context and on Writing involves the use of fine muscle movements in
paralinguistic cues to carry subtle or precise varied but co-ordinated patterns, with visual
meaning. They may also have little experience of monitoring, at a speed (in experienced writers) far
writing themselves or seeing others write, and faster than the brain can send messages to the hand
particularly of the uses to which writing can be put. and receive feedback, though more slowly than
thinking or speaking. As Thomassen and Teuling
Writing in relation to reading (1983) remind us, the hand is an extraordinarily
Before I discuss children’s achievements in learning intricate and delicate mechanism, controlled by a
to write, I wish to point out that with reading and large number of muscles, and during writing
writing or spelling the one is not simply the inverse of movements in fingers, wrists, arms and shoulders,
the other. There is evidence that at least at the early plus movements of the eyes (and perhaps head) for
stages reading may be done by visual word monitoring writing, have to be co-ordinated. These
recognition and spelling/writing by a phonological muscle movements have to be small, quick and
strategy (e.g. Bryant and Bradley 1980, 1983). precise, and because the speed of transmission of
Children and backward readers may read correctly, neural control messages along the length of the arm is
but spell incorrectly, words which are visually relatively slow, the brain cannot wait for one
distinctive but phonologically difficult, such as movement to be completed before the next is begun.
‘light’, and read incorrectly but spell correctly words Even at this level the brain must plan ahead to get the
which are easy to construct phonologically (letter- hand in the right position at the right place at the right
by-letter) but are visually nondescript, such as ‘bun’. time.
Bryant and Bradley’s subjects are producing some of

88
 The Development of cognitive skills

To do this, we write not in single letters but in larger of objects. Vygotsky (1978a) points out that writing is
units. As an example, compare the ease of writing a second-order symbol system: the letters stand for
‘written backwards’ with the difficulty of writing the spoken word, which itself stands for the object.
‘sdrawkcab nettirw’: and note where the pauses and Drawings, and idiosyncratic pictographs, are in a first
breaks in writing came. ‘Units’ may occur over order symbolic relation to the object they represent.
words; we pause more between clauses than within This account obviously implies that writing will
them, for example. ‘Overunitting’ may produce develop after drawing has begun; writing is a special
errors; I planned the first sentence of this section from sort of drawing which represents language. As
‘Writing’ to ‘patterns’ as it is now printed, but wrote children experience written language by reading or
‘final’ instead of ‘fine’, as a conflation of ‘fine’ with being read to, they learn that conventionally writing
the sound at the end of ‘muscle’ rather than as a (at least in English) comes in horizontal lines and
semantic error. Motor skills of the highly complex consists of particular sorts of patterns. Young
sort involved in writing fluently are acquired mainly children may ‘write’ in a scribble or string of letters
through practice. Smith (1982) advocates writing running horizontally across the page, or
practice free from demands for correctness in accompanying a picture as an adult might provide a
spelling, punctuation or composition which may caption. A fascinating observation of a child just
distract from establishing automatic motor patterns. under 5 illustrates this.
This may or may not be a sensible bit of pedagogy, but
certainly children do take a fairly long time to Unlike the case in other writing episodes, Coline is not
develop fine motor co-ordination sufficiently good oblivious to the activity around her. She sits with a group of
for writing neatly: some people never really do it! boys, rather than alone, and watches intently as Raymond
draws rockets and creates the accompanying sound-effects.
The entire writing episode seems to be surrounded by more
Learning about the basic skills of writing language. For the first time Coline begins the composing by
Given a piece of paper and a pencil, a 2-year-old will verbalizing her intentions. She lays two blank pieces of
make marks on the paper. Initially these scribbles are paper on the desk before her and announces: ‘I’m going to
probably not unsuccessful attempts to write, rather do a picture on that one and write on this one.’ This, in fact,
they are successful attempts to make marks on the is what she does. The numbers beside the p.i.’s indicate the
paper where there were no marks before. ‘Writing’ order in which they are written by Coline [Figure 11].
usually follows attempts at drawing representations

Figure11 89
Understanding Child Development

This product indicates more progress in Coline’s writing. page and moves down pointing to each word in the order it
Her handwriting is more controlled, the size of her letters appears on the page, an order quite different from her initial
more uniform, her boundaries more defined than before. composing. Still the meaning stays the same. She writes 4.
Her composing process shows how demanding this new tkkoic says, ‘I’m finished’ and reads again:
step forward is. Coline spends 20 minutes just writing the
first three p.i.’s and throughout the composing actively 1. tkoic cat
seeks interruptions. She chats with the boys and comments 4. ttkoic sat
on their pictures. She writes two letters, then noisily taps her 3. okki on
2. kioe the
pencil on the table. She completes a p.i., then rocks her chair
back and forth on its squeaky back legs. There is much
physical turmoil in these pauses from the writing. ‘Got to write mat’ she says to herself, forgetting that a
The length of time spent composing and the effort few moments before she not only called both okki and kioe
expended in making well-formed letters possibly affects ‘mat’ but also said she was finished. Each word addition
demands a rereading by Coline. Each rereading in turn
Coline’s page arrangement. Instead of composing
changes the correspondence between p.i.’s and her
horizontally as in the June piece, she returns to a vertical
meaning for them. She writes 5. kktols, presumably to be
page arrangement. While composing, however, she does
‘mat’. But the positioning of the word on the page ensures
not proceed in a neat progression from the top of the page to
that she calls it ‘the’ instead, as happens:
the bottom. Instead, she begins by writing the first p.i. at the
top of the page, the second at the bottom, the third in the 1. tkoic cat
middle as follows. The transcription to the right of the p.i. 4. ttkoic sat
indicates Coline’s reading: 3. okki on
5. kktols the
1. tkoic cat 2. kioe mat
2. kioe sat
3. okki mat
Things seem to be going well for Coline. Her demand
that voice and print match is being satisfied. She rereads
Coline pauses, then rereads what she’s written as follows:
again and maintains the same match. Then, composing at
the point of her pencil, she says ‘eating’. Realizing, of
1. tkoic cat course, that there is no corresponding p.i. for ‘eating’ she
3. okki sat
adds one more, 6. tkok. The story complete, there are now
2. kioe mat
six clearly defined p.i.’s on the page before her and six
clearly defined words in the message in her head. The
Although she does not compose top to bottom, she
reading should be straightforward. This, however, is not the
rereads her writing in this way. She begins at the top of the
case. Seven oral rereadings follow until Coline finally
makes the match as charted [Table 3].

Table 3

Rereadings Rereading Rereadings Rereading

Written text 1–3 4 5–6 7

1. tkoic cat sat cat sat cat cat sat

4. ttkoic on on sat on
3. okki the the on the
5. kktols mat mat the mat
2. kioe eating eating mat eating
6. tkok oranges eating oranges
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 The development of cognitive skills

For some reason in the first three rereadings she difficulties: letters have to be precisely formed in
pairs two spoken words, ‘cat’ and ‘sat’ with the one direction, size, joins, spaces and so forth, and the
p.i. tkoic. Consequently she has one p.i. left over at the motor control needed for this is very considerable.
end, tkok, and no spoken word to go with it. On the Practice gives us a fluent production system, but
fourth rereading she solves the problem by adding children lacking one make the sort of errors and
another spoken word, ‘oranges’. All should go well
attempt the sort of solutions that they do in drawing
now. On the fifth and sixth readings, however, she
(see Freeman and Cox 1985).
returns to her earlier behaviour of matching one
Some recent observational studies of young
spoken word to one p.i. As a result she now finds there
is no written p.i. left to match the spoken ‘oranges’. At
children writing are integrated by Clay (1983) into an
last, on the seventh rereading she remanoeuvres and account of how children develop a theory of writing.
makes the match. As in developing spoken language or reading, the
Such persistence! Coline will not stop until she child’s own experience of writing seems to be an
reaches such closure. She adjusts and readjusts her important determinant of rate of development:
division of the message until she succeeds. This children from highly literate families are more
selfimposed reading seems to be her way of gaining positively motivated and more knowledgeable than
control of the writing. children whose experience of writing is scant. Some
Following her seventh rereading, she makes her children invent their own ‘letters’ (Hughes, 1984,
illustration on the second piece of paper she put aside reports children who invented their own numbers and
at the beginning of the composing. She seems pleased arithmetical representations, see p. 103). Many
with herself as she draws a picture of a smiling cat and invent their own spellings. One fairly common
affixes a label tkko saying, ‘See, I writed cat at the system is to represent consonants but not the vowel
top’. sounds which are less prominent in speech, writing
The message itself sounds like a rehash of a basal ‘LTL’ for ‘little’, for example. It is worth pointing out,
reader story line and is not interesting as a product. perhaps, that vowel deletion is common in strategies
The process of getting there, however, is fascinating. for writing fast, and that some Middle Eastern
Getting the message down in primary inventions is orthographies do not write in the vowels. As children
demanding. Coline pays most attention to the become more familiar with the standard spellings
demands of making print and controlling the letters, they meet in their reading they move towards the
less to her information. It is possible that while she conventional system: pressure from adults also
writes she first makes her random clusters of letters contributes to this shift.
and only later attributes meaning to them. Certainly
children do this with their art. Perhaps there is a stage The functions of writing
in the development of young writers where they write A reader is essentially concerned with extracting the
first, mean later (Kamler and Kilarr 1983, pp. 187–9). meaning of a pre-existing text, with or without
increase in enjoyment or knowledge. A writer may
Once children have achieved a significant insight into have any of a wider range of purposes, for example to
inform, to entertain, to persuade, to criticize, to
what writing is (Jarman 1979, Smith 1982; Kamler
record, to express something personally felt, and so
and Kilarr 1983), they have now to curb their
forth. This list is obviously similar to one listing the
inventiveness and adopt the conventional symbols –
functions of spoken language: recording is the major
and construction techniques and spellings – required
exception, as generally it is better done by writing
to communicate with adults. Children do not write
than by speaking. Children’s spoken language will
letters badly or incorrectly because of inadequate
have been used for most of these functions by the end
visual processing, but because of production of the pre-school years (Wells 1985; and see Chapter

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Understanding Child Development

4 this volume). They may not have experienced all thus giving their children more experience of how
these functions in writing. Although most adults writing can be used. It must be rare, however, for pre-
write sometimes, the main uses of writing at home are school children to have experience of adults writing
in response to social pressure or practical to express themselves, to tell stories or to record their
requirements: domestic messages, shopping lists and own experience, since when adults do these things
family letters. Griffiths and Wells (1983) they do them privately. There is little evidence on
investigated use of writing in a sample of Bristol children’s use of writing outside school. Tizard and
adults and found the group differences shown in Hughes (1984) describe some mothers teaching their
Figure 12. daughters to write, sometimes as a session of letter
The Bristol Language Development Study found forming or copying words written by the mother,
adults’ literacy was related to that of their children; sometimes as part of an activity such as writing a
parents who write more probably also read more,

Figure 12 Relationships between amount of writing in different categories and sex, social class and education.
Source: From Griffiths and Wells (1983).
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 The development of cognitive skills

letter to grandparents. The latter is probably a fairly incorporated into the text. The writer must also assess
common real-life experience for quite a lot of what is the best order for pieces of text and present
children; most available examples seem to be each piece unambiguously and explicitly. It may be
conventional rather than expressive. Parents may easier for the reader to go back and read text again
encourage (or require) children to write to than it is for the listener to recall speech to re-examine
grandparents or to people who have given presents or it, but the writer cannot adjust content, order or
hospitality: thus there is a real social purpose to emphasis as the speaker can in response to the
writing. There are clear rules for beginning and reader’s cues of understanding or failure to
ending the text of letters and since there is often a understand. On the cognitive and social levels,
specific interpersonal reason for writing the letter, at writing differs from speaking.
least some of what it must contain is also specified. A
thank-you letter from Z to X acknowledging a gift, Y, Writing as composition
must include at least the phrases ‘Dear X, ‘Thank you Cognitive and social considerations are mingled in
for the Y’, ‘from Z’. Collerson (1983) collected the the composition of text. Text has to be planned,
composed and revised in terms of, among other
letters his daughter Juliet wrote between the ages of 5
things, its probable success in communicating with
and 9 1/2; they show an increase in length via the
the reader and its own explicitness and coherence.
inclusion of informative or expressive material
Martlew (1983) reviews some of the errors that poor
beyond the minimum demanded by the formal letter
or inexperienced writers make: they write as they
scheme, and an increasing tendency to use written speak, leaving their writing dependent on a context
language as a means to a continuing dialogue with which the reader does not share; they plan poorly, if at
people who are known but too far away to speak to. all, and prepare themselves for writing too briefly to
The child ‘learns that letters can be a means of produce clearly organized text; they do not review or
reporting and interpreting experience, a device for criticize what they have produced. Some of these
exchanging information, and a method of errors no doubt arise because the whole task of
maintaining social interaction among friends’ considering the adequacy of the text plus spelling
(Collerson 1983, p. 92). Some children have correctly plus writing neatly plus producing the right
difficulty seeing these purposes in school writing amount to satisfy the teacher overwhelms the writer.
(Francis 1982; Tamburrini et al. 1984). Some, however, probably stem from young writers’
This list of functions that are served by Juliet’s uncertainty about what to do in composition and how
letters resembles the lists of language functions to do it. Frederiksen and Dominic (1981) suggest that
provided by Halliday (1975), which is discussed in important cognitive resources
Chapter 4, by Smith (1982, p. 14), and others. Writing
and reading differ from speaking and listening not so include the writer’s knowledge, the already established
much in the language functions involved as in the strategies and procedures for constructing a meaning and
possible distance between the participants. As I said expressing it, and the general characteristics of their
when discussing the relationship between writing cognitive systems such as processing capacity and both the
automaticity and efficiency of component processes
and speaking, writing is a more abstract activity.
(Frederiksen and Dominic 1981, p. 4).
Written text has to convey its meaning more
independently of paralinguistic context as writer and
reader do not have the shared immediate context A number of researchers have recently
which speaker and listener enjoy. The text must investigated children’s composition techniques (see,
create its own context, so the writer must assess what for example, the collections of papers edited by
knowledge can safely be assumed and what must be Frederiksen and Dominic 1981; Martlew 1983; and
Kroll and Wells 1983; and a review by Brown et al.

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Understanding Child Development

1983; as well as the paper specified as reference ‘Knowledge-telling’ is a strategy which even
below). An early problem in composing is generating experienced writers may resort to under conditions of
content. Young children frequently produce the stress (such as writing examination answers!);
equivalent of one utterance on the topic and then stop, Brown et al. (1983) point out that it may be hard to
claiming that that is all they can think of to say. give up because it does produce text, indeed text
Bereiter and Scardamalia (1982) demonstrate that which is high in quantity even if low in relevance and
devices of various sorts increase the amount organization. Knowledgetelling followed by
produced. Instructions to produce a large amount, the rigorous revision and ruthless discarding of weak
opportunity to speak or dictate the text instead of material is a perfectly respectable composition
having to write it, the provision of simple prompts technique. Since, however, only relatively
such as ‘go on’ or more directive ones such as ‘on the experienced writers produce the evaluating and
other hand’ or ‘also’, all increased both number of revising parts of this procedure, it may be more
words and number of ideas expressed. Children effective for young children to be trained to plan their
clearly had not reached the limits of what was text before they write it.
available on the subject. They welcomed prompts Bereiter and Scardamalia (1982) report various
and appreciated their effect. Learning to provide attempts to induce and improve planning. Planning is
yourself with prompts is part of the development of one of the ways in which composing written language
writing skills. differs from spoken language. Spoken language is
Bereiter and Scardamalia’s subjects did not, much more likely to be influenced by the recipient
however, seem to fit their additional content neatly to who may interrupt, argue, anticipate and so forth,
the prompts or to the sentence openers which later thus changing the course of the speech. Planning in
experiments provided. (I am glad to say that a group speaking has to be flexible and adapted in use to the
of Bristol 9-year-olds, less formally studied, did.) behaviour of the listener: planning in writing is much
Prompts and openers produced more material, but not less disruptible, and it may be more important to get
all children provided material on the same side of the it right. Before the teens, young writers seemed to
argument as an ‘also’ prompt suggests, or material on plan, if at all, on a ‘what next?’ basis, even when
the opposite side after a prompt of ‘on the other hand’. prompts suggested different developments in a text.
Their productions resembled what has been called a Planning was local, of the present sentence in relation
‘knowledge-telling’ strategy, where everything that
to the previous one, not in terms of how it might fit
is known on a subject or part of a subject is allowed to
into the text as a whole. One strategy the researchers
flood out without much evidence of organization.
used to try to induce larger-scale planning was to
Writers who use this strategy often pay little attention
provide the children with a final sentence for their
to the demands of their title and the limits it sets, and
composition. They report their best discussion,
do not adjust what they say to the characteristics of
their reader. ‘Knowledge-telling’ writing lacks between 12-year-olds given the task of composing a
goalrelated planning and significant revision. The story ending with the sentence ‘And so, after
text is not interconnected but made up of unrelated considering the reasons for it and the reasons against
sentences produced one after the other without it, the duke decided to rent his castle to the vampire
reference forward or, more particularly, back. It may after all, in spite of the rumour he had heard.’
thus contain repetitions and contradictions. Children Discussion concentrated, unfortunately, on world-
seem to have difficulties spotting inconsistencies and knowledge problems such as why a duke might
inadequacies in text (Brown et al. 1983; Markman consider renting his castle to a vampire, and on
1979) and find it difficult also to estimate accurately separate literary considerations (‘this whole story is
whether they know a little or a lot about a topic getting kinda dumb’), without managing to resolve
(Bereiter and Scardamalia 1982). In other words, the tension between the two. Most children stuck with
they have problems of access to their knowledge. the world-knowledge problems, and did not get on to

94
 The development of cognitive skills

the more abstract problems of creating a good story at this?’ They had a list of evaluative phrases such as
all. ‘People won’t see why this is important’, ‘I think this
Constructing a complex story in a backwards could be said more clearly’, and ‘I’m getting away
direction is a difficult task, as indeed is doing so in a from the main point’, and a set of directive phrases
forwards one. A great many highly esteemed novels such as ‘I’d better give an example’ or ‘I’d better
and stories consist essentially of a string of incidents change the wording’. Even the youngest children
which might well have been generated by a ‘what could choose evaluative phrases which seemed
next’ strategy. The Pickwick Papers and Don Quixote appropriate judgements to adult experts rating the
could be seen as examples. The writers have however text, and the children also said that the phrases were
had in mind at least a unifying theme and possibly an helpful and enabled them to review their writing in
overall shape to the novel which have subsumed the ways they did not feel they were able to do in their
individual elements into what reads as a coherent normal writing. However, the directives that the
whole. A sequential composition strategy such as children chose did not appear to be helpful either in
children use works well in the context of an overall the view of the adult judges or in terms of the changes
high level plan. made in the text. There were more changes for the
better than changes for the worse, but the revised
Revision essays were not on the whole noticeably better than
Experienced writers plan their texts: they also review the original ones.
and revise them. Children mostly fail to do so. These children were able to recognize problems in
‘Egocentrism’ or attachment to one’s own text is not their texts but not to make effective revisions. In part
an adequate explanation of this (or of many other this may be because their revisions seemed to be
childish foibles, see Cox 1980; Ford 1979), since mainly of minor details, rather than changes which
children also fail to revise other people’s productions. coped with major problems at levels nearer the whole
Revision requires a highly developed ability to text. Scardamalia and Bereiter suggest that
correct and improve as well as to generate text,
involving treating the output of the nth attempt at one likely cause is incompletely developed mental
writing as input to be revised into the (n + 1)th representations of actual and intended texts. These
attempt. Bereiter and Scardamalia (1982) argue that representations may be developed to the point where the
children do not have an internal feedback system to child can detect that something is amiss, but not far enough
use in evaluating their text. Just as young speakers for the child to discover what it is. This is analogous to the
experience one may have in travelling somewhere over an
seem to have problems in distinguishing between
indistinctly remembered route. One senses that things do
what was meant and what was said (see Chapter 4), not look right and therefore begins to suspect that one has
young writers find it hard to assess how well what is taken a wrong turn, but the mental representation of how
written conveys what is meant. As I have said, the things should look is not sufficiently clear to indicate where
writer does not have the feedback of the wrong turn might have been made, or even to establish
incomprehension which the listener gives the definitely that one is off course. A common response in the
speaker. If he or she also has no way of getting self- travel situation is just to keep going and hope things will
generated feedback which represents accurately become clearer. This is what children seem to do in writing
(Scardamalia and Bereiter 1983, p. 93).
what the reader would provide, there is very little
prospect of diagnosing a need for revision, or, further,
of acting appropriately to improve the text. It seems possible however that young writers who
Scardamalia and Bereiter (1983) trained children have the rather difficult and not quite clear task of
aged 10–14 to evaluate each sentence of the text they producing a better approximation to the ideal text
had produced asking ‘what’s the main problem with suffer from attention problems as well as a feeling of

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Understanding Child Development

not knowing exactly what to do. They may have a class children more than workingclass children. This,
repertoire of alternative phrasings but be mesmerized however, included writing domestic notes and letters,
by the original version: words on the page often seem and copying words without much regard to their
to take on a horrid inevitability. The alternative meaning. So far as creative writing is concerned, one
phrasings have to be thought of – the access to expert I asked said at least 10 per cent and junior
knowledge problem discussed above – and each school teachers estimated that there would probably
evaluated in comparison with the others, which will be a couple in each class. Habitual writing seems to be
place very formidable demands on memory and on a feature of the early lives of literary figures far more
the child’s powers of switching between composing often than not: the Brontë family, writing long
and criticizing. Again, Bereiter and Scardamalia chronicles of their imaginary islands, Jane Austen,
(1982) suggest there may be some improvement writing a dramatization of her favourite novel Sir
Charles Grandison and a burlesque History of
through exercises such as highlighting the main idea
England, and Edith Sitwell, composing poems and
of a sentence, planning the development of a passage,
fairy stories, are typical examples. Some write as
précis-making, reading with an eye open for
children but give it up in adulthood – Daisy Ashford
technique and the various other activities that have
followed The Young Visiters with some other novels,
been traditional parts of learning rhetoric.
also parasites on the sort of novels by adults she was
These analyses of the demands and difficulties of reading at the time, but as an adult published only
planning, composing and revising may seem dry and writing done in childhood.
more likely to stifle children’s interest in writing than Children’s writing reaches the world beyond the
to increase it. It is certainly the case that the intrinsic
writer largely through adult attention. Secretive
interest of particular tasks often leads children to
children who have a fair degree of personal space
write with enormous enthusiasm and care, and at
may not be known to be writers. Much writing which
great length (see, for example, Steedman 1982).
comes to the attention of parents (or teachers) gets no
Often the spur seems to be an emotional drive from
further. In terms of its literary merit this is not
inside the child, a need to express and so control
unreasonable, since much of what children write
feelings about an important experience. Bereiter and
Scardamalia’s subjects however seemed to enjoy lacks the craft which would make it satisfactory
applying their skills to tasks they had not chosen, to reading to anyone at all distant from its producer. As
value the craft skills they had learned for their own Steedman (1982) cogently argues, however, adults
sake. Their feeling of having learned useful new often have ulterior motives for preserving and
techniques which they could use to win increased publishing children’s writing. Literary merit is
success on tasks which are highly esteemed is very considered in some cases, particularly I think in texts
reminiscent of what Griffiths and Wells (1983) report concerned with how to teach writing. Parental pride
of English adults, that they did not feel competent as is another fairly innocent motive. Very commonly,
writers but that writing was important and necessary however, adults use children’s writing to interpret
and they wished they did it better. children’s development, much as they would also
interpret their play, dreams and talk. They also select
Children who are fluent writers writing because it exemplifies what they believe is
A number of children write for their own pleasure, typical of childhood – in the mid nineteenth century,
producing a large opus of stories, poems, and non- for example, childhood’s innocence, transience and
fiction. How many such children there are is spirituality (Coveney 1967). Some is published
unknown. The Newsons (1976) found that 23 per cent because it amuses adults, its artlessness affording
of their sample of 7-year-olds ‘wrote a lot’ at home them relaxation, some because it provides a moral
for pleasure: girls did so more than boys, and middle- object lesson and edification. Adults may supervise

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 The development of cognitive skills

and correct children’s writing, and children may He wrote newspapers, poems, stories with inventive
tailor their productions to the susceptibilities of plots, developed styles appropriate to the recipient of
adults. Given such multiform selection and his letters, and showed rather the same preferences in
censorship, the range of content, of style and of genre his writing as in his reading. Throughout, being
that children produce in their writing can probably literate was important to him and a source of great
not be discovered. enjoyment.
There are, however, examples which indicate what Steedman (1982) presents a rather different
the range might be and allow some speculation about example. She discusses one main text, a story called
children as writers. The research of Donald Graves The Tidy House, produced by three 8-year-old girls
and his colleagues (Graves 1983; Calkins 1983) over a week in 1976. The characters of the story are
provides some material. Bissex (1980) published two couples and their children: the plot ‘is simple: it
is concerned with the getting and regretting of
detailed observations of her son’s writing (and
children’, with how to bring them up and with what
reading) from age 5 to age 11. Paul Bissex wrote
life is like in ‘the tidy house’. The story is interesting
frequently, and used a considerable variety of forms;
in the literary devices used but also for the picture it
captions, stories, directions, catalogues, newspapers,
provides of these little girls’ understanding of
messages, school-type exercises, rhymes, planned
domestic life. In her extensive discussion, Steedman
schedules, diaries and ultimately codes. Initially his argues that producing the text was a way of
writing’s functions involved achieving competence confronting the social system they lived in, so far as
in the act of writing, then sharing it with his parents, this could be done by children who were captive both
and using it to name the objects of his world, for in the classroom and in the sort of lives they were
example a sign on a cupboard door read: describing. It is perhaps significant that the last page
of The Tidy House ends in mid sentence, thus:
PAULZ RABR SAF RABRZ KANT GT EN
(Paul’s robber safe. Robbers can’t get in.) soon they went home and had tea and went to bed and

(The Zs are examples of his good phonetic spelling.)

At 8, it may not be altogether easy to accept or to
As he grew older, he used his writing to categorize and reject a future consisting of loving children who cry
organize the world, for example drawing up lists like this and whine. These working-class girls display in their
one (at age 8:7): writing and their commentary on it a consciousness of
their families’ lives which must dispel any belief that
Hard words (to spell) children’s social understanding is egocentric or
naïve, and also a sophistication in their planning and
antidisestablishmenterianism revision of text which corrects some theorists’
satisfaction complicated emphasis on children’s disorderly production of
carbonated scientific writing.
corrosive character
exploition exploraition
Arithmetical skills
developed interesting extinct
antimated fictional puncuation Having sketched the development of reading and
individual annahilliated writing, I want now to look at children’s arithmetical
irrataitional antimated intellectual skills. This is a busy research area at present, with
many fine-grained analyses of mathematical tasks.
Mayer (1985) provides a brief introduction to this

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Understanding Child Development

work: among the important collections of papers are Counting

books edited by Brainerd (1982), Ginsberg (1983) Knowing the number words is not, as Piaget (1952)
and Lesh and Landau (1983). I will discuss some pointed out, the most important part of number
aspects of the development of number concepts and concepts. Number words have to be matched to
their role in children’s handling of addition and countable objects if the child is to ‘count’. Accurate
subtraction. I will try throughout to bring together counting requires that each and every object must be
task analytic approaches, ecological work on tagged with one and only one number word. To do
children’s spontaneous mathematics and this, objects and words have to be kept in step, and
considerations of mathematical language. objects have to be repeatedly and accurately divided
into ‘already counted’ and ‘not yet counted’ groups.
Learning number words Children often use pointing or touching or moving
One rather basic aspect of using numbers is knowing objects to help themselves do this correctly: rhythms
number words, their names. Observations of pre- in the counting may also help. There is quite a lot of
school children at home and at school show that they evidence (Fuson and Hall 1983) that children’s
quite frequently encounter number words and counting does mostly allocate one number word to
number word sequences in nursery rhymes, songs, one object; it is less clear whether children regard this
and adult conversation (see, for example, Tizard and as a necessary principle of counting as Gelman and
Hughes 1984; Davie et al. 1984). Adults often make Gallistel (1978) suggested. They do not always use
use of opportunities to use numbers; parents may the conventional number sequence; young children’s
number lists are often idiosyncratic with an initial
deliberately teach their children to ‘count’ in the
conventional and correct sequence such as ‘one, two,
senses both of reciting number words and of applying
three’ followed by a stable but unconventional
those words in finding out how many objects there
portion ‘five, eight, nine, eleven’ and a final non-
are. Fuson and Hall (1983) find that a majority of
stable portion which varies from occasion to
children can count to twenty or so by the time they are
occasion.
5, and most can count to one hundred by the age of 6
Having applied a stable list to the countable objects
given moderate practice in school.
in a one to one fashion, the last number used indicates
In English, number words are regularly structured
the numerosity of the set: its cardinal number. Adults
from the teens, with a units part, a ‘decades’ part and
can produce the cardinal number for small sets (up to
a hundreds or thousands part as appropriate. Thus four) and very well learned larger sets (such as the
1986 is ‘one thousand, nine hundred, eighty, six’ (or configurations on dominoes and playing cards) very
‘nineteen hundred, eighty, six’); ‘35’ is ‘thirty, five’; quickly and without counting. This capacity is known
and so on. The number names up to the teens have to as ‘subitizing’. It is possible that young children can
be learned more or less by rote, as do the names of the also subitize small sets of two or three items. It is
decades; the rest can be generated by rule. Children’s however hard to distinguish between rapid covert
learning of number names seems to be initially by counting and pattern recognition or ‘subitizing’ (see
rote. It is usually after they have learned to recite the Gelman and Gallistel 1978, pp. 64–8, 219– 25; and
sequence beyond twenty that they realize there is a Fuson and Hall, pp. 59–61): until it is clearer exactly
repetition of ‘something-one, something-two’ and so what subitizing consists of, it will be difficult to find
on, and after they have grasped the sequence to one out how counting and subitizing are related in
hundred that they can really generate numbers development.
iteratively ad infinitum (Siegler and Robinson 1982). To find out how many objects there are in a set, one
Understanding zero and infinity (and negative should count them and then report the last number
numbers, fractions, etc.) comes of course later still. used which is the cardinal word for that set. Young
children often fail to report the last number, but when

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 The development of cognitive skills

they have counted the set aloud they may be course on number symbols: 71 is not obviously
expecting the experimenter to realize that the last bigger than 48. New strategies therefore have to be
number said while counting is intended as the answer; developed, and the old ones given up, which, as we
it is indeed somewhat disingenuous of the have seen, is difficult.
experimenter to require further telling. It appears that One possibility is matching each item in one set
most middle-class children do repeat their last with an item from the other: if a set has one or more
counting word with added emphasis to indicate that it items left over after this procedure it has more items.
is their answer by the age of 4 (Fuson and Hall 1983). The evidence reviewed by Fuson and Hall (1983)
Appreciating that you would get the same cardinal suggests that if children have perceptual cues like
number for any correct count of the objects in any touching, moving and linking with drawn-in lines
order is a rather later achievement, as Piaget pointed (techniques which also helped with counting, as we
out years ago, and as in the case of his mathematician saw in the previous section), they can use matching to
friend (p. 33) it may be an exciting thing to realize. It establish relative numerosity by the age of about 6. If
is of course an achievement which depends on matching is perceptually harder fewer children use it
accurate counting: if your procedure in counting is a (Brainerd 1979).
bit shaky, you may get a different numerosity each Another possible strategy for establishing relative
time and not realize the source of the variation. numerosities is of course counting. If the cardinal
numbers of sets are the same, they are equal in
Comparing numerical quantities quantity: if not, the order of the cardinal numbers in
Although there are possible comparisons of numbers the sequence of number words shows which set has
implicit in producing strings of number names and in more and which fewer items in it – at least to someone
counting a single set of objects, once there are two (or who knows the number sequence and that if number
more) sets there are inevitably comparisons which a comes before number b then number a is smaller
involve judgements of more, less, fewer, same, equal, than number b. (Exactly how children make these
greater than, etc. Siegel (1978) reviews studies of order judgements is still controversial (Fuson and
children’s problems with these terms. One source of Hall 1983, pp. 93–8; Siegler and Robinson 1982, pp.
confusion is that comparatives are correlated in the 267– 86). They are probably easier to make if the
natural world: certainly when comparing sets of the smaller number is very small and the gap between the
same objects, the longer line does more often than not numbers is large: Siegler and Robinson suggest that
have more in, or the taller heap contain more objects. there is categorization of the number sequence into
Sorting out the comparative dimensions, deciding smallest, small, medium and big numbers. Pre-
that ‘less’ is not a synonym for ‘more’ (Donaldson schoolers judge nine to be a big number in all
and Balfour 1981) and sorting out exactly which contexts: adults judge it to be a big number in the
entities are being compared (Siegel et al. 1978) seem context of one to ten but not in the context of one to a
to be among the harder preliminaries to making a million.)
comparison. Counting may be of two separate sets existing
Up to a point, perceptual comparison strategies simultaneously, or of one set before and after a
may give quite successful results. If numbers are transformation. In the classic number conservation
small, or if there is a big difference between the sets test, both comparisons are involved. It is a well-
to be compared, or if an approximate answer will do, replicated finding that children who have counted
relative judgements work quite well, and young both sets before the transformation, and agreed that
children use them quite readily (Bryant 1974). They they are equivalent, will deny that same equivalence
work less well with exact comparisons between when one set of counters is spread out, even though
larger sets nearer in size, and do not work at all of they may count again and reach the same numbers.

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Understanding Child Development

Nevertheless, counting does help in conservation of Ordinal numbers

number tasks (Siegler 1981; Klahr and Wallace We have discussed using numbers to find the
1976). It is presumably not used as the best cue to numerosity of a set or the relative sizes of several sets.
numerosity in conservation when the child has a Numbers can also be used to describe relative positions
strong perceptual strategy and a low level of within a set: I am the fourth of my parents’ children, the
confidence in his or her own ability to count second tallest woman in my department, an inhabitant
accurately. of the seventh largest city in England. Children do
learn ordinal wordssuch asthese, butsome asthese,but

Figure 13 Three counting models for simple addition of m + n.

Source: From Mayer (1985), p. 141.

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 The development of cognitive skills

such as these, but some time after they have learned minimum addend was two than if the minimum
the conventional counting sequence, and probably addend was one and so on. The mean response times
the ordinal number sequence becomes systematic for 1 + 6 and 6 + 1 were identical and over a second
and iterative through school practice. Using the shorter than the mean response times for 3 + 4 and 4 +
ordinal words to refer to the correct items of an 3, for example. ‘Double’ sums such as 1 + 1 and 2 + 2
ordered set – indicating the third, fifth or whatever were notably easy: this probably reflects a fourth
item – is also difficult. Putting items in order of size strategy for coping with addition, the memorization
or some other physical quality is something pre- of number facts. Resnick (1983) suggests that adults
school children enjoy doing, though as Piaget’s do most of their addition and subtraction by using
seriation experiments show they may stick at mental shortcuts such as using memorized number
facts and repartitioning numbers to fit well-learned
comparisons of pairs of objects and not
facts (for example turning 18 + 23 into 18 + 2 + 21).
systematically complete an ordered set (Piaget 1952).
Even in the early school years, as Groen and
They find it easier to identify the smallest and largest
Parkman’s data show, children use these strategies
or first and last of a set than the ‘middle-sized’ or
(Figure 14). These addition strategies form a
‘next to last’ one (Siegel 1972, 1978). How ordinal
hierarchy which most children pass through in one
number development is related to cardinal number way or another before reaching automatic response.
development is not known: ordinal number Carpenter and Moser (1983) describe similar
development may lag behind because it is strategies for coping with subtraction problems. A
ecologically less common (though ordinal numbers concrete strategy is separating from; making a set of
are used daily in the calendar) or because its the larger numerosity, separating from it the smaller
vocabulary is acquired later or both. number and counting the remainder. This is an
enactment of phrasings such as ‘5 take away 3’,
Doing addition and subtraction which Conroy (1984) found to be the preferred and
There has been a great deal of work recently on easiest phrasing for Australian 6 to 13-year-olds.
children’s strategies for adding and subtracting There is a parallel counting strategy called Counting
numbers. There are a number of useful reviews of the Down From; the child counts backwards starting with
area, including Carpenter, Moser and Romberg 1982, the larger number for as many number words as the
Carpenter and Moser 1983, Resnick 1983 and Siegler given smaller number. The last number in the
and Robinson 1982. Children’s most basic strategy is counting sequence is the correct answer.
to construct sets of physical objects or fingers to Other strategies include starting with the smaller
represent the two numbers to be added, move the two number and counting up until the larger one is
sets together and then count all the joint set from one reached: the number of objects added is the answer.
to the total. A more sophisticated (and quicker) The most efficient of all strategies is to combine
strategy is to count on from the cardinal number of the counting down and counting up to involve the
first set through the members of the second set to the minimum action: for example, counting down from
total number of the combined set. More efficiently eight is the quickest way to solve 8−2, while counting
still, the child may count on from the larger number up from six is the quickest way to solve 8 − 6. As I said
through the smaller set to the total – the counting on when discussing addition, using number facts
(min) algorithm. These three algorithms are shown in supersedes these counting strategies to a
Figure 13. considerable extent.
Reaction time evidence (Groen and Parkman
1972) suggests that in their first year of school The early language of arithmetic
children use the counting-on (min) algorithm, as it We have seen that children as young as 5 know that
took longer to reach the correct answer if the adding increases quantity and subtracting decreases it,

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Understanding Child Development

Figure 14 Response time depends on the number of increments required in the min model. Number pairs represent the two
numbers to be added; e.g. 13 means 1 + 3.

Source: From Groen and Parkman (1972).

are able to recite number names, and quickly learn Adult How many is two giraffes and one more?
ways of quantifying addition and subtraction. They Child Three
have a good understanding of some of the language Adult So how many is two and one more?
expressions of addition and subtraction, mainly the Child (looks adult straight in the eye) Six.
more concrete forms. For example, the 4-year-old (Hughes 1983, p. 211)
boy recorded by Martin Hughes does very well with
concrete questions but does not translate his
knowledge into an abstract number system at all: One of the things this child has to learn is the formal
code of arithmetic, for example ‘one’ and ‘two’ used
alone rather than with accompanying nouns as in ‘one
Adult How many is two and one more?
Child Four elephant’ and ‘two elephants’; ‘and’ as a synonym for
Adult Well, how many is two lollypops and one ‘plus’; ‘is’ (or ‘makes’) as synonymous for ‘equals’.
more? Corran and Walkerdine (1981) point out that children
Child Three rarely learn this formal code from adults before
Adult How many is two elephants and one school, and also that the different ways of saying a
more? string of mathematical symbols such as 5 + 2 = 7 are
Child Three

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 The development of cognitive skills

not trivially different. ‘Five and two makes seven’ for Resnick (1982, 1983), examines subtracting
example emphasizes the addition, the production of 7 algorithms and ‘bugs’, the errors which arise from
from 5 and 2: ‘Five plus two equals seven’ using algorithms in ways which violate some of their
emphasizes the equivalence of the two sides of the rules. Many of the bugs she describes resulted from
equation. To take a second example, Coleman 1982 failure to understand the meaning of subtraction, and
lists various ‘translations’ of ‘8 − 5 = ?’ − ‘take 5 from particularly of how to manage subtraction problems
8’, ‘reduce 8 by 5’, ‘by how much greater is 8 than 5’, such as 61 − 37 which require ‘carrying’ between tens
‘what is the difference between 8 and 5’ and so on. and units columns. As such understandings became
These seemed to reflect different ideas about what more secure and children’s algorithms became more
subtraction meant and how to do it. Conroy 1984 flexible, children could combine different operations
looked at children’s success rate on different orally to produce an answer and then check it, thus
presented subtraction sums; 6-year-olds got ‘what is debugging themselves. How their informal
2 less than 8’ right only 21 per cent of the time (‘8 − 2 selfgenerated strategies map on to the formal skills
= ?’ was right 67 per cent of the time) and ‘what is 7 taught in mathematics lessons needs further research.
take away 5’ right 70 per cent of the time (‘7 − 5 = ?’ So does the question of the extent, nature and causes
was right 76 per cent of the time). How children of individual differences in arithmetic skills. It seems
translate from symbols to metaphoric language and probable that a lack of matching between informal
vice versa can be seen to affect the solution and formal mathematics is one important component
procedures they use, as I shall describe. At some time of poor mathematical achievement. So are
the child has to reach a level of fluency and flexibility metacognitive skills.
in using these terms that allows recognition that they
are interchangeable verbal forms for the one Some further developments in mathematics
symbolic statement. I have been describing what children do at the
Hughes (1983) gave 5 to 7-year-olds the task of beginning of their work with numbers, and we have
showing on paper how many bricks there were on the been dealing with small numerical quantities, mostly
table. They found this easy, drawing the objects or an below ten. Dealing with larger numbers – ‘hundreds,
equivalent number of tallies or writing the tens and units’ – also has to be managed. This
appropriate conventional number. They were also involves consideration of the base ten number
asked to show what happened when a few more system, computations using written versions of it,
and crucially, a recognition that numbers can be
bricks were added or subtracted. Most just drew the
interpreted as made up of other smaller numbers: 35
final number of bricks: there were a few attempts to
= 30 + 5 = 20 + 15 and so forth. There has been quite
represent initial number, final number and what had a lot of research on how children learn to manage
been added on or subtracted, for example by showing more advanced forms of addition and subtraction
hands adding bricks or putting bricks away in the box, (e.g. Resnick 1982, 1983) partly because difficulties
or the ingenious if slow strategy of drawing a line of are frequently found. Lesh and Landau (1983) also
British soldiers marching from left to right to provide material on children’s handling of
represent added bricks, and a line of Japanese soldiers proportions, fractions, geometrical concepts and
marching from right to left to represent subtracted algebraic problems. As was the case with simple
ones. Not one of the seventy-two children tested used addition and subtraction, children need to understand
the conventional operator signs of + and −, although both the ‘reality context’ of the calculation, its
they were using them regularly in their arithmetic mathematic structure and the appropriate algorithms,
and to relate all these, if they are to work successfully.
lessons, and, if they were comparable with Conroy’s
A great deal more research ideally involving
children, probably using them correctly most of the
collaboration between mathematicians, psychologists
time. and educators, is needed.

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Understanding Child Development

Metacognition thought and yours makes each of us review thinking

we were previously complacent about.
‘Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge and A number of questions have been asked, then,
control of the domain cognition’ (Brown et al. 1983, about the development of metacognition. I will
p. 106). It thus involves a range of different outline some of the relevant areas of research, and
psychological contents. Among them would be then briefly address the implications of this work for
awareness of cognition, of understanding or not theories of cognition and for educational
understanding, remembering or forgetting, at a intervention. The sections of this chapter which
particular moment; knowledge about one’s own discuss remembering and comprehension also
cognitive skills and about a task’s difficulties (‘I contain relevant material.
won’t be able to do this because I can’t remember how
to do square roots’); and regulation of cognition, for Sources of metacognitive experiences
example planning how to do a task, monitoring When do children know that they don’t know? What
progress on it, checking the solution. Some of this effect does such an experience have? Piaget believed
metacognitive knowledge is stable and stateable, that experiences of knowing that you had
though it may not be objectively true. For example, I contradictory ideas or that your ideas contradicted
would know all the time that I remember epigrams someone else’s were common even in young children
rather badly and the general meaning of a play or and served as one of the important pressures towards
novel quite well, and that in order to record the detail cognitive development. Autonomous regulation of
I should make a note of it. Some metacognition is thought, automatic small adjustments of actions,
much harder to describe and much harder to employ were inherent in cognitive activity: conscious
stably and systematically; as the introspectionist reflection on thought was a late achievement.
psychologists found long ago, people who reported Awareness of the intended outcome and
on their thinking while they were working on a discrepancies from it comes much earlier than
problem found their thinking disrupted (Valentine awareness of what exactly is wrong. Thus children
1982, Russell 1984). might be expected to know that there was a
Recently, metacognition has taken a prominent contradiction without knowing what to do about it
place in discussion of cognition and cognitive and without being able to take appropriate action
development. This is partly because of the influence (Piaget 1976, 1978). It can be very difficult to make
of the information-processing models of cognition this progress.
which I briefly reviewed in the previous chapter (see Experiments by Karmiloff-Smith and Inhelder
also Klahr and Wallace 1976; Siegler 1981; Sternberg (1974/5) illustrate one way in which the development
1984; Case 1985). The concept of a central executive is made. They gave 4 to 9-year-olds the task of
system which controls cognitive processes has been a balancing blocks of wood on a narrow bar. The
powerful metaphor for developmentalists, who see simplest strategy was to use physical trial and error,
cognition as becoming increasingly skilled and nudging the blocks on to the balancing point: slow but
controlled as development and education proceed. successful. This strategy was, however, supplanted
Another reason for the rise of metacognition has been by simple theories which worked for some blocks but
Piaget’s emphasis that it is the child’s awareness of a not for others, for example to balance the block by the
problem in his or her thinking which is crucial for geometric centre, which was successful for uniform
cognitive development: a contradiction between two blocks but not for ones with an uneven distribution of
of my schemes of thought forces me to develop a weight. These latter gave rise to an alternative theory,
resolution between them, or conflict between my so the child operated two juxtaposed theories without
co-ordinating them. Constructing a higher level

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procedure, which combined the simpler theories and the child with a previous contradictory answer, can
left no exceptions, was slow and painful in that it gave also induce metacognitive progress.
rise to more errors as it was developed than its However, it has to be stressed that awareness of
predecessors had done. Simple theories applied conflict is not quite the same as awareness of
perfectly to a limited set of blocks: those blocks the contradiction, and knowing how to resolve the
theory couldn’t cover were rejected as ‘impossible to disagreement is something else again. There is some
balance’, until there were an intolerably large number evidence that young children treat judgements of size
of exceptions. Philosophers of science have observed as being much like judgements of preference: ‘You
a similar reluctance in professional scientists to take think this one’s more, I think that one’s more’ is
on board the accumulating instances which the regarded as the same sort of situation as ‘You like this
present theory cannot incorporate (Kuhn 1962). one, I like that one’ (Russell 1981a, 1981b, 1982).
Children who have some understanding of the
Social conflict as a source of metacognitive physical principles of Piagetian tasks such as
development conservation are less likely to make this sort of
Another source of metacognitive conflict which mistake.
Piaget emphasized is disagreement with peers.
Experiments by Doise and his colleagues deal with Beyond awareness to diagnosing the problem
this area (Doise and Mugny 1984). They have used One source of evidence on children’s ability to
various Piagetian paradigms. Pairs of children are diagnose the problem which is giving them a feeling
required to reach agreement on a task organized so of not having understood is the work on
that they are likely to begin by giving contradictory comprehension monitoring referred to on p. 83.
answers. For example, in a conservation of length Children may not be terribly good at reporting text
task, each child might judge the stick that came nearer comprehension problems but they do show some
to himself or herself to be longer than the one nearer behavioural indices of comprehension monitoring,
the other child: thus their two judgements are such as pausing and frowning (Brown et al. 1983, pp.
contradictory, since it cannot be the case that both 114–16). Another body of information comes from
sticks are ‘longer’. (In fact, of course, in the standard studies of verbal communication. Robinson (1983)
conservation test both children are wrong as the sticks reviews work in this area, much of it her own.
are identical in length.) Typically children are given an ambiguous message,
Children who have experience of this sort of for example one where the main referent is not
conflicting judgement often do better when working specified sufficiently so that more than one object
with the other child than they did on the pre-test, and might be referred to, although only one particular one
the improvement may carry over to the post-test when is meant. Thus the child might be told to pick ‘the man
they are alone again. The child is more likely to learn with the red hat’ when more than one red-hatted man
from conflict with peers if he or she already has some was available, or told to use ‘a big brick’ next to
grasp of the principles involved in the task, and if construct a building when there are several ‘big’
there has been real involvement in the situation rather bricks of different colours and shapes. Young
than a desultory partial attention. It is not necessary children tend to act on such messages with great
for one child to give the correct answer: evident confidence that they have understood what was
conflict between two wrong answers also leads meant: when things go wrong they are likely to say it
children to realize that they need to rethink their was the listener’s fault for not listening properly.
answer. Research by Emler and Valiant (1982) Older children, like adults, blame the speaker for
suggests that intra-individual conflict, confronting giving an imprecise message, and say that more exact
information should have been given.

