Play, in particular sex-typical play, is important for affective, cognitive, and social development. There is limited research on sex-typical play in autistic children. The few prior studies on this topic relied heavily on reports or involvement of caregivers/parents, did not assess cognitive abilities, and examined a limited number of sex-typical…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how young children define trust and to find out if there is a relationship between the people whom they trust and the people with whom they share their favorite food and toy. The participants consist of 273 kindergarteners enrolled in five public kindergartens. Research assistants asked the participants…

Engaging, focusing, and persisting in the completion of tasks are among the skills needed for school success. Tracking whether a child is learning cognitive problem-solving skills is essential in knowing if they are acquiring skills important for development and school readiness; and if not, how they are responding to early intervention. Use of…

The aim of this study was to determine the play perceptions of children in early childhood. The study group consisted of four children (two preschoolers and two first graders) aged between 72 and 86 months. The study, designed in line with qualitative research approach, employed the phenomenological design. The data in the study were collected by…

Many studies have found that a majority of boys and girls prefer to play with toys that are typed to their own gender but there is still uncertainty about the age at which such sex differences first appear, and under what conditions. Applying a standardized research protocol and using a selection of gender-typed toys, we observed the toy…

Purpose: Language sampling analysis (LSA) plays an important role in evaluating language skills; hence, the study aimed to develop new assessment measures for the LSA in Turkish as alternatives to mean length of utterance (MLU) and the Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure. With this aim, Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) and…

We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks--book-sharing and bead-stringing--in low-income, ethnically diverse families. Mexican, Dominican, and African American mothers and their infants were video-recorded sharing wordless books and toy beads in the home when infants were 1:2 and 2:0. Mothers' utterances were…

We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks -- book-sharing and bead-stringing -- in low-income, ethnically diverse families. Mexican, Dominican, and African American mothers and their infants were video-recorded sharing wordless books and toy beads in the home when infants were aged 1;2 and 2;0. Mothers' utterances…

The aim of this study was to examine associations between ostracism, internalising problems, and threat to primary needs (belonging, control, self-esteem, meaningful existence) in children (N= 165, M age = 9 years). Ostracism was simulated experimentally using the Cyberball paradigm--a computer-based ball-throwing game--and threats to primary…

The development of spontaneous gender stereotyping in children was investigated using the newly developed Action Interference Paradigm (AIP). This task consists of assigning gender-stereotypical toys as quickly as possible to boys and girls in either a stereotype-congruent or a stereotype-incongruent manner. A pilot study with 38 children (mean…

Developmental intergroup theory would predict that children develop fewer or weaker stereotypes about toys that have less distinguishable gender attributes than those that are clearly associated with a gender. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of neutral and ambiguous toys in 31 three- to five-year-old children's play behaviour…

Past research suggests that both White children and minority children, including Hispanics, hold pro-White biases. Although doll studies have been a popular way of assessing racial attitudes among children, several methodological issues have made it challenging to interpret the results from these studies. Furthermore, past research has failed to…

Sand play commonly occupies children at preschools, child-development centers, and school and park playgrounds. The authors review the research on sand play and present a small study on outdoor sand play conducted at a university-based, child-development center using a method they call "facilitated-action research." This study had four…

Children commonly observe and pitch in to ongoing activities in Indigenous communities of Mexico, according to ethnographic research. The present study examines the generality of this approach to learning by comparing its use among Mexican immigrants of two cultural backgrounds in the United States. Results showed more sustained attention to (and…

To test divergent theoretical predictions as to the impact of having a younger or older, same-sex sibling or opposite-sex sibling on other gender constancy, Israeli kindergarten children in two-child families responded to a gender constancy task in which a male and female picture target engaged in counter-stereotypic toy play and adopted…