Successful reference relies on being appropriately informative for listeners. What factors influence informativeness? For example, what factors influence the decision to refer to a ball with the less informative phrase "it," as opposed to the more informative phrase "the red ball"? The present dissertation proposes and…

Play, while complex, is essential for children's learning and development. It is well established in the literature that there is a strong link between children's pretend play abilities and their language skills, particularly in relation to the use of language in social contexts. For many children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), pretend…

Playing in natural environments is a popular activity for young children. In previous years, studies have shown benefits of playing in natural environment for children's motor development and attention restoration. In this study, we explored the relation between playing in natural environments and children's language use. A total of N = 18…

Children's mathematical knowledge at school entry varies considerably and predicts long-term achievement outcomes. Differences in children's exposure to math and number talk at home may help to explain variations in school-entry math ability. However, nearly all research on exposure to math and number talk has been conducted with parents and…

Is noun dominance in early lexical acquisition a widespread or a language-specific phenomenon? Thirty Singaporean bilingual English-Mandarin learning toddlers and their mothers were observed in a mother-child play interaction. For both English and Mandarin, toddlers' speech and reported vocabulary contained more nouns than verbs across book…

This systematic review investigates the effects of foreign language programmes in early childhood education and care (ECEC), which are increasingly popular. Foreign language ECEC centres familiarise very young children with a foreign language, and in general also expose them to the majority language. This review synthesises research on the effects…

The present study examined children's co-construction of shared meanings and internal state language during play with their sibling and friend from early to middle childhood. Sixty-five 4-year-old children (T1) and 46 7-year-old children (T2) were observed in the home during two free play sessions with a sibling and with a friend at both time…

Mothers' provision of utterances with internal state words has been shown to influence infants' acquisition of internal state vocabulary and has been proposed to foster preschoolers' theory of mind development. In this article the authors examine maternal internal state speech during free play with infants at 13, 17, and 21 months. The study…

Evidence suggests that parental mind-mindedness is important for children's social-emotional development; however, almost all research exploring mind-mindedness has been conducted with families from Western backgrounds. The current study explored cross-cultural differences in mind-mindedness based on observed real-time interactions between urban…

This paper draws on observational studies of three young children in order to demonstrate firstly, their intrinsic motivation to explore systematically through repeated patterns of action or 'schemas'; secondly, how those repeated actions appear and are explored in their emerging language demonstrating their increasing construction of and…

How can we transform places where people gather or wait into hubs for interaction and playful learning? Bus stops offer one setting in which to test this idea. Urban Thinkscape reimagines an everyday bus stop in an under-resourced area as an interaction zone instead of merely a place to wait for a ride. Results suggest that embedding playful…

Measures of young children's social development are needed in the Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS) approach to early childhood. In 2004, we reported initial development of an observational measure of infants' and toddlers' social skills designed for early educators, the Early Social Indicator (ESI). Here, we report preliminary findings on the…

Measures of young children's social development are needed in the MultiTier System of Supports (MTSS) approach to early childhood. In 2004, we reported initial development of an observational measure of infants' and toddlers' social skills designed for early educators, the Early Social Indicator (ESI). Here, we report preliminary findings on the…

Walter Benjamin wrote about pedagogy from the start of his writing life to its close. He was also an activist in the youth movement in Germany. This essay explores the importance of childhood, play, toys and education to his wider body of work--including his interests in photography, literary form, language acquisition and use, modern art. The…

Many children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who receive early intervention reap developmental benefits, but little is known about characteristics of early intervention placements in the community that optimize individual growth. The extent to which children hear and use language, in particular, may contribute significantly to…