Human infants show a robust preference for speech over many other sounds, helping them learn language and interact with others. Lacking a preference for speech may underlie some language and social-pragmatic difficulties in children with ASD. But, it is unclear how an early speech preference supports later language and social-pragmatic abilities.…

Behavioral research has shown that 12- but not 9-month-olds imitate an unusual and inefficient action (turning on a lamp with one's forehead) more when the model's hands are free. Rational-imitation accounts suggest that infants evaluate actions based on the rationality principle, that is, they expect people to choose efficient means to achieve a…

Each infant is born with music potential, and early exposure to music and social music interactions may positively affect music development. Researchers have found that infants perceive music, attend to music, respond to music, and engage in social music interactions. Caregivers may enhance their music practices by deepening their infant music…

Caregivers' sensitive responses to infant cry have long-term consequences for adaptive child development. Although mounting evidence suggests that parents who experience high emotionality to infant cry respond less sensitively to infant cry, there is a dearth of knowledge on potential mechanisms underlying individual differences in emotionality to…

Societal perspectives on male circumcision and its implications are not well understood. In this exploratory qualitative study, participants (N = 34, 7 male, 27 female) enrolled in a human sexuality course were asked to share their perspectives on male circumcision through the development of a written response to open-ended questions. Written…

This study looked at the effect of mother's educational level, child emotional difficulties, peer interactions, age, and gender on children's sophistication level of engagement. Eighty-six randomly selected children, aged between 36 and 72 months, and 20 teachers from 5 early childhood education centers in Valencia, Spain, participated in the…

In order to examine (1) the stability of the mother-child-bond and (2) associations between mother-child-bonding and aspects of maternal-well-being, pregnant women (N = 170) completed measures on well-being and mother-child-bonding at two antepartum and two postpartum time points. We found relatively weak associations between mother-child-bonding…

The "bouba-kiki effect" refers to the correspondence between arbitrary visual and auditory stimuli. Previous studies have demonstrated that neurodevelopmental conditions and sensory impairment affect subjects' performance on the bouba-kiki task. This study examined the bouba-kiki effect in participants with severe-to-profound hearing…

This paper will discuss the beliefs and experiences of early childhood educators across three countries, England, Norway and Greece, in relation to the use of touchscreen technology with the youngest children in their settings. Building on previous research which explored parents' perspectives, this study now extends the investigation to early…

The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) is used to assess auditory development in young children with hearing loss. Despite being widely used, previous research showed that its psychometric properties are not ideal. As a first step toward psychometric advancements of the IT-MAIS, this study aimed to create videos with…

Although looking-time methods have long been used to measure infant attention and investigate aspects of cognitive development, steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) measures may be more sensitive or practical in some contexts. Here, we demonstrate habituation of infants' SSVEP amplitudes to a flickering checkerboard stimulus, and…

Our social world is rich with information about other people's choices, which subsequently inform our inferences about their future behavior. For individuals socialized within the American cultural context, which places a high value on autonomy and independence, outcomes that are the result of an agent's own choices may hold more predictive value…

Some cognitive abilities exhibit reliable gender differences, with females outperforming males in specific aspects of verbal ability, and males showing an advantage on certain spatial tasks. Among these cognitive gender differences, differences in mental rotation are the most robust, and appear to be present even in infants. A large body of animal…

Responsive parental communication during an infant's first year has been positively associated with later language outcomes. This study explores responsivity in mother-infant communication by modeling how change in guiding language between 7 and 11 months influences toddler vocabulary development. In a group of 32 mother-child dyads, change in…

Fathers play a critical role in the lives of infants and mothers in the postpartum period. Research has demonstrated that fathers with mood disorders can have negative consequences on maternal mental health and child well-being. However, strategies for identifying paternal depression are lacking, and issues often go unrecognized and unaddressed.…