ABSTRACT
Promoting children's safety and health are concerns shared by paediatricians, developmental psychologists, and educators. Injury prevention clearly plays an integral role in children's health, as unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children under age 18 (Rodriguez and Brown, 1990; Singh and Yu, 1996). Approximately 22,000 children die each year in the U.S. as a result of drowning, poisoning, choking on foreign objects, automobile and bicycle collisions, pedestrian injuries, electrocutions, burns, or falls. The alarming statistics on children's injuries have led to a number of investigations by researchers in a variety of fields on issues such as pedestrian safety (Christoffel et al., 1986; Connelly et al., 1998; Dunne, Asher, and Rivara, 1992; Lee et al., 1984), childhood drowning (Nixon et al., 1986), bicycling safety (Langley et al., 1983), and children's ability to operate motorised vehicles (Pick et al., 1987). Although overviews of strategies for reducing childhood injury have called for a better understanding of the underlying factors that contribute to the occurrence of injuries (Brooks and Roberts, 1990; Peterson and Mori, 1985; Roberts, 1986), little is yet known about how developmental changes in cognitive and perceptual skills contribute to unsafe behaviour.
