Infants and toddlers spend a substantial amount of their time in out-of-home care, and are thus being tended to not only by their mothers but also by their caregivers. It is therefore of considerable importance to study the effects of caregiver-infant compared to mother-infant interactions. To address this issue, first, various variables of…

Spatial language and ability play important roles in children's cognitive development. Spatial ability in kindergarten predicts achievement in reading, math, science, and technology in primary school and therefore constitutes an important skill set in preparation for school entrance. Good spatial thinking skills are required for learning in…

This article examines the political socialization of young children who live under conditions of intractable conflict. We present four premises: First, we argue that, within the context of intractable conflict, political socialization begins earlier and faster than previously suspected, and is evident among young children. Second, we propose that…

Nowadays, we are surrounded by artifacts that are capable of adaptive behavior, such as electric pots, boiler timers, automatic doors, and robots. The literature concerning human beings' conceptions of "traditional" artifacts is vast, however, little is known about our conceptions of behaving artifacts, nor of the influence of the…

This article mingles stories and concepts of young Jewish Israeli children about God, with reflections on the roles of faith, memory, imagination, and cognitive development in children's Religious Education. The stories are meant to illustrate, among other things, the purity and innocence of young children's faith, which is largely untroubled by…

Forty-eight low socioeconomic status Israeli women were trained to optimize their infants' development through mediational strategies including increase in frequency of focusing, affecting, expanding, encouraging, and regulating behaviors. At three-year follow-up, maternal mediation behaviors were found to be related to specific children's…

This paper presents and evaluates the broad results of pre-school intervention experiments and programs aimed at fostering the intellectual and social development of "disadvantaged" groups. Among the general findings discussed are (1) there is a "sensitive," or even "critical," period in child development, an age at…

Israel's Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters, a nationally administered home-based program of early childhood education, is discussed in this book. In addition to presenting information regarding the social conditions that necessitated development of the program, this book describes the theory and planning behind the program, its…