File review data were used to explore the impact of a large-scale publicly funded Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI) program for young children with autism. Outcomes were compared for 61 children who received IBI and 61 individually matched children from a waitlist comparison group. In addition, predictors of better cognitive outcomes were…

Research Findings: Executive function begins to develop in infancy and involves an array of processes, such as attention, inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, which provide the means by which individuals control their own behavior, work toward goals, and manage complex cognitive processes. Thus, executive function plays a…

For many students with cognitive acquisition difficulties, cognitive notation is often challenging. Since the interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning from the visual notations is an essential part of a student's educational it is important for educators to find meaningful ways of achieving this goal. The purpose of this paper is to…

Far from egocentric, infants and toddlers advance significantly in their understanding of others' feelings, desires, goals, intentions, preferences, and views during the first 2 years of life. In so doing, they establish the foundation for later social and emotional understanding. This article surveys those accomplishments, speculates about how…

In countries where English is a second language, there has been a movement over the last 60 years from supporting indigenous languages over foreign language--English--to the present one where, with globalization and market demands, English is beginning to be seen as an indigenous language in itself. The teaching of English from Grade 1 about five…

A test of advanced theory of mind (ToM), first introduced by F. Happe (1994), was adapted for children (mental, human, animal, and nature stories plus unlinked sentences). These materials were closely matched for difficulty and were presented to forty-five 7- to 12-year-olds with autism and 27 control children. Children with autism who showed ToM…

Given the relationship between internalizing disorders and deficits in emotion regulation in youth, the emotion science literature has suggested several avenues for increasing the efficacy of interventions for youth presenting with anxiety and depression. These possibilities include the identification and addition of emotion-regulation skills to…

Objective: In this exploratory study, we observed the process in which children make food choices from a cognitive development perspective and the implications that these choices have on the areas of cognitive development and health and nutrition education. Design: This was a cross-sectional case study that involved an in-depth examination of the…

This paper examines the tie between knowledge and behavior in a noun generalization context. An experiment directly comparing noun generalizations of children at the same point in development in forced-choice and yes/no tasks reveals task-specific differences in the way children's knowledge of nominal categories is brought to bear in a moment. To…

Infant sleep is a major source of concern for many parents. The aims of this longitudinal study were to assess: (a) the development of sleep patterns among infants, (b) the development of maternal cognitions regarding infant sleep, and (c) the relations between these domains during the 1st year of life. Eighty-five mothers were recruited during…

Young children show significant changes in their mental-state understanding as marked by their performance on false-belief tasks. This study provides evidence for activity in the prefrontal cortex associated with the development of this ability. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as adults (N = 24) and 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old…

Intervention studies indicate that children's childcare experiences can be leveraged to support the development of executive functioning (EF). The role of more normative childcare experiences is less clear. Increasingly, theory and empirical work suggest that individual differences in children's physiological stress systems may be associated with…

In the Irish education system, there is little continuity between the primary and secondary education systems. The transfer between these systems is particularly problematic in the area of science. In order to alleviate some of these problems, as well as to enhance the cognitive development of students, the Cognitive Acceleration through Science…

The early childhood years (conception to age 8) are not only the most critical time for human growth but also for development and learning. Neurological and behavioral scientists document how inadequate stimulation and interactions can disrupt basic neural circuitry and cause long-term challenges for child's cognitive development. Yet, despite the…

Johnson and Puplampu recently proposed the "ecological techno-subsystem", a refinement to Bronfenbrenner's theoretical organization of environmental influences on child development. The ecological techno-subsystem includes child interaction with both living (e.g., peers) and nonliving (e.g., hardware) elements of communication,…