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Understanding Child Development

It seems likely that this can be related to the ecology older children know more about their cognition than
of the small child’s life. Examination of the tapes younger ones do. There is disagreement about the age
from the Bristol Language Development Study at which children begin to make deliberate efforts to
suggested that when adults met an ambiguous remember, notice text contradictions, plan their
utterance from a pre-school child they tended to guess stories and so forth, partly because it is not always
what the child probably meant. Thus if the child said clear what are reliable indices of such behaviour, and
‘wanna drink’ the adult’s response was ‘do you want partly because the early stages of strategies or skills
some orange?’ or ‘orange or Ribena?’; thus the adult typically involve fragmentary and spasmodic use.
took responsibility for constructing a clear message. Thus, as in the Piagetian literature, when evidence
A few adults said things like ‘I don’t know what you that children cannot do X until they are M + 2 years
mean. Tell me what you want to drink’: all the old is followed by evidence that on the contrary
children who were relatively precocious speaker- children can do x when they are only M years old, we
blamers had had this sort of treatment from their need to examine very carefully the relationship
mothers (Robinson and Robinson 1981). Many between X and x. Babies may distinguish between
children, however, must be told ‘you haven’t two beats at a time and three, but is that the same as
listened’, ‘now listen carefully’, and so forth. the adult’s recognition of two and three? (Gelman
One of the important points that arises from 1982).
considering how ambiguity and confusion arise in A more interesting question than the age one is how
real life (by which I mean outside tests of cognitive to describe the differences between the young child
development) is that they are frequent and that not all who does not use a metacognitive strategy and the
confusions are important enough to need noticing, let older child who does. One possible description is the
alone resolving. Often someone else will cope, as in novice-expert dimension (Brown and de Loache
the example where the adult listener takes 1978; Shatz 1978). Novices lack the necessary skills
responsibility for clarifying the child’s ambiguous for a task and probably also an adequate ‘feel’ for the
message. Or one may understand a concept very task as a whole. As managing the component parts of
adequately for day-to-day purposes but not be the task takes up all the available processing space in
familiar with all its more technical manifestations. Or the early stages, there is little opportunity for
ambiguity and contradiction may be deliberately metacognitive activity such as deliberate self-
employed as a literary or rhetorical device. At least in regulation. As the task parts become more familiar
this last case, the point may be precisely in the and take their places in the whole task, there will be
pointing of levels of contradictory meaning. What more space for metacognition, and the learner can
‘conflicts’ are diagnosed as, and how they are step back, consider the way the entire problem is
resolved, is an important question for research in the going and make his or her performance more
development of children’s thinking (Rotman 1977). systematic and better organized. The children I
described doing the balance task set them by
Knowing what to do about a cognitive problem Karmiloff-Smith and Inhelder (1974/5) seem to
There is an extensive literature now on children’s follow this pattern. Children will constantly be
knowledge about how to tackle cognitive problems: novices on tasks where adults have become experts
among useful reviews are Brown et al. 1983, with many more well-learned routines. Task
Cavanaugh and Perlmutter 1982, Flavell and familiarity will be a crucial variable (Shatz 1978).
Wellman 1977, and Robinson 1983. There is also It seems likely however that adults will not just
relevant discussion on memory, text construction and have learned many routines well enough to find it
comprehension and awareness of language easy to perform the routines and to think about them;
elsewhere in this chapter. One basic finding is that they may also have developed more generalized
metacognitive skills which they can transfer flexibly

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 The development of cognitive skills

from task to task. Thus although the specifics of a task Convincing information about why it is worth using
may be equally new to child and adult, the latter may a particular strategy presumably increases people’s
both have a better sense of what sort of task this is, motivation to use that strategy. Metacognitive
more knowledge of his or her own capabilities and activity requires some effort on the part of the thinker,
more general routines for controlling his or her and if there are limitations on ‘thinking space’ (see
performance. (On the other hand, he or she may have Chapter 2) it may seem to be too much bother or not
acquired more emotional blocks to learning – ‘you worth the effort. Demonstration that it does enhance
can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, ‘I’m too old to performance and produce rewards greater than its
handle micro-computers’.) Child ‘novice’ and adult initial cost may make it more likely to be used.
‘novice’ cannot be assumed to be the same. Children are, in practice, rarely given explicit
metacognitive training of the sort used in the
Making metacognitive progress intervention studies reviewed by Brown et al. (1983).
One difficulty in giving an account of how and why However they do have some opportunities to see
children’s metacognition develops is that much of the older people making special efforts to remember,
research is cross-sectional, establishing that children plan, review their learning and so forth. Such
of, say, 5 do not have a particular metacognitive skill activities are probably more common at school than
and children of, say, 9, do. This approach tells us at home but do occur there too, particularly perhaps
nothing directly about the mechanisms of the change. in conversations between the child and older people
Training studies, however, provide one way in to (Tizard and Hughes 1984). It seems likely that
cognitive change, particularly if we compare parents undertake some of the responsibility for their
successful training strategies with the events that child’s metacognition. One example is the joint
occur in children’s normal upbringing. Brown et al. activity of looking at books, where mothers often say
(1983, pp. 129– 46) review studies which have to their 2-year-old things like ‘I know you know that
attempted to train ‘learning skills’. one’, ‘We’ll find you something you know very well’
Inducing subjects to use a strategy without any (Ninio and Bruner 1978). Mothers are often used as a
explanation of why the strategy was important or an memory by their children (e.g. Kail 1979), as well as
explicit noting that it was effective, generally led to modelling external memory devices such as the use of
improved performance on the task while the strategy shopping lists, which children understand well
was being used, but little transfer to other tasks, and (Istomina 1975). Nursery rhymes and stories also
the strategy might be given up even for the target task provide obvious opportunities for metacognitive
once the experimenter stopped reminding the subject activities. The adult gradually hands over to the child
to use it. Experiments by Whittaker (1983) illustrate more and more responsibility for the success of the
this. He set up paradigms for memory tasks which activity. There is some reason to believe that children
forced the child to recognize the difference between whose parents go in for quite a lot of explicit
performance using the strategy and performance modelling of metacognitive and metalinguistic
without it: this greatly increased children’s behaviour become advanced in their learning of these
persistence in using the strategy. skills (e.g. Robinson and Robinson in press; Mills
Providing subjects with information about the and Funnell 1983; Brown et al. 1983). We do not at
importance and effectiveness of the activity that present know exactly what effects parents’
they’re being trained to use greatly enhances the metacognitive behaviour has, or how those effects
prospect of them continuing to use it and transferring come about, and we certainly cannot conclude that
it to other tasks. This sort of information seems to be the more metacognitive modelling there is the better.
particularly necessary for retarded children who I do, however, propose that we should take very
rarely show spontaneous transfer of learning. seriously the hypothesis that one important aspect of
metacognitive development is a progress from

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Understanding Child Development

cognition supported by, and regulated by, other influenced by other people. Children use other
people more skilled than oneself, to cognition which people’s knowledge in their own development: the
is relatively independent and self-regulated. To quote ways that other people treat the child shape his or her
Brown et al. (1983, p. 124) cognition not just about people but about many
aspects of the non-human world. Knowledge and
mature thinkers are those who provide conflict trials for
influence come not just from the micro-system, as I
themselves, practice thought experiments, question their shall describe, but from the wider social world.
own basic assumptions, provide counter examples to their Religious teaching, for example, was a significant
own rules, and so on. Although a great deal of thinking and factor in the historical development of thinking about
learning may remain a social activity, mature reasoners the relationship between Man and Nature (Thomas
become capable of providing the supportive-other role for 1984). The questions that need to be answered are not
themselves. . . . about whether social interaction influences cognitive
development but when and how it does.
Social cognition Piaget placed his main emphasis on the dialectic
between the child and the physical world, but
Most of the work on cognitive development deriving
included social interaction as a motivator of
from the Piagetian or information-processing
development, particularly through conflict of ideas
tradition centres on an individual thinker trying to
between peers. Discussion and criticism involving
understand the objective physical world. Lately, an
peers forced the child to ‘decentre’, to resolve the
interest has grown in an area which poses alternatives
contradictions between different viewpoints or
to each half of this individualist model, and centres on
opinions. Recently Doise and his colleagues in
the thinking individual whose thinking comes from
interaction with other individuals as much as from Geneva have carried out a series of studies on the
within himself or herself, or on individuals’ thinking effects of peer interaction on children’s performance
of Piagetian tasks (Doise and Mugny 1984). They
about the subjective social and interpersonal world. It
paired children on conservation and perspective
is this newly important area which is called ‘social
taking tasks set up in such a way that the children
cognition’. It is a diverse field, including, for
would disagree on the answer. This conflict led to
example, the effects of social conflict on performance
more advanced judgements on subsequent tasks,
of conservation tasks, children’s descriptions of
provided that the children had the beginnings of a
‘friends’, the role of emotion in understanding other
grasp of the principles underlying the correct answer.
people, children’s ideas about techniques for
Children with no understanding at all of conservation
achieving social goals such as joining groups, the use
or whatever were likely to treat the disagreement with
of social ‘scripts’, and children’s theories of how
the peer as a matter of disagreement over some
social institutions work. There is much debate about
conceptual and methodological issues, and not as yet subjective preference (Russell 1981, 1982; Light
a unifying theory (indeed only a high level theory 1983): that is, there was an interaction between
metacognition and ability to learn from social
could unify so wide an area): I will not attempt to do
interaction.
more than discuss selected work in the field. For
There has been some debate about whether inter-
reviews see Isbell and McKee 1980, Shantz 1983,
individual conflict is a better motivator of cognitive
Flavell and Ross 1981, Butterworth and Light 1982,
development than either intra-individual conflict
and Forgas 1981.
(children seeing that their present judgement is
incompatible with their previous one) or inter-
Cognitive development as a social process
individual co-operation. Self-contradiction has
There is no room for doubt that children’s cognitive
seemed to be as effective in inducing cognitive
development takes place within a social world and is
development as other-contradiction (Emler and

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 The development of cognitive skills

Valiant 1982), though Doise and Mackie 1981 argue – persons typically act and react in a wider variety of ways
that such situations are in fact socially produced (by than objects do, thus they may be less predictable.
the experimenter or another adult ‘setting up’ the
child) or that the child may have ‘decentred’ enough Some of Piaget’s early work (Piaget 1929, 1930)
to treat his or her previous and present views as showed children attributing animate characteristics,
objective and thus contrastable. In Chapter 2 I such as independent movement, to inanimate objects,
touched on the difficulties of knowing how to resolve such as bicycles or the moon. This he called
a conflict and pointed out that recognizing its ‘animistic thinking’, and it was supposed to be a
existence does not in fact solve the problem. Co- pervasive feature of ‘pre-operational’ children’s
operation with another person, on the other hand, may thought. More recently, a number of studies have
both provide new information and confirmation of failed to find much animistic thinking even in 3-year-
the participants’ ideas where they agree (Bryant olds. Shields and Duveen 1982, for example, asked
1982). This sort of behaviour by adults does seem to nursery-school children which of a farmer, a cow, a
advance cognitive development (Vygotsky 1978; tractor and a tree could eat, sleep, move by itself, talk,
Bruner 1968; Mills and Funnell 1983; Wood 1980; feel angry, and so forth. The children’s answers drew
a clear distinction between the tractor and the tree,
and see Chapters 2, 5 and 6). While children are
which could not do any of these things, and the farmer
developing cognitive skills and models within an
and the cow which could. (There was some
area, commentary by other more expert people which
disagreement over whether cows could talk or have
helps to integrate the developing thinking into a
emotions, but children who claimed they could,
coherent whole may serve to support the novice’s
maintained that cows talked with other cows or the
understanding. Such behaviour seems to lead to the farmer, ‘talk’ being extended slightly to mean
optimum cognitive development if it is contingent on ‘communicate’.) Similarly, studies reviewed by
the child’s behaviour and interest (Mills and Funnell Gelman and Spelke (1981, pp. 48– 51) suggest that
1983), and if it is a reflection of the expert’s expertise children as young as 2 may make some adult-type
rather than his or her misunderstandings! distinctions between animate and inanimate objects
if the objects are familiar to them and if the questions
Children’s understanding of the properties of asked are fairly straightforward. Some of Piaget’s
persons and objects animistic answers may have stemmed, it is argued,
‘Social cognition’ implies a distinction between from asking problematic questions like ‘Does the sun
social and non-social, between persons and other know where it is moving?’ Explaining difficult
objects. Exactly what is the basis for such a phenomena, however, may draw out animistic
distinction is a matter of some debate, particularly in reasons: some of Shields and Duveen’s subjects, like
contentious areas such as whether non-human some of Piaget’s, said that the wind was caused by the
animals or complex computers are ‘persons’ voluntary movement of the trees.
(Midgley 1979; Searle 1984). The central criteria A distinction between animate and inanimate
seem to be: objects, and between people and other animate
objects, seems to be discernible in quite young
– persons are agents, that is they are capable of initiating children. It is not entirely clear what the distinction is
actions, while objects can only move if something or based on and we have only speculation at present as
someone else initiates the action to how it is built up in the first three years of life. One
probable source is no doubt differences in the ways
– persons know, think, learn and have emotions, while persons act on the child and react to his or her actions
objects do not
compared with the actions and reactions of objects.
– persons are alive, that is they develop and reproduce Careful analysis of the lives of babies and toddlers
themselves would perhaps inform us about this.

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Children’s understanding of people general predictions than specific concrete

Research on the development of children’s descriptions do: if this is the case, and it is still a
understanding of people is one of the largest bodies of debatable issue in personality theory (see, for
work in the social cognition area. It has been heavily example, Cook 1984), the development of person
influenced by Piaget’s theory that children are perception may be from poor to better. However, it is
egocentric, that is that they are unable to appreciate not really very clear how well children’s free
that other people have knowledge, feelings or views descriptions represent their ideas about people.
different from their own. The notion of Describing people is a different activity from
‘egocentricity’ no longer seems as credible as it once engaging in social interaction with them, and may not
did in the light of evidence that even very young use the same information. There are also likely to be
children can and often do show a practical problems of interpreting what is meant, particularly
understanding of other people’s feelings and with children whose vocabulary is limited and who
knowledge (see p. 157). There is also a strong may not mean by a particular term what an adult
probability that children operate an intricate social would mean by it. Research which uses more probing
world with, on the whole, about as much success as and more rating scales may be needed, even if such
adults, which again suggests they have a fair methods do restrict subjects. A study by Flapan,
understanding of their familiar peers and adults (see which Rogers (1978) describes, apparently found
p. 192). Nevertheless, it is possible that the responses to questions were more sophisticated than
understanding which manifests itself in successful free descriptions.
interpersonal action does develop. What evidence is
there? Children’s attributional judgements
Shantz (1983) and Rogers (1978) review studies Young children do seem to be rather less likely than
where children were asked to describe or judge older ones to infer inner psychological dispositions
people’s behaviour. One of the best known of these is from outward behaviour: there also seem to be some
work by Livesley and Bromley (1973). They elicited differences in what evidence they use when making
free descriptions from each of their 7 to 15-year-old attributional judgements about the causes of an event.
subjects of eight people personally known to the Attribution theory (Heider 1958; Kelley 1979; Ross
subject. They found that the younger children’s 1981; see also Chapters 5 and 6) distinguishes
descriptions were predominantly in ‘peripheral’ and between personal causal factors, such as a person’s
‘external’ terms, such as appearance, age, and timidity, and impersonal causal factors, such as the
surroundings. As children got older, their size and muscularity of the threatening opponent,
descriptions become more abstract and involved which come into consideration when decisions have
more inferences about stable psychological traits, to be made about questions such as whether it should
initially rather global ones such as ‘nice’ or ‘good’, be fight or flight. It also uses the ‘co-variation
but gradually with more qualifications and balances. principle’. If an act is done in that situation by most
This sort of picture, initial descriptions which are people most times, but not in other situations, then the
mostly concrete and based on behaviour and later situation, an impersonal causal factor, is more
descriptions which are more abstract and in terms of important than the person, whereas if that person acts
psychological dispositions, emerges from most that way in most situations most times then the cause
studies which have used this sort of approach (Shantz lies in the person. Attributions like these are
1983; Rogers 1978). potentially useful in social interaction. They do need,
They have been taken as indicating that young however, to be based on representative evidence,
children have a poor understanding of other people preferably a great deal of it; to be available for use and
and older children a better one. Abstract decriptions revision; and to be unbiased (most adults under-
based on generalized dispositions may allow more

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estimate situational factors relative to personal ones other points where there are alternative possible
when they are spectators (Ross 1981), though not so actions, essential rules and props whose omission
much when they are themselves actors). would be very surprising indeed, and others which
It is probably premature to draw conclusions about are less predictable. The best known prototype script
what evidence children use and what judgements is the restaurant script, which would look something
they come to in considering causal attributions. like this:
However, the work summarized by Rogers 1978,
Ross 1981, Shantz 1983 and others, suggests that they Roles Customer, waiter or waitress (chef offstage, possible
do seem to make inferential use of both personal and cashier)
impersonal information using the co-variation
Customer’s goal to obtain food to eat (maybe other
principle, though young children emphasize the
goals such as being sociable)
situation at the expense of the person. They do
integrate information, though young children may 1 go to restaurant, enter it, move to empty table,
not manage to handle so many separate pieces of sit down (customer or waiter/waitress may choose
information and do much better when the person they table)
are talking about is familiar to them or like
2 receive menu, study menu, decide what to eat,
themselves. They also live in social worlds which
give order to waiter/waitress
may be significantly unlike adults’ social worlds,
though what the likenesses and unlikenesses are has 3 receive food, eat it (possible repeat of 2 and 3
not been adequately conceptualized. This too might for later courses)
account for some of the apparent inconsistencies and
4 ask for bill, receive it, leave tip for waiter/
inadequacies of children’s judgements about people. waitress, pay bill (pay waiter/waitress or cashier:
order of paying bill and leaving tip may be
Understanding social events and institutions reversed), leave restaurant.
The range of social events and institutions that
children encounter is of course enormous, This sort of organization seems to be convenient
particularly if vicarious encounters through reading, for adults: elicitation of scripts from children
television, etc., are included. I propose only to discuss suggests that they too use an organization based on a
one potential general model, the ‘script’, and one sequence of actions within a particular context
social area, aspects of the economic world, here. (Nelson 1981). What is particularly interesting about
Research on children’s knowledge of the world of these scripts is that they are general, not accounts of
school is discussed on pp. 198–200. one particular episode. For example, a distinct
language style is usually used, the impersonal
Scripts as representations of social knowledge pronoun and timeless present tense (such as ‘you go
The notion of ‘scripts’ derives mainly from the work to the restaurant, you go in and sit down’, etc.). The
of Schank and Abelson 1977, which was concerned events included (in temporal order) are more likely to
with describing a model for computers’ be the routine components than the exceptional ones,
understanding of inferences in a story setting. A though some components may be so routine and
script is basically an ordered sequence of actions, inevitable that they are not mentioned. Scripts look
appropriate to their context and organized round a like generalized knowledge about a social routine,
goal, a generalized set of expectations about who is organized by experience and elaborated by further
likely to do what during this sort of event. There are exposure: they seem likely to scaffold understanding
obligatory actions and optional ones, points in the of past and present events and prediction of future
script where one particular thing has to be done and ones.

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Understanding Child Development

We do not know a great deal about how scripts are G–1 It’s morning.
acquired. It seems likely that they are picked up from G–2 At morning, it’s lunch time!
routines and contexts which adults structure for the G–1 At morning, we already had breakfast. Because
child (see Chapter 6). Children take part in many at morning, it’s lunch time!
activities which adults direct and organize. Children G–2 RIGHT!
have to play their part more or less as determined by G–1 Yeah, at morning, it’s lunch time.
the adult partner, who may even supply the lines – G–2 At morning it’s lunch time.
‘Say thank you to Granny for the nice present’, ‘In G–1 But, first comes snack, then comes lunch.
this school we say “Good morning Miss Church”, G–2 Right . . . Just in school, right?
“Please Miss Church may I . . .’ not just “Miss, Miss”; G–1 Yeah, right, just in school.
it’s politer.’ Scripts provide a context of general G–2 Not at home.
expectations which reduce the uncertainty in G–1 Well, sometimes we have snacks at home.
particular problems. It seems quite a strong G–2 Sometimes.
possibility that children show better understanding G–1 Sometimes I have a snack at home.
and more social sensitivity if they have shared script G–2 Sometimes I have a snack at my home, too.
routines with familiar adults and if there have been G–1 Uh-hum. Because when special children come to
explanations for particular events in generalized visit us, we sometimes have snack. Like, like,
terms (Light 1978; Tizard et al. 1982; Mills and hotdogs, or crackers, or cookies or, something
Funnell 1983). It is possible that the scripts like that.
themselves might be better articulated, though as yet G–2 Yeah, something. Maybe cake. (Laughs)
there is no evidence for this. G–1 Cake.
Having a script for an event or context means that G–2 Cake. Yeah, maybe cake.
taking part in it can be automatic to a considerable G–1 Or maybe, uh, maybe, hotdog.
extent. Attention and cognitive processing space is G–2 Maybe hotdog.
thus freed for other things: the idiosyncrasies of this G–1 But, but, but, Jill and Michael don’t like hotdog.
particular instance of a general type of event, for Don’t you know, but, do you know Michael or
example, or even remembering or planning events Jill?
quite separate from the present very routine one. Not G–2 I know another Michael.
having a script means that the activity is far more G–1 I know, I know another Michael.
problematic: we are less able to predict what will G–2 No, I know just one Michael. I just know one
happen or to interpret what already has happened. Michael.
Children, being inexperienced and ignorant G–1 Do you know Flora?
compared with adults, are more frequently in this G–2 No! But you know what? It’s a, it’s it’s one, it’s
position. They may therefore be preoccupied with somebody’s bro . . . it’s somebody’s brother.
building scripts, and may focus on details which are G–1 Are you eating your dinner? (Laughs) But not for
incidental rather than typical; their scripts may not real.
show a good match either to the situation or to other G–2 Not for real.
people’s scripts for it. Nelson and Gruendel (1979 pp. G–1 Because at morning, it’s lunch time.
80–1) provide an example of two 4-year-olds
G–2 Right, at morning it is lunch time.
comparing scripts and showing great interest in
G–1 Right, at morning it is lunch time.
achieving agreement on their essential features.
G–2 Yeah.
G–1 And also, at night time, it’s supper time. G–1 I think . . . I’ll have . . . lunch. [Nelson and
G–2 Yeah, at night time it’s supper time. It is. Gruendel, 1979, pp. 80–81]

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‘Scripts’ could apply to a wide variety of events investigators, has used neo-Piagetian stage analyses
and understandings, and the notion may prove although data about uniformity of ‘stage’ across
fruitful in analysing many phenomena in children’s contexts or the separation of ‘stages’ are not usually
development. As well as the social settings discussed impressive. More precise questions, script
in this section, it seems to be applicable to children’s elicitations, and perhaps role play, may provide
construction and reading of stories (p. 83), to their complementary information.
language development (p. 118) and to their beliefs
about their self-efficacy (p. 150). It might even be
Understanding shopping
script violation that is the root of many pre-school
The central transaction in a shop might appear to be a
emotional upsets: if the ‘getting dressed’ script
simple exchange between customer and shopkeeper
specifies that the left foot should be shod before the
of goods and their value in cash. The shopkeeper has,
right foot, or that teeth are brushed before hair, the
and the customer wants, a bar of chocolate costing
adult who does otherwise risks protests and tears. Not
15p: the customer gives the shopkeeper 15p and
having events go according to the script is a
receives the chocolate in return. This is certainly the
disorientating and unpleasant experience.
most visible part of shopping but it is far from the
whole. The retail shopkeeper is a customer to the
Children’s understanding of socio-economic
wholesalers who supply the shop with goods: the
systems
shop has assistants who exchange their labour for
Children’s development, including their social
wages, and also various running costs such as rent,
cognition, has mainly been studied in terms of rates, lighting, etc. These components of the shop are
microsystems such as home or school, or less salient to the shopper, but they have significant
mesosystems such as the relationships of agreement effects on the cost of the items in the shop. Children
or discrepancy between home and school seem to have some difficulty, as we shall see, in
(Bronfenbrenner 1979; see Chapter 1 this volume). grasping the existence of these components and their
Chil dren also live however within wider worlds: effects, let alone their scale. A further source of
their part in these worlds is less prominent (people confusion is that the passage of money between
concerned with children’s rights (e.g. Leach 1979) customer and shopkeeper may be two-way: the
argue that it needs more recognition), but it is none the customer gives 20p and receives the chocolate bar
less of potential interest to developmental and 5p change. To a small child with little grasp of the
psychologists. There is some work on children’s monetary values involved, this may look like a ritual,
understanding of social institutions such as shops, or a profit to the customer who ends up with goods
banks, and governments, mainly conceived of as and money, rather than the exchange it is.
exosystems in which other people play roles that the Jahoda (1979, 1984) studied Scottish and Dutch
child can observe, rather than as macrosystems or children. The youngest, aged about 6, seemed to see
ideologies, which are more abstract and inferred the transactions as rituals; goods were given to the
rather than observed. shop, not bought by it, and shop assistants were not
Studies of children’s understanding of social doing a job and so were not paid. Even when these last
institutions tend to involve questioning children, two misconceptions were beginning to weaken, at
around 7 to 8, the idea that the price the shop charges
perhaps necessarily, since they do not normally vote,
the customer is the same as the price the wholesaler
have bank accounts, or play many of the roles of
charged the shop remains strong. The shopkeeper
economic or political persons directly rather than
merely passed on goods at the same price as their
through or on behalf of adults. Their answers to
original cost: the overheads of the shop, if recognized
questions such as ‘What things, jobs, people, are
at all, were met from some external source such as the
important in a town?’ (Furth 1980) are often full of Mint or the government. Children at about 11, with a
charm but hard to analyse. Furth, like several other better understanding of money, jobs, and costs, had

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Understanding Child Development

begun to understand the concept of ‘profit’, though

the size of profit made, the extent of the ‘mark-up’
between wholesale and retail prices, probably wasn’t
grasped – it is often enough a surprise to adults!

Understanding banks
Jahoda (1984) also summarizes the results of a study
of children’s understanding of the functioning of
banks as economic institutions. He questioned
Scottish children aged between 11 and 16. The
youngest, who might have shown a little
understanding of profit in the context of shops,
showed no idea of it in banks. They viewed banks as
being much like money boxes and borrowing from
friends: you got out exactly what you put in, to get
more or to pay for a loan would not be fair. Even if
they knew about interest they had little idea where it
came from, and still thought of the bank in
interpersonal terms.
As children moved through early adolescence,
they showed more appreciation of interest and the
bank’s use of the money deposited in it. Only a
minority, however, mastered the reciprocity of
interest in the bank’s lending and borrowing, even working-class children dic, as well as judging
after questioning designed to induce new insights. incomes to be higher overall.
Again, appreciation of what scale banks’ profits are The children were asked about the ‘fairness’ of the
on, and what is done with them, is probably unusual different amounts they had estimated for each job and
in adults. of a hypothetical equality of income. There were no
significant differences in judgement of fairness by
age or by social class, though it was less common for
Representing economic inequalities
the oldest children or for middle-class ones to say that
Emler and Dickinson 1985 have studied children’s
equality of income would be better. Most of the
representation of economic inequalities. They
children justified inequality of income by reference to
asked children aged between 7 and 12 to estimate some form of equity consideration, such as
the weekly incomes of doctors, teachers, bus differences in the work or the responsibility involved
drivers and road sweepers, to explain why the in the job or the amount of training required for it.
incomes differed and to say whether equality of Middle-class children were more sophisticated in
income would ‘be better’. The average estimates of their justification of inequality, producing more (and
middle-class children for each job were higher than more varied) reasons.
those of working-class children: doctors were seen Thus, although most children believed that
as having the highest incomes followed by teachers, income inequalities were justified, middle-class
bus drivers and finally road sweepers. As Figure 15 children estimated that the inequalities were larger
and Table 4 show, middle-class children gave much (though even they probably underestimated their
more differential in their estimates of income than scale). The absence of age differ ences argues

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Table 4 Ratios of income estimates for doctor and road sweeper by age and social class

Age level
7–8 8–9 9–10 10–11 11–12
X SD X SD X SD X SD X SD

WC 1.31 0.66 1.91 1.34 2.63 0.67 1.59 0.72 1.61 0.52
MC 3.32 3.25 2.94 2.66 4.79 5.35 2.88 1.22 2.64 1.42

Source: From Emler and Dickinson (1985), p. 194.

against this class difference being caused by a of children’s understanding of the socio-economic
developmental increase in the complexity of system. They use information derived from their
understanding of social systems, faster in the middle- participation in their community to construct
class children than in the lower-class. The different representations and justifications of the workings of
estimate levels seem more likely to be due to different the economy. Limitations on this information which
information about incomes. Emler and Dickinson are caused by their own status as observers, not
argue that social representations of economic participants, or by the community’s particular beliefs
inequalities are more detailed, extensive and salient or values, restrict their models of economic life to
in the middle class, and hence middle-class children simple versions. Although internal cognitive
have had more opportunity to assimilate their limitations may also restrict their conceptualization,
sheer ignorance seems a likely cause of inadequate
community’s shared knowledge and belief about
models. Children can learn to be sophisticated and
income inequality. Exactly where in the community
critical observers of at least such parts of the
economic knowledge comes from remains to be
economic system as advertising (Ward et al. 1977).
investigated.
Further work on the social origins of children’s
economics could produce findings which will be
Sources of socio-econornic understanding relevant also to the wider issue of social
The three studies I have discussed in this section representation.
illustrate some of the recent work on the development

Image rights not available

Plate 9 ‘Pa’s Bank’ from The Book of Shops, 1899, by E. V. Lucas, illustrated by Francis D. Bedford
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Plate 10

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4 Language development

Language to have access to the child for long periods of time:

thus samples tended to be small in number and to have
The development of language provides a good parents who were unusually interested in
example of epigenesis, and its later stages also developmental psychology, many being
involve consideration of eco-systems. Human infants psycholinguists themselves. The use of small
clearly start with a great many capacities and pieces samples biased towards the intellectual middle-
of behaviour suited to language, but they are also born classes raises problems of the representativeness of
into communities which use language and expect the the findings of many studies.
infant to use it too. All except the severely impaired There is need also to look very carefully at the
develop language in very similar ways, though at ecological validity of naturalistic observations. In the
varying rates: but the details of the language and how first place, they involve the ‘Observer Paradox’ – as
it is used are heavily influenced by the child’s Labov has put it, ‘to obtain the data most important
experience. Through development, language for linguistic theory, we have to observe how people
functions as a means of communication, as a means speak when they are not being observed’ (Labov
of reflecting on and re-organizing experience, and as 1972, p. 113). Further, many studies do not specify
a way to receive and transform the accumulated exactly what settings are observed. Language
knowledge and values of the community. Using produced at home playing with mother may differ
language is thus a central part of human existence. from language produced at home when playing with
a baby sibling (Dunn and Kendrick 1982), from
Methodology language produced when out shopping with mother,
Studies of young children’s language have relied from language produced at playschool with other
heavily on ‘naturalistic observation’; that is, on children, from language produced at playschool with
recordings of children’s spontaneous language in teacher. Systematic studies are needed of how
their ordinary activities at home. One reason for this situational variables (including the presence of an
was an admirable concern for ‘ecological validity’, a observer), affect children’s language production and
belief that what children could be induced to do in comprehension. Generalizing from the one situation
experimental settings was not representative of what observed to all others, particularly if allied to a belief
they did outside them. The tendency of children aged that if children don’t do something it is because they
between 18 months and 3 years old to prove can’t, has led to some false conclusions and
extremely difficult subjects for standardized misguided remediation programmes. One notable
experimental methods no doubt reinforced instance of this is the debate over social class
researchers’ concern for ecological validity. Reliance differences in language which is discussed later in
on naturalistic observation, however, meant, here as this chapter.
in other areas of research, that very large amounts of At the root of the problem of what ‘ecological
data had to be collected in order to find sufficient validity’ really is, there may be the difficulty of
instances of interesting phenomena which naturally defining what behaviour a particular situation
requires as well as describing what it actually evokes.
occur only infrequently. This meant researchers had

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Understanding Child Development

We do not have more than the very beginnings of than most others, and some of its findings are
anything relevant to such definitions. Grice (1975; prominent in the discussion of language development
see also Searle 1975) discusses the ‘co-operative that follows.
principle’ which is necessary for effective Language can be analysed at many different levels,
communication. Speakers normally try to ensure that including the sounds made, the words used, the
their contributions to discourse give information sentences constructed, the meaning conveyed and the
which is neither insufficient nor superfluous in functions served. Each level is, of course, involved in
quantity, which is known to be true rather than false the others most of the time, and children and adults
or merely supposed, which is relevant to the aims of alike do not learn or use them in isolation.
the conversation and which is not obscure, Nevertheless the different levels have often been
ambiguous, wordy or disorderly. Contributions investigated separately, and there are differences as
which flout these requirements usually lead to well as similarities in their developmental courses.
breakdowns of communication or to indirect We have now good descriptions of much of the
implications where what is actually said may be only sequence of children’s language developments, as I
part of what is meant. Participants in conversations shall outline, but there remains much to discover
tend to have an understanding of the implicit meaning about precisely how and why this development
of utterances and events which is affected by who is happens.
speaking, when, how, why and where. They may also
have ‘scripts’ (e.g. Schank and Abelson 1977; Nelson Infants’ perception of speech sounds
1981) which define what ought to happen in a At the level of language sounds, newborn infants
particular setting or encounter. We will look at what have been shown to have a preference for speech-like
is known about children’s use of indirect speech acts sounds over musical or non-speech noises (see
and of scripts later. For the moment, my intention is Chapter 2; Eimas et al. 1971; Wolff 1966; for a review
merely to point out that the significance of what is see Aslin et al. 1983), and an ability to discriminate
observed in a natural setting cannot be fully between the voice of their mother and that of another
understood unless the ‘script’ or the ‘task demands’ woman (DeCasper and Fifer 1980). From a few days
of the setting are known. The richness of naturalistic old, if they hear human speech their limb movements
data forces selection and categorization on the will become synchronized with the rhythm of the
observer, and unless this is done carefully, explicitly speech (Condon and Sander 1974). These are likely
and consistently error and ambiguity may result. to be useful characteristics to child and parent alike:
Corrigan (1982) suggests that naturalistic the baby’s selective attention and close response to
observation has to be supplemented by careful language will both increase its own opportunities for
controlled experiment: ‘a full picture of language learning from language and help to make the parent
acquisition requires information about what children believe that the baby is particularly interested in and
choose to produce given less structured situations, as responsive to the language-producing person.
well as the limits of what they are capable of Interactional meshing, as we will see in discussing
producing when required to do so’ (Corrigan 1982, p. the development of relationships with other people,
182). Gordon Wells, director of the Bristol-based has to be got more or less right somehow, if
‘Language Development at Home and at School’ relationships are to go well. The capabilities of
project, the largest study to use naturalistic newborn infants suggest that there may be some
observation, discusses the methodological problems genetic preprogramming, perhaps of brain structures,
involved and discloses that with hindsight he would which may possibly be very specific about speech
have collected more experimentally-elicited sounds. There certainly has been shown to be, in
utterances (Well 1982). The Bristol study does infants of a few months, categorical perception of
nevertheless have more and in some ways better data

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some consonant sounds (e.g. Eimas 1971; Trehub sound-event pairs as the first ‘words’. Adults are
and Robinovitch 1972; Streeter 1976), at the same certainly likely to interpret them as meaningful, and
points as adults place the discrimination. Adults babble noises which appear often may become
discriminate between /b/ and /p/, for example, in important parts of adults’ ‘baby-talk’. The expected
terms of whether they are pronounced with vocal- words for young children to call their parents, for
cord vibration (voicing); so do infants, including example, tend in many languages to resemble babble
those growing up in a community using a language noises – ‘mama’, ‘papa’, ‘baba’, and so forth. A baby
(such as the Kikuyu) where /b/ and /p/ are not randomly producing such a noise may get a great deal
regarded as different in meaning. This suggests that of reward from parents who believe or pretend to
the auditory system is ‘wired up’ very early on in believe that they are being addressed by name. Such
ways that mean there are points of particularly great reward has been shown to increase not specific noises
sensitivity on the physical characteristics of speech in babble but on the one hand the amount of babble in
sounds, and that languages place category limits general and on the other the probability that what was
between different phonemes at these sensitive points. in its early stages something the baby did when alone
However, if a language does not use a particular will be done as part of a social activity. Parents clearly
discrimination its speakers lose it, and have great ‘shape’ their baby’s early talk, requiring more and
difficulty in hearing (or producing) the appropriate more precise articulation of words and later
sound. The programming of babies here too is not meanings, and also requiring the child to take part in
more specific than it needs to be. Ideas of a species- conversation in an increasingly self-directed way, as
specific ‘plan’ for language perception in humans we shall see.
may have to be abandoned in the light of recent The stable sequence of babbling and its appearance
evidence that chinchillas (and possibly monkeys) in virtually all children in much the same way at about
categorize some speech contrasts as humans do. the same time suggest that there is a high degree of
Aslin et al. (1983) review the evidence. genetic programming and maturation involved.
Nevertheless experience is also necessary. Children
Infants’ production of speech sounds who are congenitally deaf start babbling like normal
Just as it could be said that babies begin their children but give it up at about 8 or 9 months, almost
language career by hearing more sounds than adults, certainly because they have not been able to hear
it appears that when they start babbling they produce themselves. If they are made able to hear at this point,
sounds which the adults around them do not produce. babbling is restored and the child learns a spoken
Babbling initially involves vowels; consonants start language (Fry 1966).
to appear in a fairly orderly way (see Clark and Clark Maturation (in this case of articulation) is also
1977, ch. 10) in the second half of the first year. clearly involved in the timing of children’s first
Babies have quite often been observed to do what conventional words, which commonly appear
looks like deliberate experimenting with sounds, between 10 and 15 months. Children have usually
contrasting the noises produced with different tongue showed understanding of words, and may have
and lip positions and at times moving mouth and produced their own idiosyncratic words, before then,
tongue systematically but without making sounds. and deaf babies learning sign language produce their
As the child gets older, strings of babble with varying first conventional signs for objects at about 8 months
intonation are produced; gradually the range of (de Villiers 1979) because the muscular control
sounds made comes to resemble the range present in needed for manual signs is less fine than that needed
adults’ language; and particular sounds are regularly for speech. Spoken words need more or less mature
produced in association with particular events. There articulation, and the planning of the sequence of
may be good reason (Halliday 1975) to regard these speech sounds, not just the ability to associate words
with objects or events. The latter is also important,

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however; children who are growing up in a bilingual the child is concerned with as actor. Early words tend
environment where the number of labels attached to to be nouns or regulatory words such as ‘more’, ‘no’,
objects is greater, where objects have more variable ‘up’ and so forth. They are not necessarily the same as
names, are commonly slower in their early adult words in how they are used or in their exact
vocabulary development. range of reference.
Early words often involve phonemic
simplification and the use of context to carry some of Using words as names
the meaning: /da/, for example, may serve as a It may seem obvious that when a child says a word he
simplified version of ‘dog’, ‘duck’ and ‘daddy’ and or she is referring to an object or event, that the word
be acceptably unambiguous most of the time because names or represents the referent. McShane (1980)
only one of the possible referents is present or being argues otherwise. He sees early ‘words’ as
played with or pointed to. Later in phonemic inseparable from the functions that, in the context,
development, the child may begin to use systematic they perform for the child. Thus, if the child says
rules and strategies to produce intelligible words. ‘mummy’ only when making requests to his or her
Children commonly, for example, simplify mother and in no other context, ‘mummy’ is certainly
consonant clusters which are hard to articulate, functioning as part of the child’s request. It is not
saying ‘mack’ instead of ‘smack’. They replace two certain that, as far as the child is concerned, it
different consonants in a word by a repetition of the represents ‘mummy’ or is her name; adults are likely
same one, as ‘goggy’ for ‘doggy’. They may avoid to believe it has these functions but it could just be for
the use of words which contain a difficult sound, the child a noise one makes when trying to get
something which gets easier to do as one’s something, as ‘please’ or ‘help’ or a certain sort of cry
vocabulary of synonyms increases. Certain sounds might be. If ‘mummy’ was used not just as a vocative,
are difficult for many children and may not be as in requests, but to perform a variety of functions,
produced correctly for many years (or ever). Phonetic for example to answer questions, direct attention,
mistakes are not always due to incapacity, however, make statements and so forth, in a variety of contexts,
as in the case of one linguist’s son (Smith 1973) who then it is safer to conclude that the child understands
at 25 months said ‘puggle’ when he wanted to talk it is his or her name for mother, and that the word
about puddles, but pronounced ‘puzzle’ as ‘puddle’. represents the person.
A rule of some sort seemed to be involved here. The McShane’s suggestion highlights the importance
same child provided evidence of an ability to perceive of considering the functions of language and the
and store discriminations which could not be construction of meaning (see pp. 135–40). It avoids
produced: he said/maus/for both ‘mouse’ and some of the difficulties which earlier theories of the
‘mouth’, but would not accept adult usage of /maus/ meaning of early utterances have run into (McShane
to mean ‘mouth’. In early language comprehension is 1980, ch. 2) but rather more evidence is required to
quite commonly in advance of production. This may support it. The hypothesized sequence of events is as
be analogous to song development in some birds who follows. The child’s caretaker systematically
learn their song from other birds one season but do not responds to the child’s utterances as if the child
sing it themselves until the next year (Nottebohm intended to convey a particular meaning (see below
1970). Chapter 6) and the child thus comes to learn that there
are contingent relationships between his or her
Beginning to use words utterances and other people’s behaviour. Adults’
Children tend to begin by talking about what they difficulties in interpreting the child presumably
already know, familiar commonplace objects, ‘shape’ utterances towards a form which is more
people, or events, particularly objects or events that intelligible and usually more conventional, for

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example if the contingent relationship between They had been wrestling with the words M–U–G and W–
saying ‘wowl’ and getting what you want is less A–T–E–R, recorded Helen, and she persisted in confusing
regular than the contingency between saying ‘help’ the two. Later they went for a walk by the well-house.
and getting what you want, ‘help’ will tend to be Someone was pumping water. Annie placed Helen’s hand
preferred. The child learns to communicate and to under the spout and ‘as the cool stream gushed over one
intend to communicate, but what is communicated is hand, she (Annie) spelled into the other the word water, first
pragmatics – needs, requests, directions, and so forth. slowly then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed
At about the same time, parents are introducing upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty
children to ‘the naming game’ (Ninio and Bruner consciousness as of something forgotten – a thrill of
1978). In joint activities such as looking at picture returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language
books the adult helps the child participate in the ritual was revealed to me. I knew then that W–A–T–E–R meant
of ‘what’s that?’ ‘That’s a doggie.’ To begin with the the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my
adult plays both parts, but gradually pauses, prompts hand. . . . I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had
and other devices lead the child to make an a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we
increasingly large contribution to the routine. The returned to the house every object which I touched seemed
child utters names at appropriate points of the ritual, to quiver with life.’
but does not at first understand that this is ‘naming’, a Annie Sullivan wrote ‘She has learned that everything
particular sort of activity relating language and the has a name and that the manual alphabet is the key to
world. It is worth pointing out that the concept of everything she wants to know. . . . She has flitted from
object to object, asking the name of everything’ (Lash
‘naming’ is not a simple one: feeling that names are
1981, pp. 57–8).
an inseparable and unalterable part of their referent
(so that ‘milk’ could not be called ‘ink’, for example),
Not every development of the concept of naming
or that one’s name is private or even secret (Sinclair would be dramatic, and like other concepts further
et al. 1978) seems to be rather common. McShane development is to be expected. One development that
suggests as a result of taking part in the highly- McShane suggests follows the initial insight that
structured ritual of naming the child comes to the objects have names is that attributes, events and
insight that the words originally embedded in the actions have names too. Linguistic accounts grow in
ritual are names. That quite a lot of children show a length and develop grammatical structure to convey
rapid increase in vocabulary between 18 months and these different sorts of naming and reference. Here
2 years, and behaviour which looks like asking the too adult ‘scaffolding’ and extension of children’s
name of every object they set eyes on, supports this utterances provides a model and a frame.
notion, though as Wells (1985) points out, many
parents deliberately teach names at about this time. Early vocabulary
One documented instance of insight comes from The limits of early vocabulary items have been seen
Helen Keller, who after being blind and deaf from the as of interest as possibly revealing how young
age of 8 months had words finger-spelled to her by the children associate label and referent. Quite
governess, Anne Sullivan, who was put in charge of commonly children use an early word to refer to
her education when she was 6. Anne Sullivan tried to many more objects than an adult would, for example
spell out on Helen’s fingers ‘everything we do all day ‘doggy’ is applied not just to dogs but to cats and
long, although she has no idea yet what the spelling pieces of fur, in what is called ‘over-extension’. (The
means’. Helen quickly imitated the hand signs but converse, ‘under-extension’, is also found, as when
made no connection between them and the objects ‘doggy’ is only used to refer to the family dog.) Eve
they symbolized. The insight came in an incident Clark (Clark and Clark 1977, pp. 492–7) suggested
which has become famous. that in ‘over-extension’ children first associate the
word with one or two particularly salient

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characteristics of the object, for example furriness, distinctions they want the child to make. ‘Plant’ is
and so use it over-extensively to refer to anything thus seen as a bit too general, ‘rose’ as a bit too
characterized by furriness. Later they add in other specific, ‘flower’ as about right; and contrasts are
salient features as requirements for ‘dogginess’, such drawn through the means of vocabulary between a
as four-leggedness, size, ability to bark, narrowing flower which can be admired, smelled, not walked
their definition towards the adult level. Word, and on, etc., and other plants such as grass, tree,
concept, are seen as proceeding from particular vegetables, which can variously be walked on,
instance to generalized abstraction by the increasing climbed, eaten and so forth. The adult’s own interest,
specification of features. (See Chapters 2 and 3 for and the adult’s encouragement of the child’s interest,
discussion of cognitive models and semantic will make notable contributions to the child’s later
networks.)
vocabulary. So will the distinctions the local culture
It must be noted that children’s early words are not
makes and uses. A country child may quickly learn
necessarily simple neutral efforts to label. Some
distinctions of which a town adult remains unaware.
involve more complex activities such as commenting
There is a salutary story, no doubt apocryphal, of a
and comparing (‘doggy’ might be appropriately
school inspector testing the general knowledge of
glossed in some instances not as ‘that’s a doggy’ but
children in a small country school. He showed them a
as ‘that’s rather like a doggy’ or ‘my doggy has fur
picture of a sheep, but his ‘What’s this?’ was received
like that too’). As children get older, simile and
with puzzled faces. Eventually a child said ‘I ain’t
metaphor become more likely. So do other indirect
never seen one of those – it’s got a face like a Cheviot
language uses. One child is recorded as having said
but its back’s like a Jacob but neither of them’s got
‘heavy’ in many situations which involved her in
horns like that ‘un.’ Labov’s work makes a similar
notable physical effort, including not only pushing
point (see p. 131).
open doors or lifting bricks but also climbing a long
Generally it would appear that children begin with
steep flight of stairs. If she had been of the right
only one or a few appropriate vocabulary items but
generation and subculture, she might have
develop differential ranges. Halliday (1975) provides
appropriately used her favourite word to refer to
examples of initial single words being used in a
situations involving social and interpersonal
variety of situations but being replaced by a range of
difficulties: ‘Man, being arrested is a real heavy
words used selectively according to the
scene’. Over-generalizations do not unequivocally
circumstances. As we shall see in examining the
indicate inability to distinguish between objects or
development of language as a functional
events: they may involve confusion, or they may
communication system, this is an important part of
involve comment, comparison, metaphor or joke.
later development and crucial to successful social
Social demands may also enter into the situation; if
life.
one feels socially obliged to say something but lacks
the correct vocabulary item, one may produce a
From single words to sentences
slightly inappropriate word or phrase as an
As we have seen, developing words which refer
approximation in verbal terms but an adequate
stably to objects and events is a tremendous
response in social ones. This sort of experience
achievement for the child, but in order to get very far
comes fairly frequently to people who are not fully
with communication words have to be combined into
competent users of the language in question.
sentences, sentences into longer passages and so
It should also be pointed out that the vocabulary
forth. Grammatical rules specify how words may be
children use and their degree of ‘over-extension’ or combined to express increasingly precise meanings.
‘under-extension’ may be related to adult usage of Children have to learn to combine their words in ways
language to children. Here adults seem to have a which obey the rules. They can do this in rudimentary
sense of ‘level of appropriateness’ related to the ways very early: managing some of the most subtle

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language structures requires considerable practice if language centres in the brain, proposed a model of
not explicit training (e.g. whether the word ‘none’ language development in which an innate
takes a singular or plural verb). understanding of fundamental linguistic rules
As my comments above on the interpretation of (centring on using syntax to express meaning) was
one-word phrases imply, the beginnings of grammar activated by the language the baby heard and
are obscure. Only when two morpheme utterances accounted for the speed and regularity of
begin can we look for evidence of word order, which development (see, for example, Chomsky 1976;
is, of course, an important grammatical device in Clark and Clark 1977; Dale 1978). A great deal of
English. Children’s earliest word orders tend to take research has been carried out aimed at constructing
the adult form and to express salient grammatical grammars of child language in terms of Chomsky’s
cases such as action, possession, location and so model of transformational generative grammar (e.g.
forth. Both the meanings and the structures which 2- Bloom 1970), or in terms of case grammars focusing
year-olds express are of very similar sorts in most of on concepts like agent, action, locative (e.g.
the languages studied: they are usually uninflected Bowerman 1973). (Dale 1976 and Maratsos 1983
words, mainly in the order which an adult would use provide useful accounts of both grammars and the
to express the same meaning, though the ‘functor’ associated research.) A Chomskian model of
words like ‘the’, ‘by’, ‘but’ are omitted in favour of grammatical competence, which centres on a
the words that carry most of the meaning. Some syntactic component represented without respect to
phrases are taken on wholesale from adult language meaning and involving transformations, is not now
and used as ‘unanalysed chunks’ or single words – seen as a good psychological model of young
‘wossat’, ‘gimme’ are obvious examples. Peters children’s language development. Beyond that, it is
(1983) argues with some cogency that this reflects not as yet clear what grammatical models are most
some fundamental problems in our concepts of appropriate for the description of early language, or
‘word’ and ‘syntax’. Even adults use some phrases as indeed for adults’ language (Maratsos 1983); one
units which although potentially analysable are not particularly important aspect of the debate is how far
normally broken into their components – polite it is sensible to treat syntax separately from semantics
formulae such as ‘how do you do’ are of this type. and pragmatics, that is to separate the formal
Peters suggests that language learners acquire units grammar of what is said from what is meant and what
which consist of one or more words or morphemes, effect the utterance has or was intended to have. We
and which then become candidates for segmentation will look at these aspects of children’s language
into smaller units. If a ‘unit’ can be segmented into development presently.
smaller units these are added to the lexicon, and the The question of whether all children develop
original ‘unit’ may be retained. For example, the language in the same way is of some interest. It has
original unit ‘how do you do’ can be segmented into been impossible to answer accurately because
its separate words but may also be kept as a social research on language development in young children
formula, ‘howdjado’, which expects a different is very time-consuming at both the data-collecting
response from its components as well as being used as and analysis stages. Most samples have been very
a unit. Segmentation also contributes to knowledge small and many have been drawn from middle-class
of the language’s structures. intellectual families, often the researcher’s own. The
Children do of course produce utterances which are nearest approximation to a large and socially
unlike adults (‘all gone sticky’) or which over-extend representative sample that I know is that studied since
adults’ rules (mouses, goed). Thus their development 1972 by Gordon Wells and his colleagues in the
of grammar is not learned in any simple automatic Bristol Language Development Research
way from adults. Noam Chomsky, impressed by the Programme. After a description of the structure and
speed, regularity and specificity of children’s methods of this programme I will outline the answers
language development, by apparently universal it gives to the question of whether all children
features of language and by evidence of specialized develop language in the same way.

