Enhancing executive function in children and adolescents can have significant positive impact on their current and future daily lives. Upregulation of executive function associated with motor skill acquisition suggests that motor learning scenarios provide valuable developmental opportunities to optimize executive function. The present systematic…

During the first year of life, infants possess some of the key social--cognitive abilities required for success in a social world: Infants interpret others' actions in terms of their intentions and can use this understanding prospectively to generate predictions about others' behavior. Exactly how these foundational abilities develop is currently…

Adult humans process communicative interactions by recognizing that information is being communicated through speech (linguistic ability) and simultaneously evaluating how to respond appropriately (social-pragmatic ability). These abilities may originate in infancy. Infants understand how speech communicates in social interactions, helping them…

A common problem in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP) is the asymmetrical development of arm and hand capacity caused by the lack of use of the affected upper limb, or developmental disregard. In this paper, we provide a neuropsychological model that relates developmental disregard to attentional processes and motor learning. From this…

The authors examined the relation between infants' motor skills and attention to objects features in events in which a hand acted on an object (e.g., squeezed it) that then produced a sound (e.g., squeaking). In this study, 6- to 7-month-old infants (N = 41) were habituated to a single event and then tested with changes in appearance and action.…

The relation between cognitive and motor performance was studied in a sample of 378 children aged 5-6. Half of these children had no behavior problems; the others were selected for externalizing (38%) or internalizing problems (12%). Quantitative and qualitative aspects of motor performance were related to several aspects of cognition, after…

This paper presents a study of the effects of "typical" infant day care on children's behavior and development. The variables studied include center versus home programs, length of time in day care, age of child and sex of child. Subjects for the study were 114 boys and girls (ranging in age from 12 to 36 months) enrolled in either a day…