Infants at elevated likelihood of developing autism display differences in sensory reactivity, especially hyporeactivity, as early as 7 months of age, potentially contributing to a developmental cascade of autism symptoms. Caregiver responsiveness, which has been linked to positive social communication outcomes, has not been adequately examined…

Grief does not spare infants and young children. Attachment disruption through the loss of a primary caregiver is devastating to a young child's foundational experience of safety without the developmental capacity to understand any aspect of their loved one's absence. In this case story, the authors explore the diagnosis of complicated grief in…

The present study explored the association between the structural quality of child care, caregivers' sensitive responsiveness, children's involvement in play and activity in the setting, and children's expression of aggression. Eighty-four early childhood care settings were classified into either high (29) or low structural quality (55) based on…

Challenging behavior (CB) is a common occurrence in early childhood and frequently occurs in young children with disabilities. CB is also culturally perceived and includes differences in how caregivers understand and define the topography of CB. Despite the cultural interpretation, CB is known to impact the child and their family but there has…

Many existing preventive intervention programs focus on promoting responsive parenting practices. However, these parenting programs are often long in duration and expensive, and meta-analytic evidence indicates that families facing high levels of adversity typically benefit less. Moreover, due to a lack of specification and evaluation of…

This article is a literature synthesis of the living conditions of black children after their parent's imprisonment. In Africa, the prison population currently stands at 1,194,497, while in South Africa, 147,922 people were being held in correctional facilities as of January 2021. Parental incarceration has affected all children, regardless of…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person learning, fears about children's learning loss remain a primary concern for parents, teachers, and policymakers. These concerns, combined with longstanding issues of inequity regarding children's access to learning opportunities have sparked widespread discussion about how to reimagine education.…

Social contexts shape the development of attention; however, little is known about joint attention beyond infancy. This study employed behavioral and eye-tracking measurements to investigate cultural variations in how caregivers direct 3- to 4-year-old children's attention and subsequent changes in children's attention to objects and contextual…

Infants can help and share in the second year of life. However, there is limited knowledge as to variability in these behaviors as a function of target (e.g., caregiver vs. unfamiliar adult) and the influence of caregiver support on infant prosocial behavior. Infants (N = 268, 124 female) at 1-2 years of age (M = 1.47, SD = 0.27) and again at 2-3…

Children develop within the context of caregiver--child relationships, each presenting with their own unique strengths, areas of growth, and compatibility of fit. Instead of the traditional viewpoint that child symptoms are generalizable across contexts and would emerge across relationships, the DC:0--5™: Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health…

Research Findings: Measuring toddlers' cortisol levels both in childcare and at home and their relation to child- and childcare-related factors may help to identify stress-inducing childcare practices and children who are more vulnerable to stress in childcare. Accordingly, toddlers' (n = 320, 51.2% female, mean age = 26.8 months) cortisol levels…

This study investigated the use of playgroups as a play-based intervention for Early Intervention aged children with developmental delays. Children currently enrolled in Early Intervention National, across New York State, and locally are being provided with fewer services than in prior years due to provider shortages. Children from diverse…

Exposure to traumatic events in childhood and adolescence can have lasting negative social, emotional, and educational effects. For schools, or any environment that serves children, to be truly trauma-informed, they must address three crucial areas: safety, connection, and emotional and behavioral regulation. This article, which is excerpted from…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of pedagogical intervention on early childhood education professionals' emotional availability to children with different temperament characteristics. Participants were 136 children (intervention group = 87; control group = 49) aged 1-6 years from 16 early childhood and care centres in Finland.…

Limited literature exists documenting mealtime challenges and evidence for early intervention for children with visual impairment (VI). The objective of this pilot study was to determine whether a mealtime routines intervention for children with VI from 6 to 24 months would affect food texture, variety, and healthy food choices. The intervention…