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The children studied were 128 Bristol residents. and although it is not unproblematic to define such
Each was observed at three-monthly intervals for ‘complexity’, the emergence of auxiliary verbs,
twenty-seven months; that is, ten observations. Each pronouns, meaning relations and functions did seem
child wore a small radio microphone which recorded to be correlated with complexity. It is, of course,
the child’s speech and other people’s speech to the rather likely that frequency and complexity of
child for a number of brief periods spread through the language influence each other: if we need to say
day so that neither child nor family knew with something often we may gradually simplify it
certainty that the microphone was on. The researcher (acronyms such as BBC, USA and BPS are examples
was not present during this day but checked the tape of this). Mothers’ adjustment of their language to
with the child’s mother in the evening to complement what they believe will fit their children’s current
competence will increase the frequency of less
the sound tape with contextual information. Half the
complex items in the child’s language, providing
children were observed from 15 to 42 months, the
another sort of interaction between frequency and
other half from 39 to 66 months. Further studies of
complexity.
some of the sample in school were made (and indeed
some of the sample are currently being studied as
Adults’ talk to children
second-language learners). The families of the
It has been one of the most consistent findings in
children were representative of the entire social class
studies of language development that mothers and
range, except that the proportions of very high and
other adults (and indeed older children, for example,
very low social class were increased to give an
adequate number for analysis. Thus the programme Shatz and Gelman 1973) adjust their speech to the
has produced a very large quantity of data which may child developing language. Among the many
adjustments are attention getters and holders, such as
be analysed in terms of sex, age and social class
a frequent use of the child’s name, a high pitch or
variables, which are representative of the
exaggerated intonation, and many gestures and
spontaneous speech of British children between 15
touches; restriction of semantic content, for example
months and 51/2 years, and which are probably
by talking more than usual about the ‘here and now’
relatively unspoiled by the participants’
and by careful selection of vocabulary by rules like
consciousness of being observed.
the ‘level of appropriateness’ mentioned above;
Wells (1985) presents the resultant picture of the
syntactic restriction to brief and simple sentences
sequence of language development, and although the
without, for example, passives or subordinate
use of spontaneous language gathered at quite long
clauses, but with lots of repetitions; a specialized
intervals may mean that language items which occur
strategy of discourse, high on expansions and
infrequently appear later in the data sequence than
they would if attempts had been made to elicit such extensions of the child’s own utterances, high on
items, the picture is almost certainly pretty accurate. contemporaneous comment on ongoing activities,
There seems to be ‘a universal sequence of and high on questions, directions, prompts and
development, at least in general outline’ (Wells 1985, modelling of discourse, and produced more slowly
p. 224). than language to adults. This sort of language has
The data do not tell us exactly why we find this been called ‘baby-talk’ or ‘motherese’: it is a
order of emergence. Theorists have suggested that relatively consistent, organized, simplified and
uses and structures appear early or late because they redundant set of utterances. It is thus very unlike the
are frequent or infrequent respectively in the disorderly and degenerate language which was all the
language which the child hears, and the Bristol data child in Chomsky’s account had to learn from:
lend some support to this hypothesis (Wells 1985, ch. ‘motherese’ has been seen as quite the reverse, as a
9). Another suggestion has been that emergence is particularly good source for the child to learn
correlated with linguistic and cognitive ‘complexity’, language from.

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Maratsos (1983) raises certain queries about this. Romaine 1984). It does seem possible that fast
He first points out, correctly, that parents do not use developers encounter particularly finely-tuned
motherese in order to teach their children language; language (e.g. Cross 1977, 1978) but otherwise
they use it because they are trying to keep the child differences seem to be not in what is possible but in
interested and understanding. Wells (1985, p. 380) what is usually done, that is, in the distributions of
makes the point neatly: tokens, not in the range of types. However the
facilitating functions of adult speech are probably
for most of the time the relatively finely tuned modelling of broader than the categories used in studies of
meanings and forms that the frequency data reveal occurs motherese which concentrate on features like Mean
incidentally, as adults carry on conversations with their Length of Utterance, sentence types or syntactic
children for quite other purposes – to control the child’s expansions. Wells lists five relevant types of
behaviour in the interests of his safety and their joint well- intention (pp. 398–9): 1 to secure and maintain inter-
being, to share in and extend his interests, to maintain and subjectivity of attention, 2 to express one’s own
enrich their interpersonal relationship and so on. Success in meaning intentions in a form that one’s partner finds
achieving these aims requires that the majority of the
easy to understand, 3 to ensure that one has correctly
adults’ contributions be pitched at a level of complexity that
understood the meaning intentions of one’s partner, 4
is not too far beyond the child’s linguistic ability. However,
this is achieved quite spontaneously by most adults under to provide positive responses in order to sustain the
the control of feedback from the child’s comprehension and partner’s desire to continue the present interaction
production and does not require deliberate attention. The and to engage in further interactions in the future, and
tuning that occurs is thus as much a response to, as a 5 to instruct one’s partner so that he or she may
determinant of, the sequence in the child’s learning. become a more skilled performer. This last intention
applies only to some sorts of interactions, teaching
The Bristol data show a great deal of this ‘fine vocabulary in conversation about picture books
tuned’ linguistic input, frequently with an increase in being a well-documented example. These intentions
the complexity of the adult’s language just before an underlie the behaviour which has been seen in
increase in the complexity of the child’s. Wells ‘accepting’ or ‘responsive’ mothers (Nelson 1973;
comments on this (p. 381): Lieven 1978). They have the short-term effect of
sustaining the current conversation, and the long-
It appears, therefore, that the influence of the input on the term effect of maintaining the child’s general
child’s learning is enabling rather than determining. Once motivation to interact and especially to converse with
the child has the prerequisite cognitive understanding of the his or her adults. They also provide an opportunity for
distinction which is encoded by a particular linguistic modelling to the child ways of doing things with
category, frequent appropriately contextualized language which he or she needs and cannot quite
occurrences of the category in the speech that is addressed produce alone, utterances which are within the
to the child provide opportunities for him to make the Vygotskian ‘zone of proximal development’. (They
connection between linguistic category and non-linguistic
also contribute to the opportunity to discuss cognitive
experience.
issues: Wood (1980) and Tizard and Hughes (1984)
stress the usefulness of conversations between adult
Fine-tuned input should not be seen as either and child based on the child’s current interest as a
necessary or sufficient for children to develop painless way of learning about the world.)
language, since there are several accounts of children Children who take part in a lot of child-contingent
who do not seem to have been talked to in this way but conversations of this sort seem to develop
did seem to develop normal language (Lieven 1978; linguistically (and cognitively) rather well. However
Ochs and Schieffelin 1983; Brice Heath 1983; we cannot yet conclude that the conversations
accelerated their language development. Bates et al.

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(1982) outline some of the reasons why such a differences in language use. Looking at books, for
conclusion would be premature. They point out that example, was associated with highly informational
emphasis on ‘motherese’ as a teaching device talk from adults – a high rate of naming and labelling
neglects the ability and the willingness of the child to objects in pictures, and a low rate of general
learn. The child’s knowledge of language and the conversation. I will return to this point about context
social world must be considered: we will discuss its and language in its social class aspects presently; at
development later (p. 137). So must children’s the moment it serves as a warning that we must have
ecosystems (see p. 132). Second, even if a feature of a representative quantity of data before we draw
parental language is correlated with a feature of the conclusions about what language input a child is
child’s language development, we cannot assume experiencing and how it is associated with
that the former caused the latter. It might be the developmental outcomes.
reverse, that parents are responding to the child’s A quotation from Wells (1985, p. 394) summarizes
idiosyncracies, or a two-way relationship where child the complexity of the enterprise of understanding
and parent each react to the other; or there may be a language development, making points which we will
more indirect relation between the two measures. see apply just as strongly to our discussion of social
They give an example (p. 51) from a study (reported development (Chapter 6).
at a 1975 conference) where Tulkin and Covitz found
a significant correlation between the ‘prohibition In various ways, therefore, the differences observed in adult
ratio’ in parents’ speech to the child at 10 months and behaviour may owe as much to differences between the
child’s performance on a vocabulary test at 6 years. children with whom they converse as to inherent
Bates et al. decline to conclude that saying ‘no’ to differences in the adults themselves. But the reverse is also
children decreases their vocabulary in any direct way, true, and so, in seeking to explain the differences in adult or
and I think even people who advocate extremely child behaviour we must recognize that, ultimately they are
permissive childrearing would hesitate to draw this as likely to emerge from the interaction between a
particular pair of participants, as they are to be attributable
conclusion. It is more likely that relationships which
to either participant considered separately. If we are to
include a lot of prohibition by parents have other
untangle the relationship between features of the input and
qualities which adversely affect the child’s progress in language learning, therefore, it will be
development. Perhaps they are short on joint necessary to develop models of multiple and reciprocal
attention, child-contingent conversation, parental causation operating within a matrix of interaction, which,
warmth, and opportunities for the child to explore the on any particular occasion, is also affected by the particular
world at will but with an appreciative adult to put his context in which it occurs. Since we are very far from
or her discoveries into an accessible model. Only having such a model, it seems for the moment safer to
very detailed analyses of the pattern of children’s conclude more modestly that although the evidence
experience, in conjunction with experimental supports a belief in the potentialy facilitating effect of the
evidence, can sort out the pathways of causation. adult input, this facilitating input itself is the product of
interaction to which both child and adult contribute to
Wells (1985, ch. 8) points out that there are marked
varying degrees.
differences in the language used in different social
contexts in the Bristol data. For example,
‘representational speech’ was high during sessions of Language differences and social class
reading or watching TV, ‘controlling speech’ was As it was once for Jane Austen’s matchmaking
high during caretaking, eating and imaginary play matrons ‘a truth universally acknowledged, that a
without adults (which involves a lot of defining or single man in possession of a good fortune must be in
allocating roles, e.g. ‘you be the dog’, ‘you gotta want of a wife’, it was for some time ‘a truth
crawl and bark’). Davie et al. (1984), observing 3 to universally acknowledged’ that a child from a
5-year-olds at home, similarly found context working-class background must be in want of a

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language different from that of his or her home if differences and differences in educational
failure in school was to be avoided. Both ‘truths’ have achievement, are closely related; particularly that the
been intensively attacked: we will consider the latter former cause the latter. Working-class children are
here. said to fail in school because they 1 do not, and 2
Native English speakers perceive differences of cannot, use language in middle-class ways.
sound, syntax and vocabulary in people’s speech This hypothesis reflects in a popularized form the
which they relate to social class. (The concept of ideas put forward by Basil Bernstein. Bernstein’s
social class is a problematic one (see Giddens and ideas have changed considerably over the last
Held 1982) which I do not propose to analyse here. In twenty-five years: the three volumes Class, Codes
this section what is referred to is social status as and Control contain papers from the period 1958 to
indicated by occupation: in the case of children, the early 1970s. The more recent formulations are
father’s occupation.) Romaine (1984), summarizing much more complex and subtle than earlier ones, and
the results of surveys of people’s speech in various their psychological and educational implications are
countries, says that, ‘simplistically’, the finding is different. Since the early formulations are still current
that the middle-class adhere more closely to the in some accounts of language and education,
norms of the high prestige standard language, while however, I will present a brief account of the
the working-class speak in less standard ways, closer successive models.
to the local vernacular. Sometimes research picks up The original influential version of the theory was
enormous class differences: Romaine (pp. 85–6) that there were two distinct types of language, usually
cites a study by Trudgill of the use of verb forms such called ‘restricted’ and ‘elaborated’ codes.
as ‘he go’, verbs without /s/, in Norwich. Speakers ‘Elaborated code’ was said to be grammatically
from the middle classes virtually never used this complex, with frequent subordinate clauses,
‘non-standard suffixless present tense’, while passives, impersonal pronouns (‘One sees’), and a
working-class speakers used it from 70 per cent wide and unusual vocabulary of adjectives and
(upper working class) to 97 per cent (lower working adverbs: these features were used in the service of
class) of the time. Often class differences are much precision and explicitness. ‘Restricted code’ was said
smaller, however, and there is more variation within to use short, simple sentences, often incomplete or
classes: indeed many speakers adjust their speech to elliptical, and was far more repetitive, rigid,
their situation and their listener. Nevertheless, imprecise and implicit: it contained many more
members of the community of native English appeals to a shared context of understanding, for
speakers hear the differences in people’s speech and example in the use of phrases like ‘you know’, ‘sort
may use them to judge the speaker’s social class and of’, ‘innit?’. Middle-class speakers were said to use
other characteristics (Giles and Powesland 1975). both language codes, but some (and ‘some’ came to
There are also differences in educational imply ‘all’ in the popular version) working-class
achievement between children from different social speakers were supposed only to have access to
classes. Again ‘simplistically’, children from restricted code. This deficit affected the way they
working-class families are more likely to leave could express themselves, and, it was postulated, the
school at the earliest opportunity and with minimal way they were able to think (verbally) to themselves.
formal qualifications, having been more likely to be Further, since the language of school work is said to
poor readers or non-readers from primary school on. require an elaborated code, the inability to use
These differences may be larger on verbal measures anything except a restricted code explained a good
(including reading tests and intelligence tests) than part, if not all, of the working-class child’s poor
on less verbal ones. It has been suggested, and often school achievement. He or she had a language
believed, that these two phenomena, language deficiency which would directly prevent good

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performance in school unless it was remedied by use of language relates to language capabilities. It has
teaching the use of elaborated code. also been realized that the relationship between
This model was quickly given up by researchers in linguistic form and cognitive complexity is not as
the area, including Bernstein himself and his uncomplicated as might have been supposed. Simple
colleagues, although it continued to influence syntax can express logical sequence, hypothetical
possibilities and interdependent propositions:
teachers and classroom remedial programmes (e.g.
complex syntax can often enough be used to disguise
Tough 1973, 1977). Among the problems was, first, banal ideas.
lack of evidence that the two codes had a real Linguists have also found Bernstein’s notion of
existence as distinct entities rather than as different ‘implicitness’ or ‘explicitness’ in language to be
modes on a continuum of variation. The literature problematic. In ‘implicit’ use of language the
virtually never contained transcribed examples, and meaning of a statement is not completely spelled out,
linguists found the defining criteria unsatisfactory as the speaker assumes that the listener has enough
(Gordon 1981). It was generally the case that the basic information to understand the unspoken part of
evidence said to support the existence of separate the message. Strictly, however, all use of language
codes was merely that one group of speakers tended involves assuming some shared understanding. We
to use more of a particular language form (e.g. passive have to assume for example some shared vocabulary,
verbs, ‘implicit’ pronouns) in a particular situation syntactic knowledge and understanding of the social
than another group of speakers. For example in a rules of discourse: if we could not make this
much-quoted experiment by Hawkins (1973, 1977), assumption we could not communicate at all.
5-year-olds were required to tell the story depicted in Suppose we say ‘the cat wants his dinner’. This
a series of pictures given by the tester. Middle-class simple sentence assumes the listener knows what a
children used more nouns to convey who was doing cat is; knows that we are talking about a particular cat,
what in the pictures: lower working-class children since we’ve said ‘the’ cat, and indeed we’re very
used more pronouns, relying on the pictures to make probably talking about our own familiar domestic
their referent unambiguous. Hawkins argued that cat; similarly understands ‘wants’ ‘his’ and ‘dinner’;
these ‘implicit’ ‘restricted code’ children were and understands that in normal discourse the sentence
conveying less information about the pictures: their would convey (at least to English speakers and
version listeners) an obligation to feed the cat. What looks
like an explicit sentence of minimal complexity
makes enormous demands on the listener. It means that the actually depends on a large amount of implicit
context (i.e. the pictures) must be present if the listener is to information and works within rules of discourse that
understand who and what is being referred to. It assumes are also implicit, at least until they are broken (see
the listener can see the pictures (Hawkins 1973, p. 87). Grice 1975; and p. 135 of this volume).
‘Implicitness’ is thus a normal part of language use,
Since, however, both the child and the listener/ and indeed it would be impossible (or at least tedious)
tester can see the pictures in the test situation, the to be perfectly explicit on all occasions. Certainly
‘demands’ and the ‘ambiguity’ are more in Hawkins’ there are likely to be problems in communication if
judgement than in the social ecology of the setting. the speaker’s assumptions about shared aspects of
Subsequent work (e.g. Hughes et al. 1979; Labov meaning are incorrect and too much is left implicit;
1969; Heath 1983; Wells 1979) has amply the listener may not understand what is said. It may
demonstrated the fallacy of arguing that ‘tend not to
even be a more serious breakdown in communication
in situation X’ implies ‘cannot in any situation’.
Subsequent formulations of links between language, than over-explicitness, which would presumably
class and education have taken into account the effect leave the listener in a state of adequate understanding,
of different social contexts and the question of how though probably some social resentment against the

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speaker (‘pedantic old bore’). What degree of concentrate on ‘particularistic’ ‘implicit’ meaning
implicitness is appropriate is a social property of the shared between speaker and listener, while meaning
participants’ whole discourse, and one of the aspects in ‘elaborated’ speech variants is more concerned to
of language we learn from our experience of be ‘universalistic’ and ‘explicit’, appealing to high
communicating with others about our world. level general principles. For example, a restricted
Bernstein’s analysis is unsatisfactory in that it deals code explanation for a parental command would be
with implicitness as a property of the text. As we saw something like ‘Because I say so’; an elaborated
in the case of Hawkins’ experiment, paralinguistic explanation would be ‘Because people need to eat
means to explicitness such as pointing are not their spinach all up to grow into nice big strong
included. people.’
There are various grammatical features which are Much about language is undoubtedly learned
used to make reference unambiguous (see Romaine through socialization (see Chapter 6). Bernstein
1984, especially pp. 143–6); the indices Bernstein (1971) differentiates between two sorts of families
uses, types of pronouns and ratio of pronouns to full which have different status structures and different
noun phrases, are inadequate as they ignore the communication systems. ‘Positional’ families are
situational context of the speech and, in practice, said to have clear-cut definitions of the role and status
underestimate the effect of links between utterances of different family members: ‘children shall be seen
(Gordon 1981). and not heard’; daughters-in-law must defer to their
Empirical investigations of whether there really mothers-in-law; the oldest son inherits the land, the
are class differences in explicitness or implicitness of second goes into the regiment, the third becomes a
speech suggest that on the whole there are not. In clergyman and takes up the family living: rigid status
Tizard and Hughes’ study (1984), for example, positions and roles are filled according to
mothers of all classes were sometimes implicit in characteristics such as age, wealth and sex, not
talking to their daughters, but took good care to be according to the particular strengths, weaknesses or
perfectly explicit when it was felt to be important that desires of individual family members. In ‘person-
the child should understand. Mothers varied in how centred’ families these status distinctions and
much they demanded the child should be explicit: ascriptions of roles are modified and varied in terms
Robinson and Robinson (in press) suggest that of the idiosyncracies of individuals: people can
parental demand that children should think about achieve their positions on the basis of their merits,
how to make themselves understood is a cause of a rather than having greatness (or exclusion from
faster understanding of communication (see p. 137). greatness) thrust upon them. Person-centred families
Wells (1985) also found more variation within are said to have ‘open’ communication systems;
classes than between them. having a more fluid status system they need to
Bernstein’s later work (e.g. Bernstein 1973) moves communicate, negotiate and explain, and hence use
‘codes’ into a level of abstraction some distance from elaborated code. Positional families have ‘closed’
observable speech. Codes are now seen as a sort of communication systems and thus use restricted code,
underlying ‘competence’ which give rise to speech with strict social control based on commands and
variants which are, roughly, the general range of prohibitions explained only in terms of family
syntactic forms, vocabulary items, and sort of members’ status – ‘Do as your father tells you’;
meaning expressed. (See 2 and 3 for problems raised ‘Little girls can’t do that’. Bernstein suggests that
by competence/performance distinctions.) Syntax working-class families are predominantly
and vocabulary in speech variants are very like those ‘positional’, and middle-class families ‘person-
proposed for the early version of ‘codes’: in centred’.
‘restricted’ speech variants, meaning is said to

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Figure 16

Diagrammatically, his model is shown in Figure 16, there is no evidence for two distinct language ‘codes’
where heavy arrows indicate a strong link and light there is no evidence for two distinct family types, let
ones a less certain link. alone two types clearly separable by class, and
Both types of family structures may be found in differences between families look like variations on a
each social class, and family types may vary in their continuum, or, rather, on several continua which do
communication system and codes: the version of the not map on to the positional–person-centred
model drawn by Stubbs (1983) has, rather unkindly, distinction without loss of information (see Chapter
all possible diagonal arrows drawn in between levels! 6). There is very little evidence that different family
However Bernstein (1973) is claiming tendencies to types talk in distinctly different ways. A few families
different class distributions, so there should be more are characterized by continual escalating conflict and
emphasis on the vertical chains as drawn above, even non-communication (Patterson 1975; and see
if, exceptionally, diagonals may occur. It is expected Chapter 6) but these aside, most families sometimes
that, on the whole, working-class families will be use explanations and sometimes not, sometimes ask
positional in structure; that, on the whole, positional or encourage questions and sometimes not,
families will generate closed communication sometimes get involved in discussion of cognitively
systems; that, on the whole, closed communication complex ideas, sometimes negotiate, sometimes
fosters restricted code; that restricted code leads to command, and so forth. Wells (1985), reviewing the
restricted speech variants; and that restricted speech largest body of data available, emphasizes that by the
variants lead to educational underachievement. time of their entry to school virtually all children had
This more elaborate formulation stands up to heard and used at home the same large range of syntax
investigation little better than its predecessor. Just as and language function. There are class differences in

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amounts of questioning, discussion, complex use of (Chall 1967; Bryant and Bradley 1985; and see p. 78
language, vocabulary and use of books and this volume). Children whose parents have talked to
imaginative play between mother and pre-school them in ways similar to those of their teachers
child, but the differences are not large (Tizard and probably understand rather better what their teachers
Hughes 1984; Wells 1979, 1985; Davie et al. 1984). require of them and how to provide it (Willes 1983;
There are more striking variations within classes than Wells 1981, 1982).
between them. The emphasis shifts here to add an indirect link
There is no good evidence at all on whether between the child’s language and his or her
different sorts of language structure lead to different performance in school, with the teachers’ judgement
sorts of cognition. The difficulty of assessing of the child and its consequences (and perhaps the
cognitive structures is enormous (see Chapter 2 and child’s judgement of the teachers and school) being
3): so is the difficulty of assessing the cognitive the crucial intervening variable. Teachers who think
complexity of a language. Although there is a fairly a child is stupid or inarticulate are likely to expect less
plausible case that it is easier to talk about and think and require less than they do of a pupil judged to be
about things we have good vocabulary entries for (so clever. A child who understands school as foreign,
that the Eskimo is more fluent in discussion of snow and teachers as people who impose meaningless tasks
than the Spaniard, or the skier than the surfer), there and ask bizarre questions, is presumably less likely to
is virtually no reason to believe that language work hard and well than a pupil who finds school
structure severely restricts thought, and, especially, work and talk familiar, and understands why it is
no good reason to believe that different languages worth doing. This sort of fit or misfit is not likely to be
vary in their possibilities of being explicit or logical simple, and the shifted emphasis is far from giving us
(Labov 1969). an adequately detailed explanation of the educational
Differences in the use of language, however, failure which was the instigating problem. However
including the social functions of language, may the attention currently being given to the participants’
contribute to at least differences in knowledge about view of education (see p. 198) to the sort of discourse
language and possibly also differences in cognitive that characterizes classrooms (see p. 132), to the
processes. Children who have been encouraged or patterns of stimulation, support, encouragement and
required to think about language itself, for example, motivation between parent and child, and teacher and
seem to be faster in developing some aspects of child (see p. 184), and to self-concept development
knowledge about language. Elizabeth and Peter (see p. 150), seem likely to lead us to a better
Robinson have carried out a careful and thorough understanding of how to encourage everyone to be as
series of experiments on developmental changes in clever as possible in as many ways as possible.
children’s understanding of communication failures
due to the message having an ambiguous referent. Language at home and at school
These showed that children who had had their A popularized and radically cruder version of
attention drawn (rather specifically) to the fact that Bernstein’s work argued, first, that children bring to
the listener had not understood what the child meant, school the language they used at home; second, that
were better at playing a referential communication the middle class had access to what was called
game and showed more understanding of why ‘elaborated code’ while the working class did not;
messages were not understood and of how to make third, that working-class children failed in school
them unambiguous (Robinson and Robinson 1982, because they lacked the ‘elaborated code’ which
1983; and see p. 107 this volume). Children who have school required; and fourth, that special language
been taught about the sounds of letters do more programmes should be run to remedy this deficit.
phonic processing in their reading and read better Following a great deal of polemic, some careful

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collection and analysis of data has shown that there is knowledge, so that each participant can assume the
a great deal to be said against each step of the other knows roughly what is being talked about and
argument just outlined. what the aim of the conversation is. Much of the
It is necessarily true that children enter school discourse is initiated by the child. School discourse is
having already developed many aspects of language. much more likely to be teacher-initiated, adult-
They have after all been using language for four or structured and devoid of practical context. For
five years. If what I have said about the need for example, a high proportion of teacher talk consists of
adult–child conversation and ‘scaffolding’ is at all ‘display questions’ such as ‘what colour is the
true, this is just as well: no teacher could provide it for house?’, where the teacher requires the child to give
thirty children at once. Most children of 5 have shown an answer which the teacher knows, and which the
themselves to be capable of constructing most of the child knows the teacher knows. Questions at home
sentence types and most of the semantic relationships are much more likely to occur because the questioner
of their language, including many complex ones (see, (child as frequently as adult) lacks information which
for example, Wells 1985, discussed earlier in this he or she believes the respondent can supply, such as
chapter). They still have things to learn about ‘what would you like for dinner?’
language, as we shall see, but they are basically Romaine (1984) points out that school
linguistically competent. Do they bring this conversations frequently have goals which are
competence to school, as the first step of the argument known to the teacher but not to the child, who is rarely
asserts? The true answer is both yes and no, and the told explicitly what the criteria for correctness are.
differences and discrepancies look important for the She quotes (pp. 71–2) an example recorded by
problems of social class and educational failure. Dannequin of a French teacher who has strict but
It is the case that some children are tongue-tied and implicit criteria for what is an acceptable answer but
monosyllabic when required to talk to teachers in expresses them so ambiguously that her pupils have
school, and that such children often come from a to go through a long problem-solving process to get
background unlike the teacher’s. This apparent the ‘right’ answer.
inability to respond to the linguistic demands of the
classroom is often interpreted as showing that the T: Avec quoi prend-on la température?
child cannot use language in the required ways, not What does one take a temperature with?
merely that he or she does not. Closer observation of P: Un thermomètre.
children shows, however, that in many cases they can A thermometer.
and do use language perfectly competently when they T: Une petite phrase. Avec quoi prend-on la tempéra-
are with their peers or members of their families (e.g. ture? Véronique, une phrase.
A short sentence. What does one take a temperature
Wells 1982; Tizard and Hughes 1984; Wood 1981). with? Veronica, a sentence.
This suggests that an explanation in terms of a V: Un thermomètre.
deficiency in the ways the child can use language is A thermometer.
untenable. An alternative explanation is that there is T: Tu me résponds par un mot. Je veux une phrase.
something unusual about the language usage You’ve given me a word. I want a sentence.
required by schools, some factor in the demands that V: Avec un thermomètre.
school makes on children which is unlike the With a thermometer.
demands of the home. Recent analyses (e.g. Sinclair T: Ce n’est toujours pas une phrase. Tu me résponds
and Coulthard 1975; Romaine 1984) of classroom par un autre mot. Je voudrais une phrase – Myriam.
language and behaviour suggest some focal That’s still not a sentence. You’ve just given me
differences. Most of the discourse which children another word. I want a sentence – Myriam.
have taken part in at home has arisen from the
participants’ activity. It has a background of shared

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M: Maman/prend/la température/avec un thermomètre Children become aware quite early that they are
(utterance is syllable-timed with each chunk form- expected to talk in different ways with different
ing a separate tone group). people. Politeness rules, which are relatively
Mother takes a temperature with a thermometer. systematically taught by many parents, are one
T: Voilà. Répète Véronique. example. Edinburgh schoolchildren reported to
There. Repeat, Veronica. Romaine (1984) on the differences between ‘polite’
and ‘rough’ speech, the former being more like
standard English and the latter more like Scots in
These pupils are being required to give up the normal
features of pronunciation (‘cannae’ instead of ‘can’t’,
discourse rule of not giving superfluous information
not ‘down’ but ‘doon’) and vocabulary (‘ken’ instead
(see the beginning of this chapter, p. 118) in favour of
the showing-off of grammatical competence, and of ‘know’). ‘Dialect’ differences such as these are
what is more, a grammatical competence somewhat associated by adults with differences in prestige,
arbitrarily defined by the teacher (‘une phrase’ can personality characteristics, education, occupation
mean ‘a phrase’ in the English sense, so ‘with a and so forth (see Giles and Powesland 1975), rural
thermometer’ or indeed ‘a thermometer’ would be accented people being seen as nicer than urban
technically adequate as answer). It is hardly far- accented people, and those using RP (Received
fetched to feel that Véronique comes across as Pronunciation or BBC/Oxford English) as being
justifiably irritated and Myriam as getting rid of a better educated and more powerful, though possibly
pointless importunity. This is a particularly neat not so trustworthy. Romaine’s informants seemed to
example because the teacher is requiring be making these sorts of distinctions by the later part
‘metalinguistic awareness’, that is an ability to talk of their primary school careers; by then, too, girls’
about language as having an objective existence, as language was usually nearer the prestige norm than
being ‘opaque’ rather than ‘transparent’. boys’ language, and they used fewer non-standard
Dannequin’s teacher is, however, representative here forms than boys. By this sort of age children used
of a very high proportion of teacher–child discourse: more non-standard language to their peers, too,
Wells (1982) and Wood (1981) provide other sometimes seeing this as affirming (or required by)
examples. Heath (1983), in a brilliant study of their social identity. Peer groups and other social
children from different neighbourhoods in the south- groups often press their members into particular
east of the United States, reports awareness on the vocabularies, dialects or uses of language (see
part of some children that different people used Romaine 1984, ch. 6.3; and p. 191 below).
language differently, asking different sorts of
School and home, then, show somewhat different
questions, for example. One little boy, being given a
ranges of language use. Some homes do include more
lift in Heath’s car a few weeks after he started nursery
school-type language than others, and homes which
school, asked her a series of display questions about
encourage relatively abstract and context-
a fire-truck that passed, e.g. ‘What colour dat truck?
What colour dat coat? What colour dat car?’ Such independent uses of language are quite likely to
questions were rare at home, and Heath expressed her produce children whose language is advanced and
surprise at him asking questions to which they both who do cope well with school language (Wells 1982,
knew the answer. The boy began laughing: he had 1985). A family which involves the child in literacy
been imitating the questions the teacher asked at seems to be particularly advantageous (see also
school. If, as is probably the case, children playing at Osborn et al. 1984); no doubt this is partly because
being teacher show even more stereotyped behaviour literacy is one of the major preoccupations of schools,
than children playing at being mothers, the reason but it is also probable that literacy encourages
may be somewhere in the oddness of much teacher– abstract and context-independent thought (see p.
child dialogue. 140). There are class differences in literacy behaviour

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Plate 11

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such as reading, writing and discussing what is read 1969) has provided important insights into ‘how to do
or written, the middle classes indulging in them rather things with words’. One important distinction is
more, but otherwise there is as much variation in between different levels of significance in an
language use within social classes as there is between utterance such as the teacher’s ‘Somebody’s making
them. Talk of two homogeneous social classes, a lot of noise’. The first level is the locution, the
‘middle’ and ‘working’ or ‘lower-working’, with two linguistic form itself, in this case a possible neutral
separate language codes, is seriously misleading (and statement. The second is the illocutionary force,
to be fair, Bernstein would not have approved of such which is the type of speech act the speaker intends,
a model); so is an assumption that school language is here that the class should quieten down. The third is
exactly like any home language. The development of the perlocutionary force, the significance the hearer
finds in the utterance, here perhaps that ‘Miss wants
children’s understanding of the demands of school is
everybody to be quiet’ or ‘Sir is making a fuss again’.
one of the growth areas for research at present (see
Here we are mainly concerned with types of
Chapter 6). So is the search for explanations of
illocutionary forces, the functions which the speaker
children’s school failure which examines the
intends the utterance to serve.
microsystem of the school for causes as well as the
Speech act theory provides definitions of speech
possible deficiencies of the child. So is the study of
acts such as requests, promises, threats and so on. For
what language is used for, the subject which we now
example, both promises and threats refer to future
take up.
acts by the speaker, but promises refer to acts which
will be of benefit to the hearer and threats to acts
The functions of language which will not. Children have to learn how to produce
I mentioned the ‘functions’ of language in the first and comprehend speech acts in ways which are
paragraph of this chapter, and they have been implicit appropriate to their social and linguistic community,
in all that has been said since. The list of language to the microsystems in which they take part.
functions which Michael Halliday (1975) observed Problems may arise if the conventions for speech act
in his young son provides an example of the range of
usage differ between microsystems, such as the
uses which children’s language can serve. A very
home/school differences I described above. A child
early use is language in an instrumental function, a
who is used only to very direct speech acts, such as
way in which the child satisfies his or her needs or
‘Shut up’, may not see the illocutionary force of
wants; early language is also often regulatory,
indirect ones, such as ‘Someone’s making a lot of
controlling others’ behaviours, or interactional, used
for establishing or maintaining interpersonal contact. noise’. Differences will apply at the level of single
Children also use language in a personal function, to utterances and of whole long discourses: Heath
talk about themselves, in the heuristic function, to (1983), for example, describes several different
find out about the world, and in the imaginative understandings of what ‘stories’ are and how to tell
function of ‘let’s pretend’. Using language in the them.
informational function is a relatively late Some examples of children’s use of speech acts and
development, but achieved well before pre-school. of their awareness of the conditions that underpin
Initially language functions are simple, but they them can be found in books and papers such as
become more diverse and more are involved in any Garvey 1975, Ochs and Schieffelin 1979, Bates and
given utterance as people become more sophisticated MacWhinney 1979, Shatz 1983. Olson (1980a)
speakers. Describing the function of the language provides a particularly nice example of the variety of
being observed becomes problematic to a social forms language can serve in the course of an
considerable degree. interaction, in this case distributing dominoes equally
The work of philosophers such as Austin, Searle between the two nursery-school children involved.
and Grice on speech acts (see, for example, Searle

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Understanding Child Development

L: Let’s make a domino house out of these. Some examples of these formal links are the
replacement of nouns by pronouns on second and
J: Okay.
subsequent occurrences, or the use of items such as
First by grabs. ‘therefore’, ‘meanwhile’ and ‘in addition’. These
devices refer back from the present word or phrase to
J: Lookit how many I got . . . . You took a couple of mine!
earlier ones which it is not necessary to repeat
L: Now you took a couple. verbatim because they can be understood from the
Then by commands.
whole linguistic context that has gone before. My use
of ‘these’ and ‘they’ in the last three sentences are
L: Now you got to give me three back! examples.
.... Very small children may merely string sentences
together without using syntactical linking devices,
L: Now give me just one more and then we got the same.
but some instances of grammatical devices such as
And then by requestful assertives. pronominal reference are produced and understood
by pre-school children (Ervin-Tripp 1978;
J: Now, you got more than me–e. Karmiloff-Smith 1979). McTear (1985) describes the
And denials. use of discourse connectors such as ‘well’, ‘anyway’
and so forth by his daughter Siobhan and her friend
L: No! We got the same. Heather. Over the period of recording the two little
girls more such devices emerged and their discourse
By fact collecting, assertions, and inferences.
became both more flexible in structure and more
L: [Begins to count her dominoes] One, two, three, four . . . continuous in theme. Devices for initiating, restarting
twenty-eight, twenty-nine. [Then counts Jamie’s dominoes] and repairing conversation also became more varied
One, two, three, four . . . eighteen, nineteen . . . [short pause] and efficient. The children were able to monitor their
twenty-nine. own speech and the speech they heard and to take
J: I got nineteen and you got twenty-nine. . . . You got more appropriate action to repair conversation and adjust
than me. its course so as to achieve the social interaction they
desired. By the time they reached school-age Siobhan
L: No–o [shouting] I COUNTED. . . . You have the same as me . .
and Heather were effective as a conversational duo
. We got the same.
and in their talking with familiar adults. Differences
J: NO–O–O! of conversational style between these children and
And when negotiations b reak down again, by grasping.
adults were mainly of degree – for example the adults,
[There is a shuffle of dominoes across the floor and now Jamie has
who had more world knowledge and more power,
more than Lisa.] would use more indirect speech, innuendo and
oblique references – though adults, of course, have
And finally, by appeal to authority. more practice in specialized types of discourse such
as counselling, chairing meetings or seduction
L: You got much more than me now.
routines. As they get older, children too learn more
J: Now we got the same [Paul, a volunteer teacher, enters the about how to use language to get the result they want
room.] (e.g. Clark and Delia 1976; Romaine 1984).
The picture of children’s conversational
L: Does he have much more than me?
competence which is emerging from research at
P: Not too many more! present shows less of the incompetent egocentric
language use which Piaget (1959) described and
(Olson 1980a, pp. 95–6). more of children using a variety of conversational

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devices in orderly ways similar to adults’ usage. By will often switch to the correct form. The following
school-age they have shown many complex skills: dialogue is a good example of how the two forms flit in and
later conversational development is predominantly out of consciousness in the course of natural conversation:
through increased world knowledge, better social
Dan: Hey, what happened last night after we left?
cognition and mastery of rare linguistic forms. The
Did Barbara [the baby sitter] read you that
integration of literacy and thinking and the world of
whole story? Remember you were reading
school are perhaps the crucial problems and Babar?
possibilities.
Heida: Yeah . . . and, um, he . . . she also . . . you know
. . . mama, mama, uh, this morning after break-
Children’s metalinguistic behaviour fast, read the whole, um, book of the three little
In Chapter 3 I discussed work on ‘metacognition’, pigs and that, you know that book, that . . .
children’s awareness of and control of their thinking. [digression of about one minute]
There is a similar concept in the work on language Heida: I don’t know when she readed . . .
development, children’s awareness of and control of
Dan: You don’t know when she what?
their language. As language has many different
Heida: . . . she readed the book. But you know that
levels, metalinguistic competence has many
book – that green book – that has the gold
components too and develops over a long period of
goose, and the three little pigs, and the three lit-
time. Intuitive judgements about the sameness or
tle bears, and that story about the king?
difference of consonants such as ‘p’ or ‘b’ can be
Dan: M-hm.
traced back to infants’ discriminations (see Aslin et
Heida: That’s the book she read. She read the whole,
al. 1983, and Chapter 2 this volume), but picking the
the whole book.
odd word out in a set containing contrasting items
Dan: That’s the book she readed huh?
such as ‘pat’, ‘bat’, ‘bee’ and ‘boy’ is hard for
children beginning to learn to read (eg Bryant and Heida: Yeah . . . read! [annoyed].
Bradley 1985). Dan: Oh.
Observations of pre-school children show use and Heida: Dum-dum!
awareness of different sorts of language, for example [brief interlude about dressing]
the child aged 2:10 who was recorded as saying Dan: Barbara readed you Babar?
‘When I was a little girl I could go “geek-geek” like Heida: Babar, yeah. You know, cause you readed some
that. But now I can go “this is a chair”’, or the children of it too.
who refuse to accept from other people the incorrect Dan: Well I just started it.
pronunciation or construction which they themselves Heida: Yeah. She readed all the rest.
use (Clark and Clark 1977; De Villiers 1979). Slobin Dan: She read the whole thing to you, huh?
1978 provides an example of how ‘flickering’
Heida: Yeah . . . nu–uh – you read some.
children’s awareness of grammar can be at this age:
Dan: Oh, that’s right; yeah, I readed the beginning of
it.
Overgeneralizations planted in adult speech elicited protest
Heida: Readed?! [annoyed surprise] Read! [insisting
from Heida only if the standard form happened to be
on the obvious].
momentarily present in her consciousness:
Dan: Oh yeah – read.
Heida: Will you stop that, papa?
§25 (4;7). If she has just used the correct past tense of an
irregular verb, she is annoyed with me if I respond to her Dan: Sure.
with the overregularization; but if she has used the
overregularization, she does not object to my following (Slobin 1978, pp. 52–3).
suit. If I follow her incorrect form with the correct form, she

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Understanding Child Development

Heida can monitor her language (and her father’s) both of us can have some’ and then ate the whole
and correct it, but does not do so consistently. The banana and gave his partner the skin. It was not until
pressure to communicate may have overcome the at least 8 that children realized that this division did
pressure to be grammatical; adults commonly accept fulfil the literal meaning of the sentence, though not
ungrammatical utterances which are intelligible (see, the promise it implied. No doubt sad social
for example, Wells 1982). experience contributes to understandings of this sort.
Segmentation is an important part of Children’s handling of ambiguity is another source
metalanguage. Segmenting words into sounds seems of evidence on their metalinguistic awareness. Again
to be difficult for most children under about 7 and is a there are various sorts of ambiguity. It can be due to
particular problem for poor readers (Bryant and lexical double meanings (such as ‘pipe’) or syntactic
Bradley 1985). ambiguities (‘she hit the man with the glasses’, ‘he
Training children to focus on sounds increased told her baby stories’). Children’s jokes often exploit
their metalinguistic awareness and their ambiguities of sound, vocabulary, syntax or
performance: in the case of the children Bradley expectation. Gleitman and Gleitman (1978, p. 118)
trained it improved their reading. There are similar provide some examples:
difficulties in segmenting sentences or utterances
into words; again, children’s ability to do this Sample jokes, classified in terms of the source of ambiguity
improves at around 6 or 7, and it seems likely that
language awareness and reading practice influence A: Phonological 1. If you put three ducks in a box
each other. Ideas about words often confound the what do you have? A box of
word itself and its referent: thus ‘book’ is a ‘long quackers.
word’ because ‘it has lots of letters in it’, or 2. Bob coughed until his face
‘primrose’ a short one because primroses are small turned blue. Was he choking?
No, he was serious.
(Berthoud-Papandropoulou 1978). Words such as
‘the’ are not proper words: alternatively a ‘word’ B: Lexical 1. How can hunters in the woods
given as response to the question ‘tell me a word’ best find their lost dogs? By
might be a complete sentence. Again, reading is putting their ears to a tree and
listening to the bark.
associated with understanding segmentation into
2. How do we know there was fruit
words. Experience with written texts probably also on Noah’s ark? Because the
helps children to deal with unusual grammatical animals came in pairs.
constructions such as ‘over and over rolled the ball’.
C: Surface Structure 1. How would you run over a dino-
Awareness that what is said and what is meant are
saur? I’d start at his tail, run up
not necessarily the same is another fairly late
his back, then over his neck
achievement (e.g. Olson and Torrance 1983). For and I’d jump off.
example, in one of Olson’s experiments children 2. Where would you go to see a
were read a story about two children sharing some man-eating fish? A seafood
popcorn and then arguing about the distribution. One restaurant.
says to the other ‘You have more than me!’ 5-year- D: Deep 1. We’re going to have my grand-
olds asked what was said are likely to reply that the Structure mother for Thanksgiving. You
child in the story said ‘Give me more’. 7-year-olds are? Well, we’re going to have
report verbatim and can show they knew what was a turkey.
meant as well. In another study children of this age 2. Will you join me in a bowl of
did not manage to deal with literal and expected soup? Do you think there’s
room for both of us?
meaning quite so well. Here a Sesame Street
character said ‘I’m going to divide this banana up so

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E: Morpheme 1. Why can one never starve in the Fransella 1976). Young children doubtless have
Boundary–No desert? Because of the sand simpler concept systems, but it requires considerable
Phonological which is there. ingenuity to elicit information from them.
Distortion 2. How do trains hear? Through Gelman and Baillargeon (1983) and Clark (1983)
their engine ears. review some of the recent work on the beginnings of
F: Morpheme 1. Do you think that if I wash, my categorization and concept labelling. Both the
Boundary face will be clean? Let’ssoap habituation evidence from babies which I discussed
with for the best. in Chapter 2, and some evidence on very young
Distortion 2. Did you read in the newspaper children’s manipulation of categorizable objects,
about the man who ate six suggest that the roots of categorization lie in the first
dozen pancakes at one sitting?
year of life, before the child is producing language.
No – how waffle.
Children’s sorting behaviour can involve a
Understanding ambiguity, appreciating verbal significant amount of choosing objects consecutively
jokes which use it, and developing the use of from the same category before 18 months old, even an
metaphor (Reynolds and Ortony 1980; Kogan 1983) exhaustive search for a category, but at that age, and
are all aspects of language awareness which develop for a year or two to follow, sorting is in competition
during the school years. All of them both require and with pattern making, and the child may move freely
make possible greater world knowledge and social from picking out items of a particular colour to
understanding. arranging items in a pleasing pattern. This oscillation
between interests leads to the apparently haphazard
and conceptually confused ‘collections’ and ‘chain
Word meanings and concepts
concepts’ which Vygotsky (1962) and others
Words refer to concepts: concepts are labelled by
described. Markman, Cox and Machida (1981) report
words. There is an intimate interaction and mutual
an experiment where children sorted items into
influence between cognition and language. I want
plastic bags instead of on a table top: this procedure
here to look briefly at two aspects of this interaction:
made ‘arrangements’ impossible and increased the
first the child’s early use of concepts and of
frequency of logically based sortings. Thus there is
conceptual language, and then the question of how
some categorization of objects round about the time
literacy affects language and thinking.
that children are producing their first words and
sentences. Clark (1983) points out that early words,
Early concepts
which typically first apply to a prototype object, are
People’s conceptual knowledge may be much more quickly used for all objects of that kind, not just the
varied than their words for expressing it; for example, original prototype. Words such as ‘dirty’ are applied
there are many more discriminably different colours to objects which are ‘dirty’ in different physical ways
than there are colour terms, and the culture’s but share the conceptual characteristic of being
vocabulary of colour words is not a major something you shouldn’t touch, something taboo or
determinant of accuracy of colour discrimination, literally likely to make you dirty. At this point in
though it does affect ease of labelling colours (Heider language use we find the ‘over-extensions’ I
1971, 1972; Rosch and Lloyd 1978). We do not have mentioned earlier, and also probably various other
good descriptions of complete concept systems, less conspicuous mismatches between word and
though there are some interesting examples of referents. Children are already using sets of
attempts to map out some limited areas such as a 4- properties to define which objects are members of a
year-old’s knowledge of dinosaurs (Chi and Koeske category, and over-extended uses do tend to involve
1983), and patients’ views on the significant people some similarities in appearance or other properties
in their lives drawn up using Repertory Grids (e.g. with the prototype instance. They try out different

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Understanding Child Development

assignments of objects to categories, picking up the make the same sort of mistakes; both adults and
community’s conventional labels and judgements of children may be deceived by words which are similar
‘same’ or ‘different’. Success in communication is an into believing that the objects they refer to are similar
important criterion for the continued use of a too. Adults’ use of category hierarchies appears to
concept–instance match. Children assume that there influence children’s learning of superordinate
will be a word for a concept which is consistent from categories (Callanan 1985).
one instance of that concept to the next and which will
also contrast with the words that belong to contrasting Literacy, language and thinking
concepts. From very early on they ask for adult forms, I have emphasized throughout my discussion of
try them and repair their own word choices (Clark children’s cognition and language that they develop
1983, p. 805). The goal is to fill lexical gaps by within a social context. Particularly once children
finding words for concepts the child wants to talk attend school, literacy is an important part of this
about. Gaps may be filled by finding the right word or context. There are strong arguments in the literature
by temporary measures such as over-extensions or that language and cognition skills are necessary for
the use of general purpose words such as ‘that’, the development of literacy (notably awareness of
‘thing’, ‘do’ or ‘go’, though these tend to be context- language concepts, and awareness of language
dependent. Children also coin new words, frequently sounds, see p. 78) and also that literacy changes
using the standard devices of the language. In people’s use of language and ways of thinking. It is
English, for example, nouns can be converted into this latter possibility that I want to concentrate on
verbs or vice versa, e.g. trumpet, attempt; affixes are here.
used, e.g. garden– gardener–under-gardener; and There have been two main bodies of evidence for
there are compound words, e.g. darkroom, taxpayer. the assertion that becoming literate changes the ways
We need more data on children’s word coinage, but in which people think and use language. One body of
they certainly use conversion (‘Can you needle my evidence centres on the marked change in children’s
shirt’; ‘I’m gonna gun you’), and suffixes (where they thinking and talking which Piaget and many others
prefer the more frequent ‘-er’ to ‘-ist’), and make have observed to happen during the early school
compound words (a smile-person, a knock-thing). years. An important part of this change is a growing
Appreciating the relationship between concepts ability to reassign descriptions or categorizations to
and the overlapping of different words’ referents the same object or event. This is seen as being related
requires a considerable amount of world-knowledge. to the child’s learning to read, an achievement which
In the absence of crucial knowledge, using a requires systematic thought about the alternatives
superordinate category may be impossible. Gelman and categorizations possible in language. Reading
and Baillargeon (1983) give as example some also opens up systematic access to the stored
unpublished work by Susan Carey on children’s knowledge of the culture, and is thus what Bruner
concepts of animals. Characteristics such as breathe, (1966) called a ‘cultural amplifier’. Bruner sees the
think, have bones, were recognized as animal-like culture’s supply of ‘amplifiers’ and the demands that
properties, and children recognized that mammals life in the culture makes on an individual as being
had most of these defining characteristics; then, in crucial determinants of the ‘powers of mind’ which
order, birds, insects, fish and worms, were seen as will develop. For example, our society demands
being the least ‘animal’ like. However, young (among many other things) that people go through a
children did not know accurately which animals had formal educational process. Becoming literate is
which characteristics and did not reliably judge one essential for coping with this demand; literacy is also
property to be more crucial than another. This one of the cultural amplifiers which the educational
ignorance would lead inevitably to classifications process offers, not just in school but in the use of
which are biologically ill-founded. Ignorant adults books and other writing and reading outside school.

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 Language development

A similar suggestion comes from the second body information; if they are not allowed to do this, they
of evidence which relates literacy, thinking and forget information and so reason no better than
language. This consists of historical and illiterates. Similarly, provision of record-making
ethnographic studies of the consequences of literacy materials lifted the performance of primary school
or other social changes (e.g. Goody 1977; Luria children to the ‘formal operations’ level of systematic
1976). In societies where literacy is newly hypothesis testing on Piaget’s science tasks (e.g.
introduced, those who become literate become able Brainerd 1978).
to do new thinking and language tasks rather as Further evidence that literacy’s effects may be
children becoming literate do in a culture where centred on the skills of literacy comes from Scribner
literacy is already established. Among the areas in and Cole (1981). They studied a society which has
which change has been claimed (for both children and several different systems of literacy. The Vai people
literate members of developing societies) are in Liberia use a syllable-based script, mainly for
deliberate remembering, logical and scientific letter-writing and recordkeeping: this script is
reasoning, and various aspects of language use more learned at home. It is useful but not necessary for the
characteristic of writing than of speech (see Goody Vai’s traditional employments as rice farmers, small-
and Watt 1968; Olson 1977; and Chapter 3 this scale entrepreneurs and craftsmen. About 20 per cent
volume). of Vai men use Vai script. Some people have attended
There is debate about whether the consequences of American-type schools where they learn to read and
literacy are general cognitive changes which extend write in and through English. There is also an Islamic
far beyond reading and writing to other areas of influence; some Vai read Arabic, mostly just to
language and thought, highly generalizable cognitive decode the Koran and read it in religious services, but
operations that are responsible for intelligent some also use it to write letters and records and to read
behaviour; or whether they are specific changes commentaries on the Koran. Literates of these four
centering on literacy tasks and extending not terribly different sorts were tested on a variety of skills based
far from the business of reading and writing. on analysis of literate practices, such as coding and
Although the issue is very complex, the present decoding symbols, recalling information, playing a
emphasis seems to be on the specific possibilities communication game and solving logical syllogisms.
which literacy allows rather than on literacy as a Test performance was very closely related to the
general ‘cultural amplifier’ which has strong effects specific functions of the particular literacy used by
even when literate skills are not being directly used. the subject. They argue that the apparent general
For example, Cole and Griffin (1980) describe effects of literacy are related to what it is used for and
experiments which show that most normal adults how it is taught. ‘Cultural amplifiers’ are embedded
have the ability to correlate pieces of information and in the social context as language and cognition
make correct inferences, whether they live in literate themselves are. Practice at meeting the demands of
societies or not. What makes literate adults rather the microsystem makes perfect on the skills the
better at such tasks is that they use writing and devices microsystem requires: not necessarily on the skills it
such as tables of instances to help them remember the does not.

