We investigate whether quality of early care and education, measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), predicted gains in toddlers' and preschoolers' vocabulary and self-regulation over 7 months. The sample consists of 318 toddlers (M age = 26 months; 46% female; 56% dual language learner) and 569 preschoolers (M age = 44 months; 51% female; 71% dual language learner), attending 89 toddler and 124 preschool classrooms in Oslo, Norway. Using mixed effect linear regression analyses, among toddlers, higher learning support on CLASS predicted gains in vocabulary. Among preschoolers, higher classroom organisation and instructional support on CLASS predicted gains in self-regulation skills. Implications of these findings for the developmental needs of toddlers and preschoolers, and the use of CLASS as a classroom quality measurement tool, are discussed.
Emotional knowledge (EK) is broadly defined as the ability to identify and understand emotions. Despite being recognized as a foundational component of socioemotional development in childhood, early emergence of EK is seldom explored before age 3. Similarly, research has yet to explore the feasibility of assessing young children's EK via online assessment, despite the growing relevance and potential of this modality in expanding research accessibility. To address these research gaps, a sample of 92 toddlers (age range: 18-36-months, 52 female and 40 male) and their mothers (M_age = 32.6 years; 50% White Canadian) participated in this exploratory study investigating the feasibility of assessing toddler EK using virtual assessment tools. Results provide evidence for future potential assessing toddler EK online, as most toddlers (66.7%) were able to participate in at least one component of the virtual assessment task. Methodological strengths and suggestions are discussed to facilitate future research that incorporates online assessments with younger children.
Theory of mind (ToM)—the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others—is a core social-cognitive skill that develops throughout childhood and adolescence. This systematic review synthesises 337 studies with 89,111 participants from 39 countries to organise the literature. We propose a six-domain ecological model encompassing within-child factors, family, peers, educational settings, community contexts, and culture. Research has heavily focused on within-child factors, especially executive functioning, language, and emotional understanding, which are consistently linked to preschool ToM. In contrast, advanced ToM and later developmental stages remain underexplored. Family and peer influences show meaningful but varied associations. Educational settings may promote ToM through inclusive practices and teacher behaviours, although findings are sparse. Cultural mechanisms are rarely examined beyond group comparisons, and community-based influences are nearly absent. We highlight major gaps and call for longitudinal, context-sensitive, and cross-cultural research to better inform interventions supporting children's social, emotional, and academic development.
Research indicates that when literate children and adults hear a new word that they have never seen in print, they create an expectation for how the word may be spelled. However, studies have not yet examined the extent to which orthographic knowledge plays a role in children's spoken vocabulary learning when words are taught without print. The current study used structural equation modelling to examine the relation between children's word reading ability and their ability to learn novel words from spoken instruction. Children (N = 335; 7-9 years; 52% female; < 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 33% Black, 1% Multiracial, < 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 2% Other; 57% White; 6% did not report race; 2% Hispanic/Latino, 97% Not Hispanic/Latino; < 1% did not report ethnicity) completed norm-referenced language and reading assessments and experimental measures of spoken word learning. Word reading ability and vocabulary knowledge uniquely predicted spoken word learning with respective medium-small and medium-large effects after controlling for phonological memory, general language ability, and nonverbal cognition. Thus, orthographic skill has important effects on vocabulary learning, unaccounted for in previous research, that should be addressed in current theory and practice.
Children's word learning takes place in rich physical environments. These settings may vary between exposures to a word. In recent years, researchers have become interested in determining whether context—and more specifically context variation—affects young children's word learning. This body of work stems from longstanding interest in the role of context on memory, often referred to as context-dependent memory. In this paper, we review research exploring context-dependent word learning in preschooler-aged children. We specifically focus on research exploring two types of context features: co-present competitor referents and physical backgrounds. Based on somewhat conflicting accounts of context effects on word learning, we propose a unified account of when context is most likely to affect word learning. Our proposal involves an interaction of cognitive constraints and conceptual understanding, both of which shift over the course of development. Said differently, we argue that three factors matter in predicting context effects during word learning: a learner's age, a learner's cognitive capacity, and a learner's understanding of labels as a category. In addition, we propose avenues for future research to better specify the role of context during early word learning.
