The architecture of sleep undergoes distinct changes during childhood and early adolescence. Slow wave sleep is involved in memory processing and may support active consolidation of newly encoded representations to support the formation of abstracted "gist" memories. Here, we examined sleep and overnight memory formation in German school…

Background: Perception of exertion is essential for self-regulation in sports. The ability to rate perceived exertion (RPE) is regarded as psychophysiological competence, although cognitive components of RPE are largely unknown. The present study tested the hypothesis that cognitive processing speed, perseveration and figural fluency correlate…

Research Findings: Children's capacities for complex socio-moral reasoning carries across domains; similarly, children's aggressive behaviors changes as a function of context. However, with a few exceptions, little research has considered children's socio-moral reasoning and aggressive subtypes in concert. The goals of the current study were to…

Psychological inertia, the process by which social-cognitive variables help maintain behavioral patterns over time, has been found to explain crime continuity. The present study sought to determine whether psychological inertia can also be used to explain continuity in bullying behavior. A group of 1,161 youth (567 male) from the Illinois Study of…

A large-scale ("N" = 552) controlled multivariate prospective 14-year longitudinal study of a developmental cascade embedded in a developmental system showed that information-processing efficiency in infancy (4 months), general mental development in toddlerhood (18 months), behavior difficulties in early childhood (36 months),…

We investigated whether typically-developing children with a gift for drawing realistically show the local processing bias seen in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty-seven 6-12 year-olds made an observational drawing (scored for level of realism) and completed three local processing tasks, and parents completed the Childhood…

Mother-child play of maltreating and nonmaltreating families was analyzed when infants were 12 months old (Time 1), and 2 years old (Time 2), as a context to examine children's developing cognitive and social skills. At Time 1, infants from abusing families demonstrated less independent and more imitative behavior during play than did infants from…

Early problem behaviors are associated with a variety of cognitive deficits: in verbal ability, executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). Previous studies with different age-groups yield contrasting results: for 2-year-olds, ToM skills appear particularly salient (Hughes & Ensor, 2006), but for 4-year-olds EF appears more important…

Until recently, the impact of early brain insult (EBI) has been considered to be less significant than for later brain injuries, consistent with the notion that the young brain is more flexible and able to reorganize in the context of brain insult. This study aimed to evaluate this notion by comparing cognitive and behavioural outcomes for…

The problem of valid measurement of psychological constructs remains an impediment to scientific progress, and the measurement of executive functions is not an exception. This study examined the statistical and theoretical derivation of a behavioral screener for the estimation of executive functions in children from the well-established Behavior…

Background: Interpersonal staff behaviour is one of the instigating factors associated with challenging behaviour in clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). There are several studies focusing on the influence of intrapersonal staff characteristics--such as beliefs, attributions and emotional reactions--on staff behaviour. Little is known,…

Children with disabilities receive most of their support from families. While most family caregivers are mothers or fathers, grandparents are increasingly providing care for children with disabilities. In addition, family caregivers come from diverse cultural backgrounds that impact their views on disability. This paper reviews the literature on…

In a sample of 92 children aged 6-13 years this study investigates the normal developmental change in the relation between executive functioning (EF) and the core behavioural symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention) as well as symptoms often co-occurring with childhood…

This book is designed to provide educators with the requisite information to successfully meet the needs of students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). It focuses particularly on students (preschoolers through adolescents) whose injuries are moderate to severe and who are expected to suffer educationally significant residual impairments. It…