While a wealth of research evidence has highlighted the significant impact of prosocial modeling on shaping children's sharing behavior, the mechanism underlying this effect remains less understood. Here we consider the goal contagion account whereby children recognize the prosocial "goal" of others' actions and these goals are…

Interoceptive awareness (IA) refers to one's ability to perceive and recognize internal bodily signals. Our behavioral and emotional responses to interoceptive signals are determined by self-regulation. Therefore, IA and self-regulation have considerable impacts on children's daily occupational engagement and performance. Nonetheless, the…

Many in the autistic community have expressed concerns regarding the use of behavioral interventions with autistic children, suggesting that these interventions may not be socially valid. Though behavioral interventions have evolved to be more naturalistic and child-centered, little structured research has been done to explicitly seek autistic…

Autistic adults have reported experiencing discrimination across settings. Nonetheless, population-based research examining the prevalence of discrimination against autistic individuals has been more limited. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence of types of discrimination (i.e., due to race or ethnicity, due to sexual orientation…

This study aiming to compare the effectiveness of Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) and Conductive Education (CE) approaches on motor skills, activity limitation and participation restrictions in children with Down Syndrome (DS). Twelve children were randomly assigned into two groups. Twelve-week CO-OP or CE…

Rule-guided behavior depends on the ability to strategically update and act on content held in working memory. Proactive and reactive control strategies were contrasted across two experiments using an adapted input/output gating paradigm (Neuron, 81, 2014 and 930). Behavioral accuracies of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds were higher when a contextual cue…

The importance of parent-child relationships for child developmental outcomes suggests a need to incorporate a relationship focus into early intervention programs for children with developmental delays. Nevertheless, confusion exists about the definition and application of relationship-focussed interventions, and occupational therapists remain…

The views of children with special educational needs and disabilities are frequently left out of educational decision-making processes. In recent years, researchers have sought to employ creative methods to facilitate children's voices in areas of importance. One such area is transitions between educational settings, a significant time that has…

Youth purpose was investigated using a two-phase embedded design with youth participating in Scouts BSA (N = 3,943), ages 9-20 (M = 14.0, SD = 1.9). Participating Scouts were mostly White (91%) and male (98%). In Phase 1, we conducted a two-step cluster analysis on Scouts' survey responses to three purpose dimensions (personal meaning,…

Emerging research suggests overrepresentation of gender diversity among autistic youth. Previous gender diversity research with autistic children has relied on parent-report based on a single question. The "Gender Diversity Screening Questionnaire--Self-Report and Parent-Report" assessed gender diversity experiences from 244 children…

Research into the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) has shown how children from a very early age infer other people's goals. However, human behaviour is sometimes driven not by plans to achieve goals, but by habits, which are formed over long periods of reinforcement. Habitual and goal-directed behaviours are often aligned with one another but…

Emerging research shows that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) may improve mental health for caregivers. Parents of autistic children, adolescents, and adults (N = 54) were randomly assigned to either complete a brief group-based ACT intervention or remain on the waitlist. Participants completed surveys immediately prior to randomization,…

In June 2021, a member of the Belgian conservative political party (N-VA) sparked online controversy regarding inclusive sexuality education by criticising the Genderbread Person, an educational tool used to explain gender identity and sexual orientation. This study analyses the notion of childhood innocence in online debate about the Genderbread…

This study examined whether executive functions impact how flexibly children represent task context in performing repeated sequential actions. Japanese children in Experiments 1 (N = 52; 3-6 years) and 2 (N = 50, 4-6 years) performed sequential actions repeatedly; one group received reminders. Experiment 1 indicated that reminders promote flexible…

The development of autobiographical memory is a culturally constructive process in which children learn to remember and share their personal experiences in culture-specific ways. In this article, I present a theoretical model that situates children's independent recall and joint reminiscing with parents in the cultural context. Built on…