Contemporary perspectives suggest that some children are more sensitive to their caregiving environment than others. This prospective longitudinal study examined the role of environmental sensitivity in the developmental pathways of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), focusing on its early identification during the neonatal period. Ninety-five Israeli boys, varying in their likelihood of developing ADHD, based on parental ADHD symptoms, were followed from birth to age 7 years. Both neonatal temperamental surgency and parental ADHD symptoms moderated the correlation between the early home environment (measured at 54 months) and child executive functions (EF; measured at 7 years), with medium effect sizes (double moderation; Delta R-2 = 0.12, beta = 0.32 and 0.28, respectively). Among children with elevated levels of both parental ADHD symptoms and neonatal surgency, a more enriched home environment predicted higher EF. Very early and accurate detection of sensitivity to the environment can facilitate early preventive interventions to moderate the development of ADHD symptoms.
The transition from kindergarten to formal schooling is an important period for examining children's developing mathematical performance. We studied reciprocal associations among children's mathematical performance, parent factors (i.e., numeracy activities, beliefs about children's mathematical skills), and child factors (i.e., mathematics liking). Lithuanian children (N = 341; 180 girls) and their parents participated at three time points: end of kindergarten (T1; M-age = 6.87 years), beginning of Grade 1 (T2), and end of Grade 1 (T3). Reciprocal cross-lagged associations between parent- and child-related factors showed that children's mathematical performance positively predicted parental beliefs [beta(T1-T2) = 0.247, beta(T2-T3) = 0.280] and negatively predicted numeracy activities [beta(T1-T2) = -0.227, beta(T2-T3) = -0.110] during the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1, and during Grade 1. Children's mathematical performance positively predicted their mathematics liking at the end of Grade 1 (beta(T2-T3) = 0.138). The results emphasise the role of children's mathematical performance in shaping parents' involvement and beliefs about children's mathematical learning and their children's mathematics liking.
Caregivers serve an important role in guiding their children's early playful learning experiences, which range widely from free play to direct instruction. How caregivers themselves approach different play types and how to best encourage playful learning among families remains an underexplored area of research. Caregivers of 2-5-year-old children (n = 177) completed an online survey about their perceptions and approach to different types of play across the play spectrum (i.e., free play, guided play, games, and direct instruction). Participants came from diverse backgrounds in terms of race, income, education level, and gender identity. Caregivers saw a number of benefits to each caregiver/child play type, and likewise reported barriers that limited their ability to participate. Several caregiver perception variables were associated with the frequency of engaging in each play type. These findings provide insight into the motivating factors and limitations in caregiver/child play, offering implications for future research on caregiver play beliefs as well as possible areas for intervention.
This study aimed to examine the association between children's participation in physical and sports activities and their affective subjective well-being. Data were drawn from the Second Wave of the Children's Worlds: International Survey of Children's Well-Being (ISCWeB), involving a sample of 913 Chilean children aged 10 and 12 years. Participants completed self-report measures assessing feelings of happiness, sadness, stress, energy and boredom (positive and negative affect-CW PNAS). Participation in physical activities and sports was significantly correlated with positive well-being, indicating a strong link between such involvement and perceived positive affect. Age and gender did not significantly influence these outcomes. In contrast, lower participation in physical and sports activities was significantly associated with higher negative affect, with neither age nor gender showing substantial impact on this result. This research employed structural equation modelling to develop a model measuring physical and sports activities (PSA) and subjective well-being in Chilean schoolchildren. The study confirms the model's effectiveness in explaining the relationship between children's SWB and PSA involvement. Analysis showed significant correlations between indicators and emotional well-being factors. Findings emphasise emotions like calmness, happiness and stress in understanding the affective dimensions of children's well-being related to PSA.
