With the explosive growth in time spent on YouTube by babies and toddlers, it's important to analyze what they're watching on YouTube. Indexes that evaluate the contents of YouTube channels for infants and toddlers have been developed, but since those were evaluation-based indexes of educators and parents, it is difficult to find out what content…

Maternal depression is a global public health concern with far-reaching impacts on child development, yet our understanding of mechanisms remains incomplete. This study examined whether parenting mediates the association between maternal depression and child outcomes. Participants included 841 rural Pakistani mother-child dyads (50% female).…

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,…

Despite findings that developmental timing of maltreatment is a critical factor in predicting subsequent outcomes, children's developmental stage is understudied in maltreatment research. Moreover, childhood maltreatment is associated with the development of maladaptive peer relationships and psychopathology, with social cognition identified as a…

Children with complex congenital heart defects often show delays and deficits in cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional functioning. As such, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Associated recommend ongoing monitoring and support of development. In conjunction with the formal therapeutic supports frequently…

Infants and toddlers spend a substantial amount of their time in out-of-home care, and are thus being tended to not only by their mothers but also by their caregivers. It is therefore of considerable importance to study the effects of caregiver-infant compared to mother-infant interactions. To address this issue, first, various variables of…

In this study, we investigate the association between family environment and early childhood development among children aged 6-24 months in rural counties in China. To do this, we used cross-sectional data from a large scale survey, including 1809 child-caregiver dyads across 22 nationally designated poverty counties. We found that 53.95% of…

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…

This article is an excerpt from the "ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators"[TM] Course Curriculum, module SE-6: Promoting Children's Sense of Self and Belonging. The course supports development of the essential skills educators need to optimize the social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy…

The success of human culture depends on early emerging mechanisms of social learning, which include the ability to acquire opaque cultural knowledge through faithful imitation, as well as the ability to advance culture through flexible discovery of new means to goal attainment. This study explores whether this mixture of faithful imitation and…

This study evaluated the impact of a parenting intervention on children's cognitive and socioemotional development in a group of caregivers and their 21-to-28-month-old children in a low-income South African township. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group (n = 70) receiving training in dialogic book-sharing (8 weekly group…

In the United States, early intervention (EI) programs under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act serve thousands of infants and toddlers with or at risk for developmental delays. Despite this, few studies have investigated the developmental progress and outcomes of children served, especially in relation to the heterogeneity…

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducted a landscape evaluation of early childhood programs in Indiana (IN) between the spring of 2021 and the summer of 2022. The evaluation included assessments of infant, toddler, and preschooler children's developmental status in multiple domains at two time points to measure growth.…

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…

If a child has been identified as needing early intervention services, parents may have questions about what that means for their child and for the family. This guide will help them understand the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) and how it will help their child's development. The IFSP is a document that is used when providing early…