Object exploration is considered a driver of motor, cognitive, and social development. However, little is known about how early childhood education and care settings facilitate object exploration. This study examined if children's exploration of objects during free play was facilitated by the use of particular spatial components (floor, tables,…

Heavy content, high volume courses commonly create challenges for undergraduate students. Two such courses at our university are the introductory semesters of anatomy and physiology for first-year nursing students, taught by biology instructors. Despite the vast literature indicating the efficacy of using concept maps as a tool for learning, it is…

Student engagement is considered to be a malleable, multidimensional construct which combines the three dimensions of behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. Importantly, the literature reveals a solid understanding of how teachers influence student engagement, highlighting the teacher's role as paramount to ensuring students are able to…

Although early life experiences of language and parenting are critical for children's development, large home observation studies of both domains are scarce in the psychological literature, presumably because of their considerable costs to the participants and researchers. Here, we used digital audio-recorders to unobtrusively observe 107…

Some aspects of child non-cognitive development in pre-school have independently been shown to predict academic outcomes in later primary and early high school. However, the extent to which each aspect uniquely predicts these outcomes remains unclear. It is also unclear as to what mechanisms may predict these aspects of non-cognitive development.…

This field study describes changes in caregiving and young children's physical and behavioral/cognitive development as a consequence of a pilot intervention using typical staff in 2 Central American orphanages for children with severe and multiple disabilities. The intervention trained staff in sensitive, responsive, child-directed,…

It has been commonly held that "children suffer if their mother goes out to work". This research uses several studies--large scale longitudinal data--to look at the development of children whose mothers were employed when those children were very young.

Empathy is an essential building block for successful interpersonal relationships. Atypical empathic development is implicated in a range of developmental psychopathologies. However, assessment of empathy in children is constrained by a lack of suitable measurement instruments. This article outlines the development of the Kids' Empathic…

Describes growth in the number of studies of behavior development conducted in Japan during the last 20 years and identifies areas of development receiving attention by Japanese researchers. (RH)

This overview of Soviet developmental psychology and its influence on special education focuses on dialectical materialistic interpretations of behavior, socio-historical determinism, zones of proximal development, realization and enhancement of children's cognitive potential, influence of Jean Piaget's work, linking of mental retardation with…

Forty-eight low socioeconomic status Israeli women were trained to optimize their infants' development through mediational strategies including increase in frequency of focusing, affecting, expanding, encouraging, and regulating behaviors. At three-year follow-up, maternal mediation behaviors were found to be related to specific children's…

The current investigation was designed to examine the provision of cognitive stimulation to preschool-aged children from high-risk families. Participants were drawn from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a prospective, longitudinal investigation of individuals recruited in 1976-77 from lower SES neighbourhoods who were rated by childhood…

Compared family characteristics and developmental outcomes of African-American children from three rural contexts in South Africa: the homeland, the resettlement, and white-owned farms. Child outcomes were highly intercorrelated in all three contexts, but correlations among family variables, and between family and child variables, showed different…

Although it is generally believed that early intervention programmes are an effective means to stimulate children's cognitive development, many questions remain concerning programme design and delivery. This article reviews 19 studies into the effectiveness of early intervention programmes published from 1985 onward. The database comprised 85…

Language acquisition and other developmental processes in children do not occur haphazardly, but rather follow a sequence that is well-established, and though subject to a moderate variation in detail from child to child, surprisingly uniform. This book provides information to parents concerning their children's development levels and attainments…