Anger is a central characteristic of negative affect and is relatively stable from infancy onward. Absolute levels of anger typically peak in early childhood and diminish as children become socialized and better able to regulate emotions. From infancy to school age, however, there are also individual differences in rank-order levels of anger. For…

Statistical learning-extracting regularities in the environment-may underlie complex social behavior. 124 children, 56 with autism and 68 typically developing, ages 2-8 years, completed a novel visual statistical learning task on an iPad. Averaged together, children with autism demonstrated less learning on the task compared to typically…

Awareness of trauma and the impact it has on children is a growing concern for schools in the United States. Exposure to trauma has been linked to challenges with learning, social/emotional health, and behaviors, all of which can negatively impact school experience and lead to issues with engagement and high school completion. We discuss…

This study compares teachers' perspectives on three assessment instruments for socioemotional development in early childhood, which differ in their emphasis on strengths and difficulties in this domain: the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Teacher version (SDQ-T), and the Social Emotional…

How can online modules be used to teach undergraduate students or pre-service teachers the principles of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) for guiding young children's behavior? To examine this overarching question, this study developed online modules with video teaching components, and conducted both formative and summative evaluations…

Biopsychosocial models of children's socioemotional development highlight the joint influences of physiological regulation and parenting practices. Both high and low levels of children's baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) have been associated with children's maladjustment, indicative of nonlinear associations. Negative or unsupportive…

The paper looks at the relevance of W.R. Bion's 'Theory of Thinking' to the interpretation of young child observations. Bion describes a process whereby emotional experience, when contained by a caregiver, gives rise to a capacity for symbol formation, which is at the root of imagination and language. The study consists of eight written hour-long…

To successfully pull a practical joke on someone, children need to understand that their victims do not know what they themselves know, be able to intentionally manipulate others' beliefs, and maintain a straight face to safeguard the integrity of the joke. This study examined the relationship between children's developing theory of mind (ToM),…

The current study was part of a large project focusing on bilingual development in the preschool classroom context. Its aim was to theorize free play as a social and language learning activity that provides opportunities for young learners to move towards second language production. The role of free play for language development in general, and…

Thirty-one children of gay single fathers and 28 children of heterosexual single fathers, all born through surrogacy, were compared with 31 children of gay partnered fathers through surrogacy and 30 children of heterosexual partnered fathers through in-vitro fertilization on their perceptions of self-worth and their father- and caregiver-reported…

Guided by the transactional approach, this grounded theory study examined the reciprocal relations between the effects of participation in a preschool education intervention program on Syrian refugee children and their mothers' parenting practices and concept of child. 128 children participated in a school-based intervention program in…

Behavioral inflexibility (BI) has been highlighted to occur across genetic and neurodevelopmental disorders. This study characterized BI in two common neurogenetic conditions: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Down syndrome (DS). Caregivers of children with FXS (N = 56; with ASD = 28; FXS only = 28) and DS (N = 146) completed the Behavioral…

Self-monitoring interventions for students with challenging behavior are often teacher-managed rather than self-managed. Teachers direct these interventions by completing parallel monitoring procedures, providing feedback, and delivering contingent reinforcement to students when they monitor accurately. However, within self-monitoring…

This study explores the behavioural effects of COVID-19 confinement in preschool children (aged 3-5) based on their parents' perceptions. Now that policy makers in numerous countries are drawing up new policies on teleworking and psychological support systems, the aim of this research was to test how parents' working situations had affected…

DC:0-5™: Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (ZERO TO THREE, 2016) emphasizes the centrality of relationships for young children's development and psychopathology. The authors share the story of a young child and his mother to illustrate the use of DC:0-5, with an emphasis on how…