Reiko Ueda

Standardization of the Denver Developmental Screening Test on Tokyo Children

The items in the Denver Developmental Screening Test were standardized in 1171 normal Japanese children aged between 16 days and 6 years 4 months in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Differences were found between the ages at which the Tokyo and Denver samples achieved some items. Tokyo children were slower in some motor items in early infancy and also in defining the meaning and composition of words in the pre‐school age. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Child development in okinawa compared with tokyo and denver and the implications for developmental screening

Developmental differences in the Denver Developmental Screening Test items were demonstrated between Okinawa and Tokyo samples of children. The Tokyo children were generally more advanced than Okinawa children after one year of age, while the Okinawa children showed earlier development in the middle and late periods of the first year.

The Role of Play in the Life-Span Development

This is a study concerned with the role of play and meaning in human life-span development. In this study, the word?gplay?his defined as a spontaneous, symbolic, and imaginative experience which is perceived as pleasure. It takes place during free time, which means the time left after doing necessary activities such as sleeping, eating, and work. A questionnaire method was used for female youths, to investigate how the pleasurable experiences related to time spent watching television from infancy to the present. The subjects were 187 female college students in Tokyo. The questionnaire consists of background information on the subjects, the time they spent watching television and essay descriptions of pleasurable experiences. It also includes questions whether the subjects are content with their present life or not and if there is any pleasurable experience which the subjects want to hand down to the next generation. The results were as follows: 1) The average number of pleasurable experiences of each period was 3 but there were considerable individual differences. 2) Comparing the subjects who spent a long time to watch TV with those who spent a short time to watch TV, some differences were found between these two groups. The latter named more pleasurable experiences, and were more content with their present lives and had more pleasurable experiences which they want to pass on to the next generation. The results suggest that pleasurable experiences in childhood is not only related to TV watching but is also related to the pleasure of the present and the future.