Using data from the All Our Families study, a longitudinal study of 1992 mother-child dyads in Canada (47.7% female; 81.9% White), we examined the developmental pathways between infant gestures and symbolic actions and communicative skills at age 5. Communicative gestures at age 12 months (e.g., pointing, nodding head "yes"), obtained…

Executive function (EF) skills are a set of attention-regulation skills involved in intentional, goal-directed behavior that include (but are not limited to) the cool EF skills of working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control, and also the hot EF skill of intentional reevaluation. These skills are inevitably expressed in goal- and…

The results of studies on early competences suggest that the child's delay of gratification (DoG) ability is a major predictor of school readiness (SR). However, there are no direct data or convincing explanations as to how DoG translates into preschool children's readiness to commence school education. Aiming at a better understanding of the…

There is general agreement that humans represent numerical, spatial, and temporal magnitudes from early in development. However, there is disagreement about whether different magnitudes converge within a general magnitude system and whether this system supports behavioral demonstrations of cross-magnitude interactions at different developmental…

Aim: To investigate developmental trajectories in early childhood and predictors of class assignment. Methods: Data were available for Gen2 infants at 12 (n = 2275), 24 (n = 1845) and 36 (n = 2110) months of age in the Raine Study. Latent growth class analysis was used to identify developmental trajectories based on the Ages and Stages…

Few studies have investigated associations of milestone development in early childhood with intelligence in adulthood in typically developing children. The current study is an extension of 2 previous studies on smaller samples and investigated associations of age at attainment of 32 developmental milestones attained between 0 and 3 years of age…

This prospective study examined the developmental changes over time of adolescents diagnosed in toddlerhood with autism spectrum disorder and searched for child characteristics at toddlerhood that predict outcome at adolescence. The study included 65 participants who were divided into low cognitive (developmental quotient [less than] 85; N = 41)…

Spatial thinking is an important predictor of mathematics. However, existing data do not determine whether all spatial sub-domains are equally important for mathematics outcomes nor whether mathematics-spatial associations vary through development. This study addresses these questions by exploring the developmental relations between mathematics…

This study examines three parenting behaviors (support, involvement, and harsh control) in predicting children's loneliness and aggression across developmental transitions to adolescence in a Taiwanese sample. Two cohorts (n = 4,990) were followed for 5 years: a younger cohort (first-graders, 51.5%) and an older cohort (fourth-graders). Multilevel…

Executive functioning abilities have been associated with important behaviors such as adaptive skills and cognitive abilities in children with and without disabilities. Executive functioning has primarily been measured as a strong predictor of later abilities in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as attention-deficit/…

School readiness skills in kindergarten have been linked with later academic and social achievement; promoting these skills may be a way to help prevent later concerns. A first step is to define school readiness and identify those skills that are most important for later school success. The current dissertation took a two-study approach to…

This longitudinal research examines maternal and child behaviors during joint planning over a 3-year period of middle childhood. 118 mother-child dyads were observed once a year beginning when the children were 8 years of age. Coding focused on mother and child planning behaviors, maternal instructional support, and child task engagement.…

This study extends the methodological and theoretical understanding of executive functions (EFs) in preschoolers from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). First, the authors describe a rigorous process of adapting and evaluating six EF tasks to produce a culturally and developmentally appropriate measure of emerging EFs in a large sample of…

American students typically attend kindergarten at the chronological age (CA) of five and currently with the implementation of Common Core State Standards, there are expectations that children learn how to read in order to meet these academic standards, despite whether or not they are developmentally ready. This mixed methods study examined age…

Discrepancies among informants' ratings of a given child's behavior complicate the study of linkages between child behavior and academic achievement. In the current study, we examined the potential moderating effect of informant type on associations between behavior and two types of achievement in a longitudinal growth model that…