Early childhood education (ECE) has always been intertwined with the use of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). To support excellence in ECE, it is critical how the knowledge about individual children and child development principles combined with the knowledge of effective early learning practices. Effective early childhood education…

School reform is an important national and international concern. The Montessori alternative school system is unique in that it is well-aligned with the science of healthy development and learning, has strong social-emotional "and" academic outcomes, is virtually unchanged in over a century, can be applied across all the school years,…

This dissertation tests a new account of rapid word learning and vocabulary growth that these processes develop as the result of attentional biases to the features of a category that are relevant to labeling/categorization, built as the result of word-learning experience within each category. Study 1 demonstrated that children's vocabulary size…

Many early developmental theorists such as Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky suggested that play--which the authors of this article define as both playful activity and playful thought--had the power to influence the moral emotions, behaviors, and reasoning of children. More recent researchers have also found evidence of moral development in…

According to the narrative perspective on personality development, personality is constructed largely by interpreting and representing experience in story format (scripts) over the course of the lifespan. The focus of this paper is to describe briefly the narrative perspective on personality development during childhood and adolescence, to discuss…

Behavioral research suggests that two cognitive systems are at the foundations of numerical thinking: one for representing 1-3 objects in parallel and one for representing and comparing large, approximate numerical magnitudes. We tested for dissociable neural signatures of these systems in preverbal infants by recording event-related potentials…

Despite consensus that development shapes every aspect of coping, studies of age differences in coping have proven difficult to integrate, primarily because they examine largely unselected age groups, and utilize overlapping coping categories. A developmental framework was used to organize 58 studies of coping involving over 250 age comparisons or…

Research Findings: Using longitudinal survey data from the Welfare, Children, and Families Study: A Three-City Study ("n" = 135), this study examines how congruence in maternal and child care provider sensitivities contributes to young children's social, emotional, and academic outcomes among low-income minority families. Congruence…

While early childhood education has received increasing attention in the developing world in recent years, relatively little evidence is available from sub-Saharan Africa on its effects on child development and subsequent school enrolment. We use a prospective case-control design to evaluate the developmental impact of a community-based early…

The most rapid and significant phase of development occurs in the first three years of a child's life. The "Supporting Children from Birth to Three" series focuses on the care and support of the youngest children. Each book takes a key aspect of working with this age group and gives clear and detailed explanations of relevant theories…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2018, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and…

Recent studies reveal early and wide gaps in cognitive and oral language skills--whether gauged in English or Spanish--among Latino children relative to White peers. Yet, other work reports robust child health and social development, even among children of Mexican American immigrants raised in poor households, the so-called "immigrant…

Social competency gained in early childhood influences numerous domains of a child's life throughout the lifespan. Since the preschool years are a time when children begin forming friendships with peers and may be exposed to a classroom setting for the first time, developing social competency is imperative for functioning well with the many people…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the empirical findings on the stability of attachment from infancy through adulthood. More specifically, the paper discusses the longitudinal research concerning the continuity of attachment from infancy to adulthood as well as those studies that have assessed stability within a…

What must never be forgotten by the Montessori teacher, or by any teacher of young children, is that his or her "primary" task, his or her "primary" obligation, his or her "primary" sacred duty is not the teaching of the "three Rs" but that of nurturing the psychological health of the child. Every element of Montessori methodology is designed for…