Segmental variation in maternal speech to children changes over time. This study investigated variation in non-citation speech processes in a longitudinal, 26-hour corpus of maternal northern Australian English. Recordings were naturalistic parent-child interactions when children (N = 4) were 1;6, 2;0, and 2;6. The mothers' speech was phonetically…

Research on the development of emotion regulation has become a prominent topic in developmental science covering a broad age range from infancy to old age because of its theoretical importance and practical implications. This introductory essay of this special section includes reflections on some of the conceptual themes of this research field and…

This study examined 3- to 7-year-old children's reliance on informant testimony to learn about a novel animal. Sixty participants were given positive or negative information about an Australian marsupial from an informant described as a maternal figure or a zookeeper. Children were asked which informant was correct and were invited to touch…

This study investigates how children negotiate social norms with peers. In Study 1, 48 pairs of 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) and in Study 2, 48 pairs of 5- and 7-year-olds (N = 96) were presented with sorting tasks with conflicting instructions (one child by color, the other by shape) or identical instructions. Three-year-olds differed from older…

Many studies show a developmental advantage for transitive sentences with familiar verbs over those with novel verbs. It might be that once familiar verbs become entrenched in particular constructions, they would be more difficult to understand (than would novel verbs) in non-prototypical constructions. We provide support for this hypothesis…

Past research reveals a tension between children's preferences for egalitarianism and ingroup favoritism when distributing resources to others. Here we investigate how children's evaluations and expectations of others' behaviors compare. Four- to 10-year-old children viewed events where individuals from two different groups…

Three experiments investigated 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds' (N = 240) understanding that their future or "grown-up" preferences may differ from their current ones (self-future condition). This understanding was compared to children's understanding of the preferences of a grown-up (adult-now condition) or the grown-up preferences of…

Histone acetylation is essential for hippocampal memory formation in young adult rodents. Although dysfunctional histone acetylation has been associated with age-related memory decline in male rodents, little is known about whether histone acetylation is altered by aging in female rodents. In young female mice, the ability of 17ß-estradiol…

The aim of this paper is to show how norms about age intersect with gender and thus create social positions about incompetent and competent children. The paper also analyzes the relationship between gender, incompetence, and notions of "the baby." The theoretical framework uses concepts taken from gender theory (Butler, "Gender…

Purpose: In this study, the authors compared coarticulation and lingual kinematics in preadolescents and adults in order to establish whether preadolescents had a greater degree of random variability in tongue posture and whether their patterns of lingual coarticulation differed from those of adults. Method: High-speed ultrasound tongue contour…

Kindergarten redshirting is the term used to describe the phenomenon where a parent chooses to keep their child from attending kindergarten so that the child may gain a year's worth of maturity. This qualitative dissertation examines the decision making process undergone by parents who have redshirted their children. While some parents began the…

Well-being and physical health are central indicators of quality of life in old age. Research from a between-person difference perspective finds that people in better health than their peers also report higher well-being than their peers. However, we know very little about whether changes in one domain are accompanied by changes in the other…

Although most studies of language learning take place in quiet laboratory settings, everyday language learning occurs under noisy conditions. The current research investigated the effects of background speech on word learning. Both younger (22- to 24-month-olds; n = 40) and older (28- to 30-month-olds; n = 40) toddlers successfully learned novel…

In spite of the existence of guidance and counseling services in schools in Siaya County for the management of discipline, in 2012, 32 schools went on the rampage. This scenario was suspected to be occasioned by lack of an effective alternative strategy to contain student indiscipline. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of peer…

This study examined the association between having been bullied at school during the past 6 months ("bullied status") and not meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations of 60 minutes of daily PA during the past week among 8th- and 11th-grade Texas adolescents. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine this…