Parental beliefs and practices regarding motor development vary across cultures. However, there is a gap in cross-cultural studies focusing on minority groups. This mixed-methods study explores the cultural construction of infant motor development within the Druze-Israeli (Druze-IL) minority group. Using questionnaires, we measured beliefs, practices, physical settings, and infant motor skills among 83 Druze-IL mothers comparing them with a matched group of 83 Jewish-IL mothers, representing Israel's majority group. Moreover, qualitative insights were gleaned from semi-structured interviews with eight Druze-IL mothers. Results indicated that Druze-IL mothers prioritised stimulating motor development and valued expert guidance, while also perceiving it as a natural process. For example, they were less supportive of the prone position and preferred the upright position compared to Jewish-IL mothers. This preference was congruent with Druze infants' superior skills in upright postures compared to Jewish-IL infants. Interviews highlighted that Druze mothers balance traditional customs with expert advice, stressing the importance of attuning to their infants' needs to determine the suitability of various practices. The findings enrich our understanding of the socio-cultural construction of motor development and illustrate how Druze mothers negotiate influences from both minority and majority cultures in shaping their beliefs, practices, and ultimately, their infants' motor skills.
A common challenge in developmental research is the amount of incomplete and missing data that occurs from respondents failing to complete tasks or questionnaires, as well as from disengaging from the study (i.e., attrition). This missingness can lead to biases in parameter estimates and, hence, in the interpretation of findings. These biases can be addressed through statistical techniques that adjust for missing data, such as multiple imputation. Although this technique is highly effective, it has not been widely adopted by developmental scientists given barriers such as lack of training or misconceptions about imputation methods and instead utilizing default methods within software like listwise deletion. This manuscript is intended to provide practical guidelines for developmental researchers to follow when examining their data for missingness, making decisions about how to handle that missingness, and reporting the extent of missing data biases and specific multiple imputation procedures in publications.
It has become increasingly apparent that publishing research on child development from certain countries is especially challenging. These countries have been referred to collectively as the Majority World, the Global South, non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic), or low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to these persistent challenges, and provide constructive recommendations to contribute to better representation of children from these countries in child development research. In this paper, we outline the history of publication bias in developmental science, and issues of generalization of research from these countries and hence where it 'fits' in terms of publishing. The importance of explaining context is highlighted, including for research on measurement child development outcomes, and attention is drawn to the vicious publication-funding cycle that further exacerbates the challenges of publishing this research. Specific recommendations are made to assist child development journals achieve their stated goals of creating a more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and global field of child development.
We present a biobehavioral model that explains the neurobiological mechanisms through which measures of vagal regulation of the heart (e.g., respiratory sinus arrhythmia) are related to infant self-regulatory and social engagement skills. The model describes the sequential development of the neural structures that provide a newborn infant with the ability to regulate physiological state in response to a dynamically changing postpartum environment. Initially, the newborn uses primitive brainstem-visceral circuits via ingestive behaviors as the primary mechanism to regulate physiological state. However, as cortical regulation of the brainstem improves during the first year of life, reciprocal social behavior displaces feeding as the primary regulator of physiological state. The model emphasizes two sequential phases in neurophysiological development as the fetus transitions to postpartum biological and social challenges: 1) the development of the myelinated vagal system during the last trimester, and 2) the development of cortical regulation of the brainstem areas regulating the vagus during the first year postpartum.
Despite increasing interest in the effects of parenting stress on children and families, many questions remain regarding the nature of parenting stress and the mechanism through which stress exerts its influence across time. In this study, cumulative parenting stress was assessed across the preschool period in a sample of 125 typically developing children and their mothers. Indices of parenting stress included both major life events stress-assessed annually from age 3 to 5, and parenting daily hassles assessed every 6 months across the same period. Naturalistic home observations were conducted when children were age 5, during which measures of parent and child interactive behaviour as well as dyadic pleasure and dyadic conflict were obtained. Mothers also completed the CBCL to assess children's behaviour problems. Results indicated that parenting daily hassles and major life stress are relatively stable across the preschool period. Both cumulative stress indices also proved to be important predictors of parent and child behaviour and dyadic interaction, although the predictions were somewhat differential. Despite meaningful relations between the stress factors and child well being, no evidence was found to support the premise that parent behaviour mediates the association between parenting stress and child outcomes. Results are discussed within a developmental framework to understand the stability and complexity of cumulative stress associations to early parent–child relationships. