The capacity for growth and development is an integral part of being human. Infant social-emotional development is critically important to overall development and begins in the first months of life. These processes encompass how we relate to ourselves and others in our everyday lives (Malti & Cheah, 2021). Social-emotional development includes…

Early social experiences, such as caregiver scaffolding, play a crucial but disputed role in the emergence of prosociality. A longitudinal experiment examined how explicit scaffolding--such as encouragement or praise--influences helping late in the first year, when helping emerges. Eighty-three infants (40 female, 6-9 months, 54% White, 17%…

With the explosive growth in time spent on YouTube by babies and toddlers, it's important to analyze what they're watching on YouTube. Indexes that evaluate the contents of YouTube channels for infants and toddlers have been developed, but since those were evaluation-based indexes of educators and parents, it is difficult to find out what content…

Repetition is a salient strategy used by human and non-human cohorts for learning and controlling behavior. It this research project, a case study was conducted to explore deliberate voluntary repetition in younger cohorts during their spontaneous solitary play with single or multiple objects. Two main types of repetition -- blocked and random --…

Early childhood education (ECE) is vital for children's development, especially from birth to age five. Yet, there remains significant variation in teachers' qualifications across different settings and countries. While previous research suggests that teachers' qualifications may influence children's development outcomes in early childhood…

Maternal depression is a global public health concern with far-reaching impacts on child development, yet our understanding of mechanisms remains incomplete. This study examined whether parenting mediates the association between maternal depression and child outcomes. Participants included 841 rural Pakistani mother-child dyads (50% female).…

Infancy, a formative period for development, has been identified as an advantageous time to provide family-centered support for children with delays. Families should be included as stakeholders during development of such interventions to ensure social value. We describe a preliminary randomized controlled trial evaluating Infant Achievements (IA),…

Although it is well established that reading with young children supports early language and literacy development, few studies have focused on the importance of parental beliefs about reading with infants. The current study, which sheds light on parental beliefs had three main aims. The first was to examine practices of shared reading in infancy…

Child maltreatment is a significant problem in North America. Maltreatment comes in many forms, such as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, and traumatic world events. The maltreatment affects children's neurobiological development, and thus, potentially their future quality of social and psychological health. This article gives a…

The purpose of the present case study was to conduct a detailed analysis of the developmental characteristics of a gifted child. WISC-R intelligence test was administered to a 7-year-old participant. The test result was 140 IQ. The early developmental characteristics of the participant were evaluated using parent-recorded videos over a 3-year…

Increasing child engagement and improving social-communication (SC) and play skills for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may provide a foundation for future academic and social development; yet preschool practitioners may not have the resources to successfully identify and target these skills for all children in their classrooms.…

The highly anticipated follow-up to "Unpacking the Pyramid Model," this one-of-a-kind book is the first to provide a comprehensive, step-by-step overview of the widely used Pyramid Model Practices for infants and toddlers from birth to three. With this accessible training guide, teachers and providers will use research-based practices to…

Conversations with families about understanding and nurturing their young child's development can be both rewarding and challenging. In this article, two seasoned HealthySteps specialists and two HealthySteps physician champions were asked to reflect on this central aspect of their mission in serving infants, toddlers, and families and on what…

Learn how to create and nurture communities of care for diverse children, families, and practitioners through responsive practice. In this text, the social and emotional worlds of babies and toddlers, their peers, and their caregivers come to life in the everyday moments of infant-toddler care and education. The authors show infants and toddlers…

Social-communication differences are a robust and defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but identifying early points of divergence in infancy has been a challenge. The current study examines social communication in 9- to 12-month-old infants who develop ASD (N = 30; 23% female; 70% white) compared to typically developing (TD) infants…