Criteria for Competence: Controversies in the Conceptualization and Assessment of Children's Abilities

One of developmental psychology's central concerns is the identification of specific "milestones" which indicate what children are typically capable of doing at different ages. Work of this kind has a substantial impact on the way parents, educators, and service-oriented professionals deal with children; and, therefore one might expect that developmentalists would have come to some general agreement in regard to the ways they assess children's abilities. However, as this volume demonstrates...