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Understanding Child Development

Plate 12 ‘The Castlemilk lads’

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5 Personality

Just as there has been a tremendous variety of ways of concerned, it was a case of ‘anatomy is destiny’; for
Sheldon, if you had a round, soft, plump sort of body
understanding and investigating ‘personality’ itself,
you were destined to be a comfort-loving, relaxed,
there have been many different approaches to its
sociable sort of character, just as for Lombroso if you
development. Developmental studies have
had ears which stuck out or unevenly set eyes you
encountered all the conceptual and methodological
were almost bound to go in for one or the other sort of
problems of general personality theories, plus
criminal activity. Personality was seen as genetically
difficulties associated with the interpretation of
fixed, and as running in families. Jukes and Kallikaks
continuity of character or behaviour over time.
bred true, and social reform depended heavily on
Theories of personality development differ in their
eugenic breeding strategies.
basic ideas about the origin of personality, about its
These were seductive theories, corresponding
consistency, and about the importance of life events
plausibly with common-sense everyday experience,
and possible series of developmental stages. This
and they had a long run. However once careful and
chapter looks first at theories which place more
large-scale investigations were carried out, the
emphasis on permanent ‘dispositions’, next at some
correlations between body-build and character, let
‘stage’ or ‘life-event’ approaches, and finally at the
alone between skull shape and character, turned out to
developmental evidence for certain aspects of
be too small to be much predictive use. The direction
‘personality’.
of causation of any such relationship is, in any case,
likely to be unclear. The ectomorph, long, thin and
Physiology and personality weedy in build, with (less measurably) a highly
The belief that people differ in general character, that sensitive nervous system and a low threshold for
their approach to different situations is, say, sensation, is unlikely to be easily competent or skilled
consistently active or lethargic, melancholic or at vigorous competitive athletic activities, or at
optimistic, is a very ancient one indeed. So is the settling disputes by physical means, and so may
attribution of such differences to an underlying indeed concentrate on intellectual and symbolic
physiological bias. Such ideas can be traced through activities. Conversely, however, avoiding strenuous
millennia, surfacing strongly in the nineteenth exercise will affect how muscular the body becomes
century in phrenology and physiognomy (Gould and indeed how efficiently heart, lungs and so forth
1984, in a vivid description of this work – and of early work. Only if there is a self-induced ‘experiment’ in
intelligence testing – provides a salutary warning to the form of a change of lifestyle can we know if body-
psychologists about the social implications of their type determines personality or vice versa. We know
research). They appeared again in this century in very little about how much changes in each are
Kretschmer’s and Sheldon’s work on the link possible, or affect the other. People who change the
between body-build and character; and might be seen amount of exercise they take quite often claim that
to be related also to Eysenck’s accounting for they have experienced changes in psychological
introversion– extraversion and neuroticism in terms areas too: systematic study would be useful, here. So
of the way the central nervous system works (e.g. would studies of whether round, cuddly babies are
Eysenck 1967). So far as the early theories were treated very differently from hard muscular babies;

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Understanding Child Development

given the apparent difference in both description and activity level, general mood quality, how rhythmic or
handling that boy and girl babies receive, it would predictable behaviour is, intensity of reaction,
seem quite possible that subtle differences in approach–withdrawal, distractability and
experience amplify initial small differences in fastidiousness. There is a tendency for clusters on
physiology. these variables to be found which Thomas et al. label
This sort of interaction, and these sorts of as ‘easy’, ‘difficult’ and ‘slow to warm up’ general
problems, no doubt also apply to Eysenck’s model types of temperament. ‘Easy’ babies are positive in
based on differences in the central nervous system. mood, regular and predictable in behaviour,
However there is little evidence about the continuity moderate in their activity and reaction, and highly
of extraversion–introversion over childhood (it adaptable to changes. ‘Difficult’ babies are intense,
seems to be fairly consistent in the adult years) and negative, irregular and slow to adapt. ‘Slow to warm
neuroticism, at least in terms of the prognosis from up’ babies are inactive, withdrawn and slow to adapt.
childhood depression or anxiety to similar states in These characteristics are said to be highly stable over
adulthood, is not particularly consistent (Barker short periods of time, though continuities decrease as
1979). The theory is not entirely clear about the the time interval increases from babyhood to
degree to which the ‘balance’ of the central nervous childhood. It is also claimed that early temperament
system is affected by – or determined by – differences are predictive of later psychopathology.
experience. Again, answers to these questions would Children whose early ‘temperament’ is irregular,
be very useful. unadaptable, negative, unfastidious and highly
Thus there is not at present an adequately- intense are particularly likely to be referred for
grounded model of the relationship between physical psychiatric treatment in childhood or early
and psychological characteristics in general adulthood. Children who are ‘slow to warm up’ may
personality. There is work on relationships between also have later problems, but these are likely to be of
variation in physical characteristics such as hormone withdrawal and apathy, where the ‘difficult’ children
level and differences in aggressive, nurturant and are more likely to have more vigorous and disruptive
other behaviour which we will look at later. One behaviour problems (Rutter 1985a; Kohn 1977).
important and very interesting body of research has, Temperament is generally assessed by means of
however, continued to look at continuities in detailed reports of the child’s behaviour elicited from
personality over childhood. Among the workers the mother or some other adult who knows the child
involved in studying ‘temperament’ have been well. Such reports are generally creditably accurate
Thomas and Chess and their colleagues (e.g. Thomas about present behaviour, though their accuracy in
and Chess 1977; Buss and Plomin 1975; Halverson looking back over a period of months may be more
and Waldrop 1976; Kohn 1977). Dunn (1980) and doubtful. There are however more serious
Berger (1985) discuss the methodological issues methodological problems. There may well be a quite
involved, and a CIBA foundation symposium (CIBA marked relationship between baby differences,
1982) reviews recent work. caretaker differences and continuity. Attentive
mothers, for example, tend to have more alert babies;
Temperament there are continuities in the mother’s contribution to
interactive style which may help to produce
‘Temperament’ is seen as continuities of continuities in the child’s (Ainsworth 1979; Dunn
characteristic style of behaviour which can be 1980). While temperament is often continuous in a
observed and rated in infancy, and pervade all that a stable environment, a change in caretaker, as in
person does. Temperament interacts with experience adoption, is likely to lead to discontinuities in the
to produce personality. Various ‘temperament’ child’s behaviour (see Chapter 6, and also Tizard
dimensions have been suggested, among them (1977) on late adoption, which is discussed

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 Personality

elsewhere). Similarly apparent ‘temperament’ varies socialization, is Kagan and Moss’s (1962) findings
in interaction with different members of the family: on sex differences in dependence and aggression. In
that is it has a substantial interactive or relational their longitudinal study of Midwestern children
component. Finally, difficulties arise over the through the 1950s they found that the degree of
‘meaning’ of behaviour and the assessment of dependence in infancy predicted to dependence in
continuity over time. To take an obvious example, childhood and young adulthood in girls but not in
crying on encountering a difficulty might be seen as boys: that is a highly dependent female baby was
adaptive for a baby, for whom it summons help, less likely to be highly dependent as an adolescent girl,
so for a 5-year-old and actually maladaptive for a 10- while a highly dependent male baby was not likely to
year-old. Similarly, longitudinal studies show up be particularly dependent as a boy or youth. The
subtleties in the patterning of continuities over time. reverse was true for aggression, which was fairly
Halverson and Waldrop (1976) found considerable continuous in relative level in boys, but
stability in their general ‘activity’ dimension discontinuous for girls: aggressive little girls, and
between 21/2 and 71/2 years. At 21/2, ratings of ‘very dependent little boys, were taught to change their
high activity play’ were associated with individual behaviour towards the social stereotype of the
differences in ‘social participation’ and ‘impulse passive nurturant female and the go-getting
high activity’. However these two latter variables competitive male.
were associated with quite different groups of
behaviour measures at 71/2. High social participation Stage models of personality
at 21/ 2 was positively correlated with social Whatever there may be in terms of personality
participation at 71/2, with high verbal IQ and with differences ‘innate’ in the person – as temperament
high field independence. High impulsivity of action was first supposed to be – they are not easily
had negative implications for intellectual measured or indeed conceptualized, and they will in
development. Possibly this difference might be any case interact with life stresses and the day-to-day
related to the different demands made on children at experience of less extreme events in very complex
the two ages: a child of 71/2 is expected to be able to ways. We do not know exactly how this happens, but
control its impulses and fit them to outside general models of personality which emphasize
constraints such as classroom requirements of development through a series of life-events have
sustained concentration and planful activity. A been put forward. Many have Freudian ancestry,
‘cognitive style’ characterized by high impulsivity many see life as a series of crises that have to be
has often been seen as militating against academic overcome but leave their scars on the developing
achievement, and impulsivity might in excess (or in personality. Erikson’s eight stages (Erikson 1963)
extreme lack) also have social implications. provide an example of this approach. Each stage is
These subtle relationships between characteristics dominated by a conflict which has to be resolved.
over time are further complicated by the existence of Thus, in the first stage the infant has to develop a
differential socialization. Parents try to encourage sense of ‘basic trust’ that the world is basically
ways of behaving in their child which will make the benevolent and trustworthy: the mother’s reliability
child better able to cope with the world. One and sensitivity (especially to the baby’s oral needs)
interesting example – though ethnographic rather are crucial to this achievement, and if they fail the
than the sort of work on which we are concentrating infant will have a sense of basic mistrust. The second
here – is found in Heath’s (1983) account of language stage’s conflict is between autonomy and shame or
use in different Appalachian communities (see doubt; developing control of anal reflexes and
Chapter 4 this volume). Another, older, example in learning when to give and when to withhold faeces
one of the pioneering studies of temperament and are the crucial events in this second year. Later

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Understanding Child Development

conflicts include establishing a secure sense of boy’, ‘big for her age’ and so forth. These views are
identity rather than a sense of role diffusion (the fifth inferred from others’ behaviour towards him or her as
stage, adolescence), and resolving the contradictions well as from their talk, and are accepted as evaluative
between intimacy and isolation (the sixth stage, and categorical labels much like names. It is from
young adulthood). these labels applied by others that the child builds up
As with other stage theories, Erikson’s eight are his or her self-concept – a ‘looking-glass self’.
presented as a series and appear to be discrete and More recent theorists paint a slightly different
relatively self-contained, though a poor outcome to a picture. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) make
particular stage-conflict will lead to problems at later Mead’s account part of a wider development. They
stages. What evidence there is on the existence of describe two rather different aspects of the ‘self’. The
these stages comes from clinical material or from subjective aspect, the ‘existential self’, is centrally
highly interpretive accounts of data which may not be the distinction of oneself from others, the awareness
much more reliable (Block 1971; Levinson 1978; of the ‘me’ who is acting, experiencing, remembering
Vaillant 1977). The conflicts themselves may have and so forth. It probably involves the sensory self
particularly acute periods at particular stages, but the which may have a neurological base (Konner 1982)
difficulties they involve could equally well be but it requires a sense of self-permanence which
thought to be constituents of human social life, at Lewis and Brooks-Gunn see as analogous to object
least in its modern western form. There is room for permanence, and also an accumulation of learning
doubt over whether some of the stages appear at all in about the patterning of actions and outcomes. As we
other social traditions, though Erikson regarded them have seen in discussing infancy, the rudiments of a
as universal, and over whether they are common even distinction between self and not-self seem to become
in western experience. The ‘identity crisis’ of apparent increasingly clearly in the baby’s first six
adolescence, for example, appears to be Eriksonian in months; by the last quarter of the first year
only a small minority (Coleman 1980). Nevertheless, distinctions between self and other are becoming
Erikson’s emphasis on the different demands that are independent of specific actions and contexts so that
made on the developing child at different ages is a the child could be said to have a permanent
useful one. It raises two sets of questions: first, what ‘existential self’.
are these demands and what stresses do they set up, From here on, the second aspect of the self
and second, how far, and why, do the present stresses develops too. This is the objective aspect, the
have links to past and future? There has been some ‘categorical self’. This aspect refers to the
interesting work done on the links between the characterization of oneself in terms of categories like
demands parents make on their children, including gender, age, competence, attractiveness etc. The
how these are made, and the outcome in terms of categories used may change between cultures or
children’s personality and behaviour. This detailed historical periods or may be universal, and may
work is discussed in the next chapter. change over an individual’s lifetime or remain
constant. To give an example: my own ‘categorical
Self-concept development self’ would include the following categories, all
relative and not in any order of importance: ‘tall’,
Parental behaviour less explicitly specified has been which appeared early, will remain constant and could
seen for some considerable time as one of the most be universal; ‘female’, also early, universal and
important sources of the self-concept. G. H. Mead in constant, although the defining attributes and
his classic book Mind, Self and Society (Mead 1934) connotations of ‘female’ have undergone historical
says that via social interaction the young child begins and cultural changes; ‘distrustful of technology’
to appreciate that other people (notably, parents) have which appeared late, is clearly not historically and
views of him or her as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘clever’, ‘a real culturally universal and possibly ought to be

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changed, in view of what I shall have to say about the Distress at something that is broken or ‘dirty’ might,
effects of self-fulfilling prophecies! Such self- of course, be seen as a conditioned result of the
categorizations develop from babies’ understanding scolding, slaps or cold adult faces which accompany
of their own actions and from their use of others’ the child’s breaking or soiling of objects (and toilet-
categorizations of them, and language and other training is likely to be part of the child’s life at this
symbolic systems play an increasingly important age), but it could also be related to children’s distress
part. During the second year, the self-concept when their self-categorizations are teasingly denied.
develops rapidly: Kagan (1981) calls this the period Once children have learned their gender, for example,
of ‘the emergence of self-awareness’. Verbal self- the discrepancy of saying that a boy is a girl may
reference and use of pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ begin evoke vigorous denial and upset: or may, in more
here. Research (e.g. Bertenthal and Fischer 1978) has favourable circumstances, be a big joke. Dunn and
identified landmarks in the process: from 10 months Kendrick (1982), presenting rich and fascinating
on the child who sees in a mirror a moving obiect data, provide a nice example which illustrates a
whose movements are contingent on his or her own child’s play with categorization of herself, her teddy
begins to be able to use the information in his or her and her baby brother (it also shows her use of an adult
reflection to locate the object; from about 18 months label to describe herself, and a possible confusion of
old, seeing in his or her reflection a trace of rouge the referent of ‘you’ in her response to her father’s
which had earlier been surreptitiously put on his or first question).
her face, the child reaches out to touch not the
reflection but the rouged spot on his or her own face. Sally C:
This achievement requires an image of what one’s Child (playing with her teddy) to father, F: Teddy’s a man.
own face normally looks like and a recognition and
F: What are you?
location of the discrepancy. Gallup (1977, 1979) has
demonstrated that given some hours of C: You’re a boy.
familiarization with mirrors, primates such as F: Yeah. What are you?
chimpanzees could similarly recognize themselves, C: A menace.
but (so far) animals such as macaques, baboons and
F: Yeah, a menace. Apart from that are you a boy or a girl?
gibbons could not. Interestingly chimpanzees reared
in social isolation did not show self-recognition. This C: Boy (laughs).
is what Mead’s account of self-concept developing F: Are you? What’s Trevor?
through social interaction would predict, and it might
C: A girl (laughs).
be seen as analogous to the self-reports of humans
who grew up with little social experience (Hartup F: You’re silly.
1978), but we really need a great deal more (Dunn and Kendrick 1982, pp. 110–11 )
investigation of the competences and pathologies of
social isolates before we can claim to understand the Several authors have pointed out that gender seems
role of social interaction in the development of self- to be an early part of self-categorization, and as we
concept. shall see in the next chapter it becomes a salient
The mirror recognition experiments demonstrate aspect of children’s social lives. Relative age seems
young children’s interest in observing their own to be another fairly early attribution, again salient in
actions and in discrepancies such as an unexpected social relations (Lewis and Brooks-Gunn 1979) and,
rouge-coloured spot. Kagan (1981, 1984) points out in Dunn and Kendrick’s data on the first-born child’s
that discrepancy becomes a preoccupation in the reaction to a new younger sibling, part of what appear
second year; things which are broken, or not as they to have been extensive discussions of people. In two
should be, are enthralling and often distressing.

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examples, a child seems to have ‘a triumphant sense (for example people who are slightly short-sighted
of always being ahead’: are often said to be aloof and not to greet their
acquaintances, whom they have not seen well enough
Laura W: to recognize) or from similar genes – as in the reports
1) C to Mother (after M comments to Baby about cutting of similar postures and gestures among twins
teeth): I was cutting teeth. I was walking before he separated very young (Watson 1981).
was. I walked before him. Explanations of why identification happens have
come from two main groups of theorists; Freud and
2) C to Observer: He’s a walloper. He’ll smack me when
his successors on the one hand and the social learning
he’s bigger. I’m going to be huge when he’s a bit
theorists on the other. Both centre their model on
bigger. Up to the ceiling. Like you.
children identifying with their parents and
O to C: I’m not up to the ceiling. particularly with the parent of the same sex. One
C to O: Well, I’ll be up there. I’ll grow so much. Up to motivation is to gain social approval and to avoid
the ceiling. So high. punishment; another is to lessen the risk or pain of
losing the parent by becoming one’s own parent-
(Dunn and Kendrick 1982, pp. 108–9) substitute. Maccoby (1980) gives an example
supplied by Anna Freud:
Comparisons of self with peers and siblings seem to
be increasingly recognized in the literature as
important sources of the self-concept. Again, the A little girl, just two years old, had always been put to bed
contribution of interactions with other children will by her mother, and there was a familiar bed-time routine.
be discussed in the next chapter; but this new For the first time, the mother was away overnight, and the
recognition has implications for the concept of child was being put to bed by a baby-sitter. The child had
‘identification’ which I will discuss here. great difficulty going to sleep, and even though she was
very tired, kept her eyes open after she was tucked in and the
sitter had tiptoed out of the room. Through the open door,
Identification
the sitter hears the child say, imitating her mother’s voice:
Although it is a crucial concept in several accounts of
‘Goodnight my dearest’ (Maccoby 1980, pp. 14–15).
the development of the self, the conscience and sex
role, ‘identification’ has proved somewhat hard to
define and very hard indeed to measure. On the Identification here provides comfort: it is also said to
whole, if A is to be said to be ‘identified’ with B, A reduce anxiety about loss of love by making it less
must act, feel, think like B over a long period of time, likely that the child will want to offend against
in many different situations, and not by superficial or parental prohibitions, to provide definition and
deliberate imitation but more unwittingly; and A models of the skills one ought to acquire, and to allow
must strongly want to be like B. Identification is both for vicarious experience and understanding. It is seen
process and outcome; it is taking on a role in such a as especially important in the development of
way that the role becomes oneself. It is differentiated conscience (see moral development) and of gender
from ‘imitation’, which is more likely to be identity and sex-roles. For both, identification with
temporary, fragmentary and deliberate, to have less the parent of the same sex is said to be crucial: if this
emotional tone, although imitation can contribute to identification fails, the conscience will be weak and
the process of identification. (Certain sorts of gender identity confused. This has been an influential
behaviour therapy and of actors’ preparation for new theory to a wider audience than just professional
roles illustrate this.) Simple overt similarity of psychologists: but this is how Eleanor Maccoby
behaviour is not a reliable index of identification, summarizes the research that has investigated it.
since similarity can result from similar experiences

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The research in child rearing that stemmed from this and failure as due to bad luck or persecution by the
tradition was imposing both in conception and productivity powerful. The ‘external’ would be less likely, it is
. . . the importance of parental nurturance and of the way argued, to work hard and effectively and therefore
parents exercise authority have been amply demonstrated. achieve success than the ‘internal’ would.
Yet the yield of the work with respect to the theory of Most research studies on locus of control use
identification was disappointing . . . no consistent questionnaire scores as a measure of how ‘internal’ or
relationships were found among characteristics that ought ‘external’ a subject is. There is some debate about
to have been linked by their common origins in the process questionnaires’ adequacy as measures (Stipek and
of identification (Maccoby 1980, pp. 17–18). Weisz 1981, and see also the general literature on
personality assessment). Nor is it simply the case that
locus of control leads to achievement: experience of
If, then, the definition, measurement and effects of
success or failure might also affect locus of control,
identification are confused, it may be better to step
for example. A related point to this is that it is not
back from it as an explanation and investigate at a
clearly a truer understanding of reality to have a more
more detailed behavioural level who ‘identifies with’
internal locus of control: whether you get good
what in whom. Recent work on social relationships
examination results or a university place, for
looks at some questions bearing on this, and results
example, depends not only on your own efforts but on
are discussed in the next chapter.
public policy about what percentage of candidates are
to be put in each marking grade or how many
Beliefs about control of events university places are to be available. However it does
One aspect of personality which has received much seem likely that children with a more internal locus of
attention from developmental psychologists is the control do tend to show higher academic
extent to which people feel that they themselves are achievement (Osborn, personal communication on
in control of their lives and responsible for their the findings of the Child Health and Education
actions. It is suggested that feelings of being Study), possibly because they manage their own
competent or helpless will affect what people choose learning and their use of resources supplied by
to do, the emotions they have about what they are teachers better than ‘externals’ do.
doing, and how they tackle problems. Such feelings
have been conceptualized as ‘locus of control’ (e.g. Attributional models
Rotter et al. 1972; Nowicki and Walker 1974) An alternative model emphasizes situational
attribution of causation (e.g. Weiner and Kukla 1970) specificity in identifying the causes of events.
and ‘self-efficacy’ (Bandura 1977, 1981). Beliefs Attribution theory (e.g. Weiner 1979; Weiner and
about one’s control of events are one likely source of Kukla 1970) examines characteristics of the person
achievement on difficult tasks, for example academic and of the task or situation which may differ in how
ones. internal, how controllable (that is, contingent on your
own actions) and how stable they are. For example,
Locus of control how much effort you make is seen as being internal,
‘Locus of control’ is defined as a generalized controllable and unstable; ability is internal,
expectation of internal or external control of uncontrollable and stable; task difficulty is external,
reinforcement. People with an ‘internal’ locus of uncontrollable and stable. Attributing success to your
control believe that they are responsible for what own ability and effort is said to result in greater
happens: their own effort brought about success, their motivation to achieve, particularly if the task you
negligence led to failure. Someone with an ‘external’ have succeeded on is a difficult one, and thus to
locus of control would interpret success as being due greater confidence in taking on further tasks.
to good luck or the favouritism of powerful people, Attributing failure to stable characteristics of

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yourself, such as lack of ability, will be more dispassionate. Accurate appraisal is, however, much
demoralizing than attributing it to unstable more advantageous for effective performance.
characteristics such as lack of effort, or to external Coming to such an appraisal is part of metacognitive
uncontrollable factors such as bad luck or an development.
excessively difficult task. While most work on the
attribution theory model has been done with adults, The development of self-efficacy
there is some evidence from children (e.g. Nicholls Even infants seem to take a particular interest in
1975, 1978). The model specifies more relevant environmental events which are contingent on their
variables than the ‘locus of control’ model and is own actions, and to be better able to learn about
therefore less ambiguous in its predictions about contingent events than non-contingent ones (see
achievement behaviour and reactions to success or Finkelstein and Ramey 1977; and Chapter 2 this
failure. volume). Children seem to learn language best when
they experience child-contingent conversations with
Self-efficacy adults (Wells 1985; and Chapter 4 this volume).
Comparisons with siblings and peers also give
Bandura’s work on ‘self-efficacy’ (Bandura 1977,
information to the child about his or her competence,
1981) links the cognitive and motivational
though much more research is needed about how this
components of attribution theory to the development
happens and what its effects are (Dunn 1984;
of social understanding. He is concerned with how
Bandura 1981).
children come to think of themselves as efficacious,
School is a very powerful source of information
and how they act on such a judgement. He sees four
about academic achievements, including, it is
principal sources of informaion on self-efficacy. The
currently thought, influences which leave girls in co-
first is children’s own accomplishment or
educational groups less confident about their own
performance, their history of success or failure on
self-efficacy than boys are (Dweck and Elliott 1983,
tasks and their attributions of causes for achievement.
pp. 658–9). School practices may be associated with
The second is vicarious experience, seeing other
not only children’s ideas about their own self-
people’s success or failure similarly attributed. The
efficacy but also their sources of pleasure in their
third is other people’s judgement of the child’s own
achievement and their reactions to their failure. It has
efficacy: credible suggestions by others that he or she
been suggested (Harter 1981) that the intrinsic
is bound to fail may persuade the child not to try and
interest which infants show in being effective actors
therefore not to achieve success. This is a form of the
in their environments becomes overtaken by
‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ which may operate in
extrinsic motivation such as teacher approval, gold
schools (see, for example, Rogers 1982). Bandura’s
stars and the need to get good marks to get a job.
fourth source of evidence is emotional arousal; if it is
Children who are made to seem ineffective at
very high, arousal probably debilitates performance,
academic tasks may react by alienating themselves
and judgements of lack of self-efficacy may increase
from school values and setting up a counter-culture
arousal and thereby lead to the poor performance that
(see, for example, Hargreaves 1967). Again, much
was expected. What children know about how their
work needs to be done on exactly how self-efficacy
emotional state affects their performance is also an
develops.
important influence.
How people combine these different sorts of
information, none of which is simple, is not as yet Aggression
understood. Bandura (1981, p. 210) suggests that In considering ‘aggression’ it is necessary, as in other
judgements of self-efficacy will tend to be more areas, to point out the definitional problems. Olweus
egocentric and emotionally toned than objective and (1979) offers this definition:

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any act or behaviour that involves, might involve, and/ or to doctors involved hardly saw themselves as being
some extent can be considered as aiming at, the infliction of aggressive (perhaps they saw Biko as not a member
injury or discomfort; also manifestations of inner reactions of the human species and so their behaviour as more
such as feelings or thoughts that can be considered to have like predation between species); in so far as they
such aim. admitted aggression, it was mild, prosocial and
instrumental, in that it contained and eventually
removed someone hostile to the social system. To the
Aggression thus defined would include some
liberals and opponents of apartheid both in and
possibly doubtful cases, such as the professional
outside South Africa, the same behaviour was
activities of a dentist filling teeth and a judge
inexcusable and, in their terms, severe, anti-social,
pronouncing a sentence of imprisonment, and
hostile and extreme. The failure of those who caused
accidental injury, since ‘can be considered as aiming
Biko’s death to see anything extraordinary or
at’ follows an ‘and/or’ conjunction. It also includes
culpable in what they had done seems to the liberals
feelings or thoughts which are not put into action, so
to be one further sign of their moral inadequacy.
that, for example, hoping that the Prime Minister will
Since children rarely if ever act like those South
be ousted from office is aggressive in the ordinary
African prison officers (or like the similar examples
voter as well as in the plotters in Opposition. What is
which could easily be found in almost any day’s
more it does not specify who is to do the ‘considering’
newspaper) this example may seem to be an
that the behaviour ‘aims at’ injury and discomfort: all
extravagant digression from the subject of child
too often ‘aggressor’ and victim have had different
development. However the question of how far
ideas about this. Beating children, for example, has
children’s ‘aggression’ is like adults’ is
been seen in various groups at various times as
unanswerable until we know a great deal more about
necessary evil, moral duty, parental right and barbaric
the causes, forms and functions of aggression than we
brutality: so has not beating children.
do at present. Physiologists and ethologists have
Narrower definitions run into similar problems. So
expended a great deal of effort on studies of
typologies of ‘aggression’ have been suggested
aggression in man and other animals, with results
(Cook 1984), excluding predation and ‘assertion’ and
which as yet just indicate the complexity of the
distinguishing ‘pro-social’ and ‘anti-social’, ‘intro-
picture and elucidate a few details (Konner 1982).
punitive’ and ‘extra-punitive’, ‘instrumental’ and
Aggressive behaviour involves high activity in
‘hostile’ acts, and also the ‘degree’ of aggression.
particular brain structures, notably the
This would need to be considered, presumably, in
hypothalamus, the amygdala and the septal area, but
terms of intent in the aggressor, extremity of
also circuits in the midbrain, and at least in mice there
behaviour, and degree of injury or discomfort
are psychopharmacological changes in
inflicted. Bearing these distinctions in mind helpfully
neurotransmitters. Slower-acting chemicals such as
emphasizes the complexity of ‘aggression’, and they
the ‘stress’ hormones and testosterone seem also to be
do reflect distinctions which we commonly use in
involved in aggression; at least in males and in some
judging the culpability of an aggressive action, but
species more testosterone can increase
how accurately any particular action can be classified
aggressiveness, but also successful aggression
is very uncertain. As in the analysis of language, other
increases testosterone levels and unsuccessful
events not only before but after will affect the
aggression decreases them. Differences in hormone
classification, and different classifiers, with different
levels in the distant past as well as the present may
knowledge and approaches, may judge differently.
also affect the level of aggression shown: cross-
What was done to Steve Biko in the last few days of
breeding experiments show genetically based
his life illustrates the naïvety of believing that
differences in aggression in mice, dogs and bulls.
different types of aggression can be simply and easily
However, even in non-human animals learning,
distinguished. The policemen, prison officers and

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experience and social structure have a great deal to do alcoholism (which is associated with aggression,
with aggressive behaviour. Imitation, place in the social disadvantage etc.) cannot be ruled out (Wells
dominance hierarchy, and experience of social 1980; Rutter 1980a). It is necessary to remember,
isolation all affect aggression. To quote Konner’s also, that ‘aggression’ can take many forms:
summary: precisely this point is made clear in observations of
developmental changes in children’s aggression.
If, as seems wise, intention to hurt, frighten or
early rearing in social isolation [the animals discussed are
distress is seen as a necessary condition for defining
rhesus monkeys] . . . will produce a lifelong tendency to
an action as ‘aggressive’, children in their first year
social hyperreactivity, unaffected by the usual sorts of later
are rarely aggressive, though they may be angry
social experience. In males, such hyperreactivity
(Lewis and Michalson 1983), and they may do things
frequently results in a high level of threat, attack, and
fighting behaviour, often inappropriate and unsuccessful.
that in fact hurt, such as biting the nipple or pulling
hair that comes within reach. Lacking the intention to
To a lesser extent, the same behavioral abnormalities occur
hurt, and also knowledge of how their actions affect
in rhesus monkeys that have been raised normally with their
other people, they are not properly aggressive.
mothers in the first year of life, but without contact with
peers. [In free-ranging rhesus monkeys] . . . high-ranking
Bronson (1975), describing behaviour changes in the
second year, found that children showed increasingly
females have female infants – and possibly also males – that
intense frustration and anger at having a favourite toy
grow up to be high-ranking themselves and not just for
taken from them or withheld. Tussles over property
genetic reasons. Infants of such mothers are frequently
observed to imitate their mothers’ threat-and-chase
become commoner, but 2-year-olds who hit their
opponent during such a disagreement often seem
behavior, even in relation to adult animals. Obviously they
surprised that the other child is hurt. Realizing that
are not capable of defeating the adults in individual combat,
one’s actions can cause distress in others, and how
but the infants make their moves in the mother’s shadow –
even if she is not in the immediate vicinity – a phenomenon
‘best’ to do this, requires considerable cognitive
sophistication, Maccoby (1980) argues. Thus
called by ethologists ‘protected threat’. In this context, the
although there are many incidents of conflict in pre-
infant has innumerable conventional learning experiences
school groups, not all of these incontrovertibly
and opportunities for imitation and social facilitation that
involve aggression. They do however serve as a
lead eventually to effective dominance behavior and high
‘training ground for learning effective strategies for
rank. (Konner 1982, p. 199)
initiating and terminating conflicting aggressive
interactions’ (Parke and Slaby 1983). Early strategies
Thus aggression in animals involves genetic and conflicts tend to involve physical aggression
proclivities, subtle chemical and electrical influences (hitting, grabbing), and to be instrumental, that is they
in the central nervous system, and a history of are relatively brief acts directed towards attaining a
learning, particularly learning in social contexts. The toy or other desired resource. These strategies
same could be said of human beings, with learning, as decrease as verbally mediated interaction becomes
usual, of enormous importance, and with the more sophisticated, so that by around 7 aggression
existence of a genetically-based trait of ‘aggression’ has become more verbal, more personal and more
less apparent than in animals which have been hostile – ‘Don’t play with A, he’s a rotten smelly
selectively bred to increase, for example, their meanie.’ Retaliatory aggression also becomes more
tendency to attack a matador’s red cape. In so far as common as children move from the pre-school
there is evidence of ‘heritability of aggressive through the primary school. Successful retaliation
offences’ it can account for only a small percentage of does inhibit the original aggressors, while a weak
the range of aggression found in the population, and reaction encourages them to act aggressively again.
alternative explanations such as heritability of On the other hand, the experience of having retaliated

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successfully encourages aggressive behaviour in the hostile intention to a peer who is responsible for this
original victim, including preemptive attack as well negative event. This attribution may confirm his general
as simple retaliation after the event (Patterson et al. image of peers as hostile and may increase the likelihood of
1967). Children develop techniques for keeping his interpreting future behavior by the peer as hostile.
aggression within bounds: these include non-verbal Consequently, he may retaliate against the peer with what
appeasement gestures (Camaras 1977, 1980), verbal he feels is justified aggression. Subsequently, the peer, who
rituals (Opie and Opie 1967; Heath 1983) and social has become the recipient of a negative outcome, may
rules about the conduct of fighters (Davies 1979; attribute a hostile intention to the aggressive child. This
Sluckin 1981). Children who contravene these peer attribution confirms the peer’s view of the child as being
group regulations and act in highly aggressive ways inappropriately aggressive in general and increases the
tend to be unpopular with their peers and lacking in peer’s likelihood of interpreting future behavior by the
positive social skills (Parke and Slaby 1983). It is not, aggressive child as being hostile. Consequently, the peer
of course, a simple causal sequence: aggression may may aggress against the aggressive child, which could start
cause you to be rejected by your peers, or rejection by the cycle over again. Given a series of negative outcomes,
your peers may cause you to be aggressive, or both. which is inevitable, the cycle could turn into a self-
The importance of social skills is worth noting, perpetuating spiral of increased hostile attributions,
however. Training in social behaviour which is co- aggressive behavior, and social rejection (Dodge 1980, p.
operative and aggression-avoiding has proved to be 169).
an effective way of treating aggressive patients.
There are developmental changes in what and who
Dodge is implying here a model of aggression as
makes children angry (Feshbach et al. 1984). As
part of the network of social action, social cognition
Parke and Slaby (1983, pp. 570–1) describe,
and social affect. Developing cognitive skills,
development also brings changes in children’s
especially understanding other people and moral
understanding of stories about people’s intentions
issues, are seen as central to the ability to control
and thus in their judgement of aggressive acts. There
aggression. It is also necessary to act and feel
is an increasing tendency with age to distinguish
appropriately; thus social skills are important. While
between accidental and deliberate provocation,
this sort of social–cognitive model is likely to lead to
reacting less strongly to the former. Similarly, more
a more useful understanding of aggression than did
discrimination is made between aggression
regarding it as a biologically given instinct, there is
committed with good intentions and aggression
not as yet much evidence that changes in cognitive
committed with selfish motives. These distinctions
skills lead to changes in children’s aggression. Nor
will probably be harder to make in real life, of course.
does it account for why people begin to behave
Parke and Slaby argue that some children who
aggressively. Personality differences, notably on
consistently respond with aggression to behaviour
temperament dimensions such as activity,
which is non-intentionally negative may be having
impulsivity and low tolerance for frustration, seem
particular difficulty in making such distinctions.
likely to be involved.
They misinterpret other people’s behaviour and react
It is probably a combination of continuity in
to it as if it was more hostile than it was actually
temperament and stability of social skills which lies
intended to be. Some work by Dodge (e.g. Dodge
behind the rather considerable degree of continuity of
1980; Parke and Slaby 1983, pp. 571–3) provides
aggressiveness found in a number of studies. Olweus
support for this argument. Dodge suggests that there
(1979, 1984) reviews the evidence and finds that
may be an intricate self-sustaining process involved:
boys’ aggression, as revealed in observations, adult
ratings or peer nominations, is highly stable over
Given a negative outcome in the context of unclear periods of less than a year, and still pretty stable
intentions, an aggressive child may be likely to attribute a (correlations of around 0.4 or 0.5) over periods as

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Understanding Child Development

long as ten years. It is thus comparable with have a lower rate of fighting with siblings ‘often’, but
intelligence in its consistency, and more stable than they ‘fight siblings sometimes’ as frequently as boys.
its opposite of inhibited, withdrawn behaviour. Girls are more often advised to withdraw from fights
Evidence from other studies (Kelso and Stewart or conflict. The picture is one where girls are
1986; Kohn 1977) contributes further to this picture. consistently discouraged from fighting, particularly
It is well known that boys act more aggressively in public. Biological differences lead to different
than girls. They show more physical and more verbal social learning experiences.
aggression from pre-school onwards (Maccoby and Family socialization techniques and personality
Jacklin 1980; Meadows and Cashdan 1983; Smith characteristics contribute to the level of aggression in
and Green 1974). They almost monopolize violent children. In a study of boys in their early teens,
crime, though the rate of female delinquency is Olweus (1980) showed the effect of four variables.
increasing (Rutter and Giller 1983). They are The first was negativism in the basic emotional
somewhat more likely to initiate aggression and
attitude of the principal caretaker (the mother). If she
much more likely to retaliate aggressively. Girls are
was hostile, cold, indifferent or rejecting this had a
said to be more likely to be indirectly aggressive, for
powerful effect on her discipline techniques and also
example to set up the situation so that they are not
blamed and someone else gets into trouble (e.g. a direct effect on the boy’s aggression. A permissive
Pollard 1985). They are certainly more vigorously attitude towards aggression was the second variable,
socialized into feeling guilt and shame about and this also contributed directly to the boy’s
aggression. J. and E. Newson (1968, 1976) document aggression: mothers were more likely to be
this particularly well in their Nottingham sample. permissive about aggression if they had a negative
Mothers reported that fighting is much more likely to attitude to their sons. The third variable was both
occur if the child is a boy or if the antagonist is a parents’ use of discipline techniques which relied on
sibling. Girls ‘rarely’ fight outside the family, and

Figure 17 Path model relating child-rearing variables to boy’s aggression.

Source: From Olweus (1980), p. 650.

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 Personality

the assertion of their power rather than on negotiation areas of ‘egocentricity’ which were claimed to
or reasoning; this was more common in negativistic dominate language and cognition: here I shall discuss
parents and made some contribution to the boys’ the evidence on emotional egocentricity and the
aggression. Finally, the boy’s temperamental level of conditions that facilitate empathy and altruism.
activity and intensity interacted with the mother’s It is not disputed that very young children, indeed
negativism, contributed to how much she permitted babies, may react to other people’s distress with
aggression and had a direct influence on the boy’s distress of their own. However it has often been
aggression. The variables fell into the pattern shown claimed that young children, unable to differentiate
in Figure 17. Further discussion of child-rearing between themselves and other people, are unclear
practices and social development may be found in about who is feeling the distress.
Chapter 6.
Finally, the social ecology of aggression has to be Consequently the child probablyreacts to another’s distress
considered if ‘aggression’ is to be identified as though his dimly perceived self-and-other were
correctly. For example, Manning et al. (1978) somehow simultaneously, or alternatively, in distress. As
distinguished different types of hostility in pre- an example consider a child I know whose typical response
school children. Some children tended to get rather to his own distress, beginning late in the first year, was to
rough during vigorous physical games or to bully suck his thumb with one hand and pull his ear with the other.
their peers in imaginative games, but to be timid At 12 months, on seeing a sad look on his father’s face, he
otherwise. Some children went in for unprovoked proceeded to look sad and suck his thumb, while pulling his
teasing and showed a high level of hostility and father’s ear (Hoffman 1975, p. 614).
violence. Some children only showed hostility when
specifically frustrated or provoked. These different
It is quite commonly observed that a child seeing
types of behaviour had different prognoses for the
someone else in distress will try to comfort himself or
child’s state four years later, and were linked to
herself, or, more sophisticatedly, will offer to the
different family backgrounds. Moderate aggression distressed other his or her own comfort object.
at the right moment can be socially desirable. Theorists who are conservative about
Definitions of ‘moderate’ and ‘right’ are of course acknowledging empathy in children interpret this as
offered by the culture (e.g. Walzer 1984). The child’s showing the child’s failure to distinguish between
task is to learn and act on those definitions. self and other, attributing to the child the (incorrect)
belief that what ends his or her own distress will end
The development of pro-social behaviour other people’s. Theorists with slightly more liberal
views about egocentricity and empathy consider the
It would appear that psychoanalytic theories of id-
same behaviour differently. Yarrow and Waxler
dominated impulses towards selfish pleasure,
(1976), for example, suggest that the ‘egocentric’
Piaget’s theory of cognitive egocentrism and
comforting behaviour might represent an attempt to
sociobiological theories of ‘the selfish gene’
act out and thereby understand other people’s
(Dawkins 1976) all imply that the ‘natural’ state of
feelings. Self-comforting in the face of a parent’s
unsocialized man – and hence of young children – is
sadness, as in Hoffman’s example, might also be an
one where altruistic acts and empathy with other
appropriate reaction if the child felt distress at what
people will be rare (and capable of explanation in
he saw in his father: what is more, self-comforting is
terms of other, less selfless motives). It has recently
particularly appropriate if the usual source of
been argued, however, that such a picture is
comfort, the father, is unavailable because of his
substantially false: young children are not incapable
distress. Merely offering an ‘inappropriate’
of distinguishing other people’s feelings from their
own or of acting on this distinction in ways which
benefit the other. I have already discussed some of the

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Plate 13

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comfort to someone in distress (and an As these examples show, awareness of other

‘inappropriate’ comfort might through its provision people’s potential feelings does not of itself produce
of distraction or its demonstration of goodwill prove altruistic behaviour. Callum uses his understanding
partially or even completely comforting) is not a of Laura to get his own back on her; Iago uses his
sufficient sign of an inability to empathize or of a understanding of Othello to destroy him. Lack of
belief that one’s own sources of comfort will serve for understanding of other people will probably make it
everyone else. It is after all a rare adult who can
harder to please or succour them, that is some degree
always provide appropriate comfort.
of understanding may be necessary for altruism but it
One of the things children do have to learn in order
certainly is not sufficient. This is one reason why
to empathize effectively is what other people’s lives
are like; if another person’s life is very unlike our own attempts to find a causal link between altruistic
we may have more difficulty in understanding their behaviour and the cognitive capacities of
feelings than if we have a lot in common. Thus we ‘perspective-taking’, ‘role-taking’ and moral
might expect children to show empathy towards reasoning have had inconclusive and unconvincing
people familiar and like themselves earlier and more results (Radke-Yarrow, Zahn-Waxler and Chapman
effectively than they do towards people less familiar 1983; Kurdek 1978). There are no strong consistent
and less similar. Dunn and Kendrick (1982) show positive correlations between frequency of altruistic
unequivocally that children as young as 14 months behaviour and perspectivetaking ability, stage of
demonstrate awareness of the emotional experience moral reasoning, IQ or even score on a test which
of parents and older siblings, and elder siblings still
measures ‘empathy’ (Hoffman 1977). In particular
under 3 years old respond to the baby’s state in
we do not have good reason to believe that more
appropriate non-projective ways. Awareness and
advanced understanding causes more altruistic
response can be quite sophisticated, as in the two
activity, a point which has to be made also in respect
examples which follow:
of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (see next
section). Feeling, and wishing to act, are essential
Bruce S (Baby playing with a balloon): He going to pop it
components of human altruistic behaviour. Acting,
in a minute. And he’ll cry. And he’ll be frightened of me too.
and the consequences of acting, may contribute to
I like the pop (Dunn and Kendrick, p. 106).
understanding as well as the reverse.
Another reason for the inconsistency of the results
Laura W Callum repeatedly reaches for and manipulates
of studies which correlated ‘sociomoral reasoning’
the magnetic letters Laura is playing with. Laura repeatedly
and ‘altruistic behaviour’ is that these have been
says NO gently. Callum continues trying to reach the
assumed to be two homogeneous entities. Few
letters. Finally, Laura picks up the tray containing the letters
psychologists have investigated how different sorts
and carries it to a high table that Callum cannot reach.
of ‘altruistic’ or ‘prosocial’ behaviour are related.
Callum is furious and starts to cry. He turns and goes
Radke-Yarrow et al. (1983) point out that although
straight to the sofa where Laura’s comfort objects, a rag doll
the terms ‘altruistic’ and ‘pro-social’ are understood
and a pacifier, are lying. He takes the doll and holds tight,
to refer to the whole spectrum of kind, helpful and
looking at Laura. Laura for the first time is very upset, starts
self-sacrificing behaviour, what has actually been
crying and runs to take the doll (Dunn and Kendrick, p.
investigated has been a much smaller range of
116).
actions. The dependent variable in experiments, for
example, has often been rather trivial behaviour such
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hypothetical ‘poor children’. Observational studies altogether believe in the apparent ‘selfishness’ of
include a wider range of behaviour, but do not usually western children, though there is clearly no room for
have enough data to show how different sorts of complacency about the altruism of the western world.
‘altruism’ co-occur, alternate or substitute for each If, as I have implied, some settings, social systems
other. We badly need a natural history of pro-social and experience make prosocial behaviour more
behaviour, since we really do not know much about likely than others do, which are they? There are some
what children do or about what they think in this area. fairly firm islands of evidence in a quagmire of
Anthropological evidence suggests that western ignorance, here. Social sensitivity is associated with
children act helpfully and altruistically much less parental discipline, in that children whose parents
often than children in non-western societies (e.g. reasoned with them, negotiated issues and explained
Whiting and Whiting 1975). Psychologists observing their commands and prohibitions show more
western children in school classrooms and advanced understanding of other people than do
playgrounds also report a low frequency of ‘pro- children brought up under rigidly authoritarian or
social acts’, though as Yarrow and Waxler (1976) very laissez-faire régimes (Light 1979; Maccoby and
show the ‘frequency’ found depends on how Martin 1983; Rollins and Thomas 1979; see also
inclusive the definition of ‘prosocial acts’ is. Chapter 6 this volume). Children who readily
Undoubtedly one reason why western children participate in other people’s feelings seem to have
apparently lack altruism compared with children parents who show empathy towards their children’s
from other cultures is the ecology of their lives, or at distress (Zahn-Waxler et al. 1979). Seeing a model
least the part of their lives which is most accessible to behave altruistically has increased children’s
researching psychologists. Most observational altruism in some experiments but by no means all
studies of western children’s pro-social behaviour are (Radke-Yarrow et al. 1983), while outstandingly
done at school, that is they tend to be studies of altruistic children seem often to have modelled
children in groups whose members are all much the themselves on their own outstandingly altruistic
same age and much the same level of skill, and who parents. Attempts at conditioning children to behave
are more often than not within the supervision of altruistically by giving rewards for helping, sharing
adults. Helping behaviour is much less common in and so forth have had inconsistent results (Radke-
any such homogeneous group than it is in Yarrow et al. 1983), sometimes leading the child to
heterogeneous ones, where helping, protecting, care- act altruistically only when he or she is rewarded –
giving and patronizing behaviours are a much more which obviously makes it plausible that the
frequent part of the social interaction (Radke-Yarrow ‘altruistic’ act is really a selfish one! Attributional
et al. 1983; see also Chapter 6 this volume). It might remarks like ‘I know you’re the sort of person who
be an overstatement to say that western school really cares for other people’ may have some effect on
settings emphasize individual competition at the the child’s behaviour but the effect depends on
expense of altruism and co-operation, but they whether the remarks appear sincere and believable,
certainly give fewer opportunities for altruistic and probably on other aspects of the social situation.
behaviour than settings where children are important Prosocial behaviour cannot be divorced from social
care-givers for other children. In particular, they give behaviour in general. Children who are confident and
few opportunities for ‘serious’ altruism, behaviour experienced in their relationships with other children
whose cost to the actor is serious or which is seriously may be helpful and protective as part of their normal
needed by the recipient. The success of charitable social role. Children who are anxiously on the fringes
appeals made by children’s television programmes of a social group may seek to share their toys or
such as ‘Blue Peter’ suggests that we should not sweets, and may give up their own immediate interest

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in favour of a group member’s, in the hope of buying for his friend’), and in other animals, particularly
their way into a group. Children who are happy about perhaps if the benefited person is an infant (or a
themselves may be able to be more generous towards human being, as may be seen in the popularity of
other people than children who are chronically lachrymose stories in which a dog saves his master’s
miserable, or their general complacency may prevent child from predators or other danger, or keeps vigil at
his grave like Greyfriars Bobby). Wilson’s work
them from noticing another person’s need. We have
brought to more general attention the fact that
so little in the way of a natural history of altruism, and
‘altruistic’ behaviour was to be found in a great many
so little of a convincing philosophical analysis of
species where it could not plausibly be explained by
altruism, that we can say very little about what social learning or conditioning. Since altruism
conditions promote it. Since it is an important part of involves sacrificing oneself for others, it is likely to
moral development and social interaction, we must handicap the individuals who display it and reduce
hope that better data and better theory will be their chances of living and reproducing themselves. It
forthcoming. is thus hard to account for in terms of an evolutionary
theory which says that genes for characteristics or
Moral development behaviour which militate against reproductive
success will tend not to be reproduced, and to die out.
Moral development in children is a complex subject: The proposed explanation is that although altruism is
many different emphases are relevant to its analysis, by definition of immediate disadvantage to the
and because of the social implications of morality, altruistic person, there are indirect advantages which
and the apparent importance of education and child- may add up to a better total. Thus although the mother
rearing practices to its development, discussion has lapwing who tempts the predator hawk away from her
often been very value-laden. As we shall see, there nest by pretending to be injured, or the human father
are real differences as to what are and are not moral who rushes into a blazing house to bring out his
problems, what are good or universal moral children, may lose their own lives, if they have saved
principles, and how they develop. As in other areas of the lives of enough of their offspring the net result
developmental psychology, models which may be that as many or more of their genes survive for
emphasize ‘biology’, ‘social conditioning’ or later reproduction. The closer the genetic relation, the
‘cognition’ are in competition: so are different views greater the possibility of sacrifice will be. Indirect
about the ‘natural’ ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ of human advantages may also come about through reciprocity
beings and the functions of society. of altruism: if the ‘altruistic’ action of A towards B
makes it more likely that B (or indeed anyone else)
Morality and sociobiology will act to the advantage of A (or A’s kin) in future,
The most heavily ‘biological’ account of morality is then the present risk which A takes may be less than
relatively new and far from being fully worked out. It the future benefits which B may be obliged to shower
is part of the ambitious claim made by Wilson (1975) on A. Seen in this way, what was apparently morally
that ‘sociobiology’, which asserts that human admirable self-sacrifice is reduced to a somewhat
behaviour is determined by natural selection in ways sordid calculation of self-interest. To quote the most
similar to the influence of natural selection on human enthusiastic proponent of sociobiology in the days
morphology, should take over psychology and the before be began to show much caution about its
other social sciences. At the centre of the account is claims:
‘altruism’, that is self-sacrificing behaviour which
has good results for people other than the person The theory of group selection has taken most of the good
actually doing it. This sort of behaviour is often will out of altruism. When altruism is conceived as the
regarded as morally admirable in humans (‘Greater mechanism by which DNA multiplies itself through a
love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life

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network of relatives, spirituality becomes just one more necessary to look at the whole pattern of motives and
Darwinian enabling device (Wilson 1975, p. 120). behaviours.

