Research Finding: Traditional fathering programs have missed an opportunity to reflect the unique family patterns and service needs of Hispanic and Latino fathers. In addition, family engagement strategies in early childhood programs have typically focused on mothers. The aim of this study was to adapt, implement, and evaluate a 6-week video…

This study used a person-centered approach to examine mother-daughter dyad behaviors when jointly solving addition problems during a card game. The goal was to identify maternal and child profile behaviors during the interaction as predictors of children's autonomous addition accuracy and strategy use at the end of first grade. Videotaped…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a structured, playful activity program on the development of social skills in kindergarten children during break time in the schoolyard. Twenty eight boys and thirty two girls aged from 5 to 6 years old consisted the sample of the present study. The participants were randomly divided into two…

Background: Recent studies indicate that parent education programs that include content to enhance parents' mental states may prove efficacious in improving parenting behavior and child outcomes. Objective: This study presents findings from a national evaluation of the "Active Parenting First Five Years" (FFY) program. This group-based…

When learning from others, human children tend to faithfully copy--or "overimitate"--the actions of a demonstrator, even when these actions are irrelevant for solving the task at hand. We investigate whether domesticated dogs ("Canis familiaris") and dingoes ("Canis dingo") share this tendency to overimitate in three…

This study investigated the effects of a primary tier video modeling intervention combining with a primary tier parent education model on parent-child interactions of children with autism during a picture-book activity in Taiwan. A multiple baseline design across participants was used. Four parents and their child with autism participated at their…

Purpose: This study sought to determine whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and executive functions are associated with stuttered speech disfluencies of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS). Method: Thirty-six young CWS and 36 CWNS were exposed to neutral, negative, and positive emotion-inducing video clips, followed by…

Dyads of siblings in which the younger sibling had an intellectual disability (ID, n = 25) were videotaped interacting. The ID group was compared with typically developing sibling dyads matched on mental age (n = 25) and chronological age (n = 25). We observed the mediation strategies, activation, and antimediation behaviors of older siblings and…

The present study extended the findings of Watt et al. (J Autism Dev Disord 38:1518-1533, 2008) by investigating repetitive and stereotyped behaviors (RSB) demonstrated by children (n = 50) and typical development (TD; n = 50) matched on developmental age, gender, and parents' education level. RSB were coded from videotaped Communication and…

We quantitatively measured the smiles of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD-C) using a wearable interface device during animal-assisted activities (AAA) for 7 months, and compared the results with a control of the same age. The participant was a 10-year-old boy with ASD, and a normal healthy boy of the same age was the control. They…

This study investigates teacher responses in Taiwan to children's initiations in regular classrooms and the differences between children with and without developmental delays. The sample consisted of 107 teacher-child dyads, including 53 children with developmental delays and 54 typically developing peers. Teacher-child interactions were…

Video self-modeling (VSM) has been used to teach social skills to children with autism older than 4 years of age. Attempts to use VSM with younger children with disabilities have produced less than favorable results; however, it is unclear whether VSM could be used to promote social initiations by typically developing children. Thirty minutes of…

Joint attention intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders was focused on improving joint engagement and joint attention skills. The purpose of this study was to develop a caregiver-mediated joint engagement intervention program combined with body movement play to investigate the effects of joint engagement/joint attention skills in…

Animals are important stimuli for humans, and for children in particular. In three experiments, we explored children's affinity for animals. In Experiment 1, 11- to 40-month-old children were presented with a free-play session in which they were encouraged to interact with several interesting toys and two live animals--a fish and a hamster.…

The study explored the nature of the interactive play behaviours of children with albinism and children without albinism and compared the interactive behaviours of both children with albinism and children without albinism. Naturalistic observations were conducted during periods of free play, using the interactive play behaviour checklist aided by…