This pilot study conducted an initial evaluation of the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE) Infant-Toddler Teacher Training program. The program is unique in three ways: 1) use of an online platform with courses that explain social-emotional, language, and literacy development in young children…

Engaging, focusing, and persisting in the completion of tasks are among the skills needed for school success. Tracking whether a child is learning cognitive problem-solving skills is essential in knowing if they are acquiring skills important for development and school readiness; and if not, how they are responding to early intervention. Use of…

As more families enroll their infants and toddlers with disabilities in child care programs, early intervention (EI) services are being delivered in these natural environments. This article presents the findings of a study on infants and toddlers with disabilities in child care settings from the perspectives of professionals. Twenty-four child…

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is a progress monitoring measure designed to support intervention decisions of the home visitors and early educators who serve infants and toddlers. The present study sought to add to the criterion validity claims of the ECI in a large sample of children using measures of language and preliteracy not…

Child mortality has become a prominent public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The mortality rates can in part be translated to how communities meet the health needs of children and address key household and environmental risk factors. Though discussions on the trends and magnitude of child mortality continue as to strategize for a…

Exposure to early psychosocial deprivation as a result of institutional care disrupts typical brain development. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is the first longitudinal study to investigate the neurodevelopment of institutionalized infants randomized to a foster care (FCG) intervention versus care as usual (CAUG). Here, we…

Parental mentalization refers to parents' capacity to treat their children as having minds of their own and consider the mental states underlying their behaviors. This study examined the roles of mothers' executive functions (EFs), a group of processes supporting self-regulation, in 2 aspects of parental mentalization--spontaneity as measured by…

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is a progress monitoring measure designed to support intervention decisions of the home visitors and early educators who serve infants and toddlers. The present study sought to add to the criterion validity claims of the ECI in a large sample of children using measures of language and preliteracy not…

The development of young children can be disrupted by repeated stress because stress triggers a response which changes the chemistry of their bodies (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC), 2014). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is used to describe stressful or traumatic experiences which threaten children's development.…

This study investigated family and coach responses to a two-year community-based research program, Strong Beginnings for Babies (SBB), designed to support families in fostering infant language development. The study focused on families of infants from low-income backgrounds, as these children may be at risk for delayed language development. The…

This paper revisits the longstanding observation that children produce modal verbs (e.g., must, could) with their root meanings (e.g., abilities, obligations) by age 2, typically a year or more earlier than with their epistemic meanings (e.g., inferences). Established explanations for this "Epistemic Gap" argue that epistemic language…

Developmental scholars, parents, and policymakers alike have long heralded the opening years of life as disproportionately influential. Recent work on adolescence has revealed, however, greater influence of these later years--but without considering how experience during these two periods interact. We address this issue by studying adverse…

The qualities and practices of two experienced, expert early childhood (EC) coaches, working with Early Head Start teachers, were explored through analyses of 24 audio-recorded EC coach-teacher conversations and coach interview data. Audio-recordings from 2 years of coaching sessions were reviewed, identifying the coaches' use of specific…

Objectives: The importance of breastfeeding exposure and children's development of self-regulation, independently, are well established. Each of these domains also has been linked to better cognitive development and academic achievement in children. However, little is known about how breastfeeding affects development of early self-regulation…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate fine- and gross-motor development and basic cognitive skills in 3-18 month-olds in relation to home factors, age and weight. Three hundred and seventy mother-child dyads were recruited. For age, two groups were analyzed: 3-11 months and 12-18 months. Motor and basic cognitive skills were assessed using the…