Despite implications that stranger fear is an important aspect of developing behavioral inhibition, a known risk factor for anxiety, normative and atypical developmental trajectories of stranger fear across infancy and toddlerhood remain understudied. We used a large, longitudinal data set (N = 1285) including multi-trait, multi-method assessments…

The association of parental social status with multiple health and achievement indicators in adulthood has driven researchers to attempt to identify mechanisms by which social experience in childhood could shift developmental trajectories. Some accounts for observed linkages between parental social status in childhood and health have hypothesized…

This study aims to explore the relationship between developmental ability, autism and adaptive skills in preschoolers. Adaptive function was assessed in 152 preschoolers with autism, with and without developmental delay, and without autism, with and without developmental delay. Their overall adaptive function, measured by the general adaptive…

The authors used qualitative case study methodology to explore parents' perceptions of their children's readiness for kindergarten. The authors interviewed parents, focusing on their children's experiences during their transition from a child-centered, play-based preschool setting guided by an emergent curriculum into a range of diverse…

To evaluate the orthographic and phonological processing skills of developmental dyslexics, we (a) examined their abilities to exploit properties of orthographic redundancy and (b) tested whether their phonological deficit extends to spelling-to-sound connections for large-grain size units such as syllables. To assess the processing skills in…

Almost 60 years have passed since Dr. James Comer last saw three of his elementary school friends, yet he vividly remembers them. They were African American boys just like him. They, too, came from two-parent homes, and their fathers also worked in the local steel mill. But unlike Comer and his siblings, these three youngsters did not take an…

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) find it effortful to learn to talk and these difficulties can be persistent. Given the importance of language to human behaviour, it is not surprising to find that language difficulties are a risk factor for associated difficulties in other aspects of children's development. This article asks…

A total of 122 parent–infant dyads were observed as they watched a familiar or novel infant-directed video in a laboratory setting. Infants were between 12-15 and 18-21 months old. Infants were more likely to look toward the TV immediately following their parents' look toward the TV. This apparent social influence on infant looking at television…

Hachey's (2013) article celebrates a revolution that is taking place in early childhood mathematics education, fueled in part by developmental research demonstrating the mathematical capabilities of young children. At the same time, Hachey notes that the mathematics revolution she describes is not yet complete. In this commentary, the author…

Research Findings: It is widely acknowledged that consistent, high-quality teacher-student interactions promote optimal developmental outcomes for children. Previous research on the quality of teacher-student interactions provides empirical support for this premise. Little research has been conducted on the consistency of teacher-student…

We examined the associations between language skills and concern and disregard for others in young children assessed longitudinally at ages 14, 20, 24, and 36 months, testing the hypothesis that language skills have a specific role (distinct from that of general cognitive ability) in the development of concern and disregard for others. We found…

In this article, I look at some discussions of praising children in contemporary parenting advice. In exploring what is problematic about these discussions, I turn to some philosophical work on moral praise and blame which, I argue, indicates the need for a more nuanced response to questions about the significance of praise. A further analysis of…

The relation of spatial skills to academic success in areas such as math and science has sparked discussion in early education around how spatial thinking skills might be included in early schooling. Planning and evaluating new curricula or interventions requires understanding these skills and having the means to assess them. Prior developmental…

Study goals were to explore whether children clustered into groups based on reactions to witnessing bullying and to examine whether these reactions predicted bullying intervention. Seventy-nine children ("M" = 10.80 years) watched bullying videos in the laboratory while their heart rate (HR) was measured, and they self-reported on…

This study examined the developmental trajectories of executive function (EF) of children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Han Chinese. Five hundred and fifteen children and adolescents with ADHD and 249 healthy controls took part in this study. All of them were administered four EF tests capturing…