This view is, however, an example of excessive They [people with crude notions of Darwinism] confuse the
reductionism; it deflates the smug myth of natural mere fact of competing, that is, of needing to share out a
human goodness but at the cost of setting up an resource, with the motive of competitiveness or readiness to
alternative myth of natural selfishness. The kin quarrel. Where creatures are competing (as a fact), their
selection model has had some considerable success will be decided by whatever tendencies they have
predictive successes though it works less well where that best help their predicament. These need not be
quarrelsome tendencies at all. A species may prevail
animals cannot estimate their genetic relatedness to
because it is better at finding food or turns to a food that is
each other with any accuracy. The view runs however
more plentiful, or because it grows protective colouration,
into crucial difficulties, two of which I want to pick up or indeed because it becomes less quarrelsome and more
as they are central to the field of moral development. co-operative (p. 132).
The first, as I stressed in Chapter 1, is that the link
between genes and behaviour is not a simple direct
one. The necessary complexity of such capacities points up the
wrongness of an atomizing approach to impulses. It seems
unrealistic to talk as though the tendency to rescue people
The nature of the relation between [the] genome and the were something that could be carried by a single gene . . . in
physical realization of the actual animal, or its phenome, is any fairly complex creature, the undertaking of dangerous
an extremely complex, and as yet quite unsolved actions must involve other traits in the character besides the
conceptual problem. That is to say, it is not yet possible to impulse in question; the whole character has to be such as
state in just what way any physical and behavioral feature to permit them. Such behaviour cannot stand alone (pp.
of an animal can be said to be ‘determined’ by its genes. . . . 134–5).
The conceptual obstacle to providing such an account lies
mainly in the role played by the enormously complex
context in which the genes find themselves in the course of All the creatures that it makes sense to suppose could
embryonic and post-embryonic development. (Stent 1978, develop positive altruism are already caring for their young
p. 18). . . . the development of sociability proceeds in any case
largely by this extension to other adults of behavior first
developed between parents and young – grooming, mouth
Developmental studies of social behaviour in various contact, embracing, protective and submissive gestures,
primates (see, Trivers 1985, Gottlieb 1983, Hinde giving food. In fact, wider sociality in its original essence
1983) have demonstrated that the most genes can simply is the power of adults to treat one another, mutually,
contribute is a predisposition to learn the complex as honorary parents and children. It is enriched later with
other patterns largely drawn from the interactions between
behaviours that make up ‘altruism’ or ‘parenting’.
infants. . . . But quasi-parental interactions come first. They
Social experience and the opportunity for imitation
work well because they are adapted to soothe, to conciliate,
and learning are essential; if they are absent, as in to forge a bond . . . those who, from whatever cause, are
Harlow’s deprivation experiments, or adverse, as especially protective and good at rearing young, are likely
seems to have been the case in the Ik (Turnbull 1972), to leave a disproportionate number of descendants in
there is no morality. Even when they are present, it relation to those actually born (p. 136).
may be doubted whether we are essentially the
calculating, prudent, consistent persons that
That is, moral behaviour is part of the results of
sociobiology at its most Hobbesian claims. Our
evolution, but simplistic accounts which treat it
altruistic actions may in fact benefit ourselves, but,
atomistically, which ignore motives and reasoning,
and this is the second point, our motives, our ideas
and which isolate it from other parts of behaviour,
about our actions, will also be worth considering. As
will be unsatisfactory. That Midgley places adult–
Midgley (1979) points out with admirable clarity, it is

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child relationships/behaviour at the centre of the Civilisation, therefore, obtains mastery over the
development of social being is interesting, with individual’s desire for aggression by weakening and
obvious self-justificatory attractions for the disarming it and by setting up an agency within him to
developmental psychologist: it reflects back on my watch over it, like a garrison in a conquered city (Freud
1930/61, pp. 70–1).
early assertions about the inseparable development
of the biological and the social. We will return to the
notion, when we have considered some other Moral development thus centres on the mastery of
accounts of moral development which pay more the instinctual drives that seethe in the id and demand
attention to Midgley’s points about motives, instantaneous satisfaction. The baby quickly
reasoning and the total complex pattern of behaviour. experiences frustration of instinctual demands –
milk, warmth, mother, cannot come fast enough or
Morality and Freudian theory reliably enough – and the second part or aspect of the
There is both biology and emphasis on the personality, the ego, develops or differentiates itself
importance of parenting behayiour, though more from the id. The functioning of the ego involves
pessimistically viewed, in another and better known coping with delay in the discharge of instinctual
theory of morality and moral development, the more energy, adapting the desires of the id to the reality of
elaborate and extraordinarily seductive account the outside world.
given by Freud. At the centre is a dichotomous view
of the individual and the social system. There is The ego’s relation to the id might be compared with that of
conceptual (and indeed emotional) opposition a rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive
between the self and others, the individual and the energy, while the rider has the privilege of deciding on
group, personal fulfilment and social obligation. the goal and of guiding the powerful animal’s movement.
But only too often there arises between the ego and the id the
not precisely ideal situation of the rider being obliged to
It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilisation guide the horse along the path by which it itself wants
is built up upon renunciation of instinct, how much it togo(Freud 1933/64, p. 77).
presupposes precisely the non-satisfaction (by
suppression, repression or some other means?) of powerful
instincts (Freud 1930/61, p. 44). The horse is a fierce and powerful one, and the
external world’s rules about how and where to ride
The ‘powerful instincts’ dominate the unsocialized are multiform and stringent. The ego tackles the
individual, including the unsocialized child: they are problem of balancing the two in increasingly subtle
the instincts of sexuality (Eros), which Freud ways but the problem-solving process involves
discovered, if that is the word, early in his work anxiety which sometimes threatens to overcome the
(Sulloway 1980), and aggression (Thanatos), which ego. Defence mechanisms control and alleviate
grew in importance in his thinking after the horrors of anxiety but do so by distorting reality: in ‘reaction
the First World War and the early death of his formation’ for example the ego may deny an
daughter Sophie (Clark 1980). The social system, unacceptable desire by focusing on its opposite, so
‘culture’ or ‘civilization’, exists to protect that it may appear to be, for example, demonstratively
individuals and both to restrict the satisfaction of their loving rather than jealously hurtful, altruistic rather
instincts and to allow it some limited safe expression. than selfish. The sceptical may often see defence
The individual has powerful instincts which demand mechanisms at work in the activity of moralists,
release and reduction of their tension; they are kept particularly those who see themselves as the
within bounds by external coercion which becomes guardians of virtues unappreciated by the more lax.
internalized as development proceeds. While both id and ego contribute to moral
behaviour, the most important moral aspect of the
personality is the late developer, the super-ego. This

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has two important parts, the ego ideal, which is what represses his sexuality, metaphorically castrating
one thinks one should be, and the conscience, which himself, and identifies with his father. In this
tells one how far short of ideal one is, and identification he adopts or ‘introjects’ all the father’s
consequently how deplorable and worthy of beliefs and values as the child sees them; that is he
punishment. The superego is as self-denying as the id internalizes a threatening, punitive, hypercritical,
is self-gratifying, and can be as extreme and violent. powerful person who is an insuperable obstacle to the
People with very strong superegos punish themselves little boy’s sexual gratification. This internalized
very harshly, and tend to have impossibly high moral version of parental authority is the superego, ‘the heir
standards – which they may apply to other people as of the Oedipus complex’.
well as themselves – ‘Social justice means that we Freud says that the little girl also starts by being in
deny ourselves many things so that others may have love with her mother, as mothers have been for all
to do without them as well’ (Freud 1955). infants the first love-object because of being the first
The superego, and hence moral self-scrutiny, is important supplier of oral gratification. She also
said to develop in early childhood, largely as a result loves and desires her father and comes to realize that
of the tensions of the ‘phallic’ stage. Earlier, young he has ‘a prized object which she does not have’ – a
infants get their sensual gratification first from oral penis. She blames her mother for this lack, and feels
activity and may have made rudimentary moral that she herself has been castrated and is inadequate.
distinctions between ‘good’ objects, such as breasts, While the boy fears the loss of his penis as a
which satisfy their needs, and bad ones which do not, punishment for his incestuous desires, the girl having
and subsequently from anal activity, which because it lost hers already has less to fear now. Her penis-envy
is the object of parental training and anxiety is a leads to a depreciatory attitude towards other people
source of ideas about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ oneself. who lack penises, a possessive attitude towards her
Both these stages leave traces in personality and menfolk’s penises, and a wish for a child as a penis-
morality. It is however in the third stage, round about substitute. Although she does identify with her
the age range of 3 to 6, when the child’s sensuality is mother and introject her values, her identification is
said to be centrally phallic, that Freud places the slower and weaker and her superego is consequently
social and emotional dilemmas which result in the inferior (Freud 1925, v. 19, 1931, v. 21).
development of moral structures such as the This Freudian scenario of the interaction of
superego, and which have become famous (or psychosexual and moral development derives of
infamous) as ‘the Oedipus complex’. course from the retrospective accounts of their early
At this stage the developmental courses of boys life by Freud’s patients. There is little in the way of
and of girls diverge as to their detail and their evidence which unequivocally supports or refutes it:
consequences, although the central dilemma of being indeed it has been said that there could be no refuting
in love with the parent of the opposite sex is common evidence since a demonstration that a person did not
to both sexes – and Freud believed very strongly that experience an Oedipus complex, feel penis-envy etc.
human nature is inherently bisexual, writing to a might be interpreted as evidence for the perfect
friend in 1899 that he was accustoming himself ‘to repression of the person’s Oedipus complex, penis-
the idea of regarding every sexual act as a process in envy, etc. The account has been modified, notably by
which four persons are involved’ (Wollheim 1971, p. feminists reaching to what they took to be its
120). In outline, what happens is as follows. The little misogynistic character (Sayers 1982; Archer and
boy is in love with his mother and wants her sexually Lloyd 1982). Since the theory is centrally clinical and
and exclusively for himself. This brings him into therapeutic, whether it is ‘true’ or not may be less
conflict with his father, whom he feels threatened by important than whether it is helpful to patients. For
but also loves; indeed in later versions Freud our purposes in considering moral development, I
proposed that this love for the father was erotic too. In emphasize only the fact that Freud’s account of the
this crisis of ambivalence and conflict, the child development of the superego is of an interaction of

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biology (the instincts), society (parental authority) parental discipline techniques, and the degree of
and cognition (the child’s evaluation of parents and similarity between parents’ and adolescents’ moral
self) which together make up moral processes and beliefs (e.g. Rutter 1980), which will be discussed
moral standards. That it suggests major changes in more thoroughly when we consider adult–child
morality at the age of 6 or 7 as a result of the resolution relations, are also in accord with social learning
of the Oedipus conflict, and differences in morality theory. The suggestion that moral judgement and
between males and females, are empirically testable moral behaviour may not necessarily be the same,
questions which we will give more attention to later. and that the outcome will vary from situation to
situation although the underlying processes are the
Morality and social learning theory same, seems a useful recognition of the complexity of
Social learning theory (see, for example, Bandura morality, though it obviously reduces the degree to
1977) accounts for moral development in terms of the which the theory in its present state can predict
child’s reinforcement history. Moral development is behaviour with any exactness. The increasing
the acquisition of cultural values, the conditioning of learning theory emphasis on reasoning which
moral anxiety is conscience, and ‘moral character’ is mediates between stimulus and response also of
learned habits. ‘That which is “good” is that which is course makes the theory less testable, but it also
reinforced.’ Moral values are inculcated by parents makes it more similar to the influential theories
and teachers, or by the secondary reinforcement of derived from Piaget which have sought to describe
association with them, and by imitation of models the structure as well as the process of moral
whom the child can identify with. There are development. I will discuss these, giving a rather
developmental changes because the child’s longer account of them, next.
accumulated experience is growing, because
children become able to take more and more varied Concepts of morality
reinforcement contingencies into account as they get The work outlined so far has concentrated on the
older, because they become more able to anticipate dynamics, the motives, of moral behaviour and
and to infer potential reinforcement, and because of development, rather than on its organization. Piaget’s
changes in adults’ expectations and discipline work, and the further ‘cognitive– developmental’
techniques of the child. Social learning theory, unlike work that it has inspired, was more concerned with
classical learning theories, does concern itself with moral judgement and the principles that people use in
people’s ideas as well as their overt behaviour, and evaluating some action as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, deserving
would allow that moral behaviour is influenced by praise or blame. Questions of how to define what is
internalized moral reasoning, though this is itself good have been a recurring preoccupation of moral
influenced by reinforcement histories. Nevertheless, philosophers. There is some agreement about a core
the theory predicts situation-specific behaviour as meaning of ‘morality’, though less about its content.
‘moral judgement involves a complex process of Moral rules may compete among themselves, but
considering and weighing various criteria in a given they all have the following characteristics (Gewirth
social situation’ (Miller 1983, p. 222). 1978). First, they are obligatory, that is they do not
One major strength of learning theories has been depend on what anyone happens to feel like doing.
their amenability to experimental testing. Second, they are generalizable, that is what is right or
Unsurprisingly, there has been a great deal of wrong for any particular person is also right or wrong
experimental research on social learning theory for any other individual (assuming that there are no
predictions about moral development, and the results relevant differences of characteristics or situation).
have generally supported its account of the learning Third, they are important, that is, the moral rule
processes which could be involved. The results of which is the best moral rule in a situation should take
observational and correlational studies of more precedence over other non-moral considerations,
complex situations such as family interactions, such as conserving one’s energy by not bothering, or

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justifying contravening the moral rule by appeals to conflict. It is this sort of matter that the ‘cognitive-
etiquette or the desire for a quiet life or one’s developmental’ theorists of moral reasoning address.
momentary frivolities. (Although some cultures They are concerned with how children judge ‘good’
have, of course, elevated principles of etiquette to a and ‘bad’, with what sort of principles they invoke
pre-eminent moral status, as a great many nineteenth- and use in decision and justification. Piaget (1932)
century novels would tell us, this is usually seen as made the first of the attempts to describe the
morally inferior to attention to purely moral development of moral reasoning discussed here;
principles, except in so far as etiquette itself can be Kohlberg (e.g. Kohlberg 1981a,b,c) is the second
justified in terms of moral principles. The most major figure, while some subsequent studies reacting
admired characters in novels are often those who to Kohlberg’s work (e.g. Mussen and Eisenberg-Berg
flout etiquette in the service of abstract moral 1977, Turiel 1983), are also touched on.
principles, the most tragic ones those whose moral
strivings are stifled by convention. Mary Garth, Piaget’s theory of moral development
Rosamund Vincy and Dr Lydgate in Middle-march Piaget was an influence on studies of moral reasoning
provide good examples: George Eliot was of course a both through his relatively early work on children’s
moral philosopher worthy of serious consideration as moral judgements (Piaget 1932) and through his later
well as a great novelist.) elaboration of the structure of cognitive
The content or justification of moral rules would development. The Moral Judgment of the Child
seem to be more controversial. Various thinkers have pioneered the method which has been much used
said that something is ‘good’ if doing it tends on since, of telling children a story involving moral
balance to increase people’s happiness, or to conflict and asking them what the protagonists
contribute to their welfare, or to avoid their harm, or should do and why, or how their actions should be
to be congruent with principles like ‘justice’ or ‘truth’ judged. Here are two examples (Piaget 1932, pp.
or ‘beauty’ or ‘rationality’, or to contribute to the 117–18, Penguin edition).
bringing about of some desirable state of affairs
which is the goal of existence or history or whatever
(such as ‘Evolutionary Adaptedness’ or ‘The A. A little boy who is called John is in his room. He is
called to dinner. He goes into the dining room. But behind
Kingdom of God on Earth’ or ‘The Revolution’ or
the door there was a chair, and on the chair there was a tray
even ‘the conquest of inflation’). It is quite evident
with fifteen cups on it. John couldn’t have known that there
that no single one of these will do as a necessary and was all this behind the door. He goes in, the door knocks
sufficient and unchallengeable condition for every against the tray, bang go the fifteen cups and they all get
instance of the ‘good’: hence G. E. Moore suggested broken!
that ‘goodness’ was the same sort of quality as
‘yellowness’, not to be defined in terms of anything
B. Once there was a little boy whose name was Henry. One
but itself. Alternatively one might sidestep this
day when his mother was out he tried to get some jam out
debate by suggesting that many of the characteristics
of the cupboard. He climbed up on to a chair and stretched
listed above will be involved in the evaluation of an out his arm. But the jam was too high up and he couldn’t
action. Activities which satisfy all the requirements reach it and have any. But while he was trying to get it he
will be incontrovertibly ‘good’, while those which knocked over a cup. The cup fell down and broke.
only satisfy some will be ‘good but’, will be
‘qualified goods’ until they satisfy so few
[. . .] About each of these pairs of stories we ask two
requirements that they have ‘died the death of a
questions: (1) Are these children equally guilty? (2) Which
thousand qualifications’. This would make it clearly
of the two is the naughtiest, and why? It goes without
a psychologically relevant matter as to how the saying that each of these questions is the occasion for a
various principles were evoked and ranked, and how conversation more or less elaborate according to the child’s
people decided between them when they were in reaction.

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Similar pairs of stories were used to probe etc. Now, these commandments, received and applied
children’s ideas about lying (incredible but without before being really understood, naturally give rise to a
any evil intention versus quite probable but told with whole ethic of heteronomy with a feeling of pure
intent to deceive), about the appropriateness of obligation, with remorse in case of violation of the law, etc.
different sorts of punishment (expiatory or For example, one evening I find Jacqueline, aged 2;
reciprocal), fairness and so forth, and ideas of justice 6(15),* in bed, spoiling a towel by pulling out the threads
and equality, and the nature and origin of the rules of one by one. Her mother has already often told her that it is a
games such as marbles were also investigated. Piaget pity to do that, that it makes holes, that you can’t mend the
discusses all these in terms of two different holes, etc. So I say to J.: ‘Oh, but mummy will be sad.’ J.
moralities. The one which predominated in the answers calmly and even with an ill-concealed smile: ‘Yes.
answers of the younger children he called a ‘morality It makes holes. You can’t mend’ . . . etc. I continue my
of constraint’ or ‘heteronomous’ morality. The child lecture, but she obviously is not going to take me seriously.
believes that there are strict rules imposed from Still hiding her amusement with difficulty, she suddenly
outside, which must be obeyed and cannot be says to me ‘Laugh!’ in so comic a tone that in order to keep
questioned, altered or avoided, and are applied to a straight face I quickly change the subject. J., very
wrongdoing without taking into account intentions, conscious of her powers of seduction, then says to me ‘My
mitigating circumstances or the possibility of little darling Daddy’, and the incident ends. The next
avoiding doing wrong. Piaget attributes the source of morning, however, J. wakes up full of it. Her first words
this harsh and rigid morality to the child’s response to refer to what had happened the night before. She thinks
parental authority, which inevitably means the about the towel and asks her mother whether she isn’t sad.
issuing of injunctions which make no sense to the So in spite of the first reaction showing such charming
child. He gives examples drawn from observations of disrespect, my words had told and the command had
his own children (pp. 170–1). brought about the usual consequences.
The evening of the same day, J. begins to pull the threads
out of the towel again. Her mother repeats that it is a pity. J.
Jacqueline has never been punished in the strict sense of the
listens attentively but says nothing. A moment later she is
term. At the worst, when she makes a scene, we leave her
calling out and cries till someone comes to her: she simply
alone for a little while and tell her we shall come back when
wanted to see her parents again and make sure that they bore
she can talk quietly again. She has never been given duties
her no grudge.
as such, nor have we ever demanded from her that sort of
passive obedience without discussion which in the eyes of
so many parents constitutes the highest virtue. We have The other major source of this ‘moral realism’ is
always tried to make her understand the ‘why’ of orders the child’s egocentricity. Immediately after the
instead of laying down ‘categorical’ rules. Above all, we passage quoted above, Piaget points out that one
have always put things to her in the light of cooperation: ‘to begins to differentiate one’s own intentional actions
help mummy’, to ‘please’ her parents, to ‘show her sister’, from one’s involuntary ones at quite an early age (3–
etc. – are for her reasons for carrying out orders that cannot 4), and quickly to use this as an excuse (‘I didn’t mean
be understood in themselves. As to rules that are to’, ‘I didn’t do it on purpose’). But it is harder to
unintelligible to very little children, such as the rule of
apply this insight to other people, particularly when
truthfulness, she has never even heard mention of them.
one is oneself the victim of the other’s wrongdoing
But in ordinary life it is impossible to avoid certain
but even more when the problem is in a story rather
injunctions of which the purport does not immediately
than part of an immediate practical situation (Piaget
seem to have any sense from the child’s point of view. Such
1932,
are going to bed and having meals at given hours, not
spoiling things, not touching the things on daddy’s table, * 2; 6(15) = 2 years, 6 months and 15 days.

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p. 177). This last is an important point which has developmental role of changes in cognition than on
repercussions for research methodology and theories changes in social experience where research
of moral development that have not been sufficiently evidence is said only to give ‘mixed’ or ‘weak’
considered. Piaget here suggests a gap between moral support (Lickona 1976). Some more recent evidence
reasoning in the abstract and moral behaviour in real bearing on the question of links between social
life – a problem for all the cognitive–developmental experience and moral behaviour will be considered
theorists – but also that ‘real’ moral behaviour may after Kohlberg’s work has been described.
be, at least at early ages, more advanced than
discussion of moral stories can be. We will see that a Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
difference in the opposite direction has been Kohlberg suggests that there is a sequence of six
suspected at later ages. stages of moral judgement. Like Piaget’s stages of
Although ‘heteronomous morality’ is strong in the cognitive development, Kohlberg’s moral stages
young child, and can be seen to flourish in society involve structured reasoning, are invariant in
(Piaget 1932, p. 383), a second (and, as far as Piaget sequence, hierarchical and universal throughout the
is concerned, better) morality gradually develops. By human species. They are concerned with what ought
way of interaction with peers and consequently more to be, rather than with actual behaviour, and the
egalitarian experience, the child comes to experience essential characteristic of a stage is the sort of
the benefits of co-operation and reciprocity and to underlying reasoning which leads a subject to a
develop a morality of equality and autonomy. Adult particular judgement, rather than the content of the
behaviour to the child plays a part in this (Piaget 1932, judgement itself. While the sequence of stages and
p. 307) but equal interaction and particularly co- the underlying structures of each stage are invariant,
operation and mutual respect among peers is the main progress through the stages will vary in speed and
reason for development. Blind obedience to authority some individuals will not reach the later stages.
is no longer esteemed; punishment is no longer to be Progress is a result of an interaction between the
expiation but should as far as possible be reciprocal or maturation of individuals and their experience,
make reparation for the wrong done; rules are the particularly their experience of social role-taking,
products of social interaction and may be changed by with a neo-Piagetian equilibration playing an
democratic agreement; justice should take into important part in the interaction as well as within the
account extenuating circumstances, the protagonist’s cognitive– moral structures. As Turiel (1973, p. 737)
motivation, and so forth. says
While social interaction is seen here as a major
source of developmental change, Piaget is concerned
to link levels of moral reasoning with levels of Stages in a developmental sequence are, then, successive
cognitive functioning. The decline of intellectual levels of equilibrium in two respects. First, each stage is a
egocentricity is necessary for moral development; more equilibrated form than the previous one (e.g. there is
consciousness of oneself as a particular individual more internal consistency). Second, each stage represents a
with particular limitations and resources is necessary more equilibrated means of interacting with the
for co-operation with others (Piaget 1932, p. 381). environment. That is, each new stage is a more adequate
This linking of cognition with moral, social and way of understanding moral problems and resolving
emotional development did not progress into detailed conflicts encountered.
specifications of links in Piaget’s own work but has
been developed since, notably by the Kohlberg As in Piaget’s work, subjects are told stories
school (e.g. Kohlberg 1964, 1981; Lickona 1976) involving moral dilemmas and invited to comment on
which also modifies the Piagetian theory and extends what the protagonist should do, and why. This is
its stage sequence at both ends. In these modifications perhaps the best-known story.
and extensions more emphasis is placed on the

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In Europe, a woman was near death from a kind of cancer. ‘respect’ but self-interest and fear. In the second
There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. stage, the child is more concerned than before with
It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had the positive aspects of relations with other people:
recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but reciprocity becomes extremely important but on the
the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him pragmatic ground that ‘if you scratch my back, I’ll
to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2000 for scratch yours’, what Kohlberg at an earlier point in
a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, his work called ‘instrumental relativism’ (Kohlberg
went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he 1971). The beginnings of Piaget’s ‘autonomous
could only get together about $1000 which is half of what it morality’ or ‘morality of co-operation’ may be seen
cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked in this stage: it is also reminiscent of the
him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist sociobiologists’ ‘reciprocal altruism’, discussed
said, ‘No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make above.
money from it.’ So Heinz gets desperate and considers The Conventional level is preoccupied with
breaking into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. maintaining the expectations of the social group and
obeying the law precisely because they are the law
and the social consensus. Conformity has become a
Responses to stories of this sort are analysed, using
matter of active support and identification not just of
a detailed handbook, in terms of the quality of the
fearful or self-interested compliance. Increasingly as
judgements, the ways in which the situation is
Kohlberg’s work progressed, it appeared that the
perceived and what moral principles are considered
majority of adolescents and adults were to be found at
and in what way, rather than in terms of the surface
this level. In the earlier of its two stages, stage 3, the
content of the solution recommended to the story’s
person is concerned to win approval, particularly
conflict. The inherent dilemma of the stories is
from the immediate social group. ‘Behaving well’ is
between an act which would comply with social or
still seen as important, but so is ‘meaning well’.
legal rules but would neglect the welfare or human
Kohlberg called this the ‘good boy–nice girl’ stage (it
rights of an individual (for example, Heinz deciding
is not clear whether the different moral implications
he must not steal, even though this deprives his wife
of these two phrases are intended at this point: we will
of the drug) and an act which violates the rules but
discuss the question of sex bias in the theory later). In
serves human needs (for example, stealing the drug
the later stage, stage 4, there is an emphasis on laws
and giving it to the sick woman). The important
and duties which are seen as necessary for the
criterion of the stages is however not ‘Steal’ or ‘Don’t
maintenance of society, which is now understood as
steal’ but the reasons behind this decision.
being wider than one’s own social group. Justice is
Discussion of ideas about laws, rules, authority,
based on the authority of government, punishment is
responsibility, equality and justice is at the centre of
to expiate one’s ‘debt to society’. Equality before the
the stage sequence and of Kohlberg’s conception of
law is important, as is equality of opportunity, but
morality.
efforts to eradicate more specific economic or social
The six stages are paired into three levels; Pre-
inequalities by ‘positive discrimination’ or more
conventional, Conventional, and Post-conventional.
generous treatment of the disadvantaged are likely to
At the earliest level, which Kohlberg says is
be seen as wrong; conserving the social status quo is
characteristic of most children under 9, the person
preferred to bringing about social change.
does not understand society’s rules and expectations,
It is in the minority of people who move into the
and considerations of personal interest and advantage
third or Post-conventional level that this dependence
are paramount. The first stage in this level is of
on consensus and normative sources of morality
‘heteronomous morality’ and the emphasis is on
begins to be replaced by truly autonomous moral
avoiding punishment by obedience to authority.
reasoning based on universal moral principles. The
Piaget’s ‘heteronomous morality’ involved respect
stage 4 thinker believes it is important to obey the law
for adults: Kohlberg’s does not, as he found not

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simply because it is the law: the stage 5 or 6 thinker is not concede this, he is wrong, and Heinz’s theft is
prepared to say like Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist, and morally justified.
with reasons in terms of impersonal principle, that ‘If Whether or not the principles involved in this stage
the law supposes that . . . the law is a ass – a idiot’ and are unarguably ‘better’ than any other, the reasoning
should be changed. In stage 5 democratic agreement processes involved are clearly very sophisticated. It
and recourse to agreed procedures for changing the is perhaps not surprising that they are described as
rules are supported: laws are respected in terms of the ‘isomorphic with’ formal operations: or that the age
purposes – such as the providing of equal rights to at which we can expect stage 6 to be attained has been
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – which the raised in successive accounts from early adolescence
laws are intended to fulfil. At this stage there is an to early middle age. There have also been suggestions
explicit awareness that there may be conflict between for stages 5 and 6 as well as for formal operations that
moral principles. In the story of Heinz’s dilemma, not all thinkers progress so far, let alone always
Kohlberg says that a stage 5 thinker might believe that manage to reason at their highest possible level. In a
Heinz would be morally right to steal the drug to save recent paper (Kohlberg 1984) Kohlberg has linked
his wife’s life but that he would at the same time be his difficulty in finding Post-conventional moral
legally wrong so that it would be a judge’s duty to reasoning with post-Watergate disillusion with
punish him. Moral reasoning at this stage also tends political principle and with the ‘privatism’ that has
to take up a utilitarian position, to uphold principles accompanied the economic recession of the last few
of the maximization of human happiness, which years. He has therefore advocated moral education
Kohlberg regards as ethically inferior to the absolute which tries to bring about stage 4 or social duty
principles of justice and individual conscience that reasoning as this may be the best that can be achieved
characterize stage 6. in the face of the characteristically stage 2 or stage 3
At stage 6 the process of making moral judgements reasoning of the ‘new conservatism’.
has become autonomous. Neither the egoistic desires Kohlberg, then, is describing a series of stages of
which dominated the Pre-conventional level nor the moral reasoning which make a first transition from
social pressures which dominated the Conventional self-interest to social interest, and in some cases may
level and were also considered to some extent in stage make a second transition from considering the
5 are involved any more. The crucial principle is the immediate society as it is to considering wider
application to all individuals of a belief in the dignity universal principles. He puts the moral principle of
of human life; all individuals must be given justice at the centre of his model, and sees cognitive
‘fundamentally equal consideration’. This may development and one of its consequences, improved
involve very careful consideration of what other role-taking ability, as the main motive force for
people’s needs, wishes and judgements would be in a development. In many ways it is an impressive
situation of moral conflict in terms of the universal theory, but there are a number of problems both in
moral principles that should guide actions. Heinz, for how it is conceived and in the quality of the evidence.
example, would consider whether the druggist would In outline, these involve questions about ‘stages’,
continue to place property rights over a human about moral reasoning based on universal principle,
being’s right to life if it were the druggist who was about ‘justice’ as that principle, about relations
mortally ill and someone else who was withholding between ‘reasoning’, ‘feeling’ and ‘acting’, about
the cure; and also whether the wife would continue to individual differences in morality, and about research
demand the drug if she were the property-owner and methodology.
someone else the invalid. Kohlberg asserts that the
inevitable outcome of this balancing of role-taking Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
would be to demonstrate quite clearly that the right of I have already pointed out some of the dangers of
a human being to life takes precedence over another ‘stage’ theories. In the case of Kohlberg’s model, as
human being’s right to property; if the druggist does with all the other ‘stage sequences’ that have

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proliferated so much since Piaget developed a stage Suppose the wife has contemplated suicide for years and
model, there are dangers of creating artificial wishes to die with dignity now. Heinz wants her to stay alive
separations and artificial uniformities, overlooking because he and she live off the interest of a trust fund set up
variation within ‘stages’ and similarities between in her name. The druggist is the brother of the wife, knows
‘stages’, simplifying complex behaviours into linear his sister’s intentions, and while he legally would have to
models, and reifying into a unity what might be more sell the drug to Heinz if the latter had the money, he uses the
usefully thought of as multiform. It cannot be said too legal excuse not to sell the drug in order to allow his sister
often that although we may have as an ideal a belief to carry out her own ends.
that if something exists, we can measure it, we need We would have to know much more about Heinz, the
not believe that if we can measure ‘something’, ‘it’ druggist, the wife, the society they live in and many more
exists. ‘Moral reasoning’ is a case in point. There is relevant items, in order to construct our conditionals. . . .
really very little evidence that ‘moral reasoning’ is Moral dilemmas are real problems, faced by real people in
a real setting. It is no test of an ethical theory, or of the moral
consistent within ‘stages’, hierarchical between
reasoning of people for that matter, to pose artificial
them, accurately diagnosed over a wide range of
problems. The problems, note, are not artificial primarily
situations and so forth. There is also no really clear because they are fictional. They are artificial because they
account of exactly what they are stages of, moral do not represent realistic situations with all their
‘development’, ‘judgement’, ‘reasoning’ surely complexity. Perhaps we should let the poets and the
involving a number of different components – novelists describe the moral problems for the tests and not
understanding, using, feeling, for example – which the philosophers and psychologists. The problems would
are conglomerated in Kohlberg’s stages. If, as Peters be more difficult to solve, but at least they would be relevant
(1974) argues, the order of the stages is logical rather to the real problems that human beings have (Rosen 1980,
than psychological, we are also in danger of doing p. 259).
pseudo-empirical research uselessly (see Smedslund
1980). In addition to the inadequacy (pp. 163–4) and
Kohlberg’s model places universal principle at the superfluity (above) of universal moral principles, it
centre of moral judgement, and is thus an ethical rule has been argued (notably by Peters (1974) and
theory (Munsey 1980; Rosen 1980). Ethical rule Gilligan (1977)), that elevating ‘justice’ to the top of
theorists assume that one must have a moral rule to the list of universal moral principles or even making
make a justified moral judgement. The general it the source of all the rest of the list, is unsatisfactory.
consideration, the moral rule, is especially important, The principle of caring for others is seen as equally
as it is necessary both for the moral judgement and for important. This is a particularly interesting point for
identifying the relevant particular facts of a case developmental psychology because there is a great
before the judgement is made. There is an alternative deal of evidence that even very young children are
to ethical rule theory in ethical act theory, which aware of, and frequently sympathetic towards, other
suggests that possession of a general moral rule may people’s feelings. A model of moral development
not be necessary for making a moral judgement, since centering on sensitivity to others would be a great
relevant facts in a particular case can be identified deal more positive about young children than
without moral rules and may override moral Kohlberg’s justice model, and would have obvious
generalizations. Act theorists see moral rules as educational implications. Such a model is sketched
summaries which may admit of exceptions, and by Mussen and Eisenberg-Berg (1977). It would also
morality as therefore situation-specific; rule theorists reverse what has been seen as a sexist bias. Gilligan
see them as a priori universals. Rosen (1980) (1977) refutes the tendency in work on moral
‘supposes’ some developments of the Heinz story to development to view women as morally deficient
make this point. One of these, and Rosen’s (Freud provides a slightly earlier example than
subsequent comment, follow and illustrate some of Kohlberg, but one could produce many ancient
the difficulties of Kohlberg’s work. instances). Kohlberg, finding that women’s moral

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reasoning was frequently at stage 3 (behaving well, (such as wearing clothes to school) as alterable, less
meaning well, pleasing people – the ‘good boy–nice important and more context-specific, except in so far
girl’ orientation), interpreted this as ‘lower’ than as they were related to moral principles (such as not
men’s, and ‘both functional and adequate for them’! embarrassing people at school by going naked). A
With admirable control, Gilligan comments number of studies (e.g. Turiel 1978; Pool, Shweder
and Much 1980; Nucci and Turiel 1978) show
children giving different rationales to account for
And yet herein lies the paradox, for the very traits that have
traditionally defined the ‘goodness’ of women, their care rules that have a moral, a conventional or a practical
for and sensitivity to the needs of others, are those that mark base (practical rules are such things as ‘clean your
them as deficient in moral development. The infusion of teeth twice a day’). This research does not provide a
feeling into their judgements keeps them from developing really convincing demonstration that morality and
(one might prefer ‘expressing’) a more independent and convention are separable areas, first because moral
abstract ethical conception in which concern for others rules were used as the ultimate reason for
derives from principles of justice rather than from conventional ones and second because of the
compassion and care (Gilligan 1977, p. 484). confounding effect of the severity of the
transgression. However, this approach has provided
Gilligan’s account of the ‘feminine voice’ in some interesting data about children’s social
morality is of compassion and love, with associated cognitions, and a corrective (if one was needed) to the
non-violence, at the centre of moral judgement. idea that ‘morality’ is one simple thing.
While I find this more appealing and more admirable Another promising initiative (Weinreich-Haste, in
than Kohlberg’s enthroned justice, I want for the press) examines the role of feeling in the moral
moment only to use it to tie in with a point made by experiences of real life. Helen Weinreich-Haste
Peters (1974) and others: it is not enough to know regards the use of hypothetical moral dilemmas as
what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’; one also has to care. It is concealing the role of feeling: subjects do not react to
this neglect of feeling and of action that is one of the Hans’ dilemma as they would to a dilemma of their
most serious reasons why Kohlberg’s theory must not own, and thus their reasoning about Hans is not
be taken as a complete account of moral representative of all their moral reasoning. Kohlberg
development. The theory does not address itself and his colleagues see moral cognition as leading to
adequately to the relationship between judgement action, not the reverse. A high level of moral
and behaviour, and what little evidence there is reasoning means that the reasoner perceives his or her
suggests that level of judgement does not predict responsibility to act in accordance with the moral
behaviour at all well (Kurtines and Grief 1974). rules involved in the issue: seeing this responsibility
Kohlberg (1981b) says that ‘a stage of judgements of leads to a closer integration of moral judgement and
justice is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for moral action (Kohlberg and Candee 1984).
moral action’: given the diagnostic problems I have Responsibility is an obligation to act appropriately; it
touched on above, even this may be a somewhat organizes and energizes action. Feelings about the
generous statement. situation are not considered, so there is no account in
Kohlberg’s work of how they arise, how they affect
reasoning, or how they are involved in moral action.
Recent work on moral development
Weinreich-Haste argues that this unidirectional
Recently, work on moral development has taken
relationship between cognition and action, which
some interesting new directions. One of these is the
also gives little place to affect, is inadequate. In real-
suggestion by Turiel and his colleagues that issues of
life moral problems much more is involved. The first
morality and of social convention are differentiated
key concept is responsibility, which involves
by children as young as 4 to 6. Moral rules (such as not
perception that this problem involves moral issues, a
hurting other people) are seen as obligatory,
belief that you can be effective in taking action on
important and generalizable, and conventional rules

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them, and a belief that it is right and necessary that France where she witnessed butchers slaughtering
you, personally, should be involved, that it is not animals for meat and was also revolted by meat
enough to leave the responsibility to someone else. cooked so that it was burnt on the outside and bloody
Thus responsibility involves vision, efficacy, and inside. She felt disgusted, and reflecting on her
commitment: all of them blending affect and feeling decided that eating meat was a moral issue she
cognition. If young children seem to be inadequate as could do something about. Her feeling of disgust
moral agents, I would suggest that this may be to turned to a moral feeling, ‘I just can’t face eating
some extent because many of the responsibilities something like that which has been killed in that way
which could come their way are taken for them by and hasn’t had its own life’, a moral judgement, ‘I
adults, and because they know they are not skilled or think that’s wrong . . . because the animals themselves
powerful enough to be as effective as adults. A haven’t really had a life. We’re just breeding them to
judgement that somebody else will cope is a barrier kill them’, and a moral action, the decision not to eat
against commitment. We know that children are less meat.
helpful to each other in an adult-led peer group than The model of moral crises derived from this and
in more heterogeneous groups (Radke-Yarrow et al. other case-studies involves cycles of events, reactive
1983, and see p. 158) and that participating in affect, cognitive reflection, moral affect, feeling of
discussions within the family seems to facilitate the responsibility and commitment to action. Level of
development of social responsibility (Maccoby and moral reasoning is important in perceiving the issue
Martin 1983; Radke-Yarrow and Zahn-Waxler 1983; to be morally important and in perceiving personal
and Chapter 6 this volume). responsibility to do something about it, but the
Real moral problems commonly last for more than subject’s sense of personal responsibility and self-
the few minutes spent considering Heinz’s dilemma, efficacy, and social legitimation and support from
and dealing with them involves a complex sequence other people, may be crucially important too. The
of judgements and feelings. Weinreich-Haste interplay of affect, cognition and action lasts a long
presents material on five people who have time, and is complex. There is little data as yet on pre-
experienced moral crises which have led to a change adolescents’ moral crises, but no reason to believe
in their lives. For example, Sandra decided to become that they are always simple.
a vegetarian. The triggering event was a stay in

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Plate 14

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6 Social relationships

I have stressed throughout this book that children’s similar picture emerges from accounts of Genie
(Curtiss 1977) who was imprisoned by her psychotic
development takes place in large measure through
father from infancy to early adolescence in a state of
social relationships. Other people’s behaviour
almost total sensory and social deprivation. She too
towards the child, and the child’s behaviour towards
was ‘barely human’ when rescued, has developed
other people, influence the development of
considerably with sympathetic teaching but shows
cognition, language, personality, emotion and, of
remaining deficits in language use and social skills.
course, social behaviour. If it were possible for a child
Children less totally deprived of social lives may
to grow up without any social relationships at all, and
show more recovery than these two (Koluchova
it probably is not, that child would not be
1976; Clarke and Clarke 1976; Skuse 1984) if given
recognizably ‘human’: would not have spoken
carefully set up social and educational experience.
language, would not have the intellectual skills we
Since similarly severe deficits arise in other species,
revere, would not, probably, have self-awareness or
such as rhesus monkeys reared in isolation (Harlow
empathy. Social interaction is necessary for all this:
1969), we would have good grounds for regarding the
‘feral’ children, who may have completely lacked
social world as a biological necessity for individual
interaction with other human beings resemble
development.
‘beasts’, ‘savages’ or ‘idiots’ (Zingg 1940; for a
If something is ‘a biological necessity’ it is likely
recent review see Skuse 1984). Because such cases
or at least possible that structures and processes
are, fortunately, rare, and usually, unfortunately,
which facilitate it will have evolved through natural
badly documented, we do not know how complete
selection and will be programmed by genes or
and how permanent the distortion of their
‘memes’ (Dawkins 1976; Trivers 1985). Are there
development is. There are two famous cases where
such structures and processes contributing to the
initial state, training given and degree of recovery are
social development of children? If there are, how do
well documented. Victor, captured in the forests of
they work?
Aveyron in 1800 after he had lived there for at least
three years, and probably since early childhood, was
put into the hands of Jean-Marc Itard and his Infant–adult interaction
housekeeper Madame Guérin. He was about 13 years It is fairly clear that babies are, and do, and can do,
old. Itard used patient and careful training procedures things which are likely to be useful in their social
which remarkably anticipate twentieth-century world. They have the big shiny eyes, plump cheeks,
behaviour modification techniques (Lane 1976/7). high foreheads, fine skin, smell of milk and unco-
Victor progressed from purely sensori-motor ordinated movements which evoke automatic
intelligence, little emotional display and no social reactions of tenderness and nurturance in adults in our
skills whatever, to some conceptual thought and own species as in many others (Tinbergen 1951).
moral and empathic feelings, but his language They selectively attend to human faces and voices,
development was disappointing and his emerging and astonishingly early appear to discriminate the
sexual feelings were disturbing to the adults familiar voice of their mother from other non-
responsible for him (and to the boy himself). A rather familiar voices (Mehler et al. 1978), a preference and

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a discrimination likely to convince mother that she is children’s behaviour to produce a shapely sequence,
‘special’ to her baby. Their vocalizations and their or to achieve a goal, or to prolong interaction. The
movements indicate what they feel, and receive baby is genetically programmed to produce
social interpretations from their caretakers. Adults regularities and hence predictabilities of behaviour.
treat them as individuals who are trying to The adult is genetically programmed to pick up and
communicate, as social beings with needs and wishes use (or at least to be capable of picking up and using)
and intentions not unlike their own. Recent research these predictabilities in ways which apprentice the
has shown that babies’ behaviour is also subtly baby to the social (and intellectual) ways of the adult
patterned in ways which resemble the patterns of expert. By first using rhythms and regularities for
social interactions between adults, such as shared activity, later imputing intention and a desire
conversations (e.g. Trevarthen 1978), and the to communicate that intention (Dunn and Kendrick
impressiveness of fit between baby and caretaker in (1982) show us children as young as 4 doing this for
their interactions has led some theorists to suggest their baby siblings), later still using an assumption of
that the baby is a social being from birth. Kaye (1984) shared memory and shared language, adults
argues that such a view is mistaken, that the ‘fit’ is due
entirely to the adult, who seizes on any bit of the treat the child as more mature and more of a partner than he
baby’s behaviour which could possibly be really is. Admittedly, there are real cues from the child that
understood as having a social or communicative show he understands more than he did last week or last
significance and treats it as if it really did, although month. But the higher forms of interaction into which the
the baby was not in fact capable of intending anything adults slip are inevitably more advanced than what the child
of the sort. There are indeed patterns ‘innate’ in the
is actually capable of at the time. Thus parents are
baby’s behaviour – cycles of arousal and the constantly drawing the child forward into a more
characteristic rhythm of sucking in a burst – pause challenging apprenticeship, eventually into a full
alternation are central ones – but their function is to partnership (Kaye 1984, p. 68).
entice the mother into turn-taking interaction with the
baby. When the baby pauses in sucking, for example,
the mother tends to interpret this as loss of interest or Parenting
‘falling asleep on the job’ and takes steps to recall the Kaye uses the idea of adults providing functional
baby’s attention to breast or bottle by talking, jiggling ‘frames’ for their children, organizing for them the
the nipple in the baby’s mouth, or changing the baby’s world of objects, people and events in ways which
position. Thus while the baby is actively sucking, the reduce potential chaos to intelligible order. Adults
mother is relatively quiet: when the baby stops nurture children, meeting their needs for
sucking, the mother becomes active. This could be nourishment and comfort (in both physical and
seen as turn-taking or protoconversation. Kaye, emotional senses) and in so doing allow and enhance
however, points out that the baby’s part in this is communication and mutual understanding
entirely automatic. The pattern of ‘turns’ is due (intersubjectivity). They protect children from harm,
entirely to the mother who learns quite quickly that ideally while still allowing them to do things which
jiggling makes it less likely that the baby will suck, are not yet quite within their competence. They act as
that what provokes sucking is the cessation of a brief helpers or instruments, either doing for children
jiggle, and who therefore changes her own behaviour things they cannot do for themselves or modifying the
to affect the child’s. Similar ‘turn-taking’ and change wished-for activities or objects so the child can
in ‘turn-taking’ can be seen in games and achieve them. They provide feedback on the child’s
conversations throughout the years of infancy (and actions so that consequences can be more consistent
beyond) as we have seen in our discussion of or more salient or less dangerous than in nature. They
language development (Chapter 4). Adults fit into provide models and demonstrations of skills and

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attitudes. They support and encourage discourse, consequences of bonding or not bonding, and the
which is a means of sharing and enhancing existence of maternal instinct and primary maternal
understanding. They act as a memory for the child and preoccupation themselves, need to be looked at very
this helps in the organization of knowledge and the carefully.
fulfilment of plans (Kaye 1984, pp. 77–83). I would At least some mothers (Oakley 1980), and given an
add that they modulate the child’s arousal and invite opportunity to express it, some fathers (Jackson
participation in culture. To do all this requires a great 1984), report feelings about their newborn child
deal of adult sensitivity to what the child is feeling which resemble ‘primary maternal preoccupation’.
and doing, and a great deal of patience, as many, many Some do not; reporting no emotion, negative
repetitions of various ‘frames’ will be needed for all emotions, ambivalence or sheer exhausted
the child has to learn. What good parents do is make confusion. Many newborn children elicit from their
possible ‘the guided reinvention of language’ (Lock parents the same stereotyped patterns of looking,
1978) and of cognition, social convention and so on. touching and talking, and the same feelings of
tenderness. Obstetric practice during the 1950s and
Bonding and maternal instinct 1960s reduced the amount of time new mothers had
The first three of these ‘frames’, and perhaps their infants with them, and in the interests of hygiene
modelling and feedback, can be seen in parents of and routine separated mother and baby except for
other species: the full repertoire is distinctively feeding. This separation came to be seen as
human. Most parents, many adults and many older interfering with bonding, and a series of researchers
children fit their behaviour to babies and young (Klaus and Kennell 1976; Field 1977; Richards 1979;
children in ‘framing’ or ‘scaffolding’ (Ninio and Trowell 1982) have shown that if mother and baby
Bruner 1978) ways. However to produce this fit have very little contact in the period immediately
consistently and effectively throughout the years of after the baby’s birth the outcome may be worse than
childhood requires an enormous investment of normal, all other things being equal, and if they have
goodwill and energy and hence a major emotional (or more contact than usual outcomes tend to be better
professional) commitment to the child. The concept than normal, again all else being equal. This has had
of ‘maternal instinct’ has been suggested as an a beneficial humanizing effect on obstetric practice.
explanation of why this commitment is usually The differences are not however large (or consistent)
forthcoming from the mother. A cultural expectation and they certainly do not mean either that good early
has grown up that mothers ‘naturally’ know what’s bonding guarantees good development despite later
best for their babies. More specifically there is a problems, or that failed early bonding leads to
belief that the hormonal changes of late pregnancy inevitable disaster. The reason why mother and baby
make the mother ready to fall in love with her were separated also needs examination. If it is
newborn baby so creating a mother–infant ‘bond’. because the baby was ill, prematurely born, or the
Winnicott (1958) called this ‘primary maternal product of a difficult labour (Trowell 1982 looked at
preoccupation’, describing it as a ‘state of heightened caesarian births) it may be the illness, rather than the
sensitivity, almost an illness’ in which the mother has separation, which causes problems through the
to identify herself with the baby in order to be able to anxiety and loss of self-confidence which it
identify and serve its needs. This bonding is supposed engenders in the mother. It is a consistent finding that
to happen rapidly in the first few days (or hours or babies who are ill at birth and need a few days’
minutes) after the baby’s birth: it is implied that if treatment in an intensive care unit because of low
bonding goes well all will be well thereafter, and that birthweight, failure to breathe or to establish a normal
if it fails there will be serious and perhaps insuperable heartbeat and so forth, are likely to show some
problems. These two implications about the developmental deficits in the first year of their lives
but to catch up with the normal healthy baby by the

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time they reach school, provided they do not add experience social interaction seem not to develop the
major social disadvantage in their family to their poor specifically human characteristics of self-awareness
state at birth. Economic or educational disadvantage and representational language unless given a long
in the parents are much stronger predictors of period of special care and training. Two issues here
developmental problems in the child than whether the need some further discussion: the first, to be touched
child was medically ‘high-risk’ at birth or whether on only very briefly, is how and when the baby
there were difficulties in bonding. Unfortunately in functions as a truly ‘social’ person, and the second, to
this area as elsewhere different sorts of disadvantage be examined more fully, is what sort of social
co-occur. A socially disadvantaged mother is likely interaction is necessary for the good or adequate
to have a large number of problems (see, for example, development of the baby and young child.
Rutter and Madge 1976) such as: being less well-fed, Some theorists have suggested that the baby is born
less well-grown, and less well-cared-for before ‘social’, is capable of ‘intersubjectivity’ (the sharing
becoming pregnant, and becoming pregnant when of meaning with another person) very early in life
younger and more immature; having less good food, (Bullowa 1979; Trevarthen 1980). What is meant by
health, living conditions, medical care and freedom this hangs on what is meant by ‘meaning’ and by
from physically demanding work during pregnancy; ‘intention’ which are not at all simple concepts
having her baby in a worse-staffed hospital or (Trevarthen 1982; Kaye 1984). The very early ability
unexpectedly without good medical care; and to live of the baby to express emotion in ways which affect
with the baby in an overcrowded, unfit, lead-polluted the adult is seen by Trevarthen 1978 as ‘primary
environment with continuing poor diet, poor health- intersubjectivity’. Other observers prefer terms like
care, economic stress and so forth. Every single one ‘protointersubjectivity’ (Hinde 1979), wishing to be
of the disadvantages listed above is among those cautious about attributing communicative intention
thought to have an adverse effect on the development to a baby of 2 or 3 months old, and also preferring to
of children: accumulating, they can seriously explain behaviour in the simplest possible terms. The
disadvantage parent and child even if the mother’s baby’s emotion-laden signals may be intended to
‘maternal instinct’ is strong and mother and child communicate with other people, or they may be an
bonded well at birth. There is controversy over automatic expression of the baby’s feelings which
whether ‘maternal instinct’ and ‘bonding’ exist other people respond to as if communication was
(Sluckin et al. 1983); whether they do or not they are intended, though at the time there was no intention. It
clearly neither necessary nor sufficient conditions of will be hard to tell which of these is the case, since as
‘good parenting’. A society where most first-time well as the perennial difficulties of knowing anyone’s
mothers have little personal experience of babies, intentions we have to cope with the difficulties of
where many expect that babies will resemble dolls or working with very young organisms, ‘the baffling
the photogenic cherubs of advertisements, and where mixture they exhibit of psychological immaturity and
many such mothers have no training and little support readiness for a mental life in the company of other
in dealing with the realities of post-natal life must persons’ (Trevarthen 1982, p. 77).
expect there to be stress and problems (Boulton There seems to be disagreement about the best way
1983). We will examine the extent and the to conceive of the earliest stages of social
implications of these later. understanding and interaction in babies; there is,
however, substantial agreement that parents’
Intersubjectivity acceptance of babies as social partners and their
I have said that babies’ behaviour shows preferences consequent ‘framing’ or ‘scaffolding’ of joint
and regularities which make it possible to treat them activities and conversation form an extremely
as social beings, and also that babies who never effective context for infants to learn about
themselves, other people, and the outside world.

