New Child Development Study

Posted by on October 17, 2010

Let them play

A new study from the Gesell Institute for Human Development at Yale set out to determine how child development in 2010 related to Arnold Gesell’s historic observations published in 1925, 1940, and after his death by colleagues in 1964 and 1979. The study used assessment items identical to those Gesell created as the basis for his developmental “schedules.” These assessments allowed researchers to ask provocative questions: Have kids gotten smarter? Can they learn things sooner? What effect has modern culture had on child development? Despite ramped-up expectations that include overtly academic work in kindergarten, study results showed remarkable stability around ages at which most children reach cognitive milestones like being able to count four pennies or draw a circle. For the study, 92 examiners conducted 40-minute one-on-one assessments with 1,287 children ages 3-6 at 56 public and private schools in 23 states. All children in the study were asked to complete 19 tasks, and the results echoed Gesell findings 85 years earlier. These results bolster the arguments of those who find a focus on test scores for young children — instead of exploratory learning — troublesome.

Read more: http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/479