Research on contemplative practices (e.g., mindfulness or compassion training) is growing rapidly in the clinical, health and neuro-sciences, but almost none of this research takes an explicitly developmental life span perspective. At present, we know rather little about the naturalistic development of mindfulness or compassion in children and…

Using creative and performative methods is central to engaging children in fun and inspiring learning. This hands-on guide provides activities, quick tips and advice for developing performance and creative skills to support delivery of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Each chapter focuses on a particular method, including storytelling,…

Using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2014), this research brief describes the family background and developmental progress of Head Start children as they complete a program year (from Fall 2014 to Spring 2015). This brief highlights descriptive information from the FACES 2014-2015 Data Tables and Study Design…

In this interview conducted at the NAMTA conference, "Observation: The Key to Unlocking the Child's Potential", Molly O'Shaughnessy discusses the history of observation with Hilla Patell. Patell shares stories of the people who were instrumental in creating a culture of observation as an ongoing discipline to be practiced. She goes on to…

Finding an enjoyable, exciting, and engaging activity for gifted students can be a challenging balancing act. While parents want their children to become active and involved, they may face setbacks as they try to find the right fit, with some gifted children grappling with poor fine and gross motor abilities. While a high percentage of gifted…

The developing world has continually faced tremendous challenges in providing social security and safety nets for its vast populations culminating in wider educational inequalities and extreme poverty. It is not uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa to find rapacious wealth in the hands of a few co-existing with mass poverty. As a consequence, the…

Evidence supporting the internal structure of an assessment can provide support for its scoring mechanisms. A total of 1,691 young children in the United States were assessed by their parents using the 16-month questionnaire of the "Ages and Stages Questionnaires," Third Edition (ASQ-3), and results were used to study the internal…

The power of human language rests upon its intricate links to human cognition. By 3 months of age, listening to language supports infants' ability to form object categories, a building block of cognition. Moreover, infants display a systematic shift between 3 and 4 months--a shift from familiarity to novelty preferences--in their expression of…

A prevailing theory of mathematical problem solving predicts that children will be less accurate solving a + b = c + __ problems versus a + b = __ + c. However, this has never been tested directly. Because of low base rates, information combined from multiple studies can help improve estimation accuracy and precision. This study compared…

This article explores contemporary childhoods through a lens of epistemic privileges and injustices in order to consider the experiences of children whose family models may not reflect the heterosexual norm. More than 14 million children in the United States have one or more gay parents. As the legal definition of marriage in the United States now…

A healthy self-identity is vitally important to a child's well-being and consequent ability to learn at an optimal level. As educators and other service providers seek to ensure that the children with whom they work have the best chances to succeed, they are recognizing the need for innovative ways to support children as they build those healthy…

Children experiencing or witnessing violence in the home are at risk of a number of cognitive, social, and behavioral challenges as they age. A handful of recent studies have suggested that food insecurity may be one factor associated with violence against children in the home. The present study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal…

Creative thinking is valuable and necessary in society today and in the development of solutions to environmental issues. Fostering creative thinking skills and environmental values should begin early in life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence that a nature preschool experience has on the development of creative thinking…

"Strengths of the heart" is a new and potentially useful paradigm for understanding how the "whole" gifted child can thrive and flourish. Until recently, those who have written about and have researched the gifted have focused much of their work on "strengths of the head"--understanding, identifying, and promoting…

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. This study included 369 children and examined whether their implicit racial…