Several studies have demonstrated that children's gender and parental education exert a significant, but not equal, effect on toddler language development at different ages. This study determined the effect of children's gender and parental education on the verbal competence of toddlers between 16 and 30 months. The sample included 953 Slovenian…

Studies in the area of developmental psychology--especially those carried out in the past thirty years--show that preschool quality, both at the structural and process levels, in combination with the quality of the family environment influences various areas of children's development and learning. The goal of this study is to determine the effect…

Analyzed records of Slovene children's speech from a linguistic point of view and established differences in communication patterns with regard to the children's ages and the type of symbolic play. Found a shift in play from make-believe with regard to objects to roleplay related to social context. The older the child, the more language functions…

This study evaluated several groups of preschoolers engaged in symbolic play to define elements of play and differences in regard to age. Analyses of videotapes indicated that the nature of symbolic play changes with regard to play situations in which children have been included. (LBT)

Investigated the content, degree of complexity, and wholeness of the transformation in symbolic play among same-age and mixed-age groups of 4- to 7-year olds in Slovenia. Results confirm that, in mixed-age groups, the role definition in symbolic play is provided on a higher level than in same-age groups, which enables social imaginative play to…