Playing games, particularly pretense games, is one of the areas where young children first enter into collective, conventional practices. This chapter reviews recent empirical data in support of this claim and explores the idea that games present a cradle for children's growing into societal and institutional life more generally. (Contains 2…

Purpose: This study examined the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on the early lexical performance of African American children. Method: Thirty African American toddlers (30 to 40 months old) from low-SES (n = 15) and middle-SES (n = 15) backgrounds participated in the study. Their lexical-semantic performance was examined on 2 norm-referenced…

Within a sample of 584 twins aged 12 to 25 months (292 pairs) studied longitudinally, positive affect measured through two laboratory pleasure episodes and maternal report at 12 and 22 months significantly predicted empathy-related helping and hypothesis testing assessed between 19 and 25 months. Girls showed significantly more concern than did…

Using a symbolic object such as a model as a source of information about something else requires some appreciation of the relation between the symbol and what it represents. Representational insight has been proposed as essential to success in a symbolic retrieval task in which children must use information from a hiding event in a scale model to…

This study examines infants' joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included eight younger (1;0 to 1;5, M age=1;2) and eight older toddlers (1;7 to 2;7, M age=2;1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points six months apart. Analyses…

The study investigates the development of English multiword negation, in particular the negation of zero marked verbs (e.g. "no sleep", "not see", "can't reach") from a usage-based perspective. The data was taken from a dense database consisting of the speech of an English-speaking child (Brian) aged 2;3-3;4 (MLU 2.05-3.1) and his mother. The…

In this article, the author discusses the characteristics of an intentional caregiver and the importance of "windows of opportunity". The author states that when caregivers use the guidelines provided by the "Windows of Opportunity," they create a purposeful classroom. All caregivers and teachers of young children face the same challenge--finding…

Various explanations have been offered in the literature on the underlying cause of joint attention deficits in autism. One possible explanation is that children with autism are capable of producing joint attention but lack the social motivation to share their interests with others. The current study used a single-subject reversal design with…

Researchers know little about whether very young children can recognize objects originally introduced to them in a picture book when they encounter similar looking objects in various real-world contexts. The present studies used an imitation procedure to explore young children's ability to generalize a novel action sequence from a picture book to…

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the authors investigated whether there was evidence of intraindividual stability in behavior problems over time as well as whether children with higher levels of behavior problems at 24 months and more rapid increases in…

Background: Attachment theory's original formulation was substantially driven by Bowlby's (1969/1982) quest for a meaningful model of the development of psychopathology. Bowlby posited that aberrant experiences of parenting increase the child's risk of psychopathological outcomes, and that these risks are mediated by the quality of the attachment…

Everyone brings specific values, beliefs, and assumptions about child rearing and child development to their work with infants and toddlers. Even two teachers who share the same ethnic culture may not share the same beliefs about what is best for young children. Conflicts around these issues can arise with colleagues and families in early care and…

This study explored how toddlers' increasing social sophistication and increasing ability to coordinate attention between the social and object realm are reflected in toddlers' mastery play. A total of 57 toddlers (24 boys and 33 girls from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds) between the ages of 15 and 35 months participated in 7 mastery…

This study investigated the association between the nature of parent-caregiver relationships and child behavior and examined the parent-caregiver relationship as a social support. A total of 120 parents of 2-year-olds who used child care at least 20 hours a week were randomly selected. Participants were asked to complete a survey that included a…

The paper describes interventions which can be used by parents of infants or toddlers with feeding problems. General considerations center on the critical nature of food intake, the importance of controlling events associated with feeding, and the reinforcing nature of certain adults. The paper suggests the need for selecting interventions which…