We examined reciprocal associations between early maternal language use and children's language and cognitive development in seventy ethnically diverse, low-income families. Mother-child dyads were videotaped when children were aged 2;0 and 3;0. Video transcripts were analyzed for quantity and lexical diversity of maternal and child language.…

Many ancestral languages (AL) are at imminent risk of extinction due to societal changes that pressure minority communities to assimilate with dominant cultures and forego usage of their AL. This study aimed to encourage caregiver-child dyads to converse in Lazuri, an endangered AL in Rize, Turkey. Dyads (N = 59; child age M = 30.7 months, range…

Babysign classes are increasingly popular across the UK. Benefits are said to include increasing child vocabulary, reducing frustration, and improving parent-child relations. A further relationship between the use of babysign and maternal mind-mindedness (MM) has been suggested. It was hypothesized here that parents choosing babysign classes would…

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the modified checklist for autism in toddlers (M-CHAT) in a diverse rural American low-socioeconomic status (SES) sample. Four hundred and forty-seven English (n = 335) and Spanish (n = 112) speaking caregivers completed the M-CHAT during their toddler's 18- or 24-month well visit in a…

A large body of research shows that vocabulary does not develop independently of grammar, representing a better predictor of the grammatical complexity of toddlers' utterances than age. This study examines for the first time the characteristics of vocabulary and grammar development in Slovenian-speaking infants and toddlers using the Slovenian…

By 12 months, children grasp that a phonetic change to a word can change its identity ("phonological distinctiveness"). However, they must also grasp that some phonetic changes do "not" ("phonological constancy"). To test development of phonological constancy, sixteen 15-month-olds and sixteen 19-month-olds completed…

In two experiments, 2.5-year-old children spontaneously used geometric information from 2D maps to locate objects in a 3D surface layout, without instruction or feedback. Children related maps to their corresponding layouts even though the maps differed from the layouts in size, mobility, orientation, dimensionality, and perspective, and even when…

This study investigated young children's commitment to a joint goal by assessing whether peers in collaborative activities continue to collaborate until all received their rewards. Forty-eight 2.5- and 3.5-year-old children worked on an apparatus dyadically. One child got access to her reward early. For the partner to benefit as well, this child…

Purpose: This study examines the influence of word frequency, phonological neighborhood density (PND), age of acquisition (AoA), and phonotactic probability on production variability and accuracy of known words by toddlers with no history of speech, hearing, or language disorders. Method: Fifteen toddlers between 2;0 (years;months) and 2;5…

Purpose: The relatedness of tense morphemes in the language of children younger than 3 years of age is a matter of controversy. Generativist accounts predict that the morphemes will be related, whereas usage-based accounts predict the absence of relationships. This study focused on the increasing productivity of the 5 morphemes in the tense…

Recent evidence has suggested that sleep may facilitate language learning. This study examined variation in language ability in 29 toddlers with Down syndrome (DS) in relation to levels of sleep disruption. Toddlers with DS and poor sleep (66%, n = 19) showed greater deficits on parent-reported and objective measures of language, including…

This article traces the development of adult Pedagogic Strategies with children aged 0-5 years at the Pen Green Centre for Children and Their Families in England. Pedagogical Strategies are a conceptual framework of effective strategies both practitioners and parents "already" have to support children's learning. The methodology was…

Millions of children witness intimate partner violence (IPV) in their homes each year, and large percentages of those children are infants and toddlers. Children often continue to live with or have frequent visits with their fathers following IPV. Social services agencies rarely provide services to target the father-child relationship beyond…

Frequency of high-level (showing/pointing) and low-level (coordinated gaze shifts) behaviors on the Early Social Communication Scales are often used as a measure of joint attention initiations (IJA). This study examined the degree to which these skills and response to joint attention (RJA; e.g. gaze following) were differentially related to…

This article engages critically with the concept of agency in infant and toddler educational discourse. It is argued that agency, when conceptualised with emphasis on individuality and the autonomous self, poses a conceptual "dead end" for those who are not-yet-in-language, such as babies and toddlers. In considering agency as an aspect…