Sleep is a robust predictor of child and adolescent development. Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and related experiences (e.g., discrimination) are associated with sleep, but researchers have just begun to understand the role of sleep in the development of racial/ethnic and SES disparities in broader psychosocial adjustment and…

This is a conceptual paper based on existing literature aiming to provide practical information on designing and implementing activities to promote children's computational thinking. Computational thinking is a relatively new term in early childhood education that refers to a specific problem-solving thinking process involving various logical and…

The author discusses gender differences in children's play and its relation to the programs of "Sesame Street," which for fifty years has sought to enhance children's physical, cognitive, and social development through playful learning. Gender differences in children's play, she asserts, are vast, and she notes that, consequently, boys…

While the author can see many ways that artificial intelligence can be used as an adult, a professional, and a business owner, she also realized what it was going to do for children who are learning their basic skills, such as how to write, how to work with numbers, how to think for themselves, and how to make considered choices. What would this…

Purpose: This article's aim is to discuss the potential of audio description (AD) in two contexts: (1) developmental and educational difficulties experienced by children with low vision or total blindness; (2) psycho-social importance of access to mass media by children and adolescents. Method: The considerations presented here are formed on the…

Reading comprehension is a complex task which depends on a range of cognitive and linguistic processes. According to the Simple View of Reading, this complexity can be captured as the product of two sets of skills: decoding and linguistic comprehension. The Simple View explains variance in reading comprehension and provides a good framework to…

This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

This article demonstrates the importance of school psychologists' understanding of which type of cognitive or developmental measure is most appropriate when working with young children with cerebral palsy (CP). Cognitive profiles vary greatly within this population and motor impairments also need to be taken into consideration. School…

Teachers often see repetitive behaviors in toddler and preschool classrooms, such as building and knocking down block towers or dumping out toys. When children do these actions over and over it can be frustrating to teachers and parents, but viewing these actions through the lens of schema theory helps us understand what's really going on in…

Despite receiving scant attention, the evolution of categorization in early childhood is of central importance, not only in clarifying the child's understanding of the world but in terms of refining cognitive organization and augmenting the development of semantic memory. In this review, we outline how categorization develops and is made manifest…

There are two ways of understanding child development. The first places emphasis on the human cultural dimension. The essential component of culture is a system of cultural norms known as "ideal forms," wherein the adult acts as a bearer of these ideal forms or culture. From this standpoint, the child acquires already established forms…

Decades of research have illustrated the linguistic, social, and cognitive growth that occurs in the context of play (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 1987; Lifter, Foster-Sanda, Arzamarski, Briesch, & McClure, 2011; Lillard et al., 2013; Ungerer & Sigman, 1984). Play also provides opportunities to practice and gain important social skills. During play…

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The proposed systematic review question is: What is the effectiveness of arts interventions for at-risk and offending children and young people (8-25 years)? There are three objectives: (1) To evaluate evidence on the effectiveness and impact of arts interventions on keeping children safe from…

Vygotsky (1978) describes play as having three main components, one being the ability for a child to create an imaginary situation, the second taking on and acting out roles, and the third, following a set of rules that were determined by the roles children took on during play during social or group settings. Hence, supporting much needed social…

Given its importance in children's development and learning, researchers have rigorously studied play, and many teachers have used it as a classroom tool. Music researchers have observed that music regularly accompanies children's play because music is part of their culture, and "playing with music" is the most natural form of expression…