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Using detailed longitudinal studies of 43 children, the thesis describes the onset and development of important modes of expression and representation, in children 0 - 5 years of age, and focuses especial attention on one of those modes - drawing. The study shows that the beginnings of drawing, far from being haphazard, meaningless scribblings are, on the contrary, highly intentioned acts which have structure and organisation. Whilst not extensive, the main findings of the present research are supported by other recent studies made independently but in parallel to that of the present author. The work shows that drawing development cannot be accounted for solely in terms of imitation of cultural models, nor in terms of motorskills development alone. Rather, the present account shows that infants use mark-making and drawing as one member of a family of early symbolic modes which they spontaneously generate to form descriptions of reality. The study traces drawing development from its origin in early infancy - in the actions the infant performs upon objects in the physical environment, and also in the actions performed within an interpersonal, psychological environment formed between infant and caregiver. Using detailed micro-analysis of recorded observations (video, film and stillJj1otographic techniques were employed, as well as continuous transcription of these in longhand-journals) a description of drawing development is constructed which shows the child moving through a series of modes of representation, each having its own internal infra-structure and powerful meanings for the child. The study shows that at every level, from the earliest mark-making, to the graphic descriptions of objects and events, the child is generating powerful representational and expressive modes which many research paradigms and methodologies have missed but which in fact play an essential part in the developnent of cognition and affect. The important implications of this for education are considered.

This study aims to explore the lived psychological and emotional experiences of parentally bereaved young people. There has been little research carried out which seeks to understand the meaning and complexity of the individual’s world through the analysis of their personal account of events and experiences. This research aims to highlight the experience of those bereaved at a young age, observing both the challenging and helpful aspects of support. Using grounded theory analysis based on Charmaz’s social constructivist approach, the study reports on the outcomes of semi--‐structured interviews conducted with eleven bereaved boys and girls in North London. Five superordinate themes were identified: Losses; Disrupted identities; Struggling to make sense of grief; Role of others; and Finding a new kind of normal. The researcher also identified two overarching themes: time and ambivalence. The research highlights the extent to which young people are emotionally and psychologically affected by the premature death of a parent. The findings demonstrate that grieving is an individual process, yet there are common threads that can be drawn together in order to provide a framework for grief’s trajectory. Bridging research and practice, recommendations are made on how best to support this often overlooked group of vulnerable young people which include improved family support programmes at bereavement organisations, a new information guide for bereaved young people and a bereavement training programme for professionals. Recommendations are also made for further research and dissemination of information on best practice.

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This thesis examines the relationship between children’s travel behaviour and their cognitive representations of the local environment. The aim is to examine the effects of children’s experience of travel behaviour in the local environment on the formation of their cognitive maps, particularly the effects of experience gained independently of adult supervision. There is a large degree of interplay between the factors within this relationship. Successful wayfinding is a prerequisite for independent travel, for example for walking to a friend’s house or visiting the local park without an adult. Children’s wayfinding relies on cognitive representations of the local environment which are used to plan routes and monitor their progress along them. Independent mobility allows children to build up cognitive representations of the local environment, and practice the skills that they require to travel alone further afield. The basic hypothesis under examination is that independent travel and activities result in better cognitive representations of the local environment. One reason for this is that there are differences between the experiences of children who are passengers in cars and buses, and those who are involved in active travel. As passengers, children do not need to focus on the detail of the journey, particularly during car journeys. The roles of travel mode and whether the child was accompanied by an adult are examined. The research in this thesis uses GPS data, questionnaires and sketch maps to examine children’s behaviour and their environmental knowledge. Sketch maps have been analysed for style, detail and accuracy. The measurement of accuracy, obtained using bidimensional regression, has been combined with a measure of detail to provide an overall map score. Analysis of variance revealed significant gains in map scores as children become older and if they spend more of their travel time walking than in the car.

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Executive functions and social cognition develop throughout childhood into adolescence and early adulthood (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). These functions are associated with frontal networks showing protracted maturation into early adulthood (Lebel, Walker, Leemans, Phillips & Beaulieu, 2008). Executive function and social cognition studies have previously focused on childhood (Pennequin, Sorel & Fontaine, 2010), adolescence (Magar, Phillips & Hosie, 2010) or broad age ranges in adulthood (Dziobek et al., 2006). This thesis reports executive function, social cognition, IQ and mood state data in a sequential design with 98 participants aged 17 (Younger group), 18 (Middle group) and 19 years (Older group) at Time 1. Findings indicate non-linear development, with a trough in ability at age 18, on strategy generation and concept formation, assessed with Letter Fluency and Sorting Tests from the Delis Kaplan Executive Function System (Delis, Kaplan & Kramer, 2001). There were no group differences on Time 1 social cognition task scores. Fifty eight participants were tested at Time 2 (interval between testing M = 14.81 months, SD = 4.01). Again, the Younger group scored significantly higher than the Middle group on strategy generation at Time 2 suggesting that group differences may represent sample characteristics rather than age related change. There were no group differences in concept formation at Time 2, indicating that non-linear development is specific to age 18 in the present sample. Inhibition, rule detection, strategy generation, planning and emotion recognition in dynamic stimuli showed progressively better longitudinal development. IQ, Age, Depression, Anxiety and executive function scores (rule detection, strategy generation, inhibition and planning) predicted performance on social cognition tasks assessing emotion recognition in visual static (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001), auditory (Reading the Mind in the Voice Test; Golan, Baron-Cohen Hill & Rutherford, 2007), dynamic visual and auditory stimuli (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition; Dziobek et al., 2006) and selfreport empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index; Davies, 1983). Overall, results indicate linear and non-linear development of functions in late adolescence and early adulthood. Clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

This thesis is concerned with the structure of natural categories. The traditional approach was that category exemplars are equal in terms of membership and that definite boundaries exist between category members and non-members. A view now widely held is that categories are highly structured with well-defined cores, usually consisting of prototypical instances, and fuzzy boundaries. One question which has arisen is whether children also have categories which are structured in this way. This question has been addressed here by conducting a series of category sorting experiments. The results of the first, second and third experiments reported showed that children from three years of age do indeed have categories with well-defined cores and fuzzy boundaries, and that children and adults are influenced by exemplar typicality. The fourth experiment showed that children and adults use the same criteria for categorising when competing criteria are presented. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth experiments investigated the role played by locational information and order of presentation on judgements of category membership. Both location and order were shown to influence decisions about category membership. The younger children in particular were affected by order and locational information.