Background: Language development is critical for children's life chances. Promoting parent-child interactions is suggested as one mechanism to support language development in the early years. However, limited evidence exists for a causal effect of parent-child interactions on children's language development. Methods: Data from the Language in…

The Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children, 3rd Edition (AEPS-3), is a curriculum-based criterion-referenced assessment that is effectively used in early childhood programs because it links assessment, intervention, and evaluation. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the AEPS-3 in Kosovo, a…

Reading and literacy skills are essential to fostering a child's development and academic success. Research has consistently highlighted the importance of early literacy proficiency as a strong indicator of later academic achievement, cognitive ability, and social-emotional well-being (Espinosa, 2002; Gottlieb et al., 2022). Unfortunately, reading…

Children typically learn by attending to other people. Autism traits may impact access to social stimuli fundamental to early learning, increasing children's likelihood of a learning disability. Recent reports have highlighted that Autistic children from minority backgrounds have a higher likelihood of co-occurring intellectual disability. This…

In this article, we consider the academic literature regarding how racial discrimination is prefigured in societal norms and habits in early learning and childcare in Scotland and England. Specifically, we outline what we see as a salient opportunity to strengthen the existing knowledge base, namely how race and racism are understood in young…

There is a great demand for quality early intervention services for autistic children and their families. Caregiver-mediated interventions are critical components of evidence-based early intervention. However, their implementation in publicly funded systems is often done with poor fidelity. Qualitative evidence suggests that family characteristics…

The emergence of prosocial tendencies in early childhood is still not well understood and not commonly tested with direct measures. This study investigated predictors of prosocial behavior (i.e., prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity) in 3-to-5-year-old children and explored the role of demographic factors on empathy and moral…

We investigated the effect of cognitive training of executive functions on children's cognitive outcomes. To address this issue, a systematic meta-analysis of published research articles on cognitive training interventions was performed considering children's age, training duration, -procedure, and -technology in moderator analyses. The results (N…

Children with complex congenital heart defects often show delays and deficits in cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional functioning. As such, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Associated recommend ongoing monitoring and support of development. In conjunction with the formal therapeutic supports frequently…

Early intervention (EI) services--including but not limited to speech, physical, occupational, and mental health therapies--have been proven to significantly benefit young children's development, shaping their readiness for school and offering pivotal support for caregivers. However, racial disparities persist in identification for and access to…