Previous research supports the CBCL/1½--5's "DSM"-ASD scale (and its precursor, the "DSM"-PDP scale) as a Level 1 ASD screener. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with data from population samples in 24 societies (N = 19,850) indicated good measurement invariance across societies, especially for configural and metric…

Aggression observed in early childhood is considered to be an important problem. Multiple factors may play a decisive role in children's aggressive behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine whether the receptive and expressive language skills of preschool children (39-75 months-old) had predictive role on the levels of physical and…

Pretend play is common in childhood. Yet by age 4, children shown pretend and real activities in a book said they would choose to do the real activity over the pretend one. The present studies extended this research, examining children's actual behavior in laboratory and school settings (Study 1, n = 32, M = 59.32 months; and Study 2, n = 16, M…

Parasympathetic nervous system functioning as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is widely used as a measure of physiological regulation. We examined developmental patterns of children's resting RSA and RSA reactivity from 2 to 15 years of age, a period of time that is marked by considerable advances in children's regulatory abilities.…

This paper takes up the question of risk by examining childhood memories of nuisance-making and punishment shared by 26 participants enrolled in teacher education and/or childhood studies programs. Our analysis surfaces a tension that, on the one hand, idealizes the child as innocent instigator of playful antics and, on the other, produces a child…

Rooted in both ABA and developmental theory, Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI) are some of today's most effective, evidence-based, and widely used interventions for autism spectrum disorder. Prepare tomorrow's autism professionals for success in the field with this graduate-level textbook, the first comprehensive…

The present study examined which aspects of the child's behavior and clinical profile accounted for three dimensions of parenting stress: related to parenting roles, to interactions with the child, and to the child. Measures of adaptive behavior, intellectual functioning, autism symptom severity, and challenging behavior and emotional difficulties…

Limited literature assessed the relation between family engagement in education and young children's socioemotional and behavioral functioning. This study investigated these associations longitudinally among urban and low-income, predominantly Latinx preschoolers (n = 69) and their mothers. Initial home-school conferencing predicted lower levels…

Infants learn nouns during object-naming events--moments when caregivers name the object of infants' play (e.g., ball as infant holds a ball). Do caregivers also label the actions of infants' play (e.g., roll as infant rolls a ball)? We investigated connections between mothers' verb inputs and infants' actions. We video-recorded 32 infant-mother…

We examined the use of an intervention package consisting of the system of least prompts (SLP), visual schedules, peer models, and contingent reinforcement to teach four children with disabilities to independently play board games and communicate with their typically developing peers. We found the intervention package with individual adaptations…

Evidence points to the possibility of promoting executive functions (EF) through school interventions. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of this type of intervention in situations of social vulnerability. This study investigated the effectiveness of an EF intervention program applied with a sample of preschool children, in a…

The results of studies on early competences suggest that the child's delay of gratification (DoG) ability is a major predictor of school readiness (SR). However, there are no direct data or convincing explanations as to how DoG translates into preschool children's readiness to commence school education. Aiming at a better understanding of the…

Background: Given the importance of adaptive behaviour (AB) for the identification of intellectual disability and the design of intervention plans for people with Down syndrome (DS), this cross-sectional study explored AB in infants with DS, compared to infants with typical development (TD). Method: we evaluated 60 infants (10-36 months) with…

This study examined bidirectional relations between television exposure and effortful control accounting for the effects of family contextual risk factors. Data were from a sample (N = 306) of parents and their preschool-age children (T1 M = 36 mos. in 2008-2010) assessed four times, once every 9 mos. At T1, adolescent parent status predicted…

Numerous studies suggest that by elementary school, children have implicit and explicit gender stereotypes about the toys, activities, roles, and abilities associated with boys vs. girls. Furthermore, these stereotypes have been shown to affect children's goals and behaviors, leading them to pursue activities that are associated with their own…