Development in the Preschool Years. Birth to Age Five

268 Pages·4.161 MB·English

by  Thomas E. Jordan and Allen J. Edwards (Auth.)

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
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Department of Psychology
Southwest Missouri State University
Springfield, Missouri
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DEVELOPMENT IN THE
PRESCHOOL YEARS
Birth to Age Five
THOMAS E. JORDAN
The Graduate School
University of Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
1980
ACADEMIC PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jordan, Thomas Edward.
Development in the preschool years.
(Educational psychology series)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Child development—Missouri—St. Louis metropol-
itan area— Longitudinal studies. I. Title.
HQ792.U5J67 649M 22'0977866 79-51678
ISBN 0-12-390450-1
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FOR MY GRANDCHILDREN
Preface
At the end of a decade of studies of children using the classic psychoeduca-
tional technique of analyzing children one by one, I concluded that the pos-
sibilities of the method were too limited to reach a broader understanding of
child development. A by-product of child study designed to produce better
social service or education, child study with an N of one seemed to be a dead
end. On that premise I began a series of procedural and substantive studies
designed to gauge the range of requisite knowledge in child development and to
assess methods of approach. Since the early 1960s I have traced the develop-
ment of several cohorts of children. This book reports on a cohort of 1008
children from birth to age five.
It appears that longitudinal studies are regaining interest, if not popularity.
In the area of delinquency, for example, it has become evident that the life
course of young offenders prior to adolescence and their appearance in the
criminal justice system merits attention. Valid data sets cannot be re-created
retrospectively, and yet they represent the necessary antecedent to the phenom-
enon of adolescent delinquency. Other fields, of which learning disorders are a
prime example, are ripe for a bold methodological stroke in order to cut
through a miasma of ill-formed concepts and inadequate data. At the same time
we are fortunate to witness a revolution in data processing; computers can store
huge archives, and innovations in transmission and manipulation of data
suggest that manhandling data can be reduced to a minimum. Observing due
xi
Xil J PREFACE
regard for the confidentiality of data and the right to privacy we note that data
banks can be linked, and data can be shared across oceans. We present no brief
for megalomania, but note the growth of sophistication in management of
information, a requisite for future studies of development.
While new opportunities arise from technology, old problems persist. De-
spite new designs involving sequential cohorts, longitudinal study still requires
permanent interest and stable support. People sensitive to needs of families are
essential, and respect for family privacy and confidentiality mandate great care
and delicacy as never before.
Longitudinal studies are not easy to fund and I wish to express my thanks
to several agencies and, in particular, key administrators for their support. I
wish to thank Dr. Max Mueller of the U.S. Bureau for Education of the
Handicapped, and Dr. Wade Robinson of CEMREL, Inc. Among my col-
leagues, Professor Steven Spaner has been especially important since he has
mounted all data for computer storage. Not the least of his talents is his swift
grasp of my programming errors when processing the data.
Over the years a large number of people have assisted with acquisition of
data. I acknowledge with gratitude the help of Ellen Brasunas, Janice
Borgmann, Muriel Ehrenberg, Claire Ernhart, Edith Greenfield, Orville Kirk,
Arthur Littleton, Judy McNeil, James Owens, Edna Pahl, Walter Peach, Lois
Shepherd, and Elizabeth Williamson.
My thanks go to Marjorie Huston, Mary Ellen Heckel, and Linda Reese
for their skill and concentration when typing this manuscript through various
revisions.
I would like to express my thanks to Jack Edwards and the staff of Aca-
demic Press for their assistance and support.
Old Man River's Children
1
Introduction
The purpose of this book is to report a prospective longitudinal analysis
of influences on development in the years from birth to age 5. While specu-
lation on the ways in which young children grow tends to be in terms of
generalities, this volume emphasizes the role of empirical data in such dis-
course, and attempts to relate observations to an antecedent set of quantita-
tive findings. At a more particular level, the investigation considers six
aspects of development; the domains are not treated equally, since some
topics are more pressing than others in early development, and some are
hard to study. Height and weight data are comparatively easy to gather,
given standardization of procedures. However, the range of theoretical in-
fluences on child development is enormous. An empirical inquiry is neces-
sarily limited to using concepts which can be treated mathematically. In this
report, the influences of interest are grouped into four sets, and each is
applied to study of the six areas of child development.
This work is organized into three sections. This and the next two
chapters provide an introduction. Chapter 2 reviews the corpus of longitu-
dinal studies, specific approaches, and recent research. Chapter 3 describes
the methods used to generate and analyze the data.
Chapters 4 to 9 present multivariate regression analyses of the data in
1
2 | 1. OLD MAN RIVER'S CHILDREN
