Unprecedented increases in child exposure to diverse videos has resulted in a need to understand how children process videos. While children show distinct activations in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) when presented with children's movies, multiple factors influence child neural response to screen media, namely, presence of a specific parent, gender…

This study draws on four case studies of young children in order to explore the relationship between children's action schema [Athey, C. (1990). "Extending though in young children: A parent-teacher partnership." London: Paul Chapman] and their developing speech, language and communication. What emerged was a connection through…

Learning to regulate aggressive impulses is a significant developmental milestone for preschoolers. To date, there is no consensus about whether rough-and-tumble play (RTP) is positively or negatively related to the regulation of aggression. This study examined the relation of RTP with children's levels of emotion regulation and aggression. RTP of…

Narrative Story-Stem Tasks (NSST) assess young children's perceptions of close relationship qualities via the spontaneous narratives they create in response to story beginnings using doll-like figures. Most NSST research to date has focused on family relationships. This study extends this research to children's perceptions of relationships with…

We compared the structure and the content of mothers' and fathers' infant-directed speech as a function of infant birth order. Seven first-born and four second-born infants were video-recorded during their natural dyadic interactions with their mothers and fathers at home from the second to the sixth month after birth at 15-day intervals.…

Relations between maternal mind-mindedness, parenting stress and obstetric history were investigated in a Chinese sample of 96 mother-infant dyads (M[subscript infants' age] = 15.95 months, M[subscript maternal age] = 30 years). Parenting stress and obstetric history were assessed through questionnaires while mind-mindedness was observed through…

We compared systematically the structure, the focus, the thematic sequences, the complexity and the syntactic properties between maternal and paternal infant-directed speech in engagements of infants with their mothers and fathers. Eleven mother-infant and 11 father-infant dyads were video-recorded during their natural interactions at home from…

This case study examines the development of self-regulation, socially, cognitively and emotionally, through the use of play in the curriculum in five preschool classrooms for children ages 2-5 years old at a university laboratory school. Five teachers were interviewed about their deliberate use of play to support the development of self-regulation…

Early care and education programme quality is usually assessed at the classroom level. One such measure of classroom quality is the classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS). In an effort to ensure higher quality programming, the CLASS is being used to direct teacher professional development. However, there has been relatively little research on…

In this study the visual working memory (VWM) and perception speed of 60 children between the ages of three and six years were tested with an age-based, easy-to-handle Matrix Film Battery Test (reliability R?=?0.71). It was thereby affirmed that the VWM is age dependent (correlation coefficient r?=?0.66***) as expected. Furthermore, a significant…

Children's early years are critical for development and many children access out-of-home care during this time. Services offering high-quality childcare afford an opportunity to impact positively on children's development, including acquisition of communication skills. A strong, responsive relationship between child and carer is important in…

Rough and tumble play has been found to be positive for physical, social and cognitive development; it is often erroneously misinterpreted as aggression and generally stopped by preschool teachers. The current study sought to examine the relationship between teacher training and education and judgements about aggression in children. Ninety-four…

The purpose of our study was to examine the ways in which parents engage in play with their children within the family context and to establish which parental play behaviour predicts the play behaviour of their children during interactive play with toys. The sample included 58 children from 2;6 to 6 years old and their parents. The parent-child…

This study examined the associations among child language competence during father-child play interactions, fathers' time spent volunteering in their preschool-age child's Head Start classroom over the course of one school year, amount of father play and reading to the child at home, and fathers' positive control during play. The sample of 68…

Microtransitions can be identified as those exchanges that occur during everyday life when family members negotiate a change in their interactions. This study aims to highlight how certain aspects of family functioning during microtransitions could influence the development of children's socio-emotional competence in their interactions with peers.…