This 3-wave longitudinal study investigated the developmental trajectories of instrumental helping, sharing and empathic helping across toddlerhood, and how socialisation processes (i.e., parents' and teachers' practices) contribute to these developments. Participants were 50 18-months-olds and 62 24-months-olds, their parents, and daycare…

Purpose: While research indicates that both the core features of autism and associated developmental skills influence adaptive behaviour outcomes, results to date suggest greater influence of the latter than the former, and little attention has been given to how the interaction of both together might impact functional disability. Seeking to expand…

Over the past 20+ years, researchers have worked toward identifying early behavioral predictors of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developing observation-based screeners to supplement existing parent-report methods. This study is a follow-up, 3 to 8 years later, with parents/caregivers of 57 children previously enrolled in a U.S.…

Children spend an important part of their time watching animated films on different platforms (cinema, television, internet). Box office figures indicate that this is true at the global level. However, it is not known how children react momentarily to the animated films they watch, and how these reactions fit the content of the film viewed. The…

The paper looks at the relevance of W.R. Bion's 'Theory of Thinking' to the interpretation of young child observations. Bion describes a process whereby emotional experience, when contained by a caregiver, gives rise to a capacity for symbol formation, which is at the root of imagination and language. The study consists of eight written hour-long…

Risk-taking during the toddler years is crucial for the development of autonomy, initiative, and independence. However, the current culture in the U.S. seeks to minimize the risks young children are exposed to. This small-scale, mixed methods study examined parental attitudes towards toddler risk-taking and children's behavior during nature play.…

Background: Parenting strategies such as communicating clear expectations, providing calm directions, and teaching specific skills can strengthen young children's social-emotional development. Parenting programs for children with disruptive behavior often emphasize gaining compliance via effective directives, and less on how to facilitate child…

The term "active learning" is used in a variety of educational contexts. As described in this guide, however, it refers to an instructional approach developed by Lilli Nielsen--a Danish psychologist--for promoting the learning and development of children who have significant support needs. Nielsen's Active Learning involves a range of…

Background: Despite widespread use of digital toys, research evidence of how a digital toy's features affect children's development and the nature of parent-child interactions during play is limited. Objective: The present study aimed to examine how mother-child dyads experience a traditional stuffed toy and an animated digital toy by comparing…

Joosten begins his article by telling us that love and knowledge together are the foundation for our work with children. This combination is at the heart of our observation. With this as the foundation, he goes on to offer practical advice to aid our practice of observation. He offers a "List of Objects of Observation" to help guide our…

Children with autism use hand taking and hand leading gestures to interact with others. This is traditionally considered to be an example of atypical behaviour illustrating the lack of intersubjective understanding in autism. However the assumption that these gestures are atypical is based upon scarce empirical evidence. In this paper I present…

This study addressed questions about the function of children's various participation and regulation strategies in different instructional contexts and at different points in time in school. The developmental trajectories of kindergartners' academic participation and regulation strategy selection and use across the school year in teacher-directed…

Video self-modeling (VSM) uses a method called "feedforward" to provide children the opportunity to view themselves as they perform in a more advanced or appropriate manner than they do presently. Typically, this is accomplished through the careful editing of videos. Studies on VSM and social skills with children on the autism spectrum…

Parent- and lab-based observer ratings were employed to examine genetic and environmental influences on continuity and change in inhibitory control (IC) in over 300 twin-pairs assessed longitudinally at 2 and 3 years of age. Genetic influences accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in parent-rated IC at both ages. Although many of the…

This article describes a study of early childhood teachers' understanding of teaching and learning in children 4 and 5 years of age in technology education. The research aimed at assisting teachers' understanding of learning in technology using a developed framework. This study investigated the development of dispositions and attitudes including…