Joint attention is an important developmental skill. This series of studies investigated the teaching of component joint attention skills to 10 children with autism ranging in age from three to five years. The goal was to teach gaze shifting within a joint attention interaction. An additional goal was to expand some participants' community of…

The normative, developmental changes in affect-biased attention during the preschool years are largely unknown. To investigate the attention bias for emotional versus neutral faces, an eye-tracking measurement and free viewing of paired pictures of facial expressions (i.e., happy, fearful, sad, or angry faces) and nonface pictures with neutral…

"Research Findings:" Sustained attention is a fundamental cognitive function for young children's development. We investigated the effects of school-based audiovisual game training with parental involvement on sustained attention (SA) in 5-6-year-old Chinese children. Totally 75 children and their parents participated and were assigned…

Best practice for the assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptom severity relies on clinician ratings of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2), but the association of these ratings with objective measures of children's social gaze and smiling is unknown. Sixty-six preschool-age children (49 boys, M =…

Children whose families experience socioeconomic disadvantage are at risk for poor sustained attention, a foundational skill related to goal-oriented behaviour, self-regulation and kindergarten readiness. Maternal parenting behaviours and parenting stress are theorised developmental pathways linking socioeconomic status (SES) to children's…

The idea that implicit and explicit mindreading form a continuum is controversial. This paper presents a systematic review of longitudinal findings on the development of mindreading in children to compare the main theoretical explanations of this capacity (enrichment and conceptual change theories, submentalizing theory and two-system theory). The…

Symbolic numeracy first emerges as children learn the meanings of number words and how to use them to precisely count sets of objects. This development starts before children enter school and forms a foundation for lifelong mathematics achievement. Despite its importance, exactly how children acquire this basic knowledge is unclear. Here we test…

The study examined the moderating role of children's affect-biased attention to angry, fearful, and sad adult faces in the link between interparental conflict and children's distinct forms of involvement. Participants included 243 preschool children (M[subscript age] = 4.60 years, 56% female) and their parents from racially (48% African American,…

Background: Self-regulation has frequently been shown to be context-sensitive, suggesting the influence of different cultural contexts on its development. However, up until now, self-regulation has been mainly studied in Western countries with similar cultural contexts. Objective: Thus, with the present study we compared self-regulation of…

This longitudinal study explores the associations between children's executive functions at the beginning of preschool and their learning behaviors, namely competence motivation and attentional persistence, at the end of preschool. Participants were 218 Portuguese children (M[subscript age]= 40.4 months, SD= 4.2; 52% boys) and their preschool…

Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk for learning. Because ADHD commonly includes behaviours of inattention and behaviours of hyperactivity/impulsivity, how the two types of behaviours independently affect children's academic competence remains poorly understood. Aims: To investigate the impact of behaviours of…

This research investigated the effects of Orff-based attention-enhancing music education programme on impulsive preschool children's cognitive tempo. The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty preschoolers were included in this research; 15 in the experimental and 15 in the control groups.…

Attending to distracting or competing information is typically considered detrimental to learning, but the presence of competing information can also facilitate learning when it is relevant to ongoing task goals. Educational settings often contain contextual elements such as classroom decorations or visual aids to enhance student learning. Despite…

Epidemiological data reveal that there is a need for prevention measures specifically targeted at children with low SES. In the German federal state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania preschools in socially deprived regions can apply for additional funds to support children with developmental risks. Mandatory criteria for obtaining these funds involve…

Many autistic children require support to meet their learning needs. Given the heterogeneity within the autism spectrum it is plausible that different types of support might be better suited to different children. However, knowledge on what interventions work best for which children is limited. We examined the outcomes of autistic preschool-aged…