Background: Previous research has produced conflicting results regarding the effects of season of birth and age-position on cognitive attainments. In Northern Ireland the school year divides the summer season into two providing an opportunity to evaluate the relative contribution of season of birth and age-position effects. Aims: To investigate…

Recognizing relational similarity relies on the ability to understand that defining object properties might not lie in the objects individually, but in the relations of the properties of various object to each other. This aptitude is highly relevant for many important human skills such as language, reasoning, categorization and understanding…

The main goal of this cross-sectional study was to demonstrate that, in addition to a main change during childhood, the cognitive development of children with Down syndrome (DS) is characterized by interindividual variability in their cognitive functioning. Eighty-eight French children with DS took part in this experiment. They were divided into…

Research on theory of mind (TOM) has provided a major contribution to the understanding of developmental disorders characterized by atypical social behaviour. Yet, there is still little consensus relative to TOM abilities in Williams syndrome (WS). This study used visual and verbal tasks to investigate attribution of intentions in individuals with…

It is generally assumed that slowing after errors is a cognitive control effect reflecting more careful response strategies after errors. However, clinical data are not compatible with this explanation. We therefore consider two alternative explanations, one referring to the possibility of a persisting underlying problem and one on the basis of…

Nine-month-olds can respond to a change in rhyme when the conditioned head turn procedure is used [Hayes, R. A., Slater, A., & Brown, E. (2000). "Infants' ability to categorise on the basis of rhyme." "Cognitive Development, 15," 405-419]. However, it is not known whether infants are detecting the change in vowel, the change in coda, or both. In…

Four- to 10-year-old children (n = 50) participated in a 2D search task that included geometry (with- and without lines) and feature conditions. During each of 27 trials, participants watched as a cartoon character hid behind one of three landmarks arranged in a triangle on a computer screen. During feature condition trials, participants could use…

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing evaluation of the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) by investigating its construct and concurrent validity with a subsample of 642 children aged 4 to 5 years drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Construct validity was examined by considering the theoretical…

Significant research over the last decade has built a strong case for the value of arts learning. Major summaries, including "Schools, Communities, and the Arts" (1995); "Champions of Change" (2000); "The Arts in Education: Evaluating the Evidence for a Causal Link" (2000); "Critical Links" (2002); and now "Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit…

Deficits in social cognition may impair the ability to negotiate social transactions and relationships and contribute to socio emotional difficulties experienced by some post-institutionalized children. We examined false belief and emotion understanding in 40 institutional care-adopted children, 40 foster care-adopted children and 40 birth…

Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID), a sensory processing problem that afflicts about 15% of children, sets many children on a developmental trajectory of emotional and social problems. Children with SID often unintentionally alienate parents, peers, and teachers in their efforts to modify the amounts of sensory stimulation they receive. They…

That competences may emerge given appropriate environmental and behavioral context is a long-standing theme in developmental research. Work in the motor domain, but also in cognitive development, has made it possible to transform this idea into a mechanistic account closely linked to empirical evidence. In dynamic systems thinking, such capacities…

This study was an attempt to integrate cognitive development (i.e., cognitive control) and emotional development (i.e., emotion regulation) in the first years of life. The construct of temperament was used to unify cognition and emotion because of its focus on attentional and regulatory behaviors. Children were seen at 8 months and 4 1/2-years of…

This is the full report, and a separate research brief also was published. Austin Independent School District (AISD) served 5,450 pre-K students in 2009-2010. Approximately 70% of sampled English-speaking pre-K students and 74% of sampled Spanish-speaking pre-K students had faster than the expected growth rate on an assessment of receptive…

Objective: The present project examined the relationships among early maternal maltreatment risk, children's self-regulation, and later development. It was expected that early maltreatment risk would impact children's emerging self-regulation which in turn, would foster pre-academic delays and behavioral problems. Method: The project used…