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Current theory emphasizes the contribution which seems to be less important, and bottle-fed babies
other people make to every aspect of a child’s become just as ‘attached’ as breastfed ones. Bowlby
development, redressing the underemphasis of this (1977) believes that attachments are normally
contribution which characterized Piagetian and other formed to people who are seen as stronger and wiser,
theories (see Butterworth and Light 1982; Lamb and and that babies’ attachments function to protect them
Sherrod 1981, etc.). from danger (including being left unprotected from
predators, since he has taken an evolutionary
Attachment perspective on the development of attachment,
Clinical models and theories of the development of though he was also influenced by psychoanalytic and
emotion and personality have consistently seen the systems theories). Being near to a mother figure, and
early social relationships of the child as of major becoming anxious if separated from her, would be
importance. Early good experience and in particular adaptive, particularly if there were complementary
the establishment of strong emotional ties – feelings and actions in the mother figure. The
‘bonding’ – to a mother figure who provided good biological basis of the model and especially its
care were seen as crucial for healthy later life. The synthesis of ethology, systems theory and
baby, who was at first not notably choosy about psychoanalysis contributed to its considerable
people, comes to show preferences for one person impact on theory and on practical recommendations
over another; by the age of 7 months or so these for the care of young children.
preferences amount to a strong positive feeling for There can be no doubt, first, that people (including
one or a few familiar caretakers, comforters and children) do form ‘attachments’ to other people
playmates, and a negative feeling of fear or caution or (including their mother figures), and, second, that
lack of interest for unfamiliar others. This differential these attachments are important both for the present
positive feeling has been called ‘attachment’. happiness of the individual and for his or her future
‘Attachment’ is, centrally, ‘the affectional bond or prospects. As in the case of ‘maternal instinct’ the
tie that an infant forms between himself and his theory has brought about some welcome changes in
mother figure’ (Ainsworth et al. 1978, p. 302). This how young children and their parents are treated by
bond is seen as providing the baby with affection and, professionals. A great deal of interesting and
most of all, security. It is inferred from the baby’s important research has been done on attachment (see,
‘attachment behaviour’, that is, from items of for example, Murray Parkes and Stevenson-Hinde
behaviour ‘that share the usual or predictable 1982). There are, however, a number of problems
outcome of maintaining a desired degree of which need to be worked out in defining ‘attachment’
proximity to the mother figure – behaviour through and ‘adequate mothering’.
which the attachment bond is first formed and then As can be seen from the short list of items of
later mediated, maintained and further developed’ behaviour which was given in the last paragraph but
(Ainsworth et al. 1978, p. 302). Among the relevant one, ‘attachment’ is seen in a rather varied range of
items of behaviour are enthusiasm in greeting the actions. An even wider range could have been
mother figure, distress on being left by her (or him), presented: Main and Weston (1982) seem to be
following him, seeking her attention, showing less willing to include angry behaviour like tantrums
anxiety and more confidence in his presence and fear because within an established attachment
in her absence. Babies usually become attached to the relationship they may serve the function of increasing
person who gives them attention, opportunities for proximity between partners – ‘an infant’s tantrum
joint play, and pleasantly intense social interaction, may persuade the mother either to approach him or to
particularly if that person is responsive, co-operative permit his approach; in turn, a mother’s angry
and sensitive. Provision for the baby’s physical needs behaviour often brings her infant towards her’ (Main
and Weston 1982, p. 33). It is clear that ‘attachment

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behaviour’ is heterogeneous and thus ‘attachment’ is ‘securely attached’, cried least, were least anxious
not a simple unitary concept. It might be possible to and unco-operative, and had mothers who were
measure each type of ‘attachment behaviour’ positive, sensitive and encouraged close physical
(minutes of crying, number of frowns or smiles, how contact. The other two groups were ‘anxiously
much physical effort is put into removing the barrier attached’, cried more, showed more general distress,
between oneself and one’s attachment figure); and it and were negative about close physical contact. Their
might be possible to assess the strength of each (more mothers were less sensitive to all the baby’s signals;
indicates stronger); and these ‘strengths’ might the mothers of the second group, the ‘ambivalent’
correlate highly positively, so that one could babies, were warm but highly insensitive so that their
amalgamate them into an overall measure of strength warmth came at inappropriate times, the mothers of
of attachment. However it has turned out in a large the third, ‘avoidant’, group were (relatively) cold,
number of studies with a variety of species that the angry and rejecting (Ainsworth 1982, pp. 16–17).
different behaviours may not be correlated and that Differences like these are said to persist, and to be
they vary from time to time and situation to situation associated with differences in the child’s social,
(Ainsworth 1982; Hinde 1982; Rutter 1981). This emotional and intellectual behaviour, over the first
complexity and variation has been seen as five years of life (Sroufe et al. 1977; Sroufe 1983).
undermining the usefulness of the concept of
‘attachment’: reacting to such criticisms, attachment Describing relationships
theorists like Ainsworth (1982) and Sroufe and
Waters (1977) emphasize the need to look not at We will return to the question of long-term effects of
specific attachment behaviours but at patterns of parent–child relationships later: there are important
behaviour, which are much more stable. Ainsworth and delicate questions to be asked about how any
has developed a typology of patterns of attachment effects are caused and what cognitive or affective
displayed by infants towards their mothers. They systems are involved. It must also be recognized that
were assessed using the ‘strange situation’ paradigm, the mother’s side of the relationship needs more
where the children successively experience playing consideration than it has received and that the
in a strange room in their mother’s presence, being ‘ecological context’ is important. Variation in the
left alone there, her return and repeated departure, the baby’s behaviour in different settings and towards
entry of a stranger and so forth. The ‘largest and different people (Lamb 1978), and the approach of
normative’ group of babies explored actively when defining attachment behaviour in terms of whether
their mother was present, were upset at her departure they ‘usually or predictably’ bring about proximity
and stopped exploring, and showed a strong interest between baby and mother figure, imply that we must
in interacting with her, mostly seeking close bodily consider not just the actions of the baby but also the
contact, when she returned. These babies, who were actions of the person he or she is seeking proximity
distressed by their mother’s absence, confident in her with: in other words that ‘attachment’ is a property of
presence and whole-hearted in their greeting of her on relationships not just of individuals, and particularly
her return, were said to be ‘securely attached’. A not just of the baby who is by far the more intensively
small group of babies were anxious before studied partner (Hinde 1979, 1982). Most children
separation, very upset during it, and ambivalent develop multiple attachments (Rutter 1981) and
during the reunion when they both sought and these differ somewhat in intensity, function and
resisted contact. A third group of babies showed little content. We need to consider how we describe and
distress at the separation and avoided contact or evaluate relationships.
closeness with the mother on reunion; some ignored Robert Hinde (1978, 1979) has suggested a number
and some avoided her. Observed at home, their of dimensions and principles which may prove useful
behaviour was rather similar. The first group, in constructing a ‘science of inter-personal

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relationships’. His model is complex, as the subject identical. Finally, relationships involve not just overt
requires, exploratory, as our present state of behaviour but expectations, goals, values, feelings,
knowledge requires, and presented with assessments, interpretations, memories,
characteristic care and wisdom. My discussion of it is categorizations and norms: the participants are active
necessarily brief, and is centred on the development agents not just passive subjects, and their
of relationships in childhood. A ‘relationship’ understanding of the relationship may be as
involves interactions which happen over an extended important as what ‘really’ happened.
period of time, have some degree of continuity, and In describing a relationship, then, we must attend to
involve each participant taking account of the the content and the diversity of the interactions within
behaviour of the other. Thus I would probably not it; to aspects of quality such as intensity, the sorts of
have a relationship with the shop assistant who sold communication by linguistic and other means
me a dress as it would be (unless the dress had to be involved, and the meshing of the participants’
returned or it was a favourite shop) a one-off behaviour; and to the relative frequency and
interaction with no personal past or future for either patterning of interactions. It may be worth looking to
of us. I do have a relationship with my (admirable) see whether interactions involve reciprocity, so that
secretary because our interactions have happened the participants show similar behaviour either
over a number of years and what we do during each is simultaneously or alternately as in children’s games
affected by our accumulated history of working
of rough-and-tumble, or whether the interactions are
together, so that we each take account of what the
complementary, as in mealtime interactions between
other does now, has done in the past and will probably
mother and baby. Relationships also vary in intimacy
do in the future: and of what we ourselves do, have
or the degree to which participants are willing to
done and will do.
disclose their personal secrets to each other, in
A relationship has properties which apply to the
commitment to the relationship’s duration or content,
relationship, not simply to either partner: it involves
and in the relations between the views held by the
behaviour which (usually) has meaning to the
participants about the relationship, themselves, each
participants. In describing this behaviour we must
other and the outside world. These characteristics too
make reference to content (e.g. kissing), to quality
need examination.
(e.g. kissing tenderly or passionately) and to the
patterning of behaviour. To use Hinde’s example
(1979, p. 20) ‘Clearly the relationship between a Parent–child relationships
couple who always kiss after they quarrel will be very It will be clear by now that a ‘science of inter-personal
different from that between a couple who always relationships’ will be a very complex thing; it will
quarrel after they kiss, even though the total amounts become clear that there are as yet no studies that
of kissing and quarrelling are the same in both cases.’ describe, explain or predict relationships or their
Relationships always take place in a social context, effects in the detail that Hinde is proposing on
and are affected by the participants’ social past anything but a very small sample. (Outside
outside the relationship and by their other conventional psychology, some biographers
contemporaneous relationships; and thus by many approximate this sort of description: see, for
different levels of social structure, as Bronfenbrenner example, Bate (1975) on Samuel Johnson, Thwaite
also points out. It is important to distinguish between (1984) on Edmund Gosse, Rose (1985) on five
social behaviour (which is usually studied Victorian literary marriages.) There is, however,
quantitatively) and social relationships (where interesting research which bears on some of the issues
quality may be more important); behaviour and raised, and an account of some of this follows. I
relationships may be related but they are not would like first, however, to point out some of the

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Understanding Child Development

implications of Hinde’s sketch of a taxonomy of ‘good parent’; indeed, I have suggested that if parents
relationships for the idea that the social experience of wish to produce precociously competent children,
infants and very young children determines or is a what they need to do is slightly overestimate
model for their later social relationships. The parent– children’s maturity, providing them with
infant relationship has a number of characteristics opportunities for achievements a little beyond their
which differentiate it from all other interpersonal present ones, and ‘scaffolding’ them as they extend
relationships. In the first place, there are marked their accomplishments. This is part of the teaching
cognitive inequalities between parent and infant. models of Vygotsky (1978) and Bruner (1967) and of
Certainly even very young babies show some the effective behaviour documented in various areas
remarkable cognitive and social achievements (see by, among others, Kaye (1984) and Wells (1985).
Chapter 2 and the earlier part of this chapter) and they It may be seen that relationships are multi-faceted
develop even more impressive ones very fast; complex things; that the parent–child relationship
nevertheless on the whole parents are much more differs from most other relationships so profoundly
experienced, knowledgeable, skilled, deliberate and that we might have reservations about taking too
generally capable than their children for at least the literally any suggestion that it determines later
first few months or years! The parent–infant relationships; and that it is potentially (and in most
relationship is thus more unequal than most child– cases actually) an important source of learning for the
child or adult–adult relationships, especially since child (and, incidentally, for the parent), which
status and power differences are added to the implies that it may have important effects on how and
cognitive ones. Consequently, most parent–infant what children learn and so on their lives beyond the
relationships involve complementary rather than parent–child milieu. I want next to look at what we
reciprocal interactions, as we have seen. The content know about the effects of different sorts of parent–
and diversity of interactive behaviour will be greater child relationship, starting with the relationships of
for the parent than for the infant, as will the range of parents and infants.
communication techniques that may be applied; the
meshing of parents’ and child’s behaviour will be Early experience and later effects
largely under the control of the parent. Intimacy, in
There has been a long tradition of theory which
the sense of deliberately disclosing one’s inner self to
proposes that children’s experiences with their
another person, and deliberate commitment are
parents determine much of what they are like for the
irrelevant to the very young, and the baby’s and
rest of their lives. Early experience was seen as
parent’s capacity for having views of each other as
particularly important. Weaning and toilet-training in
persons and of the relationship as a relationship are
classic Freudian theory, the neonate’s experience of
markedly different. These differences between
the breast in Melanie Klein’s model, the
participants are vastly greater than in other
establishment of a strong and uninterrupted bond
relationships, and although the baby learns fast, the
with the mother in Bowlby’s 1951 monograph, more
differences remain considerable for some years.
widely the view traditionally attributed to the Jesuits
Moreover, the fact that the baby is changing as time
that the course of the first seven years of children’s
goes by inevitably means that the relationship
lives established them forever, are examples. All
changes as to content, quality, patterning and all the
these accounts of development placed its most easily
dimensions I have outlined. Precisely the recognition
influenced time right at the beginning and implied
of this change and the provision of appropriately
that change was difficult (or impossible) thereafter.
changed behaviour is an important part of being a
This is a strong hypothesis which has turned out to be

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false, or to be correct through more subtle sequences Maternal deprivation

of causation than were assumed. Much of the debate of the last two decades on
questions of the effects of early experience centred on
Methodological and conceptual problems Bowlby’s account (1951, 1969, 1973, 1980) of what
The importance of early experience in terms of later has come to be known as ‘maternal deprivation’.
outcomes is hard to assess because of the problems of Rutter (1981) provides an authoritative review of this
first defining and second explaining continuity (as I debate. Evidence has accumulated to show that
discussed in Chapter 1). It is not always obvious what Bowlby was right to argue that deprivation and
outcome or range of outcomes a theory implies that a disadvantage have important influences on
particular early event should be expected to bring children’s psychological development: we will
about; the Freudian child’s reaction to severe toilet- examine some of the ways in which this happens later.
training, for example, might range, via differential Deprivation, however, takes many different forms
success with various defence mechanisms, from the and these have different effects via quite different
extremes of anal-expulsive messiness and psychological mechanisms; some of the bad effects
selfishness to the extremes of anal-retentive tidiness are rare, some common; some are irreversible and
and obsessive orderliness. Similarly the forms taken some quite easily made up for; some remain severe,
by anxiety at the age of 2 may differ from the forms some gradually wear off. Individual differences in
taken by anxiety at the age of 32. Further, and perhaps reaction to stresses and disadvantage are a new and
more importantly, the long-term effect attributed to illuminating area of study (Rutter 1978, 1981; Rutter
an early experience may be due not to that experience and Garmezy 1983; Garmezy and Rutter 1985).
itself but to the continuing effects of its short-term Emphasis on the early months and years as a period of
consequences, or to a pervasive chronic problem particular vulnerability is also being re-examined,
which caused both the acute early event and the and the extent to which continuity of effect persists
longer term effects which are attributed to the acute despite discontinuity of experience is providing some
event itself. For example, it has long been known that very interesting findings (e.g. Tizard 1977 on late
children whose parents divorce are more likely to adoption; Clarke and Clarke 1976; Doyle et al. 1984).
have problems such as delinquency, poor educational
achievement and disturbed social relationships. Child-rearing techniques
Some explanations of this centred on the traumatic A very considerable amount of research has been
effect on the child of being separated from one parent done on the effects of parents’ child-rearing
(and parents who were contemplating divorce were techniques on children’s personality and
urged to stay together ‘for the sake of the children’). achievement. This work has to be interpreted with
It now seems to be a much more viable alternative great caution and consideration of its theoretical
explanation to attribute the child’s behaviour bases, methodological soundness and freedom from
problems to the discord in the family which preceded cultural, historical or ideological bias. Caution is all
and accompanied the divorce and separation, and to the more necessary because parents are often judged
the loneliness, impaired finances and changes in or advised about how to bring up their children. Some
disciplining and affection which the divorce forced research base to this advice is probably better than
on the single parent left in charge of the child (Rutter none, but only if the research is fairly sound.
1981; Hetherington 1979). Distinguishing between (Hardyment (1983) reviews advice books ‘from
different models of causation is important because Locke to Spock’: a salutary story.)
their implications for prevention and treatment are One common problem has been theoretical or,
different, as the example of divorce’s effects on more forgiveably, methodological, focusing on
children makes clear. parent effects on children as if one could expect a one-

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way influence. On the contrary, it is quite clear that to identify primarily with the parent of the same sex,
differences in actual or imagined characteristics of all else being risky if not pathological, there is so far
the child call forth different behaviour in the parent. very little evidence on the validity of such hypotheses
Sex differences represent one rather intensively and almost none which deals with behaviour rather
studied example (see p. 196). A more specific than interview or questionnaire data. ‘Identification’
example comes from a study of mother–child as a concept is examined in Chapter 5 and is seen to
prelinguistic communication in normal children and have its difficulties.
children suffering from Down’s syndrome (Jones We know little about how far behaviour is
1979). Mother– child pairs were carefully observed consistent over time or different situations. There
while playing at home with a supplied set of toys. The may be inconsistency in parents’ behaviour and in
Down’s children were as much involved in children’s, and in their interpretations: and this
interaction and vocalization as the normal children inconsistency may itself be consistent or
but they phased their activities in ways which made it inconsistent. For example, it may be that what parents
difficult for their mothers to take turns. Their mothers expect children to do, and how they deal with
were correspondingly more directive and restricted. transgressions, is dependent on the setting. The
The result of this was that the Down’s children Newsons’ Nottingham parents said that they
seemed to be providing themselves with an permitted more aggressive behaviour in the privacy
environment which was less stimulating in both of the family than they did in public places,
social and cognitive terms – which might be expected particularly for girls (Newson and Newson 1976).
to contribute to the retardation of language and There may be inconsistency over short periods of
cognition usually seen in Down’s syndrome children. time; 5-year-olds are often more tired and more
Jones makes the crucial point in her discussion. ‘It is whiney at the end of the school week; a mother who
noteworthy that these subtle communication suffered from ‘premenstrual tension’ (Dalton 1983)
difficulties were only brought to light when the might be more irritable and more restrictive in the few
mother–child interactive context was taken into days before her period than she was at other times,
consideration’ (Jones 1979, p. 194). and her children might adjust to ‘Mummy being in
Not only do different children call forth different one of her moods again’. ‘Consistent inconsistencies’
behaviour from their parents because they like these pose problems for researchers seeking to
themselves behave differently or are classified classify parents’ child-rearing techniques (or indeed
differently, but each side may interpret the same any other sort of behaviour) on the basis of limited
behaviour differently according to who is doing it. amounts of data, but are very much part of what we
Again sex differences provide a wealth of examples: need to learn to be adequate social beings. They seem,
one of the most telling is the Newsons’ data on as we shall see, to pose much less of a problem for
parents’ treatment of aggression in boys and girls at 7 children than ‘inconsistent inconsistencies’ where
years old (Newson and Newson 1976, see also my what is done is so unpredictable that the child cannot
discussion of the development of aggression learn from it.
(Chapter 5) and of sex differences (pp. 195–8)). This Inconsistency on a longer time-scale is to be
interaction of behaviour and interpretation may be expected on various levels. It is obviously necessary
very complex indeed: Schachter (1982), for example, that different discipline techniques should be used on
speculates that in families with more than one child children of, say, 12 months, 4 years and 14 years.
siblings may try to be unlike each other (‘sibling Inconsistency in effects of parenting may also be
deidentification’) and one child will identify with found over a long time-scale, as children experience
each parent (‘split-parent identification’). While this other influences or change themselves. There have
is a useful counterweight to the commoner been few studies with a time-scale longer than early
hypothesis that it is ‘normal’ and ‘right’ for children childhood to pre-adolescence, so there is little data

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beyond biography. The exception is work on children variation of many variables in large samples; as far as
who were parented particularly ‘badly’: we will look recommendations on parenting go, we must be
at this later. cautious and not doctrinaire.
Most of the data we have on parenting techniques With all these caveats about models, variation,
and child behaviour comes from studies done on interpretation, interaction, inconsistency, limited
samples limited as to nationality, class, race and time spans and limited samples in mind, we can
historical period. It is not at all clear how far what is proceed to look at what variations in parenting are
found with one group may be true of other groups. It associated with what child outcomes. The main
is clear that we risk being egocentric in our dimensions investigated have been parental
interpretation of what we see and in what we ‘warmth’ or ‘responsivity’ and parental discipline
prescribe as ‘good parenting’. John Raven’s account techniques.
of a Home Visiting project in Edinburgh (Raven
1980) illustrates this. Lower working-class mothers Warmth and responsivity
were encouraged to interact with their pre-school ‘Warmth’ is hard to define, and is certainly not a
children in middle-class ways. This experience simple single trait. In most definitions it involves
changed what the mothers believed it was possible to parents being deeply committed to the child’s
do with children to encourage their cognitive welfare; responsive to his or her needs and actions;
development, but not what they felt they could willing to become involved in joint activity with the
actually do themselves: their confidence in their child, especially activity that stems from the child’s
mothering skills was diminished. We need to realize interests; enthusiastic about the child’s achievements
that some part of what is ‘good parenting’ depends on and virtues, and sympathetic and helpful about his or
what society outside the family allows to and her difficulties and failures; and sensitive to the
demands of the child and family. child’s emotional needs. No-one could possibly be all
Society’s ideas about ‘parenting’ will introduce these things all the time, so ‘warmth’ is relative.
methodological problems in at least two ways. One is There is a tendency for children whose parents are
by the biasing of the researcher’s judgement and high on ‘warmth’ to be relatively affectionate and
observation: as well as misinterpreting behaviour we sensitive themselves, to be willing to comply with
may simply not see what we think is unimportant. The reasonable commands, to be securely attached, to be
other is by the biasing of parents’ behaviour towards altruistic, and to have good opinions of themselves, in
social acceptability. This must be recognized as a other words to show a high degree of positive social
potential problem in both observational and behaviour (Maccoby 1980; Rollins and Thomas
interview/questionnaire studies. What we actually 1979; Shaffer and Brody 1981). If ‘warmth’ is
do, what we think we do, and what we say we do may notably lacking in the parent–child relationship there
be different things. is a tendency for children to show the opposite
It must finally be said that although there are characteristics and an increased probability of a range
statistically significant correlations between various of difficulties (Rutter 1981). We will consider the
parental practices and various children’s pathological extreme of lack of warmth later (p. 185).
characteristics, the correlations are not, typically, A paper by Wadsworth and Wingfield (1986/
large. As in the case of maternal deprivation, some forthcoming) reports findings from the unique
children do well despite horrific parental behaviour, second generation part of the MRC National Survey
and vice versa. The more we know about other of Health and Development of a cohort of 5362
characteristics of child and parent and about the people born in 1946. Studied at intervals through
child’s experiences outside the family, the nearer we their lives so far (Atkins et al. 1980), they have been
may get to understanding this variation in outcome. studied as parents as they have produced their first-
As far as research goes, we will need to study the co-

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Understanding Child Development

born children. 1684 children who are the oldest child Discipline and control
of a member of the 1946 cohort form the second The other much-studied dimension of parenting is
generation. This work has allowed studies of discipline or control. Baumrind (1971, 1980)
continuity and change between generations and of distinguished three major patterns: ‘authoritarian’
very long-term effects of parenting. behaviour which tended to be coercive, rigid,
Interview data from the mothers of the second intrusive and punitive; ‘permissive’, which placed
generation children includes their description of their minimal constraint on the child, avoided controlling
emotional relationship with their 4-year-old children. him or her preferring to allow freedom and self-
The 30 per cent of mothers who said they had actualization; and ‘authoritative’, which balanced
‘reserved’ or one-sided relationships with their conformity and independence, encouraging
children were much more likely to say that they discussion and negotiation in the context of firm
disciplined their child by threatening withdrawal of standards. The findings may be summarized as
love, physical punishment or separation from mother. follows:
They took part in pretend play less, they read or told
stories to the child less, they tolerated the child’s tall Daughters of Authoritative parents tended to be socially
stories less, they less often told the 4-year-old responsible, as well as independent, whereas sons, though
truthfully where babies come from. They less often socially responsible, were no more independent than
sent the child to pre-school playgroup or nursery, and average. Authoritarian styles, meanwhile, were associated
they more often described the child as ‘highly strung’ with less achievement orientation and independence in
or ‘backward’. When the children were tested at the girls and more hostility in boys. Somewhat curiously,
age of 8, their scores on tests of reading, sentence
similar patterns emerged among children of Permissive
completion and vocabulary were significantly lower parents. Daughters of Nonconformist parents resembled
than those of children who had had more daughters of Authoritarian and Permissive parents,
demonstrative and more stimulating relationships whereas the sons of Nonconformists were significantly
with their mothers at the age of 4. Some of the more independent and achievement-oriented. Baumrind
difference could be accounted for in terms of the has speculated that the similarity between the children of
lower educational level of the less demonstrative Permissive and Authoritarian parents is due to the fact that
mothers, but even after this had been statistically both types tend to shield their children from stress and thus
controlled through multiple regression analyses, inhibit the development of assertiveness and frustration
affection and verbal stimulation were still of tolerance. By contrast, Authoritative parents value self-
significance for the verbal test scores. Some assertion, willfulness, and independence and attempt to
information was gathered on the children’s
facilitate children’s attainment of these goals by assuming
friendships at the age of 8: children from ‘reserved’
active and rational parental roles. Their children, on the
relationships were much more likely to be unpopular whole, are socially responsible because their parents
at school and not to have any friends. ‘Reserved’ impose demands that are intellectually stimulating (that is,
mothers were more likely to be rather young (17–19 their expectations are demanding and clearly
at the birth of their first child), to have had some communicated but not unrealistic), as well as moderately
hospital treatment for emotional disturbance and to tension producing (inasmuch as firm discipline necessarily
say that their own childhood had been unhappy. Lack results in occasional clashes of will).
of warmth seems in this large sample to be associated The findings discussed here dramatize the fact that it is
with under-stimulation, lower achievement and not particularly valuable to consider isolated parental
difficulties for the child in getting on with other attributes like punitiveness, warmth, or control. The effects
children. The differences are not large and many of these attributes are only evident when we consider
children did not seem to be much affected, however. complex patterns of attributes. In other words, the effects of

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firm control, for example, can be understood only when we particularly likely to become not merely delinquent
know more about parents’ warmth and punitiveness (Lamb but recidivist or involved in serious violent crime, or
and Baumrind 1978, pp. 57, 59). to avoid delinquency only by having such severe
difficulties in getting on with other people that they
Results like these may be looked at in terms of are almost completely withdrawn from any social
underlying characteristics of behaviour instead of in activity.
terms of types of parenting. Rollins and Thomas
(1979) review a large number of studies. One Very poor parent–child relationships
important dimension is, they say, parents’ A majority of parents who batter their children had an
supportiveness, because supportive parents provide a unhappy, rejecting and cruel upbringing themselves
responsive and facilitating environment for the (Kempe and Kempe 1978; Rutter and Madge 1976),
child’s activity. ‘Inductive’ control, which gives though only a minority of children from battering
information about causes and reasons and families grow up to be battering parents and the
encourages children to understand the world and the evidence is that family members vary in their
consequences of their actions is also important. parenting style almost as much as the general
Coercive control and punishment has bad effects population (e.g. McGlaughlin et al. 1980, 1983). It is
because it decreases responsivity, the child’s unlikely, too, that unhappy families have their ill
effectiveness and communication. Sociologists effects simply because they provide maladaptive
studying families as ‘systems’ (e.g. Garbarino 1982) models, or because their stresses tend to induce
produce similar lists of characteristics of ‘well- psychiatric disorders in their members, or because
functioning’ families: mutual affiliation and they are unstable, or because they lack resources
affection, open communication, flexible structure (material, economic and political as well as social)
balancing individual and family needs, spending time and connections outside the family; no single cause is
and energy on family matters and joint activity. sufficient. It is likely that there is a chain of causation
It might be a carping criticism to say that this whose details will differ from case to case (Madge
picture, drawn mainly from work with middle-class 1983): indeed, to quote the first sentence of Anna
Americans, resembles the cosy ad-man’s dream. Karenina
More fairly, it must be seen as limited in both
historical and cultural terms, a model probably not All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is
much seen outside twentieth-century western unhappy after its own fashion (Tolstoy, translated R.
society. Nevertheless, it is probable that families Edmonds 1954).
which have the reverse characteristics may fairly be
called ‘badly-functioning’. Both adults and children
living in families with poor communication, hostility, We are only just beginning to tease out how it is that
low commitment, and generally negative relations disadvantage, deprivation and dysfunction arise,
are likely to have social, emotional, educational and recur and are avoided. It is a complex issue on both
employment difficulties, at least in the context of a methodological and conceptual levels, but of
society which subscribes to the ‘authoritative’ family immense social importance. Among the important
as ideal. The British evidence (Rutter 1980a; West British sources of information are Rutter and Madge
1982, 1985; Wadsworth 1979) suggests that boys (1976), Wilson and Herbert (1978), Coffield et al.
from hostile, disrupted, disordered, disadvantaged (1980), Essen and Wedge (1982), Madge (1983),
families, which provide models of anti-social Brown and Madge (1982).
behaviour in other family members and where Very poor parent–child relationships seem to be
discipline and surveillance of the child is lax, are likely to set in train a complex sequence of

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Understanding Child Development

disadvantaging events which may, if not broken by difficulties may find it impossible to get good daycare
good fortune, lead to serious disturbance when the for their child or to make the best of what is found.
child grows up, including difficulties in second- The Child Health and Education Study reports on the
generation parenting. Removing the child from the pre-school experience of a national sample (Osborn
disturbed family might be seen as one way of 1984). Their results show that it was precisely the
interrupting the sequence. With the possible most disadvantaged families who were most likely to
exception of adoption, which seems to be relatively get no pre-school provision at all for their child (16.6
successful even in the case of quite old children per cent to 2 per cent of the most advantaged group);
(Tizard 1977; Hersov 1985), this cannot be seen as a similarly children living with both natural parents or
panacea. Rutter, Quinton and Liddle (1983) found two adoptive parents, and children from small
that poor mothering and generally poor psychosocial families, were much more likely to have pre-school
functioning in early adult life were strongly experience than children from other sorts of families.
associated with being reared in an institution; a Direct support to mothers may be a more effective
harmonious relationship with the father greatly method of intervention (Bronfenbrenner 1976).
ameliorated mothering behaviour, but girls brought
up ‘in care’ were particularly likely to become Daycare
pregnant early and to marry men who themselves had The effects of daycare on children have been
psychosocial problems. Their samples were small investigated but there are limitations in the research
and all the girls came from one Inner London which make drawing conclusions rather dangerous.
borough, but the research was very carefully done. It The daycare institutions studied have often been of
is not possible to say whether problems are caused by above average quality, and comparisons of home and
the disorder and difficulties which originally led to pre-school are made difficult because little is known
children being removed from their families, or to of home experience (but see Davie et al. 1984, and p.
subsequent deficiencies in the institutions’ or foster 191 below) and because children cannot normally be
parents’ ways of rearing the child, or to purely assigned randomly to home care and daycare:
administrative factors such as the abrupt termination children are in a pre-school group because of the
of support when the child reaches ‘adulthood’ choices of their parents or other selective factors
(Jackson, personal communication). It is all too which make them different in unknown ways from
common for children to be brought up in a Home children at home. Nor is it obvious what measures of
where they never took decisions about any aspect of ‘effect’ are appropriate: IQ? behaviour problems?
their own lives – or even boiled the proverbial egg – present happiness? later school performance?
and to be expected to function independently the Clarke-Stewart (1982) and Clarke-Stewart and Fein
moment they leave it. Part-time removal from the (1983) review the research done; children who have
family, into a daycare group or the care of a child- attended good nursery schools and similar groups
minder, is likely to help but to leave the child still at a show advanced cognitive skills on entry to school,
disadvantage (Clarke-Stewart 1982; Tizard 1974). In though the effect may ‘wash out’, and they are more
part this may be because the supply of daycare for socially skilled with their peers than home-reared
children is much less than the demand (Bone 1977; children. They are still ‘attached’ to their mothers, but
Hughes et al. 1980), and many providers are very somewhat more independent and boisterous. It is
poorly paid; not surprisingly the quality of provision probably the case, then, that it is a good thing for
is in many cases worryingly low (Jackson 1979; everyone concerned if the nuclear family rearing
Bryant et al. 1980), and even in the most privileged which dominates 1980s’ Britain is supplemented or
sector, nursery schools, not as good as might have partially replaced by group experiences (see also
been hoped (Sylva et al. 1980; Meadows and Weikart 1978). Experience with adults and children
Cashdan 1983). Parents who are already having outside one’s own immediate family has after all been

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 Social relationships

the usual pattern at most historical times and in most influenced by her parents’ training in ballet; sex
places. differences in physical skills before puberty, and to a
lesser extent after it, can be related to amount of
Child effects on parents practice, and variation in strength between
Developmental studies of the socialization of children individuals also derives in some measure from
in the family must be concerned with the sequence of variation in experience. Parents often react to signs of
normative age changes, with individual differences desirable talents in the child by providing increased
within each ‘norm’, and with how both general and opportunities for them.
idiosyncratic sequences come about. As I have Other developmental changes seem to be more or
pointed out, we must accept that while parents do less universal, among them language development
socialize children, children also socialize parents. and improvements in communication (see Chapter
Also, there are changes in the child (and quite probably 4), metacognitive processes and a decline in
in parents too) as the child gets older which are impulsivity (see Chapter 3), a decrease in
contributors to the socialization process rather than dependence and an increased demand for autonomy.
results of it. As they grow up children get bigger, It is not clear how far these are products of
stronger and better co-ordinated, for example. As a socialization pressure (or of biology, Trivers 1985);
result, they pose different control problems at Maccoby (1984, p. 325) suggests that ‘within large
different ages. Almost all 2-year-olds can be outrun limits these changes are surprisingly independent
and overpowered by their parents; most 8-year-olds [sic] of the way parents treat their children’. Whether
can be overpowered but many cannot be outrun, so it or not a change is a result of socialization it must
is a matter of ‘first catch your child’; most 16-year- influence and should change parents’ treatment of
olds cannot be easily overpowered or outrun. Parents their children. A decline in impulsivity and an
haveto changetheir disciplinetechniques appropriately, improvement in communication skills, whether or
and adjusting to changes in the child by changing not they result from earlier parental practices, will
their own behaviour is one of the important general themselves make direct physical control of the child
principles that successful parents follow. Physical less necessary because they allow the use of verbal
growth is relatively free from parents’ influence after discipline techniques such as prohibition and
birth, though I cannot resist a quotation from Dickens reasoning. Parental socialization techniques coexist,
illustrating how parents have influenced it to their that is to say, with developmental changes which
have maturational, self-stabilizing, components; and
own advantage. The subject is Miss Ninetta
also, of course, with the socialization techniques of
Crummles, from the theatrical family which Nicholas
other people. Children’s relationships with other
Nickleby joins:
children form a lively new area of study. I will discuss
sibling relationships first, and then peer relationships
. . . the infant phenomenon, though of short stature, had a outside the family.
comparatively aged countenance, and had moreover been
precisely the same age – not perhaps to the full extent of the
Sibling relationships
memory of the oldest inhabitant, but certainly for five good
years. But she had been kept up late every night, and put Most children grow up in a family which contains
upon an unlimited allowance of gin-and-water from other children, brothers and sisters. Often these
infancy, to prevent her growing tall, and perhaps this siblings are an important part of the child’s life, both
system of training had produced in the infant phenomenon because children may spend at least as much time
these additional phenomena (Nicholas Nickleby, ch. 23). with their siblings as with their mothers, and more
time with siblings than with their fathers (Dunn
1983), and because relationships between child and
She had also, of course, had her motor development

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Understanding Child Development

parent are likely to be affected by the relationships turn-taking. Siblings’ interaction can be examined in
that each has with other family members such as terms of this distinction (Dunn 1983), and to do so
siblings. We have only a small amount of data on what illuminates some distinctive qualities of sibling
siblings do together, even less on what developmental relationships and their developmental effects.
effects sibling interaction may bring about, and very
little in the way of theory about sibling relationships. Complementary interaction
This unfortunate state of affairs may change as Particularly in non-western societies, and in sibling
researchers get to grips with the complexity of mutual groups with a large age-gap between the members,
influences within the family. The necessity of doing older children may be the caretakers for their younger
so is highlighted by the findings of behaviour brothers or sisters (Whiting and Whiting 1975). Child
geneticists such as Sandra Scarr. Although siblings caretakers are responsible for much of the nurturing
share an average of 50 per cent of their genetic and socialization that babies and young children
material and many aspects of the family receive. Even in our society, it is common for older
environment, they differ in personality, intelligence brothers or sisters to be informally responsible for
and most sorts of psychopathology almost as much as ‘keeping an eye on’ younger siblings, protecting
unrelated people do (Scarr 1983; Scarr and Grajek them in the school playground, fostering their début
1982). This suggests that we need to examine both in the adolescent social world, and so forth. Recent
how a ‘family environment’ differs for the different observational studies have shown that most young
members of a family and how siblings affect each children are concerned and helpful about their
other. Various theorists (see Lamb and Sutton-Smith younger siblings (Dunn and Kendrick 1982) and the
1982) have suggested that siblings may often try to be younger siblings are ‘attached’ to the older ones
as different as possible. Schachter (1982) for example
much as they are to their parents (Schaffer and
calls this ‘sibling de-identification’; she also
Emerson 1964). Children as young as 3 adjust their
proposes ‘split-parent identification’, an ugly term
speech when talking to their baby sibling in ways
referring to the possibility that if the first child
which would be likely to bring about better
identifies (or is identified with) parent I the second
communication (Dunn and Kendrick 1982; Shatz and
child will identify with parent II. What we need here
Gelman 1973, 1977); they exaggerate their
is both good data on what actually happens, and a
intonation, use simpler sentences and give more
more precise understanding of both ‘identification’
repetitions and explanations. These are some of the
(see Chapter 5) and family dynamics. It would seem
features of ‘motherese’ (see Chapter 4 on language);
to be possible that within families, as within other
what siblings rarely used from the motherese register
social groups, a range of ‘roles’ are available, and
were the various language elicitation behaviours
individuals may have some choice in their ‘ecological
such as questions and ‘scaffolded’ dialogues. In part
niche-picking’.
this was because at least Dunn’s Cambridge children
One useful distinction made in Hinde’s taxonomy
talked most to their baby siblings when engaged in
of relationships (Hinde 1979; see p. 179 above) was
play: they were concerned either to direct the baby’s
between ‘complementary’ and ‘reciprocal’ activities.
activity or to prohibit the baby from interfering with
Earlier I argued that adult–child relationships, being
the older child’s own activity. ‘Teaching baby to talk’
in so many ways unequal, will be weighted towards
would not be a sensible part of such interaction. The
complementary interaction; the activities of the adult
first-born child’s advantage in language
differ from those of the child and the two partners
development is to have had unshared language
complement each other. Relationships between
‘teaching’ from parents; they themselves do not
peers, more alike in competence and status, are likely
provide such bad models of language as has been
to involve more reciprocal interaction where the
suggested (e.g. by Zajonc and Marcus 1975) but they
partners do the same thing together or in some sort of
do ‘dilute’ the tutorial motherese environment for

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their younger siblings. Older children frequently also have strong reciprocal characteristics: siblings
teach their younger brothers and sisters about skills are relatively similar in age, competence and status
and games and their own areas of knowledge, and within the family. Observational studies of young
may do so more successfully than unrelated teachers siblings show them to be close and familiar, and this
(Cicirelli 1972, 1976). It has been suggested that intimate knowledge of each other allows both
teaching one’s own competence to someone less warmth and highly effective aggression and
skilled is a particularly good way of achieving more exploitation. For better and worse, the interaction of
oneself (e.g. Light 1983), since being faced with the brothers and sisters frequently has a strong emotional
cognitive difficulties of another person may force one tone (e.g. Furman and Buhrmester 1985).
to reflect on the problem in new and productive ways.
One aspect of young children’s interest in their
This happens even for parents informally teaching
siblings which Dunn and Kendrick (1982) emphasize
their children (Tizard and Hughes 1984); it
is their frequent imitation of each other. Initially it is
presumably would have even more potential for an
the older sibling who imitates the baby but as they
older child teaching a younger one.
The amount of complementary interaction between both grow older the younger sibling more frequently
siblings varies. The most frequently examined sources imitates the older, and throughout childhood mutual
of differences are sex and age. The evidence on sex- imitation may be an especially pleasing and exciting
based patterns is inconsistent (Dunn 1983). It has activity. Imitation is more frequent in pairs who are
more often been found that same sex sibling pairs are also friendly and helpful towards each other, and also
more positive in their relationship than different sex in same sex pairs. Warmth and perceived similarity
pairs; but sometimes there has been no difference and seem to be important for this sort of reciprocal
sometimes the pairs with one girl and one boy have behaviour. An affectionate sibling relationship is also
been the more co-operative, comforting and friendly. associated with higher levels of social sensitivity and
Possibly older girls are more strongly expected to be role-taking skills (Light 1979), and siblings’ interest
helpful and nurturant, while older boys are seen as in joint role play enables more experience of
more challenging, but the differences in observed negotiating and enacting roles than the less frequent
behaviour are, so far, small or non-existent. The and less successful participation of an adult in role
behaviour which siblings show to each other is play can do. There is some evidence that children
intimately related to the interaction between the with siblings get on better with peers (Vandell and
children and their mother (and no doubt any other Mueller 1980; Hartup 1978) presumably because
significant adult). The patterns are complex (Dunn getting on with their siblings has provided them with
1983; Dunn and Kendrick 1982) and change over practice in getting on with peers. Brothers and sisters
time, and we have no firm grasp of what causes what. will have experienced the similarity of their own with
Possibly maternal treatment of children which is each other’s needs, wishes, skills and interests which
responsive and consistent towards each one, avoiding
makes it easier to understand another person and
differential treatment and drawing children into
one’s self, and hence people generally. They will also
discussion of their responsibilities towards each
have learned about mutual help and joint activity, and
other’s wants, needs and feelings, is most likely to
about mutual antagonism, jealousy and aggression.
lead to relatively good relationships between
These social understandings and social skills can be
siblings.
applied outside the family, and some later friendships
may strongly resemble sibling relationships in their
Reciprocal interactions
interaction of closeness, support and teasing. It is
I have, so far, discussed complementary interaction
worth noting that having poor relationships with
between siblings. Their relationships do, however,
siblings is quite strongly associated with later

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Plate 15

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 Social relationships

pathology and antisocial behaviour. Sibling behaviour children spend a great deal of time (and energy, in the
both elicits and maintains aggression, and aggressive widest sense) with other children. In densely
behaviour is often used to settle sibling disputes. The populated and age-graded societies like ours, those
vast majority of children are at least sometimes other children will probably be of about the same age,
physically aggressive to their siblings (Parke and which implies relative similarity of skills,
Slaby 1983) though there is only rarely any serious experience, interests and status: that is, they can
injury. Parents often allow their children to express reasonably be called ‘peers’. In so far as this is the
aggression within the family while discouraging the case, child–child relationships are likely to involve
same behaviour in public (Newson and Newson reciprocal interactions rather more than adult–child
1976), especially for girls. It may be easier to ‘make relations’ complementary interaction (Hinde 1979;
up’ squabbles within the immediate family than in a see p. 179 above). We do not have much detailed
wider social group which is less obliged to go on evidence on what is actually typical of child–child
living together. In some families, however, coercion interactions in enough contexts (or on enough cases)
and counter-coercion escalate, or aggressive activity to know how far this is true, but it does appear that
continues even if the victim reacts in a pleasant or from the pre-school years onwards children expect to
conciliating way. Boys from these families are ‘play’ with peers not with adults and to get help from
particularly likely to be hyperaggressive ‘out of adults not from peers (Edwards and Lewis 1979;
control’ children (Patterson and Cobb 1971, 1982) Barker and Wright 1955). Even babies under a year
with a very low level of sensitivity to other people’s old seem to take a different attitude to other babies
needs, wishes and actions. Habits learned with from that they take to adults, being more friendly and
siblings, like habits learned with parents, may affect less wary (Lewis and Rosenblum 1975), though they
a child’s approach to the social world beyond the cannot sustain social interaction except with a partner
family. who can ‘scaffold’ them as an adult would (Vandell
and Mueller 1980). If the participants in a child–child
interaction are unequal in age or competence there is
Peers
more complementary interaction, with older or more
An enormous amount of work has been done recently skilled children helping younger ones, and younger
on children’s relationships with other children. It has children showing dependence on the older (e.g.
varied so much in research method (ethnographies, Whiting and Whiting 1975). Interactions between
questionnaires, sociometrics, formal experiments) in equals involve more ‘give-andtake’, both aggressive
underlying theories (neo-Piagetian, behaviourist, and conciliatory. Clearly people need to develop the
sociological, etc.) and in degree of insight (ranging social skills used between peers or towards the
from stunning banality and pomposity to an eloquent weaker as well as those used towards the more
communication of shared experience) that I shall not powerful; it may be easier for the child to do this with
attempt to summarize and integrate it. There are other children than with parents. A minority of
major reviews or collections by Hartup (1983), Lewis children have serious and lasting difficulties in peer
and Rosenblum (1975), Foot, Chapman and Smith interactions because they are very withdrawn or
(1980), Asher and Gottman (1981), among others, impossibly bossy (e.g. Newson and Newson 1976);
and an accessible introduction by Rubin (1980). Here poor peer relationships do seem to imply a bad
I will focus on peer relations as they shed light on a prognosis for later psychological health (Rutter
number of developmental issues and as part of the 1985).
ecology of the child’s life.
I have placed a great deal of emphasis so far on the Social skills in peer interactions
importance of adults for children’s development. I What then are the social skills involved in peer
must now correct that emphasis by pointing out that interaction? How do they develop? They clearly

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begin with mutual interest shown in looking and stronger. Boys with ‘feminine’ interests may be
vocalizing, and by the time children reach 2 years of forced by the ridicule of their male peers to give them
age there are sequences of interaction as well as up and adopt an attitude of exaggerated machismo,
isolated contacts (Vandell and Mueller 1980); if the while girls who wish to take part in ‘masculine’
children are familiar with each other the interaction is activities can only do so if they are as talented in them
likely to be physically closer and more mature than if as the best boys. There is little in the way of a
they are strangers (Young and Lewis 1979; compare rapprochement until well into adolescence, though
also Dunn and Kendrick 1982). Pre-school children the public sexist rhetoric does not preclude all private
take part in more positive and co-operative cross-sex friendships.
interaction as they get older, especially becoming Clearly as children move through the primary
better at taking part in joint activities such as rough school years their social skills develop, becoming
and tumble play, cooperative building and more sophisticated in themselves and being used
construction and dramatic role-taking play (e.g. differentially according to the setting, the people
Meadows and Cashdan 1983). They do not, as Parten involved, the task in hand and the recent history of all
(1932) suggested, give up solitary activity or these. They have more contacts with other children
‘parallel’ play (alongside other children but not and, as the course of sex-stereotyping in play
noticeably interacting with them); these activities illustrates, have to accommodate themselves to the
continue to take up a considerable amount of time for social norms of the group. They become more aware
pre-school children but no longer happen so often of the relative skills and statuses of their peers, and
because the child cannot manage to play with other explicit and stable hierarchies and roles develop. A
children. They begin to develop techniques for number of studies influenced by ethnography have
gaining access to other children’s games, and also described examples of these child social groups;
techniques for excluding would-be participants in among these are Sluckin (1981) on life in Oxford
their own games (Putallaz and Gottman 1981; Rubin playgrounds, Best (1983) on a Maryland class,
1980). There begin to be marked sex differences in Davies (1979) on a group of Australian children and
choice of play activity and, largely consequently, sex Fine (1981) on boys playing in Little League baseball
differences in social interaction and other experience. teams. These detailed participant observation studies
In most nursery studies, girls have chosen the quieter provide reminders that children’s peer interactions
activities of painting, sewing etc. which are done near are not all sweetness and light, and although much of
or with the teacher, and the domestic role-play of the what they show about children’s behaviour is
‘Wendy house’: boys choose play with construction deplorable, they are a vivid counter-balance to some
toys such as meccano, vigorous physical activities of the over-sanitized secondhand reports of
and rough and tumble. Through this choice girls children’s social worlds that can be found in the
spend more of their time with adults or with small literature.
groups of other children, mostly girls: boys spend
more time in larger groups of children, mostly boys, Children’s understanding of other children
and in rough, boisterous and overtly aggressive play. Theoretical accounts of why children’s interaction
There is some evidence that same-sex interactions are with peers changes as they grow older often place a
commoner and more amicable than cross-sex great deal of emphasis on cognitive changes (e.g.
interaction, (e.g. Serbin et al. 1977; Maccoby and Hartup 1983). Young children, it is suggested, are too
Jacklin 1978; compare also Dunn 1983), and this egocentric, too limited in language, and too crude in
pattern of self-segregation and mild hostility between their understanding of intentionality to take part in
the two sexes has proved very difficult for adults to complex social relationships in an effective way. This
change (e.g. Best 1983; Huston 1983). Indeed as hypothesis is weakened by recent evidence that
children get older the ideology of separation gets

