The majority of the research examining children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Williams Syndrome (WS) focus on the social domain while few have examined cognitive style and emotionality. Accordingly, this current study assessed the day-to-day cognitive and behavioral functioning of school-age children with ASD, WS, and neurotypical…

Pretend play may be beneficial for young children's social development. However, empirical results to date are inconsistent and limited, which is partly due to a lack of psychometrically sound measures for children's social pretend play competence. The current study aimed to compare and validate different assessment methods for children's social…

Gifted individuals have unique social and emotional needs that often manifest as challenging interpersonal behavior. Chief among these needs are the fact that gifted students tend to be quite emotionally intense and that they tend to be quite cognitively rigid. Emotional intensity is defined as having stronger, more frequent, more complex, and…

Suor et al. (2017) present a compelling new evolutionary framework that offers an alternative interpretation of the well-established findings of cognitive deficits in children raised in harsh early environments. They argue that such findings do not convey a complete picture of those children's cognitive development, because children's cognition…

During adolescence, students experience a variety of biological changes in their bodies and brains. This Alliance for Excellent Education report argues that by understanding these changes--as well as the science behind student learning and development--education leaders can take advantage of this second critical window of development to support…

Specialized preschool programs can enhance the development of vulnerable young children at risk of special educational needs (SEN). Less is known about the potential of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provided for the general population. This study includes 2,857 children attending 141 ECEC centres in England and 310 with no ECEC. ECEC…

The ability to recognize and label emotions serves as a building block by which children make sense of the world and learn how to interact with social partners. However, the timing and salience of influences on emotion recognition development are not fully understood. Path analyses evaluated the contributions of parenting and child narrative…

There has been little research connecting underlying emotion processes (e.g., emotion regulation) to frequent behavior problems in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the stability of emotion regulation and its relationship with other aspects of child functioning. Participants included 108 children with ASD,…

Children experience chronic stress in ways that can impair their brain functioning and overall development. This article articulates the unique needs of children experiencing chronic stress and discusses strategies that families and schools can use to support and strengthen children's development across the social, emotional, and cognitive domains.

There is a growing need to provide curricula that meets the changing needs of students in higher education. To train pre-service teachers according to the demands of the new educational contexts, the move from teacher-centered curricula to learning-centered curricula is a must. The aim of this research is to examine the currently used curriculum…

Emotional and cognitive factors were examined in 18 children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD), compared with 18 normally achieving children, matched for chronological age, school level, gender and verbal IQ. Working memory, short-term memory, inhibitory processes, speed of processing and level of anxiety in mathematics were assessed…

Prenatal exposures to neurotoxins and postnatal parenting practices have been shown to independently predict variations in the cognitive development and emotional-behavioral well-being of infants and children. We examined the independent contributions of prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation, as well as their…

Descriptive and comparative follow-up studies of young adult males with Asperger syndrome (AS) diagnosed in childhood, using both interview, self- and parent assessment instruments for the study of aspects of emotional well-being, social functioning, and cognitive-practical skills have not been performed in the past. One-hundred males with AS…

The foundations of brain architecture are established early in life through a continuous series of dynamic interactions in which environmental conditions and personal experiences have a significant impact on how genetic predispositions are expressed. Because specific experiences affect specific brain circuits during specific developmental…

Proficiency in problem solving is an important outcome in early childhood necessary for cognitive and emotional development. The development of an individual growth and development indicator of problem solving for children 1 to 4 years of age is described. Based on the general outcome measurement approach (Deno, 1997), the measure is intended for…