Before they even talk, infants become sensitive to the speech sounds of their native language and recognize the auditory form of an increasing number of words. Traditionally, these early perceptual changes are attributed to an emerging knowledge of linguistic categories such as phonemes or words. However, there is growing skepticism surrounding…

Each game within the Ignite by Hatch™ gaming environment belongs to an overall developmental domain and skills-based subdomain and is intended to meet the developmental needs of children at specific skill levels. These skill levels (Beginning, Emerging, Intermediate, Accomplishing, and Proficient+) form an intended developmental pathway. Children…

Play is a powerful influence on children's learning and parents can provide opportunities to learn specific content by scaffolding children's play. Parent-child synchrony (i.e., harmony, reciprocity and responsiveness in interactions) is a component of parent-child interactions that is not well characterized in studies of play. We tested whether…

The early language environments of low-income Hispanic children can be negatively affected when their Spanish-speaking caregivers face racism, assimilation pressure, and/or misinformed advice based on English-only ideologies. This article reports on the design and efficacy of Háblame Bebé, a language-promoting phone application that encourages…

This article discusses issues in measuring lexical diversity, before outlining an approach based on mathematical modelling that produces a measure, D, designed to address these problems. The procedure for obtaining values for D directly from transcripts using software (vocd) is introduced, and then applied to thirty-two children from the Bristol…

The authors summarize the research on the effects of computer use by young children, concentrating especially on implications for social, emotional, and cognitive development. They cover effects on children's language and reading, creativity, and mathematics learning. They note the importance of teacher planning for appropriate computer use in the…

Is computer usage appropriate for young children? The manner in which the computer is used can benefit the child, have no effect whatsoever, or actually be detrimental to the child's academic and personal growth. Specific conditions can be instituted to assure that young children benefit from their exposure to or interaction with technology. How…

Responds to a recent critical report on computers in childhood. Highlights include computers, children, and research; social and emotional development; types of software; motivation; social and cognitive interactions; cognitive development; creativity; language and literacy; writing and word processing; mathematics and reasoning; and science and…