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young children are less deficient in these cognitive her finger a lot’; a child of 10 or so might talk like a
skills than was supposed (see Chapters 2, 3, 4), by trait personality theorist and say ‘She’s bossy and she
recent observations of highly sophisticated social always likes to get her own way’; an adolescent might
behaviour by young children with familiar partners talk in interactionist terms and say ‘well, she seems to
(see the earlier part of this chapter, especially p. 189) want to appear to be tough and totally in control but
and by the omission of an account of how ‘cognitive’ maybe she had to act like that to get where she has,
and ‘social’ skills interact. The cognitive and remember she did show some feelings when her
developmental model of social development son got lost in the Sahara.’
suggests that immaturities of cognition retard social
interaction and better cognition advances it, but the Children’s views on friendship
connections are not well documented and it could Rather similar changes appear to occur in children’s
equally be the case that social interactions advance or free accounts of ‘friendship’. There is a shift from
retard cognition (see Light 1983; and Chapter 3 rather concrete behavioural definitions centering on
above). However a greater emphasis on the ideas and giving things to and playing with, possibly with an
understanding of the participants in social interaction emphasis on the satisfaction of the child talking, to a
has enriched theory, and the relatively new field of more abstract dispositional description involving
‘social cognition’ seems to be flourishing. caring for, sharing feelings with, comforting and so
Although the evidence so far is limited, there do forth, with more emphasis on mutual satisfaction
seem to be developmental shifts in children’s (Shantz 1983). Reciprocity underlies friendship at all
understanding of events and other people (Shantz ages; friends like each other in part because they do
1983). Young children are more likely than older ones things together. Friends tend incidentally to be rather
to describe the more obvious aspects of what they see similar to each other (Hartup 1983); they also tend to
without explaining them or making inferences about be more responsive and co-operative than non-
internal state, intention, or causes, although when the friends (Foot, Chapman and Smith 1980). These
situation is extremely familiar and they have no recall changes in free descriptions have been taken as
problems even pre-school children can go beyond indicating identical changes in the underlying ways
description. Pre-school children appear to assume of thinking about people. There are problems in this,
that most acts are intended, and so may not recognize however, as in all tasks involving interpreting
(or, more specifically, label) accidental acts as being verbalization. It is conceivable, though not entirely
accidental, though again familiarity and recall seem likely, that the conceptual structure has changed very
to be important. Attributions of intention, and indeed little and all that is being assessed is vocabulary
the concept of ‘intention’ itself, are, of course, by no growth. Further, what is said has to be interpreted:
means simple things, and it is hardly to be wondered typically probing is needed, and it is also dangerous
at that social experience plays an important part in to assume that a particular term means the same to all
their development. What children say when asked to subjects, let alone the same to a child as it does to the
describe another person changes as they get older researcher. A more structured research technique,
from descriptions of observable concrete with appropriate statistical analyses, is really needed.
characteristics and global evaluations such as ‘nice’ Among the possibilities are developments in
or ‘bad’, through more abstract inferred psychological Personal Construct elicitation, such as Beveridge and
qualities, to explanatory descriptions with more Brierley (1982).
qualifications and accounts of specific person by
situation interactions (e.g. Livesley and Bromley
Children’s attributions
1973). Thus children under 7 might talk like
Children’s answers to questions like ‘why did he do
behaviourists or demographers and say ‘She’s a lady,
that?’ have also been studied and linked to attribution
she’s got yellow hair and a loud voice and she wags

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Understanding Child Development

theory (see Chapter 5). Behaviour which a person can’t do it’ and show fear of failure, but it is rarely
shows consistently in most situations most of the time clear whether they discriminate between task
is attributed to characteristics of the person; difficulty and ability or compare themselves with
behaviour which most people show in that situation peers. Indeed, their judgement of ability is often
most of the time is attributed to the situation. Children heavily dependent on the achievement of a ‘difficult’
by 5 or 6 seem to use these attributional principles as task, and it is fairly unusual for teachers in pre-
adults do, though the evidence so far is limited schools to comment with much exactness on
(Shantz 1983). One area in which there has been children’s achievement, ability or effort (Meadows
important work is children’s attributions of the causes and Cashdan 1983; Wood et al. 1980). Once children
of achievement (Weiner 1974; Dweck and Elliott start school, however, they are confronted with
1983). Success or failure on a task can be attributed to learning tasks where success and failure are more
internal causes such as one’s effort, which is clear-cut, with teachers who demand effort and
occasion-specific i.e. unstable, or one’s ability, which achievement and with peers to compare themselves
is (relatively) stable, or to external ones such as luck with. During the early school years children develop
(very unstable), teacher favouritism (which could be ideas about their own ability relative to other
stable or unstable) or the difficulty of the task children’s and become well aware of the need to put
(relatively stable) or to some interaction of such some effort into the tasks they are faced with. They
causes. Thus if I, for example, won a fortune by start to differentiate between the contributions of
backing the horse that won the Derby, I could not ability, effort and external factors to particular
attribute my success to my own effort, since I made no successes or failures, making attributions on the basis
effort, nor to my ability, since I have never applied it of other people’s judgements as well as their own.
to studying form, conditions, and so forth, nor to Somewhere around the beginning of adolescence,
favouritism shown me by horse, jockey, bookmaker sex differences in attributions of achievement start to
or race officials, nor to the difficulty of the task, but appear. Girls are more likely to attribute their failures
only to luck – an external and unstable factor; and to ‘lack of ability’, boys to ‘lack of effort’. This
hence I would have no grounds to expect further difference rather closely resembles the many reports
success in my betting. If however I were the trainer or of differences in teachers’ comments to boys and
the jockey (or the horse), the success might well be girls. Comments to girls, particularly on ‘difficult’
attributed to aspects of my effort or ability or both, ‘masculine’ tasks like mathematics, seem more likely
unless an explanation in terms of cheating by officials to be of the ‘well, that’s rather hard for you, don’t
on my behalf or the peculiarly poor quality of the bother your pretty little head about it’ type; while
other horses provided a sufficient explanation. If comments to boys are more likely to be on the lines of
there was no such alternative explanation I could ‘you haven’t taken much trouble with this, have you:
reasonably attribute my success to internal factors you go back and try properly this time’ (e.g. Dweck et
and might expect future successes. al. 1976, 1978). Attributing one’s failure to lack of
It appears that people differ in their attributions of effort implies that success is still possible and does
their own achievement, possibly because of their not reflect on one’s ability; attributing one’s failure to
developmental histories (see Chapter 5), and also that lack of ability implies that one is inadequate, inferior
there are overall developmental changes, which I will and unlikely to succeed. The implications of ideas
outline here. Before the beginning of schooling, about achievement for personality development are
although children try to achieve goals set by discussed in Chapter 5.
themselves or by others and are pleased by their Having outlined some of the developmental
successes and sad about their failures, it is not clear changes there seem to be in children’s ideas about
how far they discriminate between different causes of other people, we can return to the question of whether
their achievement. They will often enough say ‘I more advanced social cognition brings about more

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advanced social interaction. The evidence is patchy continues to support discrimination against females
and inconclusive, and the most that can be said is that which worsens every aspect of many lives from the
while social cognitive ability may be necessary for earliest moment that sex can be diagnosed until death
understanding other people it is not sufficient for pro- (which, since selective infanticide and abortion
social behaviour (as I discuss on p. 157). Boys who almost always select against females, may not be
are aggressive are more likely to interpret someone separated by a long time gap). I would recommend
else’s ambiguous action as being intentionally hostile that anyone who does not regard this as deplorable
(Dodge 1980); children who don’t attend to the read Janet Radcliffe Richards’s The Sceptical
psychological characteristics of those with whom Feminist (1982); it is quite clear that it is a significant
they interact may have problems interpreting other injustice to treat males as the norm and females as
people’s behaviour. Those who believe that they are defective males. Such a bias needs to be eradicated:
helpless may fail to achieve anything; those who so do interpretations of sex differences which
believe that they can achieve anything they want, if attribute them to universals (such as being more
they only try, may do so (Dweck and Elliott 1983). All muscular) which just happen to be convenient for the
we can say at the moment is ‘may’: ‘it all depends’, discriminatory status quo (such as males’ domination
and we know very little about what it depends on. of politics). Throughout it must be remembered that
with the exception of a few physical characteristics,
Sex roles, sex differences, sex typing mostly directly related to reproduction, all ‘sex
For reasons which remain obscure, one of the most differences’ are differences between the averages for
common ways the human race categorizes itself is male and female populations, and population
into male and female. This division seems to have distributions overlap. To give a rather obvious
been made in most cultures (e.g. Rosaldo and example, although there are more highly aggressive
Lamphere 1974) and in most historical periods (e.g. males than there are highly aggressive females, and
O’Faolain and Martines 1974); it is also one of the the average level of aggression is higher for males
discriminations very young children seem to make. than for females, our present Prime Minister, though
Along with it goes an assumption that males and genetically female, is conspicuously more aggressive
females are significantly different: this assumption than many of her male colleagues and predecessors.
underlies common-sense or lay discussion of what She disproves the stereotyped belief that only men are
males and females are like, and has significantly forceful and assertive, if not the stereotyped belief
affected the research literature, which reports that women are unsuited to politics.
differences far more often than similarities (Maccoby In the chronology of the development of sex
1980; but see also Archer and Lloyd 1980). differences (see, for example, Huston 1983; Tanner
Furthermore, the assumed differences of ‘common- 1978), the first ‘cause’ is genetic: males have an XY
sense’ and of much research almost all involve taking chromosome combination and females have an XX
males as being more representative of the human pair. The effect of having the XY pair is to produce
species (homo sapiens), or even simply better (e.g. differentiation of primitive gonadal tissue in the 6-
field independence vs field dependence), and females week-old foetus into what will be testes; if this
as inferior or deficient in so far as they are different differentiation does not happen, the tissue develops
from males (e.g. Kohlberg’s moral judgement work, into ovaries at about the twelfth week. The male
Chapter 5). This sort of value judgement has been foetus’s testes produce more androgen than females’
under a heavy attack for at least the last hundred years gonads do, and high levels of androgens lead to the
and has to some extent gone underground, at least so development of penis and scrotum. Female foetuses
far as most western psychological literature is exposed to high levels of androgen, and male foetuses
concerned. Elsewhere it remains strong, and it which are insensitive to androgen, develop external

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Understanding Child Development

genitalia more like those of the other sex. At birth, Campos et al. 1983). Fathers show more
gender is normally assigned on the basis of what the differentiation than mothers do: they also later play
external genitalia look like: and the pink or blue vigorous physical games much more with their sons
infant blanket is followed by the childrearing patterns than with their daughters. Boys are encouraged in
that I will describe presently. their gross motor activity and in goal-directed tasks:
It is still a possibility that the genetic difference girls are given more quiet interpersonal stimulation
directly influences sex-typed behaviour other than and more encouragement to play with dolls. There is
that involved in reproduction, that, for example, consistent evidence from studies of American and
males are more aggressive or females more nurturant European children that suggests this pattern of
because of biologically based factors such as the differences in parents’ behaviour persists through
current level of hormones circulating in their childhood (Huston 1983; Block 1984). What’s more,
bloodstream, or prenatal hormone exposure which where parents’ behaviour is less sex-stereotyped,
has led to different brain development. Huston children’s tends to be less stereotyped too. Girls in
(1983), reviewing the research, points out the many particular are probably more likely to have
defects in studies which make conclusions androgynous interests, activities and aspirations if
impossible at present. An interdisciplinary their mothers are employed or career-oriented
collaboration between psychologists and biologists (Etaugh 1974, Gold and Andres 1978, Block 1984)
is needed. The existence of a biological basis to any though the evidence is not strong.
sex difference would not, of course, mean that social Adults playing other social roles towards children
influences were unimportant, or that nothing Can or may also treat boys and girls differently. What
should be done to change either sex’s behaviour. That evidence there is suggests that, for example, boys get
something is ‘natural’ does not mean that it is right or more vigorous disapproval and scolding from their
unchangeable, as I argued in Chapter 1. teachers, maybe more attention altogether in the
Whatever genetic influences there may be on sex secondary school (Huston 1983). Girls are probably
differences, there are certainly very pervasive social under less pressure to persist independently with a
ones. I would argue that it is these that turn the task if they run into difficulties (Serbin et al. 1973,
biological ‘sex’ into the social ‘gender’. Children 1978); Serbin and others argue that this reduces their
observe adults: predominantly they see women sense of being in control of their own achievement.
fulfilling ‘female’ roles – domestic responsibilities, A major source of pressure towards separate
service or nurturing jobs, aesthetic or social gender roles comes from other children. Even in the
recreations – and men fulfilling ‘male’ roles – heavy pre-school years, interaction with a child of the same
physical work, technical and scientific jobs, athletic sex seems to be more likely to be mutually responsive
and aggressive recreations. People as observed in the and positive (Lamb and Roopnarine 1979), though
mass media, and in children’s literature, are even the picture is more complex if the other child is a
more stereotyped than in real life (Lobban 1978; sibling (Dunn 1984), when it is heavily influenced by
Delamont 1980). The models that children are each child’s relationship with their mother. As
exposed to, then, tend towards two contrasted children move through the primary school, peer
stereotypes. Children develop concepts of what are pressure amounts to a ‘curriculum’ second only to the
appropriate behaviours for each sex as part of their official curriculum of the 3 Rs –
learning about the social world.
Boys and girls are also treated differently by adults. it ‘taught the children the traditional role behaviour for their
This begins at birth, when boy babies are seen by their sex. It taught little girls to be helpful and nurturant. It taught
parents as stronger and more vigorous, and girls as little boys to distance themselves from girls, to look down
softer, more fragile and less alert (Rubin et al. 1974; on them, and to accept as their due the help that girls offered.

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Through its insistence that boys learn to be boys and girls better at certain visual–spatial skills, and females’
learn to be girls, this second curriculum resulted in separate tendency to be more nurturant and neater at fine
worlds for the two sexes within the classroom and on the motor activities.
playground’ (Best 1983, pp. 4–5). The development of children’s gender roles
through childhood which we find in the literature is
complex and contentious. I would summarize it as
This picture of ‘feminine’ girls and very
follows. It begins with the chromosomal difference
‘masculine’ boys forming separate and somewhat
which leads to differences in the external genitalia,
hostile groups comes out of most studies of what
and thus to social assignment of a particular gender,
children think gender roles and the social world
and possibly also to other physical differences
should be like. There is much peer pressure on
relevant to psychological development, though these
individuals to conform to these stereotypes. A girl have been hard to identify. Thereafter there is a
may achieve honorary status as a boy if she has tendency for parents to treat their sons as more active
exceptional talents at some masculine activity, such and independent and interested in masculine toys,
as football, and girls’ social worlds can be somewhat and their daughters as more fragile and dependent and
androgynous in the primary school years. For a boy to interested in feminine toys. Children themselves
be ‘girlish’, at least where his peers can see, seems to come to discriminate between males and females by
be social death. The children Best studied insisted the age of 2 or 3 and tend to choose to play the games
that boys must be strong, be good fighters, be ‘able to of their own sex. They learn through the pre-school
take it and dish it out’, be the leader, be best at years what are ‘appropriate’ activities for each sex,
everything. They must not show any weakness or and increasingly through the primary school years
sentiment, must not cry, must not associate with girls adopt for themselves and prescribe for others sex
or with ‘sissies’ (boys who associate with girls), must typed behaviour which is stereotyped. There is
not do ‘feminine’ activities such as housework or explicit influence by adults on sex-typed play and
helping teacher, must not care more for another occupational choice – ‘boys don’t play with dolls’,
person’s welfare or success than for their own. Only ‘girls can’t be train drivers’ – and more implicit
after adolescence do these stereotypes become less influence on social behaviours such as independence
rigid, and androgynous and non-sexist behaviour in and persistence with hard tasks. Peer groups set up
public begin to be a viable possibility. and to a considerable extent enforce separate
Children’s sexism, leading them as it does into stereotypes. The mass media confront children with
separate social groups and different activities, gives virtually polarized sex roles.
them different experiences during their school years. This is a depressing picture, all the more so since
On the whole, girls gravitate towards adults more, do children are often so adamant about their sexism.
more domestic activities, show more affection and There are grounds for hope, though, in that sex
nurturance towards their friends and to younger stereotypes are changing and becoming more multi-
children, and because of their vulnerability to sexual dimensional. It is more acceptable than it has been in
assault and unplanned pregnancy are more carefully the recent past for men to nurture their children, show
chaperoned than boys (e.g. Newson and Newson their feelings, and negotiate rather than fearing loss of
1976). On the whole, boys keep away from adults face, all ‘feminine’ behaviours: and for women to
more, play more competitive and vigorous games, assert themselves, seek public achievement and
fight more, have gangs rather than intimate pairings, responsibility, and be recognized as having equal
and are freer to range over longer distances than girls. rights to men’s. There has not been enormous, or
Differences in exposure, practice and subjective steady, or uniform progress, but there has been some:
importance might well account for sex differences even, as Best (1983) documents, among school
such as males’ tendency to be more aggressive and children!

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Understanding Child Development

Learning the social world of school be) in authority over their class, though some of the
Schooling is compulsory in Britain from the age of 5, ideologies of education disguise this, particularly for
and most children are in some sort of schooling by young children (King 1978). Part of children’s
their fifth birthday. ‘Good behaviour’ in school is also learning about school is concerned with learning how
more or less compulsory, and success at school tasks, to behave towards teacher, how to negotiate teacher–
while not compulsory, is desirable if life in school is child interaction. As I discuss in Chapter 4, the
to be satisfying, as well as for the certification which discourse strategies and the etiquette of classrooms
comes in its later stages, and for the job prospects differ in significant ways from those of home. There
which follow schooling and are supposed to be served is less shared knowledge, less child-contingent
and enhanced by it. Children are therefore obliged to dialogue, a requirement that the child puts up his or
learn what to do in school. Since schools are very her hand and waits to be called on rather than shouting
complex social institutions, what is learned is also out an answer, a much higher rate of questions from
complex and in particular operates on many different the adult where the adult already knows the answer
levels. I shall do no more here than mention some and the child knows the adult knows it, and so forth.
recent attempts to investigate children’s social Children have to abide by such rules if the class is to
worlds in school and to indicate some of the issues function at the ‘busy hum’ which the ideology of
that are involved. early childhood education advocates. Teachers teach
Even nursery and kindergarten children quickly some of these rules explicitly through personal
develop a social ‘script’ which answers questions directives, ‘Put your hand up if you know, otherwise
about ‘what do you do in school’. Fivush (1984) I can’t hear you’ or statements of general rules and
found narratives about school which used the general principles, ‘Kind hands don’t grab and snatch, they
present tense, relatively abstract language and correct share’ (King 1978). Some emerge more implicitly
temporal order in 5-year-olds on their second day in from their discourse strategies and the children’s
school. A sample protocol went like this: experience of classroom interaction. Typically, the
classroom rules which young children encounter are
Play. Say hello to the teacher and you do reading or
phrased as either inviolable general principles which
something. You can do anything you want to. Clean up, then
everybody always follows, or suggestions which are
you play some more and then clean up. And then you go to
designed to benefit the children, and which they will
the gym or playground. And then you go home. You have
therefore go along with if they know their best
your lunch and then you go home. And you go out the
interests, but which allow for some negotiation of
school, and you ride on the bus or the train and go home
what is done and when. Complying with such rules is
seen as good and sensible, since they are supposed to
(Fivush 1984, p. 1708).
work to the benefit of all involved. Non-compliance
in the very young pupil is ‘silliness’ or ‘immaturity’:
British 4-year-olds, interviewed about what they did in the worst young offenders, and in older children, it
in nursery school, produced rather similar narratives smacks of wilful disobedience or rejection of school.
(Meadows et al. 1977; Weaver and Meadows, in All these categorizations of failure to comply with
preparation); when asked what their teachers did their school rules lead to negative evaluation of the child.
answers echoed the protocol’s emphasis on clearing Children who are used to other sorts of rules for
up, and teachers were predominantly organizers and behaviour and ways of achieving compliance and do
controllers. Willes (1983) induced her sample to play not adopt the school conventions quickly may
with a toy school and complete a story about a school therefore be at particular risk of being frowned on by
day, and they too represented the teacher as being in the teacher (Rogers 1982).
authority. I said, and meant, that teachers need to be in
It is of course the case that teachers are (and need to authority over the children in their classes. Pollard

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1985 provides an interesting analysis of the They may well be right in believing that the school
‘interests-at-hand’ of teachers and pupils in primary system does little for their present happiness and their
schools. Teachers are supposed to ensure that the future prospects: their rejection of it, however, make
maximum amount of learning goes on in their this even more likely.
classroom in an orderly way; achieving a reasonable It is likely that any classroom, and certainly any
approximation of this is essential if they are to feel school, will contain children who are coping with the
they are competent teachers, if they are to avoid the demands of the school’s social structures in different
stress of coping with classroom conflicts and the ways: teacher-centred ‘goodies’ and ‘swots’, peer-
external threat of criticism from the head teacher and centred ‘gangs’ and ‘roughies’, some children who
other authorities, and if their work is to be felt to be are virtually isolates, and some who, clever or
enjoyable and fulfilling. Pollard sees this socially skilled, are popular with both teachers and
maintenance of selfimage as a person who enjoys and peers. Current detailed work on interaction in the
controls their work, autonomously and without classroom and the playground, and on pupils’ and
undue stress, as the primary interest-at-hand of the adults’ concepts of school and of the functions of
teacher. education, is just beginning to sort out how and why
Pupils are also concerned to maintain an children transact the social networks of schools, and
advantageous self-image. They are in the difficult what the effects of their coping strategies are. Among
position of having two reference groups within the useful sources are Hargreaves 1967, Rogers 1982,
classroom. In so far as they relate to the teacher (or Best 1983, Davies 1982, Delamont 1983, Galton,
other adults), it will serve this interest-at-hand to be Simon and Croll 1980, Hammersley and Woods
successful learners and dutiful pupils, thus avoiding 1984, King 1978, Newson and Newson 1977, Pollard
the stress, indignity and unhappiness of failing or 1985, Sluckin 1981 and Willes 1983.
being reprimanded. The uneven power relationship As well as coping with the social systems of school,
between teacher and pupil may make it a sensible children have to cope with the formal curriculum of
coping strategy to seek to please teacher. However, educational activities. They begin to categorize
the child has his or her peers as another reference school tasks as early as the nursery class (Beveridge
group. Classrooms are crowded with children and Brierley 1982; Weaver and Meadows, in
(another difference between home and school), preparation). Links between home’s and school’s
playgrounds are dominated by them, and definitions and methods of education facilitate
relationships with other children are an important learning and the child’s satisfaction (Newson and
part of school life. They contribute to children’s self- Newson 1977; J. Tizard, Schofield and Hewison
images, their enjoyment of school, the stress they 1981; B. Tizard, Mortimore and Burchell 1981).
feel, and their dignity or indignities. Children’s Anxiety over hard work is the first source of
informal social systems are complex and demanding unwillingness to go to school discussed by the
(Davies 1979, Sluckin 1981), and not always Newsons in their study of 7-year-olds: some children
compatible with the demands that teachers make. complained of being distracted from their work by
Analyses of children in schools have often found their peers or by non-academic activities such as PE
children who belonged to a sort of counterculture or prayers. Reading has a crucial place in the
opposed to the teacher-centred ethos. Typically, they curriculum because it is so often necessary for other
would be doing less well on the tasks of the school subjects. Taking control of their own learning
curriculum than their peers, would get little intrinsic processes, that is developing and using their
satisfaction from lessons (which are ‘boring’) and metacognitive abilities, is another component of
find more enjoyment in ‘messing about’, ‘having a being a successful school learner, the more so
laugh’, and a culture of toughness of which staging because pupils must share limited access to the
confrontations with authority was an important part. teacher’s help and limits on the funding of schools

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Understanding Child Development

have led to sparse provision of books and other 10, asked the children’s mothers to rate how often
materials for reference. Some children classify their child took part in each of a list of activities.
certain areas of the curriculum as outside their Medrich et al. (1982) surveyed the out of school
interests or their competence, not always to their activities of 764 children of 11 to 12 years old in
advantage (as, for example, girls deciding not to do Oakland, California.
science subjects). Coping with the curriculum, with Of these studies, those by Petrie and Logan and by
peers and with teachers are intricately mingled CHES are not yet fully analysed, and Medrich et al.
throughout school life. tabulate their data without conveying as vivid a
picture of the children’s lives as the Newsons do. The
Children’s independent social worlds Nottingham 7-year-olds were beginning to achieve
Studies of life inside the school and inside the family some independence of their families, playing outside
form major components of the research literature on and making their own way home from school, though
children’s social development. Despite their possible still expected to get back promptly, say exactly where
developmental importance, studies of children’s they were going before leaving the vicinity of home,
unsupervised social worlds are comparatively rare. and stay within specified geographical limits. Their
Such settings are by definition (and often by the outdoor pursuits including bicycling, playing on
children’s deliberate choice) away from adults’ swings, ball-games (football for boys and bouncing
attention, so that it is difficult for researchers to gain games for girls), skipping (mainly girls), roller-
access to them save through the children themselves skating, and making dens. Playground games such as
acting as informants. Studies by Best 1983, Davies hopscotch and marbles seemed rarely to be played
1979, Fine 1980, Patrick 1973 and Sluckin 1981 outside school. As in the Opies’ studies, special
illustrate the possibilities of such a method and verbal rituals and magical beliefs flourished within
provide fascinating pictures of the groups studied, groups of age-mates.
but it is hard to know how representative these groups The most commonly mentioned indoor pursuit for
are. The Opies’ work on children’s ‘lore and these 7-year-olds was drawing, painting and
language’ (Opie and Opie 1967, 1969, 1985) makes a colouring: ‘reading’, that is reading plus looking at
notable contribution to our understanding of the books, magazines and comics was another major
social order of their worlds, but again needs to be interest, particularly for girls and middleclass
placed in a wider picture of their discourse, children. ‘Writing’ was also common (see Chapter 3).
relationships and activities. Other indoor activities included model making
There is a limited amount of evidence from large (mostly boys) and sewing or knitting (girls), making
samples on what children’s out of school activities scrapbooks and collecting things. The Newsons
are. The Newsons asked their Nottingham mothers provide a list of some of the things collected.
some open-ended questions about the spare time
activities of their 7-year-olds (Newson and Newson The following are some of the things collected by children
1976) and also have similar unpublished data on these in our sample: silver paper, acorns, matchboxes, string,
same 400 children at later ages (E. Newson, personal buttons, tins, nuts and bolts, stones, conkers, tickets, boxes,
communication). In a study whose central concern religious texts, cigarette cartons, toffee papers, make-up,
was how children were supervised out of school matchsticks, free gifts, ‘rubbish’, bottle-tops, nails, cheese-
hours and what recreation they enjoyed, Petrie and boxes, handbags, handkerchiefs, pens and pencils, plastic
Logan (1984) collected information on the pursuits of gardens, jigsaws, gollywogs, caterpillars, car numbers,
423 London 7-year-olds and 11-year-olds. The Child marbles, model planes, soft toy animals, leaves, coins,
Health and Education Study, in its survey of its chemistry set equipment, records, Meccano, costume dolls,
national cohort sample (14,000 children) at the age of dolls’ clothes, books, little cars, feathers, money, Action

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Man sets, comics, jewellery, magazine pictures, scraps, about it and the apparent facts. The theories are, on
beermats, dolls’-house furniture, labels, postcards, the whole, highly dramatic and subjective – ‘storm
ornaments, railway accessories, drawings, badges, and stress’, ‘identity crisis’, etc. – and the facts, such
fircones, tea cards, Lego parts, stamps, soldiers, marbles, as they are, seem to be much drier and more mundane.
bubble-gum cards, bricks, cactuses, footballers (sic), In so far as theory and fact can be resolved, I think the
sweets, insects, Premium bonds, Scalextrix accessories, resolution lies in the social psychology of
shells, ‘anything that’s weird or ghastly’, and pictures of adolescence, hence its appearance in a chapter on
Cliff Richard (Newson and Newson 1976, p. 134, Penguin social development. I am particularly conscious that
edition). I am writing at a time when the economic structure of
society makes certain aspects of adolescence
peculiarly difficult in ways that are possibly
The more recent data provided by Petrie and
historically new. Being adolescent may not in itself
Logan, by CHES and by Medrich et al. pick up
be a problem, but being adolescent now plausibly is
watching television as a major indoor pursuit:
harder than other statuses now or being adolescent at
‘activity’ would probably be an inappropriate word,
other periods.
since the detailed comments made in the American
study suggest that television viewing was passive,
non-critical, non-selective and non-social, even Theories of adolescent crisis
when several family members watched together. Coleman (1980), reviewing theories of adolescence,
Bicycling, sport, swimming and reading were divides them into two groups. The psychoanalytically
common activities among these other samples too, oriented theories, Freud’s own, Erikson’s, the work
however. In each study, some children went to of Blos, Laing and others, stress an adolescent
museums and cinemas or to organizations such as vulnerability of personality and maladaptiveness of
Scouts and Brownies. Substantial numbers of the behaviour, due to the pressure of sexual instincts
Oakland sample and of some of the ethnic groups in surging up after the latency period, and to the need to
the London sample went frequently to church or to disengage from parents and establish an adult
church based activities: the CHES survey did not ask identity. Sociological theories stress that adolescence
about this. Music or dance lessons were common in is a period of role change: emerging from childhood,
the CHES and Oakland samples but are not where roles are largely ascribed to the child by other
spotlighted in the London study. In Oakland and in people, he or she has far more choice of what role to
London there were substantial differences in what undertake and of how to play it. This discontinuity,
children did associated with cultural and economic pressures from other people (and the culture via the
differences: the CHES data have not yet been mass media) which may give contradictory messages
analysed in these terms. Some of the activities of about ‘what you should be’, and a sense that adult
children included in these studies are heavily responsibilities loom while adult rewards may be
dependent on sponsorship and practical support by further off, lead to a problematic transition period.
adults: the collaboration or at least tolerance of Both schools of thought thus emphasize difficulties
parents is necessary even for collections of ‘pictures and crisis. At the same time, there are the physical
of Cliff Richard’. The less child-centred influence of changes of puberty – clumsiness, spots, the first
the commercial world also, of course, shapes possibility of reproduction, settling with a body
children’s activities. different in shape and size from what you’ve been
used to. Gloom, anxiety and sturm und drang seem all
too likely. They may seem so inevitable as to be
Adolescence
necessary parts of development, essential
I have very little to say about adolescence: my main
contributors to the entire process of growing up.
point is that I see a discrepancy between theories

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Understanding Child Development

Indeed, Erikson (1965) suggests that those who do adolescence stages of crisis in the self-concept:
not suffer an ‘identity crisis’ as adolescents are less Harter (1983) describes the model put forward by
mature and healthy as adults than those who have a Levinson, which appears to have a new crisis for each
crisis and resolve it successfully. five-year period. These models are fortunately
outside our current concerns, though there could be
Self-concept in adolescence work to be done on how the parents’ (or teachers’)
A theory of ‘adolescence as a period of confused ‘mid-life transition’ crisis affects the child’s
identity, role change and crisis’ surely suggests that it ‘adolescent crisis’.
will be a period when people’s views of themselves
change a great deal, and that this change will amount Social relationships in adolescence
to a significant disturbance. It is by no means easy to Relations between parents and children are popularly
assess people’s self-concepts (see p. 146) and there is supposed to be at their worst in adolescence, with the
little really sound evidence on the point at issue. ‘generation gap’ at its widest. Before adolescence,
However, during the early part of adolescence young children have been dependent on their parents to a
people probably are more self-conscious and more considerable extent; after it, western societies expect
self-critical than they were before puberty, with a them to be independent. Being independent and
fluctuating and rather unfavourable self-image and a being dependent each have advantages and
loss of belief that other people can be relied on for disadvantages: children are likely to be ambivalent
favour and indulgence. A highly negative self-image about the change. So are parents, for the same
and behavioural maladjustment tend to go together, reasons. Inconsistent behaviour will accompany the
those who depreciate themselves most being likely to inconsistent attitudes. Nevertheless, most of the
be depressed, anxious, failing in school and feeling adolescents interviewed say that they like, respect
incompetent in social relations. The adolescents and feel close to their parents, use them as models and
studied by Coleman (1980) expressed particular fear disagree with them mainly about minor issues of
and anxiety in their concept of themselves in the dress, taste in music, and so forth (Coleman 1980;
future; the worsening of job prospects for adolescents Maccoby and Martin 1983). The patterns of family
since 1980 suggests that these fears were justified and interaction I discussed earlier (p. 181) are relevant
the present generation might be worse off (Donovan here; some families do show pronounced alienation
et al. 1986). and conflict between parents and children in
It is clear, however, that although adolescents do adolescence, but on the whole they were functioning
experience doubts about themselves and do have to in pathological ways before the children’s
make difficult decisions about their future lives, to adolescence was reached (Rutter 1983).
call this a disturbance is appropriate only to a The next component of adolescent conflict I want
minority. Most people do not experience an acute or to glance at is the influence of the peer group. Again,
dramatic ‘crisis’, a ‘crucial moment when in the popular imagination this is an unhappy
development must move one way or another’ influence; the child, once happy and innocent in the
(Erikson 1968, p. 16): rather they manage a gradual bosom of his or her family, is seduced away into the
adaptation. The twig bends, rather than either dissident, dissonant, discordant peer group of
snapping or remaining rigidly straight. Nor is adolescence and becomes there interested in wicked
‘identity’ ever completely resolved, except perhaps things like sex, drugs, pop music and ‘having a good
for the very fortunate extravert: most of us have to time’. This stereotype too does not stand up to what
question what we are at points of moral or practical evidence there is (Coleman 1980; Douvan and
difficulty well after adolescence. Some theorists, Adelson 1966; Hartup 1983). Peer group and parents
recognizing this, produce descriptions of the post- tend to agree about fundamental moral principles,

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and conflicts seem to centre on socially trivial issues How far ‘youth’ participate in ‘youth culture’ is an
(such as, for example, taste in music). Hartup (1983) open question. The likely answer is that most
sees parent and peer influences as being synergistic in adolescents live in the interacting cultures of family,
adolescence, just as they are before and after. Thus, if school and peer group as well as ‘youth culture’,
neither parents nor peer group approve of something, seeing the latter as subjectively important but
the adolescent probably won’t either; if either one recognizing its transitory nature. Autobiographical,
approves, the adolescent’s approval will rise but not ethnographic and interview accounts (e.g. Kitwood
so far as it would reach if both parents and peers 1980; Jenkins 1983; McRobbie and Nava 1984; and
approved. In early adolescence, however, there is Griffin 1985) show the complexity of the social
much pressure to conform with peers and this may picture. At present, many adolescents have difficulty
include conformity with antisocial norms (Berndt in achieving employment and financial
1979). Again, the ecology of the child’s life needs to independence and there may be less individualism
be considered (Bronfenbrenner 1979); adolescence and less freedom than there was in Martin’s focal
is perhaps a time when the individual’s various period, the 1960s.
microsystems are more varied and less linked into a It is part of the sturm und drang model to say that
tightly structured mesosystem than before or after. adolescence is a period of high rates of psychological
stress and malfunctioning. The rates of manifest
Adolescence as marginal social status
psychiatric disturbance do not support this view
(Rutter 1980, Rutter et al. 1976). Rutter’s Isle of
A very interesting book by Bernice Martin (1981) is
Wight population showed very little increase in
relevant to this point. She uses the models of
disorder between 10 and 14 overall, though there was
anthropologists and sociologists to argue that
an increase for girls. Psychiatric disorder became less
societies have an intrinsic tension between formal
likely to be associated with severe family discord
responsible rational behaviour and anarchic free
than it had been in childhood. Depression seemed to
behaviour. The latter is disruptive and so has a
be the central problem, mild depression being very
marginal status, being controlled by restriction to
common indeed, as it is among some adults (Brown
certain social groups or certain times. Thus the
et al 1978).
bohemian very rich and the extremely poor are not
Thus although theories of adolescence emphasize
really expected to work, though the rest of us earn our
its stresses and problems, most adolescents seem to
bread and simultaneously deplore and ogle their
manage a fairly smooth transition from being a child
freedom. Or the whole town works hard and is
compulsively respectable for fifty weeks of the year, to being an adult. Coleman (1980) suggests they are
but has a few major festivities such as Christmas and able to do this by coping with one problem at a time:
Wakes Week which are marked by large-scale now examinations, now getting permission to stay
spending, drinking, new clothes and a greater out late, now achieving the current peer group
appearance of sexuality, what Hoggart (1957) called desirable. A number of issues have to be got through,
‘excursions into the Baroque’. Or, in the few years of but they come into focus at different ages and are not
independent income between leaving school and so interdependent that solution of one requires prior
starting a family, the young are allowed to be a bit solutions of others. So far as there is evidence, this
outrageous; ‘sowing wild oats’, ‘you’re only young ‘focal theory’ seems to fit it better than the ‘crisis’
once’, ‘gather ye rosebuds while ye may’. ‘The theories which have dominated the literature. It is
culture of youth is marked by spontaneity, hedonism, when there are multiple problems which have to be
immediacy and a kind of self-centred emotional dealt with simultaneously, or which have become
intensity which, from some angles, can resemble chronic, that real stress, storm and breakdown occur.
individualism, non-conformity or even rebellion’ One all too conspicuous example of this is juvenile
(Martin 1981, p. 139). delinquency.

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Understanding Child Development

Delinquency offences; the proportion of females is much lower,

Young children very rarely commit offences which but girls too are at their most criminal between 14 and
bring them before the courts: only a small minority of 17. There has been a considerable rise in adolescent
adults over 21 come into conflict with the law. A indictments since the 1950s:Figures 18 and 19 show
substantial proportion of male adolescents, however, the Home Office figures on criminal statistics for
are found guilty of, or cautioned for, indictable England and Wales.

Image rights not available

Figure 18 Males* found guilty of, or cautioned for, indictable/triable-either-way offences† per 100,000 population in the age group by
age
Notes: *Other offender, i.e. companies, public bodies, etc., are included with males aged 21 and over because separate figures are not
available before 1976; †Adjusted for changes in legislation.

Source: From Rutter and Giller (1983), pp. 69; using Home Office figures.

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 Social relationships

Image rights not available

Figure 19 Females found guilty of, or cautioned for, indictable/triable-either-way offences* per 100,000 population in the age group
by age.
Note: *Adjusted for changes in legislation.

Source: From Rutter and Giller (1983), p.70; using Home Office figures.

Some of this rise is due to changes in legislation, teens, are very similar in personality and background
police recording practices and a trend towards to boys who have never been convicted. The picture
dealing with antisocial behaviour formally rather is rather different for the persistent offenders and
than informally, but such factors cannot account for those who commit serious, particularly violent,
all the increase. Many offences do not get to court, crimes.
and we know from self-report studies that many are Rutter and Giller (1983) provide a very thorough
committed but not detected; doing delinquent things review of the evidence on why people become
must be seen as very common indeed among delinquent. One of the most striking features of their
adolescents. survey is how thin and patchy the evidence is. One
‘Delinquent acts’ cover, of course, an enormously problem is the heterogeneity of ‘delinquents’, as I
wide range from the rather trivial to the very serious described in the last paragraph. Another is that
indeed. They include going to an X film when under measures are often weak, samples small and studies
age, which I and a majority of adolescents in West’s correlational. However they do tentatively identify a
sample (West 1982, p. 22) have done (I was taken by list of individual and psychosocial factors which
my father), to major offences against property or characterize the prototypical persistent delinquent,
persons. Most delinquents’ offences are from the less the delinquent who repeatedly commits non-trivial
serious end of the range: the commonest concern theft antisocial acts. He probably comes from a large
and handling stolen goods (Maliphant 1979; West family, in worse economic straits than its neighbours
1982) which account for more than 80 per cent of and in worse housing, with poor relations between
girls’ crimes. About half of delinquents, mostly those family members, ineffective supervision and
who have committed relatively minor offences, are discipline by parents and discord between them, and
one-time offenders who never appear before the other members of the family also have criminal
courts again. Most boys who are delinquent as records. He is probably a school failure, has a lowish
adolescents, even those with several convictions, IQ and attention problems, has been unpopular with
lead a normally law-abiding life as adults. his peers and troublesome to his teachers since he was
Delinquents who only commit minor offences, once 8 or 10, and spends a lot of time alone watching TV,
only or only a few times, and give it up in their late preferring violent programmes. He lives in an area

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Understanding Child Development

where there is little constructive amusement and lots who were in the worst 10 per cent on each factor, and
of unsupervised public space. His social competence, among the most ‘troublesome’ according to teacher
and his attractiveness to potential employers, are both and peer ratings, were very likely to be among the
low. (We should not, of course, draw premature ‘persisting recidivists’, the young men convicted at
conclusions about which of these ‘cause’ delinquency least twice before the age of 19 and at least once for
either directly or indirectly.) further offences between their nineteenth and
The same sort of picture comes from two important twenty-fourth birthdays. West calls their social
studies which followed their sample from a very early histories ‘little short of disastrous’. About half of
age through to adulthood. Wadsworth (1980) reports these most disadvantaged boys were persisting
on delinquency in the 1946 cohort, West (1982) on a delinquents, and of the remainder many more showed
sample of Inner London working-class boys born in some degree of social disturbance. West and his
1952–4 and studied from the age of 8 to the age of 21 colleagues did a special study of the eighteen men
(for some subgroups 24). These studies have the great who, although they had a history of serious
advantage that they know something about the lives deprivation, had no criminal conviction by the time
of their subjects before they were first found to be they were 22, in order to discover how they ‘had
delinquent, and they have similar data on boys who managed to avoid becoming delinquents’.
do not become delinquent. West (1982, pp. 29–30) Depressingly, it turned out that some of them actually
lists ‘five major factors, each of which had a had committed offences, and ‘the most prominent
significant association with likelihood of characteristic’ of the group was their social failure.
delinquency, that could not be explained in terms of Many were chronically unemployed, or employed in
other, more basic items’. The factors were ill-paid low-status jobs; their housing was often very
poor; their social contacts were often limited and their
emotional relationships unsatisfactory. West (1982,
1 coming from a low-income family (n = 93,
pp. 93–6) gives some case histories: this is the last
percentage delinquent = 33.3 per cent) one, which is said to be ‘fairly representative’.
2 having four or more siblings by your tenth birth-
day (n = 99, percentage delinquent = 32.3 per cent)
Case 011
3 parents considered by social workers to be
unsatisfactory as child-rearers (n = 96, percentage This man’s childhood was marred by impoverished
delinquent = 32.3 per cent) conditions and extreme conflict between his parents. His
4 IQ below 90 (Raven’s Matrices Test) (n = 103, father, who was chronically unemployed, was described as
percentage delinquent = 31.1 per cent) ‘something of a hermit’, hardly communicating even with
5 parent with criminal record (n = 103, percentage his wife. He was 11 when his father died. His mother was an
delinquent = 37.9 per cent) aggressive, quarrelsome woman with a long history of
psychiatric disorder, diagnosed as ‘paranoid psychosis
with depressive features in a woman of low intelligence’.
These adverse factors overlapped considerably in the
She made a number of suicide attempts.
sample; of the sixty-three boys who had a combination
At school he was no disciplinary problem, but was a poor
of at least three of the five, thirtyone became juvenile
attender and was taken before a juvenile court on that
delinquents.
account. He was thought to be under his mother’s
These are unsatisfactorily high rates: each factor
domination. She would excuse his absences by
approximately doubled the rate of delinquency in
complaining, falsely, that his classmates were picking on
boys who had it compared with the other boys in the
him. His mother and two of his siblings sustained criminal
sample who did not. Each factor was quite common,
convictions.
too, applying to about one in four of the sample. Boys

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 Social relationships

He declined to be interviewed at 18, his mother writing happiness inevitably leads to doom and gloom, they
on his behalf to order the interviewer to stay away, may behave in ways which make this progress more
commenting that there were plenty of delinquents among likely. The child who is continually told that he will
the ignorant lot living in the same building who needed come to a bad end, and who is given no opportunity to
‘surveying’. She was at the time in great conflict with the make good, may be trapped into a delinquent career
housing authority who would not re-house her because she which a positive intervention might have avoided.
was such a troublesome tenant. When he was aged 20 the It is very important to recognize that despite the
social services became involved with the household tragedies shown in West’s sample and corroborated
because his mother had attacked him with a knife. He was in Wadsworth’s, a substantial number of even the
noted then to be an unemployed labourer who rarely went most disadvantaged boys do not become delinquent.
out in the evening. Wadsworth (1979) shows that life history does not
At age 23 he did agree to an interview. He was still living predict mild delinquency any better than chance
with his now aged mother, but his siblings had all left and would (p. 124), and although 87 per cent of the worst
he no longer saw them. The home was in a very neglected delinquents did have broken homes, large families
state with the living-room floor partly eaten away by rats, and so forth in their backgrounds, 13 per cent did not
the banisters and several doors fallen offand the sink almost and would not have been predicted to be delinquent
permanently blocked. He had been continuously from their biographies. Family problems should
unemployed for eighteen months. He never went out in the perhaps be eliminated for their own sake, not because
evenings and his only two regular excursions each week they ‘cause’ delinquency.
were to collect social security money and to window gaze. We also need to investigate what factors have
He had no outside human contact apart from repair men and protected children against their poor life chances.
council officials. Asked about offences he replied Rutter, Wadsworth and West all emphasize how
pathetically: ‘I can’t get into trouble, I never go out’ (West much more research is needed. However there are
1982, pp. 95–6). someindicationsastowhatmay beworth investigating.
We need to know much more about strategies for
coping with stress and disadvantage. We need to
Material on the 1946 cohort (Wadsworth 1979),
know about the subtleties of adults’ behaviour which
while basically in agreement, provides further
may affect both the opportunities that children are
illustration of the range of problems associated with
given and their self-concepts. We need to know more
coming from a severely disadvantaged and disrupted
about the peer group, about the ecology of the social
family. Wadsworth shows that children from
world of the adolescent. Most juvenile delinquency
disrupted families, as well as being more likely to be
involves acts undertaken with peers: West’s
delinquent, were more likely to be admitted to
delinquents particularly seem often to have begun by
psychiatric hospitals or to be divorced or separated
acting as lookout or fence to other boys and
before the age of 26, and were more likely to have
progressed, if that’s the right word, to more personal
suffered from disorders like stomach ulcers or colitis.
involvement in the offence. Boys who persist in
Wadsworth puts forward two possible ways in which
spending their time with a group of four or more other
there might be causal links between early disruption
boys are more likely to remain delinquent than those
and later disorder. One is that the children have
who move to mixed-sex groups and give up ‘the
learned to handle stress differently; the other is that
gang’. Parental supervision of friendships and
generally held social views of the effect of a disrupted
moving away from the inner city’s street corner
family life have acted as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If
society also decrease delinquency. Marriage,
teachers, social workers and other significant adults,
provided it was to a non-delinquent girl, also seems to
and perhaps the children themselves too, believe that
reduce delinquent behaviour, in so far as it produces
coming from a family which lacks unity and
a change for the better in the social group and in

207
Understanding Child Development

personal relationships. Being employed possibly prevent it. Prevention, here as elsewhere in the social
decreases aggression and delinquency, though system, is demonstrably cheaper than cure (e.g.
decisive evidence is lacking. Living in a pleasant Weikart 1978).
environment with neighbours feeling responsible for
their surroundings is probably also important (Rutter Overview
and Giller 1983).
The core problem in persistent delinquency does In this book I have tried to put together our current
seem, though, to be the quality of the relationships evidence on various aspects of child development to
and the social training that the child has received in make a coherent picture of the patterns and sequences
his family and other social interactions. We do not at that occur. I have tried to indicate what general
present know enough to identify exactly which theories of child development might try to describe
children are going through experiences which will and explain, with some detail in certain well-studied
leave them at risk for delinquency, nor do we know areas. I have argued that we must try to achieve sound
what to do about identified problem cases. Whipping causal explanations of both continuities and
a child away from an ‘unsatisfactory’ family into the discontinuities in development, not just ‘getting age
care of the local authority, for example, is not the ideal differences’ but explaining in detail what has led to
solution. Potentially, a great deal could be done to what within the ecosystems that the child inhabits,
reduce the disadvantages experienced by many and where the sequence might have been different.
families and to improve the stability and the harmony Detailed studies of restricted areas of development
of child-rearing inside and outside the home. More are appropriate, but we must be cautious about
work needs to be done to establish what prevention of isolating one aspect of children’s development from
individual predisposition to delinquency is possible. others: cognition, emotion, social relationships and
Changes in wider social spheres such as schools, the contexts, language, physical state, all co-occur and
mass media, local ecology and the economy and mutually influence each other. We cannot assume that
political system we live in could also reduce what we see in one setting or one sample or at one time
delinquency. There are a multitude of influences will be representative in detail of different settings,
which bring about antisocial behaviour; once their samples or times unless we understand very fully why
interactions are understood we will be better placed to things are the way they are.