six domains, and constitute the second portion of the report. Finally, Chap-
ter 10 presents a discussion of the findings, and constitutes the third part of
the book.
The fundamental intent of this investigation is to make a contribution
to policy formation for the early years of life. To date, the preschool years
have lacked a corpus of data designed to subvent social policy for metropoli-
tan living. The deficit is that social policy must be formed from fragmentary
data over brief spans of time. When data sets have reached a critical mass,
they have often been compromised by the narrow range of domains in
which relevant data exist. Also, much of the study of little children has,
perchance, been piggy-backed on intervention studies. As a consequence,
data sets are drawn from groups of children subjected to various intensive
programs. To be sure, the data set of this study is not without its limitations.
However, it avoids the hazard just mentioned, and it is coherent in its
orientation to research rather than to experimental treatment. All things
considered, the data set over time may be considered naturalistic, since
observations were taken purely for intellectual, descriptive purposes at pre-
selected ages and anniversaries.
It is helpful to note that the period of development analyzed here is
from birth to 66 months. Data-taking has continued in the several years since
the cohort reached age 5; this is an account of one segment of the develop-
mental span since birth, to be followed by others.
The River and the People
The complexities and simplicities of peoples' lives lie, to a considerable
extent, in the perspective we bring to bear on them. In the short run even
routine human problems—the matters of rising each day, earning a living,
and raising children—are exercises in foreseeing the consequences of actions
and decisions. In the longer perspective, either that emerging with the pas-
sage of time or from the priviledged view of the detached analyst, trends and
implications seem a little clearer. Both of these commonplace observations
share the fact that they are within the unit of time which is human experi-
ence. Lives ebb and flow, generation succeeds generation, and the flux of
society sweeps up people within its overarching themes. Within the domain
of Nature the proportion is larger. Eons rather than generations set the
scale, and miles in thousands rather than the mere handfuls generated by the
pace of everyday life create the perspective for events.
It is in harmony with that proposition that the Great River flows. It
rises in the northern plains and, fed by substantial rivers, flows southward
across the continent. Here and there it has cast a broad design, a floodplain
on which the fertile loam of centuries has been deposited. Now narrowly
THE RIVER AND THE PEOPLE 3
flowing under limestone bluffs it moves with deepening strength toward its
ultimate rendezvous with the oceans themselves.
Old Man River is an elemental force in nature. No mere burbling
stream once beyond its source, it has carved its way across a continent. Since
time immemorial Man has observed with awe its strength, and has felt in
misery its fury. Man the observer has been at best a puny witness to its
grandeur, and has lived his alloted span of years conscious of the immensity
of its silent energy.
To the Osage, Sac, and Fox Indians the great waterway was a key to
many streams. The Mississippi river, itself several thousands of miles in
length, was a nearby passage to the Missouri river, and so to the plains and
the Northwest. At one time, approximately A.D. 1000, Cahokia was the site
of a large city, and provided a point of exchange for both goods and cultures
where the Missouri joins the Mississippi.
At a later, more recent time, but one preceded by a silence and anonym-
ity only the forces of Nature can suggest, another neighboring stream—the
Illinois River—provided a link for the voyageurs from French Canada in the
north. After traversing the Great Lakes, Joliet and Marquette found that the
Illinois River provided a smooth and simple waterway by which they might
traverse the continent. This waterway helped establish a trading link with
their fellows living in uncertain security where the great river entered the
Gulf. It was from the relative security of New Orleans that explorers began
to push further north, establishing trading posts and settlements at strategic
locations. These villages, which lay in unexplored lands, existed as political
territories only on maps. There were rare places where military installations
overcame the problems of hostile surroundings, an aboriginal and little
known indigenous population, and the immense distances over which
supplies and commerce moved.
It was in April 1764 that Auguste Chouteau decided to use a low bluff
a few miles south of the Missouri river to found his trading post, naming it
for Saint Louis IX. After an uneasy start, including Indian attacks in the
early 1780s, the settlement began to prosper. A ferry was in permanent
operation by 1797. In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase brought the city and
surrounding portion of the continent under the control of the United States.
In 1800, the city of St. Louis was incorporated. By 1817 the first steamboat,
the Pike, arrived from New Orleans, and a cathedral was built in the follow-
ing year, a charming structure which is still in use.
In the next decades of the nineteenth century waves of German and
Irish migration began, to be followed at a much later date by black migra-
tion. The present population of the metropolitan area can be described
essentially in terms of these three populations, plus a number of smaller
groups.