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Young children develop social and emotional competence through interactions with others in the two major contexts in which they spend time: home and preschool. This study examined whether parenting stress in the home context is related to the children's behaviour while in preschool. Previous research has suggested that parenting stress negatively influences parenting behaviour, which in turn has been shown to impact children's development. This study examined the direct relationship between parenting stress and children's behaviour in two types of preschool programmes: private day care centres and Head Start. Parenting stress was significantly related to teacher ratings of social competence, internalizing behaviours, and externalizing behaviours, and the effects of parenting behaviour do not appear to mediate this relationship. Parenting stress was most strongly related to children's social competence. Parents' reports of expectations for their child's behaviour appear to weakly moderate the relationship between externalizing behaviour and parenting stress. This study suggests that examination of a parent's level of stress, in addition to parenting practices, may be important in research and interventions with preschool children's behaviour and social competence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The present study examines maternal speech to 1-year-old children in two cultural contexts in the same nation: an urban industrial town (Padua) and a small rural village (Ruoti). The aim was to evaluate if and how intranational cultural variation influences the ways in which Italian-speaking mothers use language when addressing their children. We hypothesized that mothers in the rural context would adopt speech acts with a control function ('directive' speech style) more than mothers in the urban context, whereas urban mothers would use speech acts with a didactic and a tutorial function more than rural mothers ('child-centred' speech style). Forty primiparous mothers and their 13-month-old children were videotaped at home in a play session. Maternal speech from transcripts was examined in terms of five different communicative functions (Tutorial, Didactic, Conversational, Control, and Asynchronous) using a 21-category coding scheme validated in previous studies. Parents also completed a demographic and living standards questionnaire. The results showed systematic cultural differences in a variety of maternal communicative functions, presumably related to different life environments and childrearing practices in the two sites. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The object of this study is the stability of emotional regulation after painful events during early development. Thirty subjects' facial expressions were longitudinally observed at 3, 5, 11 and 18 months for 60 s before and 90 s after a paediatric vaccination. The results confirmed that regulation of pain increases with increasing age. Stability was found between 3 and 5 months, but not between 3 and 11 months, thus suggesting that at 5–6 months, there may be a developmental shift towards better regulation of stress responses. In contrast to the existing literature, Italian infants showed much more sadness than anger during soothing time; they also showed little pain at 18 months. Differences in the medical procedures or maternal soothing strategies may account for differences in soothing between Italian and US samples. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between several dimensions of maternal interactive behaviours, and cognitive development and attention in preterm infants. Of special interest was the question of whether high levels of maternal stimulation and activity may have negative consequences for the development of preterm infants. Sixty-six preterm infants and their mothers were followed longitudinally and videotaped in interaction situations at home, at the infant age of 6, 9 and 12 months. Mothers behaviours were scored on involvement, sensitive responsiveness, non-intrusiveness and level of activity. Moreover, infant cognitive status was assessed at 6, 12 and 24 months of age, using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Infant ability in problem solving and attention were assessed in two problem solving tasks at 18 and 24 months of age. The results showed that infant cognitive status at 12 and 24 months was best predicted by maternal involvement and infant responsiveness. No significant relationships were found between maternal interactive behaviours and infant ability in problem solving and attention. More importantly, there was no indication that high levels of maternal stimulation or intrusiveness may have a negative impact on later cognitive development and attention in preterm infants. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Early Development and ParentingVolume 7, Issue 3 p. 145-146 Research Article Innate representations? Gary F. Marcus, Corresponding Author Gary F. Marcus gary@psych.nyu.edu Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USADepartment of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USASearch for more papers by this author Gary F. Marcus, Corresponding Author Gary F. Marcus gary@psych.nyu.edu Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USADepartment of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 December 1998 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0917(199809)7:3<145::AID-EDP176>3.0.CO;2-HAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume7, Issue3Special Issue: Mark H. Johnson's Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceSeptember 1998Pages 145-146 RelatedInformation
Early Development and ParentingVolume 7, Issue 3 p. 153-158 Research Article Focusing on visual attention John E. Richards, Corresponding Author John E. Richards richards-john@sc.edu Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Colombia, SC 29208, USADepartment of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Colombia, SC 29208, USASearch for more papers by this author John E. Richards, Corresponding Author John E. Richards richards-john@sc.edu Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Colombia, SC 29208, USADepartment of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Colombia, SC 29208, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 December 1998 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0917(199809)7:3<153::AID-EDP178>3.0.CO;2-GCitations: 2AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume7, Issue3Special Issue: Mark H. Johnson's Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceSeptember 1998Pages 153-158 RelatedInformation
