Seven experiments determined whether young children's comprehension of aspectuality, when acquired, was robust enough to cope with demands and variations to the task. Four to 5-year-olds were able to choose whether to look or feel to find out information about a hidden item that was identifiable by sight or touch (Experiments 2 & 7). However, they had difficulty when the test question did not directly refer to a perceptual aspect of the target item (Experiment 7). Four to 6-year-olds coped well with irrelevant verbal descriptions of the items included in the test question (Experiments 2 & 3). Five and 6-year-old‟s performed well whether the target had to be discovered or located (Experiment 1) but had difficulty when irrelevant partially differentiating information was included in the array of items (Experiments 3 & 4) and when they received verbal pre-trial experience of the items (Experiments 5 & 6). In conclusion, children depended on their recall of their pre-trial experience of the items, even when it was unnecessary to do so. They had difficulty recognizing the relevance of verbal information and problems recalling it. Hence, their understanding of sources of knowledge is limited until at least 7 years of age.

This is an evaluative study of an ecological, multi-faceted, multi-levelled school-based mental health and emotional wellbeing project , called the ‘Treasure Project’. The project team directly supported 3,452 children and trained 607 staff from 56 schools. Realistic Evaluation (Pawson & Tilley, 1997) informed the evaluation. Theories, developed from a review of literature, were used to derive a framework of hypotheses about effective work in the area of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Data collected about the project was checked against the framework leading to new theories and hypotheses being developed. Findings from the evaluation suggest that: 1) projects aiming to promote children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing have more impact if they are multi-faceted, multi-levelled and include a whole school approach; 2) direct interventions supporting children’s emotional needs are more effective if school staff’s capacity is simultaneously increased through training and partnership work; and 3) capacity building is most effective when it takes place over time, is aimed at building staff’s support skills, and is rooted in evidence-based approaches providing good resources for future reference. The enquiry’s limitations are discussed, together with a consideration of how these findings might useful to professionals, including educational psychologists, working in partnership with schools.