The cognitive functioning of children who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) has received less attention than their emotional-behavioral outcomes. Drawing upon data from 615 (48.4% female) 10-year-old Australian-born children and their mothers (9.6% of mothers born in non-English speaking countries) participating in a community-based…

This study examined verbal and non-verbal features of mother-infant shared book reading in Australia during the first year of life and explored the relationship between these features and infant cognition. Mother-infant dyads were observed in this cross-sectional study reading an unfamiliar book in a laboratory setting when infants were aged 6…

'High functioning autism' is a term often used for individuals with autism spectrum disorder without an intellectual disability. Over time, this term has become synonymous with expectations of greater functional skills and better long-term outcomes, despite contradictory clinical observations. This study investigated the relationship between…

As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old…

The time frame for infants' acquisition of language constancy was probed, using the phonetic variation in a rarely heard accent (South African English) or a frequently heard accent (American English). A total of 156 Australian infants were tested. Six-month-olds looked longer to Australian English than less commonly heard South African accent, but…

Vocabulary knowledge is a critical component of school readiness. The current study investigated the extent to which low levels of joint attention in infancy and parent-child book reading across early childhood increase the risk of children having poor vocabulary around the time of school entry. Relevant data from the Longitudinal Study of…

The study adopted a person-centered approach to examine whether clusters of children could be identified on the basis of temperament profiles assessed on four occasions from infancy to early childhood, and if so whether differing temperament clusters were associated with subsequent differences in behavior problems, social skills, and school…

Two experiments were conducted to explore infant responsiveness to color and temperature novelty under bimodal conditions. In experiment 1, a total of 48 infants of 26-31 weeks were familiarized with a warm-red, warm-blue, cool-red, or cool-blue object, and assigned to one of three experimental groups. Each group was stimulated by a novel test…

Replicates a study of spatial egocentrism in Thai 5- to 7-year-old children, using a sample of 4- to 8-year-old Australian children. (Author/CM)

Prior to considering the ability of infants to think, this discussion attempts to dispel prevalent myths about babies' thought processes. The fact that infants do not intentionally manipulate their parents; are not identical; are not simply hedonistic seekers of bodily pleasures; and are not passive, disorganized beings needing training into…

Cognitive development proceeds through a series of four levels. The first is the single-class level, attained by infants at approximately 1 year of age. At the single-class level, concepts are based on element similarity or convention (for example, images and words for common objects). The second level is the relational level, attained by toddlers…

In four parts, this discussion describes characteristics of the thought of infants, preschool children, primary school students, and adolescents. Topics briefly addressed in part I, on the thought processes/capabilities of babies, concern sensorimotor thought without abstraction, the importance of physical exploration, the development of…