This study evaluates the effectiveness of the "Parent-child Brain Camp," a 4-week video-based executive functions (EFs) training program for children ages 5-6, through a randomized controlled trial with a pre- and post-test design with 173 Hong Kong children (intervention "ni" = 79, 48.7% girls, M[subscript age] = 69.16 months;…

Rehearsal is a form of self-talk used to support short-term memory. Historically, the study of rehearsal development has diverged from the study of self-talk more generally. The current experiment examines whether two characteristics of self-talk (impact of task difficulty and self-talk's narrative vs. planning purpose) are also observed in…

We examined the extent to which the timing of inferential questioning influenced kindergartners' inferencing performance in a non-reading context, while also taking into account individual differences in language comprehension and executive function. Students completed the eight-week Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII)…

We examined the extent to which the timing of inferential questioning influenced kindergartners' inferencing performance in a non-reading context, while also taking into account individual differences in language comprehension and executive function. Students completed the eight-week Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII)…

When children transition to school between the ages of 4 and 6 years, they must learn to control their attention and behaviour to be successful. Concurrently, executive function (EF) is an important skill undergoing significant development in childhood. To understand changes occurring during this period, we examined the role of parenting in the…

Non-adult-like linguistic behavior in children is sometimes taken as evidence for endogenous factors that drive selection of grammatical features from the child's hypothesis space of possible grammars. Analyses of English-acquiring children's productions of medial "wh"-phrases exemplify this trend in particular. We provide an alternative…

Background: Recent studies indicate that parent education programs that include content to enhance parents' mental states may prove efficacious in improving parenting behavior and child outcomes. Objective: This study presents findings from a national evaluation of the "Active Parenting First Five Years" (FFY) program. This group-based…

It is not uncommon to walk into a college classroom and find all heads bowed down to a flashing screen and the room . . . silent. While digital devices can certainly support learning, what about when they are a distraction? This study explored this 21st-century phenomenon from two perspectives: Does the use of a device for nonacademic purposes…

Play is a powerful influence on children's learning and parents can provide opportunities to learn specific content by scaffolding children's play. Parent-child synchrony (i.e., harmony, reciprocity and responsiveness in interactions) is a component of parent-child interactions that is not well characterized in studies of play. We tested whether…

Purpose: This study sought to determine whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and executive functions are associated with stuttered speech disfluencies of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS). Method: Thirty-six young CWS and 36 CWNS were exposed to neutral, negative, and positive emotion-inducing video clips, followed by…

Individual differences in executive function (EF) are well established to be related to mathematics achievement, yet the mechanisms by which this occurs are not well understood. Comparing representations (problems, solutions, concepts) is central to mathematical thinking, and relational reasoning is known to rely upon EF resources. The current…

Children frequently select learning sources based on epistemic cues, or cues pertaining to informants' knowledge. Previous research has shown that preschoolers preferentially learn from informants who have been accurate in the past, appear confident, or have had visual access to relevant information. The present series of studies aimed to…

Background: This study was aimed at investigating the impact of a single exercise intervention on executive function in young adults with Down syndrome (DS). Methods: Considering the relations among executive function, physical and mental health and early onset of Alzheimer's disease in this population, we tested three components of executive…

This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported…

Several researchers have hypothesized a deficit in memory processing to exist in children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This hypothesis has been supported by findings of deficient recall and recognition ability in children with ASD. Specifically, research has pointed to greater deficits in their ability to recall events…