A social group of nonhuman primates is a collection of individuals, each of whom is capable to acquiring resources for survival from the environment. The process of maturity for nonhuman primates involves the decrease, and ultimately dissolution, of dependence on others for resource acquisition. In contrast, human society is a community of practice in which members cooperate to obtain resources from the environment and share them with each other through exchange and distribution networks. In human society, therefore, maturity is not a process of decreasing dependence, but a process through which individuals construct dependency relationships with others to integrate themselves into a community of practice. Consequently, we should consider developmental support in human societies as intended to help children construct good social relationships with others, rather than to offer compensation for abilities that children lack.

Rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy, the predominant symptom of which is movement disorder, has developed as influenced by learning theory. It has centered on an academic approach to neuronal development that gained importance from the 1950s. Subsequently, the process of rehabilitation for such children around the world began to change gradually after World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in 2001. However, in Japan the elimination of rehabilitation programs with outdated methodologies has not been easy. This paper (1) reconsiders clinical factors in daily life from the viewpoint of environmental assistance including the person; (2) addresses how to understand behavioral disorders and the development of movement; and (3) discusses recent practices of physical therapy that promote environmental adaptation, postural control, and experience of locomotion by children, with the goal of optimal encounter with the environment. I specifically discuss the necessity to improve the support system in order to introduce electric wheelchairs in daily life from early childhood, and address how important it is to accumulate experiences of locomotion by understanding gravitational forces, for the sake of patients' physical and mental development.

The explosion of synapse formation between neurons in the nervous system (“synaptogenesis”) occurs during the fetal period. Synapses grow at a remarkable rate during the early years of life, while excess connections begin to be cut back. This latter process is called “pruning.” During pruning, seldom-used connections are lost and the brain becomes more precisely organized. This process is particularly important during an individual's critical period of life. According to this view, different extrauterine experiences in the perinatal period may be closely related to later difficulties in cognitive, language, and emotional development. Our recent findings have shown that preterm infants at a term-equivalent age and full-term newborns actually follow different trajectories in neural information processing. We discuss the possibility that such early neural alternations in maturation among preterm infants could be related to later difficulties in social-cognitive development.

This paper examined how the daily activities of children and culturally specific child-rearing practices of an island community contribute to children's health and wellbeing. The ideas presented here were based on ethnographic research undertaken over a 6-year period in a remote island of Japan. The conceptual framework of “life landscape” was used to portray how their wellbeing was promoted through immersion in the surrounding environment, and through their participation in periodical social events. According to this framework, children's exploration into the natural environment is a common everyday phenomenon that creates a landscape for daily life. It is the sheer experience of bodily senses, as mediated by cultural meaning. Social events include a shishimai (“Lion Dance”), and a kagura (sacred Shinto) musical event in which children dance and walk from one end of the community to the other. In this way, the children's wellbeing is deeply embedded in the island's culture and way of life.

This study examined differences in preschoolers' social behavior, as a comparison between intact families and fatherless families. One hundred and seventy-four children with two parents (M＝62.04 months) and 201 children with one parent (M＝62.91 months) were recruited from public preschools. The children's teachers assessed the following types of social behaviors during peer activities: prosocial, aggressive, hyperactive, asocial, anxious-fearful, and excluded by peers. The results showed the following: (a) there were no differences between children in intact families vs. fatherless families in terms of aggressive, hyperactive, anxious-fearful, and excluded-by-peers; (b) children in fatherless families exhibited less prosocial behavior and more asocial behavior than children in intact families; and (c) regardless of family type, children's prosocial behavior was negatively related to externalizing behaviors (aggressive and hyperactive) and internalizing behaviors (asocial and anxious-fearful), whereas externalizing/internalizing behaviors were positively related to “excluded by peers.” These findings suggest that the effect of one-parent family life on young children's externalizing behaviors may be small in Japan compared to that reported previously for children in Europe and the United States.

Remarkable advances in medical and surgical management have enabled many infants with congenital heart diseases (CHD) to survive into adulthood. We therefore have recently become more interested in the development of independence in adolescent CHD patients, and in how to support their independence. Ninety-two CHD patients (ages 12–29) and 273 reference participants (ages 12–29) were divided in 2 age groups (ages 12–18 and 18–29), and we compared their degree of psychological independence based on their responses to a questionnaire. Among patients ages 12–18, there were no significant differences by group (CHD vs. reference group), and males were generally more independent than females. On the other hand, among patients ages 18–29, males in the reference group were more independent than males in the CHD group; meanwhile, the sex difference of greater male independence only was only notable within the reference group. Apparently it is not the severity of the CHD but how one contracted the disease, which influenced adolescents' independence. Finally, we discuss how to support adolescents' independence based on the results of this study.

This study investigated differences in students' levels of Generalized Self-Efficacy (GSE) and Career Decision Self-Efficacy (CDSE), based on combinations of perceptions of and coping styles in relation to university entrance examinations. First, cluster analysis extracted four clusters of students (N＝259) which were then used to make group comparisons: “positive/active,” “somewhat positive / somewhat passive,” “negative/passive,” and “indifferent” toward the university entrance examination. Second, the results of ANOVAs showed group differences in GSE, goal selection and autonomy of decision-making. In their levels of GSE, “positive/active” students had significantly higher scores than “negative/passive” and “indifferent” students. In terms of goal selection, “positive/active” students had significantly higher scores than “negative/passive” students. Finally, in their levels of autonomy in decision-making, “positive/active” students had significantly higher scores than “negative-passive” students, and those who were “indifferent” toward the university entrance examination had significantly lower scores than the other three types of students. These results suggest that it is important, in provision of career support, for university students to recall their experiences with university entrance examinations.

Over the past decade, developmental researchers have devoted increased attention to young children's selective trust, or selective social learning, i.e., propensity to learn from some sources rather than others. Recent studies have challenged the long-standing assumption that young children are credulous -- disposed to trust claims made by other people even when those claims run counter to their own beliefs. This article reviewed recent studies on young children's selective learning based on informants' epistemic attributes such as accuracy, certainty, and specialty, and also their non-epistemic attributes such as age, linguistic information, familiarity, physical attractiveness, and social status. The available evidence suggests that young children are highly selective in their learning from testimony. The evidence also indicates that young children, especially 3-year-olds, have some difficulty because they are less inclined to mistrust individuals. Based on the review, this article discusses the implications of the research for future research on this relatively new topic.