Infants are immersed in a world of sounds from the moment their auditory system becomes functional, and experience with the auditory world shapes how their brain processes sounds in their environment. Across cultures, speech and music are two dominant auditory signals in infants' daily lives. Decades of research have repeatedly shown that both…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with disparate health and educational outcomes. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the relationship between ACEs and academic performance among U.S. children and adolescents. A total of 20 articles were included for a descriptive synthesis and 11 articles…

Children's literacy development begins long before formal schooling, with parents and the home environment exerting important influences on the development of their children's language skills. A focus on the early years and the home learning environment of children is therefore crucial to ensure that they get the best possible foundation for their…

Family routines provide young children with predictable, repeatable, and functional contexts for learning about the world. Participating in family routines is a critical pathway by which all children learn. While the use of family routines in caregiver-implemented interventions (CIIs) is supported by theories, research, and recommended practices,…

Background: Evidence and awareness of the importance of culturally adapting psychosocial interventions is growing. The aim of this paper is to systematically review studies on cultural adaptations of psychosocial interventions for parents and their children with intellectual disabilities, in low- and middle-income countries. Methods: Studies were…

A multisystemic model of resilience suggests that the capacity of one system to cope with atypical stress improves the capacity of co-occurring systems. In this paper, we review research demonstrating this relationship, where the more resilient caregivers are, the more likely children are to experience the promotive and protective factors they…

Background: Scaffolding can be observed during learning-based interactions, when interventions by parents are adjusted according to children's observed abilities, with the main goal of enabling the child to work independently (Wood "et al.", 1976, "Journal of child psychology and psychiatry," 17, 89). Such contingent…

What happens at home in the early years of a child's life is not only key to their success in education, but their success in life. A positive early years home learning environment can predict higher levels of vocabulary, spelling and literacy in young children. The home learning environment has an influence on a child's intellectual and social…

Because social communication impairment is a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), making the right decision regarding language use for bilingual families of children with ASD is pertinent. The present review evaluated eight studies identified as addressing bilingual language development in 182 children with ASD and…

Understanding the process of attachment formation in young children has been a focal point in child development research for decades. However, young children's attachments are not only with human beings; they also form bonds with companion animals, particularly dogs ("Canis familiaris"). Given the number of dogs that are kept by families…

The Sustainable Development Goals mandate that by 2030, all children should have access to quality early child development opportunities, healthcare and pre-primary education. Yet validated measures of ECD in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are rare. To address this gap, a Systematic Review (SR) of measures available to profile the…

Though a large body of research has investigated the impacts of domestic violence on adult victims only few studies have been devoted to the exposure of children to probable inter-spousal trauma that disrupt their neurological and biochemical pathways in development. The aim of this paper is to analyse the current empirical research that discusses…

Learning in the earliest stage of life--the infancy, toddlerhood and preschool period--is relational and rapid. Child-initiated and adult-mediated conversations, playful interactions and learning through active involvement are integral to young children making sense of their environments and to their development over time. The child's experience…

Children and adolescents worldwide experience a variety of adversities that have the potential to disrupt typical development. However, some of these individuals exhibit resilience, evidencing normal development in the face of adversity. Here we review research on these constructs of risk, adversity, and resilience; synthesize international…

A brief review is provided of recent research on the impact of early visual language exposure on a variety of developmental outcomes, including literacy, cognition, and social adjustment. This body of work points to the great importance of giving young deaf children early exposure to a visual language as a critical precursor to the acquisition of…