208
Further reading

Chapter 1 Introducing the study of child Further reading

development Bruner, J. S., Sylva, K. and Jolly, A., Play (Penguin
1976)
Introductory reading Davie, C. et al. , The young child at home (NFER/
McGurk, H., Growing and changing, Methuen Nelson 1984)
Essential Psychology (1975) Rubin, K. H., Fein, G. G. and Vandenberg, B., ‘Play’,
Wood, D., ‘Models of childhood’, in Models of Man, in E. M. Hetherington (ed.) vol 4 of the Handbook
ed. A. J. Chapman and D. M. Jones, British of Child Psychology (New York: Wiley 1983)
Psychological Society (1980) Schwartzman, H. B., Transformations – the
anthropology of play (NY: Plenum Press 1978)
Smith, P. K. (ed.), Play in animals and humans
History
Ariès, P., Centuries of Childhood (Penguin 1973) (Blackwell 1984)
de Mause, L. (ed.), The History of Childhood Sutton-Smith, B. (ed.), Play and learning (New York:
(Souvenir Press 1974) Gardner Press 1979)
Hardyment, C., Dream Babies (Jonathan Cape 1983)
Pollock, L. A., Forgotten Children (Cambridge Chapter 2 Perceiving and understanding
University Press 1983)
Introductory reading
Donaldson, M., Children’s minds (Fontana 1978)
Scientific issues
Flavell, J. H., Cognitive development (Englewood
Bronfenbrenner, U., The Ecology of Human
Development (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 1977)
University Press 1979) Howe, M. J. A., A teacher’s guide to the psychology
Kessen, W. (ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, of learning (Blackwell 1984)
vol. 1, series ed. P. H. Mussen (Wiley 1983)
Haith, M. M. and Campos, J. J. (eds.), vol 2 of the Further reading
Handbook of Child Psychology Brainerd, C. J., Piaget’s theory of intelligence
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 1978)
Rutter, M., ‘Family and school influences on
Bruner, J. S., ‘On cognitive growth’, in J. S. Bruner,
behavioural development’, Journal of Child
R. Olver and P. M. Greenfield (eds.), Studies in
Psychology and Psychiatry, 26 (3) (1985a), pp.
cognitive growth (New York: Wiley 1966)
349–68.
Butterworth, G. and Light, P. (eds.), Social cog nition:
Rutter, M., ‘Family and school influences on
studies of the development of understanding
cognitive development’, Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 26 (5) (1985b) (Harvester Press 1982)
Case, R., Intellectual development (New York:
Academic Press 1985)
Play
Flavell, J. H. and Markman, E. M. (eds.), vol. 3 of the
Handbook of Child Psychology (New York: Wiley
Introductory reading
1983)
Garvey, C., Play (Fontana/Open Books 1977)

209
Understanding Child Development

Haith, M. and Campos, J. (eds.), vol. 2 of the Robinson, E. J., ‘Metacognitive development’, in S.
Handbook of Child Psychology (New York: Wiley Meadows (ed.), Developing thinking (Methuen
1983) 1983)
Harris, P., ‘Infant cognition’, in M. Haith and J.
Campos (eds.), vol. 2 of the Handbook of Child
Psychology (New York: Wiley 1983)
Chapter 4 Language development
Kail, R. V. and Bisanz, J., ‘Information processing Introductory reading
and cognitive development’, in Advances in child de Villiers, P. A. and de Villiers, J. G., Early language
development and behaviour, vol. 17 (New York: (Fontana/Open Books 1979)
Academic Press 1982) Wells, C. G., Language, learning and education
Meadows, S. (ed.), Developing thinking (Methuen (Centre for the Study of Language and
1983) Communication, University of Bristol 1982)
Perlmutter, M. (ed.), ‘Intellectual development’,
Minnesota symposium on child psychology, vol. Further reading
19 (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Elliott, A. J. Child language (Cambridge University
1985) Press 1981)
Flavell, J. and Markman, E. (eds.), vol. 3 of the
Handbook of Child Psychology (New York: Wiley
Chapter 3 The development of cognitive
1983)
skills Heath, S. B., Ways with words (Cambridge
University Press 1983)
Introductory reading
Lock, A. (ed.), Action, gesture and symbol
Howe, M. J. A., A teachers’ guide to the psychology
(Academic Press 1978)
of learning (Blackwell 1984)
Maratsos, M., ‘Some current issues in the study of the
Kail, R. V., The development of memory in children
acquisition of grammar’, in J. H. Flavell and E. H.
(San Francisco: Freeman 1979, 1985)
Markman (eds.), vol. 3 of the Handbook of Child
Sternberg, R. J., Human abilities (New York: W. H.
Psychology (New York: Wiley 1983)
Freeman 1985)
Romaine, S., The language of children and
adolescents: the acquisition of communicative
Further reading
competence (Blackwell 1984)
Brown, A. L. et al., ‘Learning, remembering and
understanding’, in J. H. Flavell and E. H. Markman
(eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology, vol. 3 Chapter 5 Personality
(New York: Wiley 1983)
Bryant, P. and Trabasso, T., Nature 232 (1971), pp. Introductory reading
Cook, M., Levels of personality (Holt, Rinehart &
456–8
Winston 1984)
Ellis, A., Reading, writing and dyslexia (Erlbaum
Maccoby, M., Social development: psychological
1984)
growth and the parent–child relationship (New
Kail, R. V. and Hagen, J. W., Perspectives on the
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1980)
development of memory and cognition (Hillsdale,
Rutter, M., ‘Psychopathology and development:
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates)
links between childhood and adult life’, in M.
Meadows, S. (ed.), Developing thinking (Methuen
Rutter and L. Hersov (eds.), Child and adolescent
1983)
psychiatry: modern approaches (Blackwell
Mills, M. and Funnell, E., in S. Meadows (ed.),
Scientific Publications 1985c)
Developing thinking (Methuen 1983)
Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B., Memory and Intelligence
(Routledge & Kegan Paul 1973)

210
 Further reading

Further reading Rubin, Z., Children’s friendships (Fontana 1980)

CIBA foundation symposium 1982, Ruth Porter and Schaffer, H. R., Mothering (Fontana 1977)
Geralyn M. Collins (eds.), Temperamental
differences in infants and young children (Pitman
Further reading
1982)
Coleman, J. C. (ed.), The school years (Methuen
Bandura, A., ‘Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory
1979)
of behavioural change’, Psychological Review, 84
Dunn, J. and Kendrick, C., Siblings (Grant McIntyre
(1977a), pp. 191–215
1981)
Erikson, E., Childhood and society (Penguin 1963)
Hetherington, E. M. (ed.), vol. 4 of the Handbook of
Parke, R. D., and Slaby, R. G., ‘The development of
Child Psychology (New York: Wiley 1983)
aggression’, in E. M. Hetherington (ed.), vol. 4 of
Hinde, R. A., Towards understanding relationships
the Handbook of Child Psychology (New York:
(Academic Press 1979)
Wiley 1983)
Kaye, K., The mental and social life of babies
Radke-Yarrow, M., Zahn-Waxler, C. and Chapman,
(Methuen 1984)
M., ‘Children’s prosocial dispositions and
Pollard, A. W., The social world of the primary school
behaviour’, in E. M. Hetherington (ed.),
(Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1985)
Socialisation, personality and social
Richards, M. P. M., The integration of a child into a
development, vol. 4 of the Handbook of Child
social world (Cambridge University Press 1974)
Psychology (New York: Wiley 1983)
Richards, M. P. M. and Light, P., Children of social
worlds: development in a social context (Polity
Chapter 6 Social relationships
Press 1986)
Introductory reading Rutter, M., Changing youth in a changing society
Coleman, J. C., The nature of adolescence (Methuen (Harvard: Harvard University Press 1980)
1980) Rutter, M. and Giller, H., Juvenile delinquency
Rogers, C., A social psychology of schooling (Penguin 1983)
(Routledge & Kegan Paul 1982)

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237
Author index

Abelson, R. 111, 118 Block, J. H. 146, 196

Adelson, J. 84, 202 Bloom, L. 123
Ainsworth, M. D. S. 144, 177, 178 Blos, P. 201
Andres, D. 196 Boden, M. A. 36, 37
Applebee, A. 84 Bone, M. R. 186
Archer, J. 162, 195 Borton, R. W. 62
Ariès, P. 13 Boulton, M. G. 176
Asher, S. R. 29, 191 Bower, T. G. R. 52, 62
Aslin, R. N. 51, 52, 53, 118, 119, 137 Bowerman, M. 123
Atkins, E. 183 Bowlby, J. 177, 180, 181
Austin, G. 44, 135 Bradley, L. 78, 79, 88, 131, 137, 138
Braine, M. D. S. 38, 39
Baddeley, A. 40, 71 Brainerd, C. J. 20, 33, 98, 99, 141
Bahrick, H. P. 71 Bransford, J. D. 41, 69, 76
Bahrick, P. O. 71 Bremner, J. G. 64
Baillargeon, P. O. 33, 34, 37, 139, 140 Brierley, C. 193, 199
Bairstow, P. J. 54 Brody, G. H. 183
Balfour, G. 99 Bromley, D. B. 110, 193
Bandura, A. 149, 150, 163 Bronfenbrenner, U. 20, 113, 179, 186, 203
Banks, M. S. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 77 Bronson, W. C. 152
Baring-Gould, C. 28 Brooks-Gunn, J. 146, 147
Baring-Gould, W. S. 28 Broughton, J. M. 62
Barker, P. 144 Brown, A. L. 41, 44, 69, 71, 75, 85, 93, 94, 104, 105, 106,
Barker, R. G. 191 107
Bartlett, F. C. 75 Brown, G. 33, 37
Bate, W. J. 179 Brown, G. W. 203
Bates, E. 126, 135 Brown, M. 185
Baumrind, D. 184, 185 Bruner, J. S. 44, 60, 61, 76, 107, 109, 121, 140, 175, 180
Beilin, H. 37 Bryant, B. 186
Bereiter, C. 94, 95, 96 Bryant, P. E. 37, 38, 44, 62, 78, 79, 88, 99, 109, 131, 137,
Berger, M. 144 138
Berlyne, D. E. 27 Buhrmester, D. 189
Berndt, T. J. 203 Bullowa, M. 176
Bernstein, B. 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 135 Burchell, B. 199
Bertenthal, B. J. 147 Burghardt, G. M. 26
Berthoud-Papandropoulou, J. 138 Burnett, J. 13
Best, R. 29, 192, 197, 198, 199, 200 Buss, A. H. 144
Bettelheim, B. 83 Butterworth, G. 49, 63, 64, 108, 177
Beveridge, M. 193, 199 Byers, J. A. 26
Biggs, J. B. 85, 87
Bisanz, J. 42, 43, 44 Calkins, L. 97
Bissex, G. L. 97 Callanan, M. A. 140
Blakemore, C. 58 Camaras, L. A. 153

238
 Author index

Campione, J. J. 47, 196 Dale, P. S. 123

Candee, D. 171 Dalton, K. 182
Carey, S. 140 Davie, C. E. 98, 126, 131, 186
Carpenter, T. P. 101 Davies, B. 153, 192, 199, 200
Case, R. 40, 41, 43, 104 Dawkins, R. 155, 173
Cashdan, A. 25, 29, 30, 66, 70, 154, 186, 192, 194 De Casper, A. J. 118
Cavanaugh, J. C. 106 De Loache, J. S. 75, 106
Chall, J. S. 78, 81, 131 De Mause, L. 13, 15
Chapman, A. J. 191, 193 De Villiers, J. G. 119, 137
Chapman, M. 157 De Villiers, P. A. 119, 137
Chess, S. 144 Delamont, S. 196, 199
Chi, M. T. H. 43, 75, 139 Delia, J. 136
Chomsky, N. 123, 124 Dempster, F. N. 81
Cicirelli, V. G. 189 Desforges, C. 33, 37
Clark, E. V. 64, 75, 119, 121, 123, 137, 139, 140 Dickinson, J. 114, 115
Clark, H. H. 119, 121, 123, 137 Dodge, K. A. 153, 195
Clark, M. M. 78, 81 Doise, W. 105, 108
Clark, R. 136 Dominic, J. F. 93
Clark, R. W. 161 Donaldson, M. 40, 99
Clarke, A. D. B. 173, 181 Douvan, E. 202
Clarke, A. M. 173, 181 Downing, J. 78
Clarke-Stewart, A. 186 Doyle, A.-B. 181
Clay, M. 81, 91 Dunn, J. F. 117, 144, 147, 148, 150, 157, 174, 187, 188, 189,
Cobb, J. A. 191 192, 196
Cochran-Smith, M. 81 Duveen, G. 109
Coffield, F. 185 Dweck, C. S. 150, 194, 195
Cohen, G. 42
Cohen, L. B. 72 Edmonds, R. 185
Cole, M. 76, 141 Edwards, C. P. 191
Coleman, J. 146, 201, 202, 203 Ehrhardt, A. A. 54
Coleman, M. 103 Eimas, P. D. 118
Collerson, J. 93 Eisenberg-Berg, N. 164, 170
Collins, A. 83, 84 Elliot, A. J. 210
Condon, W. S. 118 Elliot, E. S. 150, 194, 195
Connolly, K. J. 30 Ellis, A. W. 77, 78, 79
Conroy, J. S. 101, 103 Emerson, P. E. 188
Cook, M. 110, 151 Emler, N. 105, 108, 114, 115
Corran, G. 102 Erikson, E. 19, 145, 146, 201, 202
Corrigan, R. 118 Ervin-Tripp, S. 136
Coulthard, R. M. 132 Essen, J. 185
Coveney, P. 96 Etaugh, C. 196
Covitz, S. 126 Eysenck, H. J. 143, 144
Cox, B. 139
Cox, M. V. 37, 91, 95 Fagan, J. F. 50, 64, 72
Croll, P. 199 Fagen, R. 24
Crook, C. K. 53 Fein, G. G. 28, 29, 30, 186
Cross, T. 125 Ferrara, R. A. 41, 69
Crowder, R. G. 77, 78 Feshbach, N. D. 153
Csiksentmihalyi, M. 24, 27 Feshbach, S. 153
Curtiss, S. 173 Field, T. M. 175
Fifer, W. P. 118

239
Author index

Fine, G. A. 192, 200 Green, M. 154

Finkelstein, N. W. 150 Grice, H. P. 117, 128, 135
Fischer, K. W. 147 Grief, E. B. 170
Fivush, R. 198 Griffin, P. 76, 141, 203
Flapan, D. 110 Griffiths, M. 92, 93, 96
Flavell, J. H. 37, 44, 73, 74, 75, 106, 108 Groen, G. J. 101, 102
Foot, H. C. 191, 193 Gruendel, H. 112
Ford, M. E. 95
Forgas, J. P. 108 Hagen, J. W. 70, 73
Francis, H. 77, 78, 79, 93 Haith, M. M. 47
Fransella, F. 43, 139 Hale, G. H. 70
Frederiksen, C. H. 93 Hall, J. W. 98, 99
Freeman, N. 37, 64, 91 Halliday, M. A. K. 93, 119, 122, 135
Freud, A. 148 Halverson, C. F. 144, 145
Freud, S. 25, 28, 145, 148, 161, 162, 170, 181, 201 Hamlyn, D. W. 60
Frith, U. 77 Hammersley, M. 199
Fry, C. L. 119 Hardyment, C. 181
Funnell, E. 81, 84, 107, 109, 112 Hargreaves, D. 150, 199
Furman, W. 189 Harlow, H. F. 16, 54, 160, 173
Furth, H. 113 Harlow, M. K. 16, 54, 160, 173
Fuson, K. C. 98, 99 Harris, P. L. 50, 61, 62, 64, 65, 77
Harter, S. 150, 202
Gallistel, C. R. 98 Hartup, W. W. 147, 189, 191, 192, 193, 202
Gallup, G. G. 147 Harvey, P. G. 57
Galton, M. 70, 199 Hawkins, P. R. 128, 129
Garbarino, J. 20, 185 Hayward, C. 81, 83
Garmezy, N. 181 Heath, S. B. 81, 125, 128, 133, 135, 145, 153
Garvey, C. 23, 25, 28, 29, 135 Heider, E. R. 139
Gelman, R. 33, 34, 37, 98, 106, 109, 124, 139, 140, 188 Heider, F. 110
Gewirth, A. 163 Held, D. 127
Gibson, E. J. 61, 64 Herbert, G. W. 185
Gibson, J. J. 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 Herbert, M. 54
Giddens, A. 127 Hersov, L. 186
Giles, H. 127, 133 Hetherington, E. M. 181
Giller, H. 154, 204, 205, 208 Hewison, J. 81, 199
Gilligan, C. 169, 170 Hicks, L. 49
Ginsberg, H. 138 Hinde, R. A. 160, 176, 178, 179, 180, 188, 191
Gleitman, L. R. 138 Hiscock, M. 59, 60
Gold, D. 181, 196 Hofer, M. A. 15, 16
Goldman, J. 20 Hoffman, M. L. 155, 157
Goldman, R. 20 Hoggart, R. 203
Goodenough, D. R. 70 Houlbrooke, R. 13, 14
Goodnow, J. J. 44 Howe, M. J. A. 85
Goody, J. 76, 141 Hughes, M. 84, 91, 92, 98, 102, 103, 107, 125, 128, 129,
Gordon, J. C. B. 128, 129 130, 132, 186, 189
Gottlieb, G. 16, 160 Humphreys, A. P. 27
Gottman, J. M. 29, 191, 192 Huston, A. 54, 192, 195, 196
Gould, S. J. 24, 25, 26, 143 Hutt, C. J. 25, 65, 66
Grajek, S. 188
Gratch, G. 63 Inhelder, B. 34, 37, 104, 106
Graves, D. 97 Isbell, B. J. 108

240
 Author index

Istomina, Z. M. 76, 107 Kurtines, W. 170

Jacklin, C. 154, 192 Labov, W. 117, 122, 128, 131

Jackson, B. 175 Lamb, M. E. 177, 178, 185, 188, 196
Jackson, S. 186 Lamphere, L. 195
Jahoda, G. 113, 114 Landau, M. 98, 103
Jarman, C. 91 Lane, H. 173
Jencks, C. 18 Lash, J. P. 121
Jenkins, R. 203 Laslett, P. 13
Johns, M. A. 54 Laszlo, J. I. 54
Johnson, N. S. 83 Leach, P. 113
Johnson-Laird, P. N. 38, 44 Lesh, R. 98, 103
Jones, O. H. M. 182 Levinson, D. J. 146, 202
Jones, R. R. 57 Levy, V. M. 74
Jorm, A. F. 78 Lewis, M. 146, 147, 152, 191, 192
Jusczyk, P. W. 51, 52 Lewontin, R. C. 26
Liberman, I. Y. 78
Kagan, J. 18, 28, 50, 70, 72, 145, 147 Lickona, T. 166
Kail, R. V. 42, 43, 44, 73, 74, 75, 107 Liddle, C. 186
Kamler, B. 91 Lieven, E. V. M. 125
Karmiloff-Smith, A. 104, 106, 136 Light, P. H. 108, 112, 158, 177, 189, 193
Kaye, K. 174, 175, 176, 180 Livesley, W. J. 110, 193
Kearsley, R. B. 72 Lloyd, B. 75, 139, 162, 195
Kelley, H. H. 110 Lobban, G. 196
Kelly-Byrne, D. 24 Lock, A. 175
Kelso, J. 154 Loftus, E. F. 75
Kempe, C. H. 185 Logan, P. 200, 201
Kempe, R. S. 185 Lord, A. B. 76
Kendrick, C. 117, 147, 148, 157, 174, 188, 189, 192 Luria, A. R. 76, 141
Kennell, J. 54, 175
Kessen, W. 209 Maccoby, E. E. 148, 149, 152, 154, 158, 171, 183, 187, 192,
Kidd, K. K. 16, 17, 57 195, 202
Kilarr, G. 91 Macfarlane, J. A. 53, 54
King, R. 198, 199 McGlaughlin, A. 185
Kinsbourne, M. 34, 59, 60 McGurk, H. 70
Kitwood, T. 203 Machida, S. 139
Klahr, D. 45, 100, 104 McKee, L. 108
Klaus, M. 54, 175 Mackie, D. 108
Klausmeier, H. J. 37 Maclean, R. 78
Kobasigawa, A. 75 McRobbie, A. 203
Koeske, R. D. 43, 139 McShane, J. 77, 120, 121
Kogan, N. 70, 138 McTear, M. 136
Kohlberg, L. 157, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 195 MacWhinney, B. 135
Kohn, M. 144, 154 Madge, N. 18, 19, 176, 185
Koluchova, J. 173 Main, M. 177, 178
Konner, M. 57, 146, 151, 152 Maliphant, R. 205
Kosslyn, S. M. 72 Mandler, J. M. 83
Kroll 93 Manning, M. 155
Kuhn, T. S. 105 Maratsos, M. 123, 125, 210
Kukla, A. 149 Marcus, G. B. 188
Kurdek, L. A. 157 Markman, E. M. 84, 94, 139

241
Author index

Martin, B. 203 Opie, P. 29, 153, 200

Martin, J. A. 158, 171, 202 Ortony, A. 139
Martines, L. 195 Osborn, A. F. 133, 149, 186
Martlew, M. 93
Matthews, R. 78 Painter, M. 65, 66
Mayer, R. 97, 100 Paley, G. 29
Mead, G. H. 146, 147 Papousek, H. 53, 72
Meadows, S. 25, 29, 30, 34, 37, 66, 70, 154, 186, 192, 194, Parke, R. D. 152, 153, 191
198, 199 Parkes, C. M. 177
Medrich, E. A. 200, 201 Parkman, J. M. 101, 102
Mehler, J. 173 Parmelee, A. H. 55, 56, 58, 59
Meltzoff, A. 62 Parten, M. B. 25, 192
Meyer-Bahlburg, H. 54 Pascual-Leone, J. 40, 41, 43
Michalson, L. 152 Patrick, J. 200
Midgley, M. 109, 160, 161 Patterson, G. R. 130, 153, 191
Millar, S. 25 Perlmutter, M. 72, 106
Miller, P. 163 Peters, R. S. 123, 169, 170
Miller, S. A. 37 Petrie, P. 200, 201
Mills, M. 81, 84, 107, 109, 112 Philps, J. 66
Money, J. 54 Piaget, J. 15, 20, 25, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44,
Moore, M. K. 62 45, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 69, 83, 98, 99, 101, 104, 105, 106,
Mortimore, J. 199 108, 109, 110, 113, 136, 141, 163, 165, 166, 167, 169,
Morton, J. 77 177, 191
Moser, J. M. 101 Pisoni, D. B. 51, 52
Moskowitz, D. S. 181 Plewis, I. 66
Moss, H. A. 145 Plomin, R. 144
Much, N. C. 170 Pollard, A. W. 154, 199
Mueller, E. C. 189, 191, 192 Pollock, L. A. 13, 15
Mugny, G. 105, 108 Pool, D. L. 170
Munsey, B. 169 Powesland, P. F. 127, 133
Mussen, P. H. 164, 170 Putallaz, M. 192
Myers, N. A. 72
Quinton, D. 186
Nava, M. 203
Nelson, K. 111, 112, 118, 125 Rabinovitch, M. S. 118
Nelson, K. E. 72 Radke-Yarrow, M. 155, 157, 158, 171
Newson, E. 96, 154, 182, 191, 197, 199, 200, 201 Ramey, C. T. 150
Newson, J. 96, 154, 182, 191, 197, 199, 200, 201 Raven, J. 183
Nicholas, D. W. 83 Ravenette, A. T. 43
Nicholls, J. G. 83, 150 Resnick, L. 101, 103
Ninio, A. 107, 120, 175 Reyholds, R. E. 139
Nottebohm, F. 120 Richards, M. P. M. 175
Nowicki, S. 149 Riley, C. A. 38
Nucci, L. P. 170 Robinson, E. J. 75, 84, 105, 106, 107, 129, 131
Robinson, M. 98, 99, 101
Oakley, A. 175 Robinson, W. P. 84, 106, 107, 129, 131
Ochs, E. 125, 135 Rogers, C. 110, 111, 150, 199
O’Faolain, J. 195 Rogoff, B. 72
Olson, D. R. 76, 135, 136, 138, 141 Rollins, B. C. 158, 183, 185
Olweus, D. 18, 150, 153, 154 Romaine, S. 125, 127, 129, 132, 133, 136
Opie, I. 29, 153, 200 Romberg, T. A. 101

242
 Author index

Roopnarine, J. L. 196 Sinclair, J. M. 121, 132

Rosaldo, M. Z. 195 Sipple, T. S. 37
Rosch, E. 75, 139 Skuse, D. 34, 173
Rose, P. 179 Slaby, R. G. 152, 153, 191
Rosen, B. 169 Slobin, D. J. 137
Rosenblatt, D. 28 Sluckin, A. 24, 54, 153, 176, 192, 199, 200
Rosenblum, L. A. 191 Sluckin, W. 54, 176
Ross, L. 108, 110, 111 Smedslund, J. 169
Rotman, B. 37, 106 Smith, E. E. 83, 84
Rotter, J. 149 Smith, F. 77, 89, 90, 93
Roy, C. 65, 66 Smith, J. R. 191, 193
Rubin, J. Z. 196 Smith, N. V. 120
Rubin, K. H. 28, 29, 30 Smith, P. K. 24, 27, 30, 65, 154
Rubin, Z. 191, 192 Spelke, E. 109
Rumain, B. 38, 39 Sroufe, L. A. 178
Rumelhart, D. 77 Standing, L. 171
Russell, J. 40, 45, 105, 108 Steedman, C. 81, 96, 97
Rutter, M. 18, 19, 57, 79, 144, 154, 163, 176, 178, 181, 183, Stent, G. S. 160
185, 186, 191, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208 Sternberg, R. J. 37, 41, 42, 44, 104
Stevenson-Hinde, J. 177
Salapatek, P. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 77 Stewart, M. A. 154
Sander, L. W. 118 Stipek, D. J. 149
Saxton, M. 81 Streeter, L. 118
Sayers, J. 162 Stubbs, M. 78, 87, 130
Scardamalia, M. 87, 88, 94, 95, 96 Sulloway, F. J. 161
Scarr, S. 16, 17, 18, 57, 188 Sutton-Smith, B. 24, 188
Schachter, F. F. 182, 188 Sylva, K. 29, 65, 66, 186
Schaffer, H. R. 188
Schank, R. C. 84, 111, 118 Tamburrini, J. 93
Schieffelin, B. 81, 125, 135 Tanner, J. M. 55, 195
Schofield, W. 81, 199 Taylor, E. 69, 70, 71
Schwartzmann, H. 30 Teale, W. H. 81
Scott, M. S. 71 Teulings, H.-L. H. M. 88
Scribner, S. 141 Thomas, A. 144
Searle, J. 45, 109, 117, 135 Thomas, D. L. 158, 183, 185
Serbin, L. A. 192, 196 Thomas, K. 108
Shaffer, D. 58 Thomassen, A. J. W. M. 88
Shaffer, D. R. 183 Thwaite, A. 179
Shantz, C. V. 108, 110, 111, 193, 194 Tinbergen, N. 173
Share, D. L. 78 Tizard, B. 18, 66, 84, 92, 98, 107, 112, 125, 129, 130, 132,
Shatz, M. 107, 124, 135, 188 144, 181, 186, 189
Shepard, R. N. 71 Tizard, J. 81, 199
Sherrod, L. R. 177 Torrance, N. G. 76, 138
Shields, M. M. 109 Tough, J. 128
Shultz, T. R. 27 Trabasso, T. 38, 83
Shweder, R. A. 170 Trehub, S. E. 118
Siegel, L. S. 99, 101 Trevarthen, C. 174, 176
Siegler, R. S. 34, 41, 43, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104 Trivers, R. 160, 173, 187
Sigman, M. D. 55, 56, 58, 59 Trowell, J. 175
Simon, B. 199 Tucker, N. 81
Simon, T. 65 Tulkin, S. 126

243
Author index

Tulving, E. 75 Wells, C. G. 78, 81, 91, 92, 93, 96, 118, 121, 123, 124, 125,
Turiel, E. 164, 166, 170 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 138, 150, 181
Turnbull, C. 160 West, D. J. 185, 205, 206, 207
Weston, D. R. 177, 178
Vaillant, G. E. 146 Wetherford, M. J. 72
Valentine, E. R. 104 Whiting, B. B. 158, 188, 191
Valiant, G. 105, 108 Whiting, J. W. M. 158, 188, 191
Vandell, D. L. 189, 191, 192 Whittaker, S. 74, 107
Vandenberg, B. 28, 29, 30 Willes, M. J. 131, 198, 199
Vuyk, R. 33, 37 Wilson, E. O. 159
Vygotsky, L. S. 89, 109, 125, 139, 180 Wilson, H. 185
Wimmer, H. 83
Wadsworth, M. 183, 185, 206, 207 Wingfield, J. 183
Waldrop, M. F. 144, 145 Winnicott, D. W. 175
Walker, C. 149 Witkin, H. A. 70
Walkerdine, V. 102 Wolff, P. H. 118
Wallace, J. G. 45, 100, 104 Wollheim, R. 162
Walzer, M. 155 Wood, D. J. 109, 125, 132, 133, 194
Ward, S. 115 Woods, P. 199
Wason, P. C. 38, 44 Wright, H. F. 191
Waters, E. 178
Watson, P. 148 Yarrow, M. R. 155, 157, 158, 171
Watt, I. 141 Young, G. 192
Waxler, C. Z. 155, 157, 158, 171 Yule, W. 79
Weaver, J. 198, 199 Yussen, S. R. 74
Wedge, P. 185
Weikart, D. 186, 208 Zahn-Waxler, C. 155, 157, 158, 171
Weinberg, R. A. 18 Zajonc, R. B. 188
Weiner, B. 149, 194 Zelazo, P. R. 72
Weinreich-Haste, H. 170, 171 Zingg, R. M. 173
Weisz, J. R. 149 Zipes, J. 81
Wellman, H. M. 74, 106
Wells, B. W. P. 152

244
Subject index

accommodation in Piagetian theory 33–4, 35–6, 37, of other people 155–6, 192–3, 195; see also empathy;
43–5, 60, 71 altruism; of sounds 78–80, 120, 127, 137–9
accommodation of lens of eye 47, 49
action, as source of cognition 33, 60 babbling 119
activity: as temperament dimension 144–5; sex differences basic trust 145
in 196, 197 behaviour problems 19, 57
adaptation 16–17, 26–7; in cognition 33 behavioural recombination: in cognitive development 43–
addition strategies 101 5, 85, 95–6, 103; in play 27–8, 65–6
adolescence 146, 201–3 Belloc, H. 81
adoption 18, 186 bilingualism 119
affordances 61 binocular vision 49–62
aggression: and attributional judgements 153, 195; biological bases: of aggression 151–2; of altruism 159; of
between peers 152, 153, 155, 191, 195; between siblings attachment 175–8; of cognition 34; of development 15,
189–91; biological bases of 152; continuity of 18, 153– 18; of language 117, 118, 119; of personality 143–5; of
4; definition 150–1; development of 152–5; ecology of play 25; of social relationships 173, 174, 181
152–5; in Freudian theory 161–2; and relations with biological/social interaction 15–18; and aggression 151–2;
adults 153–5, 205–8; sex differences in 16, 145, 154, and language 117–19; and moral behaviour 159–61; and
195, 197 neoteny 25–7; and personality 143–5; and sex
altruism 155, 157, 158, 159–60; see also pro-social differences 16, 196
behaviour bonding 175–6, 177–8
ambiguity: and language development 138–9; and brain: brain damage 54, 57, 175–6; evolutionary changes
metacognitive development 105–6 and 17, 26; physical development of 47–60
animistic thinking 109
caretaker, sibling as 158, 188
anxiety 144, 194, 198–9
categorization: and language labels 121–2, 139–40; in
approach-withdrawal as temperament dimension 144
memory 73, 75
arithmetic 59, 97–103
catharsis, through play 28
arousal 27, 150, 175
causality 34
articulation 119
chess and memory 75
Ashford, Daisy 96
child abuse 185
assimilation 33–4, 35–6, 37, 43–5, 60
child nature, concepts of 13–14, 15, 96
attachment 177–8, 186
class differences in language 126–31
attention 43, 69–71, 72, 144; attention problems 57, 70,
classroom: discourse 132–4; interaction 198–9 cognition:
205; infants’ selective attention to faces 50,
as action 33–5; inequality between parent and child 180;
173
in infancy 60–5; information-processing model 40–5;
attribution theory 110–11, 193–5; attributional judgements
and logic 38–40; and metacognition 43–5, 104–8; and
110–11, 149–50, 153, 157, 193–5, 198–9
perception 60–1; Piagetian model of 33–8; and social
auditory brain 51–3
interaction 104–5, 108–9
Austen, Jane 84, 97
cognitive development 33–115; mechanisms of 34–7, 40–
automatization of cognitive processes 40–2, 43–5
5; and moral development 163–4, 166, 169–70, 170–1;
autonomous morality 166, 167–8
Piagetian theory 33–8, 60–6, 104, 108; and play 29, 65–
awareness: of cognition 34, 43–4, 45, 104–5; see also
6; as social process 35, 104–5, 108–9
metacognition; of language 78–9, 130–1, 131–4, 137–9;

245
 Subject index

c cognitive processes 40–5, 104–8; see also arithmetic; cultural variations: in language use 125, 126–34, 140–1; in
attention; memory; metacognition; reading; literacy 78–9, 81, 92; in memory 75–6; in play 30, 200–
remembering; writing 1; in social understanding 114–15
cognitive structures 33–5, 37, 40 culture and evolution 16–17
cognitive style 70–1, 145
comfort strategies 155–6 daycare 186
communication: in infancy 174, 176, 180; as language deaf children’s early language 119
function 117, 120, 122, 124–45, 135–6; within families delinquency 204–8; and dysfunctional families 19, 185,
182, 183–4, 185–6 205–8
comparing quantities 99–100 dependency 145, 196, 200, 202
competence, sense of: and moral action 170–1; and deprivation: maternal 181, 186; sensory 18, 34;
personality development 113, 149–50; and school social 16, 153, 173, 189, 191, 195, 205, 206–7
achievement 193–5, 198–9 depth perception 61, 62–3
competence-performance models 37, 45 developmental behaviour genetics 16
competition 160, 197 digit span 72, 75
complementarity in relationships 158, 179, 180, 188–9, disadvantage 19, 57, 175–6, 181, 183, 185, 186, 205–8
191 discipline techniques 13–15, 184–5, 187; and delinquency
complexity: as cause of infant pattern preference 50; in 153–5, 205–8
language development 124, 128, 130; in recognition discord in families 19, 153–5, 181, 185–6, 191, 205–8
memory 72 discourse: analysis 117–18, 135; children’s competence in
comprehension: and metacognition 104–6; in reading 77; discourse 135–7; classroom discourse 132–5
of text 83–6 discrepancy: children’s interest in 147; and cognition 34–7,
concept of childhood 13–14, 96; cultural variations in, and 43–5, 104–6
adult–child language 125, 129, 133 distractibility 57, 69, 144–5
concepts 42, 122–3, 139–40 divorce 181
conditioning: of altruistic behaviour 158; and memory in Down’s syndrome and mother–child interaction 182
infants 72; and moral development 163; and Social drawings 37, 91
Learning Theory 163 early experience 17, 145–6, 180–7, 206–7
confirmation and cognitive development 43–4, 109 ecosystems in child development 20–1; and adolescence
conflict: and adolescence 202; between interests at school 202–3; and delinquency 205–8; home–school interface
199; between siblings 189, 190; cognitive 34–6, 37, 43– 74, 78–9, 126–35, 198–200; in language 117, 125–6,
5, 104–5, 106; and development of aggression 152–5; 127–35; and literacy 78–9, 113, 140–1; in memory 74–7;
and moral development 164, 166, 168, 169; and parents 174, 181–7; peer groups 191–2, 196–7, 200–1
personality stages 145–6, 161–2 educational achievement: and delinquency 205, 207; and
conscience 148, 162, 163, 170–1; see also superego self-concept 149, 150, 194; and social class differences
conservation 33, 63–4, 99–100, 105 126–30
consistency: in cognition 36, 37, 43–5; in language 117, ego 161–2
129, 132, 133, 137; in moral behaviour 163, 166, 170; in egocentrism: in conversation 136–7; and moral realism
personality 142–6 165–6; and peer relations 192, 193; and social empathy
continuity: in development 18–19; and early experience and understanding 109–10, 155–9; and writing 93, 95, 97
144, 145; of parenting over generations 183–5 electroencephalograms 58–9
conversation 118, 124–6, 128, 136–7 Eliot, George 164
co-operation: in cognitive development 108–9; and moral empathy:inearlybehaviour155–7,174,176;as
development 158, 160; with peers 158, 191–2; with moral principle 164, 169–71; with parents 183–4,
siblings 158, 188–9 empathy–cont.
counting 98–9 202; with peers 192–3; with siblings 188–9
crisis theory: and adolescence 146, 202; of personality epigenesiss 15–19; in language development 117, 120,
development 145, 146, 161–2 125–6
cross-model integration 61–2 equifinality 17
equilibration 35–6, 37, 42–3, 166
ethical theory 163–4, 169

246
 Subject index

evolution and development 16–17; of attachment 175, 177; identity crisis 146, 202
of play 25–7 imitation 148, 189
executive strategies in cognition 40 implicitness in language 128–9
experience: in brain development 58–60; in cognitive impulsivity–reflectiveness 70–1, 144–5
development 34; in sensory development 49, 53 incidental memory 70
extraversion–introversion 143–4 inconsistency in cognition 35–7, 43–5
eye: anatomy 47–9; functioning 49–51; movements 50–1, infant search behaviour 62–4
77 infancy: cognition in 60–6; language in 118–21; perception
in 46–54; personality in 144–7; play in 28; social
faces, infants’ preference for 50, 173–4 relationships in 173–8, 180–1
family environment 180–7; and adolescent relationships inference: in memory 75; schemas in logic 38–40; in
202–3; and delinquency 19, 205–7; and language understanding stories 83
development 124–6, 127–32, 133–4; and literacy 78–9, information processing 40–5, 104
96–7; and personality 144, 145, 146, 153–4, 157, 158; instincts, in Freudian theory and moral development 161–2
and sibling relationships 157, 187–90; see also parent– institution rearing 186, 208
child relations; parenting intelligence 18; and delinquency 19, 205; and lead
feedback: in cognition 43–5; in memory 74; in pollution 57; sensory evoked potential 58–9
metacognition 104, 105, 106 intention: and aggression 151, 152–3; children’s attribution
feeling and morality 161–2, 169–71 of 153, 193–4, 195; imputed to infants 174; irrelevance
feminism, moral necessity of 195 in logic 39–40; and moral development 163–6
feral children 16, 173 interaction see social interaction
field dependence 70–1 intersubjectivity 174, 176; see also empathy
flexibility: in genetic programming 17; in play 24, 65–6 intrusion errors in recall 41
‘framing’: of children by parents 174–5, 180, 185, 187; Itard, Jean-Marc 173
play as 27
friends 199, 200; accounts of 193; choices of 189, 196–7; jokes 138–9
skills 191–3
functions of language 135–7 Keller, Helen 121
kinaesthetic development 54, 65
gender: development 192, 195–8; and identification 148; knowledge: about tasks 69, 73, 74, 84–7, 104–8; of
and morality 170; and self-categorization 147; see also language 77, 128, 129, 131, 137–9, 140–1; and memory
sex differences 73–7; in metacognition 104–8; organization of 36, 41,
genes: and aggression 19, 152; and altruism 159–61; and 42, 43–5; in reading 77, 84
development 15, 16, 17, 19, 54; and sex differences 195; knowledge-telling strategy in composition 94
and sibling differences 188
grammatical rules 122–4, 137, 138–9 language: awareness 77, 78–9, 137–9; codes 127–35;
Guérin, Mme 173 development 113, 117–26; ecology of 117–18, 123–7,
130–6; functions 91–3, 135–7; lack in feral children 173;
habituation 64, 72 and literacy 77–9; localization in brain 59; in logic
hearing, development of 51–3 problems 39–40; and mathematics 101–3; and social
heteronomous morality 165–6 interaction 124–6, 127–37
historicism 17 lateralization of brain 59
history of childhood 13–14 lead pollution 57, 70
home language: and reading 78–9; and school behaviour learner characteristics 69, 73; and study skills 85–7
131–4; variation in 125,126–31 learning: and genes 17; and neoteny 26; and play 65–6;
hormones and behaviour 54, 151, 196 skills 73–7, 83–7
hyperactivity and attention deficits 57, 70 life events and personality theory 145–6
literacy: and cognition 83, 140–1; composition of text 93–
id 161 7; and memory 76, 140–1; and reading processes 77–82;
identification 148–9; and Oedipus complex 162; and sex skills of 77–87, 88–97; and stories 81, 83; and study
differences 148, 196, 197; and sibling relationships 188; skills 83–6; and writing 86–93
and Social Learning Theory 163

247
Subject index

locus of control 149 object permanence 62–4

locutionary force 135 object play 28–9
logic 37, 38–40 Oedipus complex 162
olfactory development 54
maternal deprivation 181 organic growth in cognitive development 34
maternal instinct 175–6
mathematics 33, 97–103 parent–child relations 20, 173–81; at adolescence 202–3;
maturation 34, 54 and altruism 158; and delinquency 19, 205–7; and
meaning: and categorization 75, 121–3, 139–40; in early heteronomous morality 162, 165; and identification 148;
social interaction 174, 176; in language 120–1; 121–3, and sex-roles 196–7
125, 131, 135, 138; of text 77–8, 84, 88 parent–infant play 28; interaction 173–81
measuring 99 parenting: age changes in 180; and aggression 154–5;
memory: development 70–7, 107; and literacy 76, 140–1; changes after divorce 181; child’s parent-rearing 16,
mnemonic activities 73–7; working memory 40–5 187; effects of different techniques 181–3, 183–4, 184–
‘mental space’ 40–5 5, 205–7; as ‘framing’ 174–5; history of 13–14; and
metacognition 73–6, 78–9, 85, 104–8, 189; metalanguage language development 124–31; and metacognition 107;
78–9, 133, 137–8; metamemory 73–6, 107 neoteny and 26–7; and personality 145–6, 150; and pro-
metaphor 122, 139 social behaviour 155, 157, 158, 160
Middlemarch 164 pattern: pattern making and sorting behaviour 139;
modelling: of aggression 154; of altruism 158; of language preferences 50; recognition 77, 101
124, 125, 130–1, 132–3; of parenting 183, 185, 186, 189; peers: at adolescence 202–3; and aggression 152, 155, 191,
by parents 174; of reading 78–9, 81; of writing 91–3, 96, 195; and experience with siblings 189–91; and
106–7 metacognitive development 105; and moral
modulation of arousal: by parents 175; through play 27 development 157–9; play with 29, 192, 199, 200–1; and
monitoring: in cognitive development 43–5; of self-efficacy 150, 199; and sex stereo-typing 196–7; and
comprehension of text 83–5; in language 129, 137–9, social skills 191–3
140–1; of writing 88 perceptual development 18, 47–54, 77; cross-modal
moral development 155–8, 159–71 integration 61–2; hearing 51–3, 118; movement 49, 53–
moral reasoning and judgement 160, 163, 164–71 4; and perceptual deprivation 18, 173; and reading 77;
moral rules 163–4, 166–71 seeing 47–51, 77; taste, touch, smell 53–4
mother–child relations 12, 20, 174, 175–6, 177–8; permanent objects 62
and personality development 143–5, 154–5 person concepts 109–11; children’s perception of
‘motherese’ 124–6; use by siblings 174, 188 person concept–cont.
motivation: and moral action 170–1; self-efficacy 149–50, peers 191, 192–3, 196; of teachers 198–9
193–5, 198–9; and study skills 85–7; and writing 91, 96– personality: physiological theories 143–4, 151–2; self
7 concept 85–7, 131, 133, 146–50, 199, 205–8; stage
myelination: of neurons 55; of optic pathways 48 models 145–6, 160–1; temperament 19, 144–5, 153; see
also aggression; parenting; pro-social development;
naming 120–2 self-efficacy
‘Nature’ 17, 160–1 phenylketonuria (PKU) 57
negative instances 44 phonemic awareness 78–80, 88, 91, 118–19, 120, 127,
neoteny 17, 25–6 137–9
nerve development 55–6 physical deprivation, effects of 18, 187
neuropathology and lead pollution 57–8 physiological basis for personality 143–4, 151–2
neuroticism 143, 144 plasticity in development 17–18
neurotransmitters 58 play: and cognitive development 65–6; ecology of 24–5,
novice–expert differences 75, 106–7 29–30, 200–1; functions of 27–30, 83; and sex
number 33, 98, 99, 100 differences 192, 196–7; theories of 23–7
nursery rhymes 28; and playground rhymes 192, 200 playground: games 29, 200; social interaction in 192, 199,
200
object identity 64
pragmatics 128, 133, 135–6

248
 Subject index

pretend play 29 self-efficacy: development of 113, 150; and moral action

primacy effect in memory 72, 76 170–1; and school 193–5, 198–9
primary maternal preoccupation 175 self-monitoring: in cognition 44; in language 137; in
pro-social behaviour 155–8, 160, 188–9 memory 74–5; in metacognition 104, 106; in reading 83–
psychiatric disorder 19, 146, 184, 203, 205–6 5
self-recognition experiments 147
reading: language knowledge and 78–9, 131, 133, 138; sensitivity, auditory 52
phonemic awareness and 78–80, 88; processes 76–8; sensori-motor cognition 37, 60–6
strategies in 79–84; and writing 88 sensory evoked potential 58–9
recency effects in memory 72 separation from mother 18, 175, 177–8, 181
reciprocity: dimension of relationships 179; parent–child sex differences: development of 54, 195–8; in language
180; peers 191–2; siblings 189–91 133; methodological problems of research on 16, 195,
redundancies in cognition 43–4 196; in moral development 170; in peer interactions 192,
reference 120, 121–2, 128, 139–40; over- and under- 196–7; in personality 16, 145, 148, 150, 154, 162; in
extension in 122–3; referential communication 105–6, sibling interaction 189
128, 129, 131 sex roles: and identification 148; sources of 196
regularities in cognition 105–6 siblings 147–8, 156–7, 174, 187–91
regulation of cognition 43–5 Sitwell, Edith 96
rehearsal 73–5, 76 Skinner, B. F. 141
relationships: dimensions of 178–9; and temperament 144; social–biological interaction in development 15–17;
see also complementarity; parent; peers; reciprocity; and aggression 151–2; language 117–19; and moral
siblings; social relationships development 159–61, 161–2; and neoteny 25–7; and
remembering 71–7; ecology of 76–7; and study skills 84– personality 143–5; and sex differences 16, 196
5; training of 73–7; see also memory social class and language differences 126–31
repertory grid analyses of concept organization 43, 139 social cognition: and aggression 153; ideas of persons and
representation: of knowledge 42, 60; in language 120–1, objects 109, 110, 111, 192–3; ideas of social institutions
121–2; need for social experience for 173; social 113– 111–15, 196, 198–9; and morality 170; social interaction
15; and symbolic play 29 as a source of cognitive development 35, 104–5, 108–9
resources for cognition 40–2, 44 social interaction: and aggression 152–4; and altruism
retardation of development 26; see also neoteny revision of 155–8; and cognition 35, 104–5, 108–9, 111; and
text 95–6 language 120, 124–6, 131–3, 136; and moral
role play 29, 189, 192 development 160; parent–child 173–9, 179–87; with
rough and tumble play 29, 192, 197, 200 peers 191–201; and play 29; and self-concept 146–50;
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 15 with siblings 187–91; and temperament 144–5
rules: cognitive 43; moral 163–4, 169, 170; rule-governed social interaction, lack of: and aggression 153–95; and feral
play 28–9 children 16, 173; and poor social development 189, 191,
205, 206–7
scaffolding 28, 124–6, 174–5
Social Learning Theory 162
scanning pictures 70–2
social relationships: and delinquency 205–8; dimensions of
school: children’s concepts of 131, 198–200; and home 74,
178–9; feral children 173; and neoteny 26–7; parent–
78–9, 126–35; language 131–5; and personality
child 173–81, 202–3; peers 191–201; siblings 187–91
development 149–50, 194, 197
social representation 113–15
scripts: in play 29; of school 198; in social cognition 111–
social routines and language use 125, 126, 133, 136
13; and stories 83, 84, 113; in writing 93, 96–7
social sensitivity: and aggression 153; and morality 160,
segmentation of speech sounds 77, 78–9, 123, 137, 140
163, 165, 170; and parent–child relationships 180, 183–
self-categorization: by age 147–8; by gender 146–7, 196–
5; and pro-social behaviour 155–9; and scripts 112; and
8; and school 199
siblings 189
self-concept: in adolescence 205, 206–8; development of
social skills: and aggression 153–4; and delinquency 205–
65, 146–50; and school 85–7, 131, 133, 191; and study
6; and peers 191–2; and siblings 188–9
skills 85–7

249
Subject index

social worlds: adolescents’ 201–3; in Freudian theory 161– symbol manipulation 41

2; in moral reasoning 170; of school 198–200; sex symbolic play 29
differences in 192, 196–7 symbolic representation 37, 91, 120–2
socialization: and aggression 153–4; of children by parents
181, 183–6; and developmental change 180, 182; and taste development 53–4
morality 158, 161, 163, 165–6; of parents by children teachers: children’s accounts of teachers’ activities 198;
187; and temperament 144; via books and stories 81–3 and children’s language 131–5; of delinquent children
sociobiology and altruism 159–61 205, 207; interests in classroom 198–9; judgements of
sorting behaviour 139 children 131–5, 198; and sex typing 196–7
sound-letter correspondences 78–80, 91, 103 television 196, 201, 205
sound localization 52, 53 temperament 144–5; and aggression 19, 153
speech acts 117–18, 120, 128, 132–3, 135–7 text: comprehension of 75, 83–5, 105–6; meaning in 94–6
speech sounds: infants’ perception of 118; infants’ touch development 53–4
production of 119; and reading 77–8, 78–80 transfer: and memory 74; of metacognition 107
speed, cognitive development as increase in 41 transitions between environments 21, 201, 202, 203, 207
spelling 77, 78, 78–80, 88, 97 transitive inference 37–8, 41
stage models 19–20, 34–5, 37, 113; of moral development: turntaking: in conversation 135–7; in social interaction
Kohlberg’s 166–70; Piaget’s 164–6; neo-Piagetian 19, 174, 176
113; of personality development 145, 160–1; Piaget’s, of
verbal communication 105–6, 128, 129, 131
cognitive development 19, 34–5, 37; of reading 79–80
vigilance 70
stories: children’s understanding of 81–3; children’s
vision 47–51
writing of 96–7; as mode of socializing children 81–3; in
visual cortex 18, 48–9
moral reasoning research 165–6, 169; and reading 75,
vocabulary 121–2, 123, 127, 131, 133, 139, 140
78, 81, 84
vulnerability 144, 201, 206–8
story reading 78, 81
stress 24, 144, 201–3, 206–8; see also disadvantage warmth/responsivity 144, 154, 158, 183–4
study skills 80, 84–7 withdrawal, as temperament dimension 144
subitizing 98 word: coinage 140; meaning 138, 139–40; order 122–4;
subtraction 101, 103 production 119,120–3
sucking 60, 174 working memory 40–5
Sullivan, Anne 121 writig: basic skills 88–91; children’s 96–7; composition
superego 161–2 87–8, 93–5; functions 91–3; review 88, 95–6, 97
supervision: of delinquents 205, 206, 207; of girls 196, 197,
200 youth culture 203
syllogisms 38–40

250