Forty-two children participated in a longitudinal study that investigated the relationship between their joint engagement experience when toddlers and their development of theory of mind when preschoolers. Controlling for language comprehension at 30 months, higher preschool false belief scores were associated with more time in coordinated joint…

Two experiments investigated how young children and adults understand whether objects are "by" a landmark and remember their locations. Three- and 4-year-old children and adults were asked to judge whether several blocks were "by" a landmark. The blocks were arranged so that their absolute and relative distances from the landmark varied. Later,…

A large and well-characterized group of children with mild developmental delays initially enrolled in full-inclusion preschool or kindergarten programs was followed for 3 years. Changes in the type of inclusive placements as children transitioned to first and second grades were monitored, and associations between placement type and child and…

School-ready children are children who are prepared to learn successfully in school. These children show growth over time in their physical, social and emotional, language, and cognitive development. They also show increasing interests in new experiences and in mastering new skills. Getting "school-ready" starts long before the weeks or…

A primary purpose of early childhood education and interventions is to promote children's acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to later social competence and academic success. In this report, special attention is given to summarizing what has been learned about early childhood classrooms as contexts for development and learning, the kinds of…

This study analyzed Early Head Start Research and Evaluation (EHSRE) study data, examining the effect of parenting classes on parenting behaviors and children's cognitive outcomes. The study analyzed three sets of dependent variables: parental language and cognitive stimulation, parent-child interactive activities, and the Bayley Mental…

This paper outlines the strengths and weaknesses in both short-term and long-term memory in Down syndrome, and the implications of these patterns for both other aspects of cognitive development and underlying neural pathology. There is clear evidence that Down syndrome is associated with particularly poor verbal short-term memory performance, and…

Background: It is generally assumed that children with Down syndrome (DS) present a deficit in lexical production relative to their cognitive abilities. However, the literature on this topic has recently shown several contradictory results. In addition, most studies only consider vocabulary production in its vocal modality. However it is also…

The importance of cognitive and language skills on reading and spelling development were investigated in a cross-linguistic longitudinal study of 737 English-speaking children (US/Australia) and 169 Scandinavian children (Norway/Sweden) from preschool to Kindergarten and Grade 1. The results revealed that phonological awareness and print knowledge…

The relationship between preschoolers' puzzlemaking strategies and part-whole perception was investigated in the present study. Forty-eight two year olds and 48 four year olds were randomly selected from eight licensed childcare centers. Puzzlemaking strategies (image, form, color, and trial and error) were measured by performance in the…

Early learning guidelines (ELGs)--documents that describe the skills, characteristics, and dispositions adults seek to foster in young children--are increasingly common. Although less prevalent than ELGs for 3- and 4-year-old children, ELGs for infants and toddlers have been developed in more than half of the 50 states. Given this momentum, a…

Aims: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) potentially causes a significant encephalopathy and resultant developmental delay in infected children. The aim of this study was to determine whether a home-based intervention programme could have an impact on the neurodevelopmental status of children infected with HIV. Method: A longitudinal,…

When predicting child developmental outcomes, reliance on children's scores on measures of developmental functioning alone might mask more subtle behavioral difficulties, especially in children with developmental risk factors. The current study examined predictors and stability of examiner behavior ratings and their association with concurrent and…

PROVIDED IN THIS REPORT ARE COMPLETE TEXTS OF THE PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE FIRST RESEARCH PLANNING CONFERENCE OF "PROJECT LITERACY." THE CENTRAL THEME OF EACH PAPER IS BASIC RESEARCH AND/OR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN AREAS OF EDUCATION RELEVANT TO THE ACQUISITION OF READING SKILLS. TITLES OF THE 12 PAPERS PRESENTED ARE (1)…

PROVIDED IN THIS REPORT ARE COMPLETE TEXTS OF THE PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE SECOND RESEARCH PLANNING CONFERENCE OF "PROJECT LITERACY." THE CENTRAL THEME OF EACH PAPER IS BASIC RESEARCH AND/OR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN AREAS OF EDUCATION RELEVANT TO THE ACQUISITION OF READING SKILLS. TITLES OF THE 10 PAPERS PRESENTED ARE (1) "SPELLING…