The articles in this collection consider one very interesting puzzle of development: U-shaped developmental functions. At some point during development, an organism might exhibit what seems like a regression from its expected developmental trajectory and, according to continuity models of development, this is aberrant. In this special issue,…

These excerpts from an oral history interview with the founder of the Irving B. Harris Foundation, one of the most influential early funders of the infant-family field, emphasize the importance of promoting early childhood development as a social investment and highlights the lessons from business that Harris brought to philanthropy. Harris traces…

The authors summarize previous research and report the results of their study on young children's television and video viewing habits. Previous studies confirm that children under 2 years spend a significant amount of time engaging with television and videos and are highly attentive to them. Attentiveness is contingent on age; for instance, one…

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate attention orienting triggered by another's gaze direction in autism. Method: Twelve high-functioning children with autism and gender- and age-matched normal control children were studied using two tasks. In the first task, children were asked to detect laterally presented target stimuli preceded…

The Childcare Act 2006 is the first piece of legislation of its kind in the UK, and is a significant development for the early years sector and childcare services more broadly. Ensuring every child has the best start in life is one of the guiding principles of the Government's 10-year strategy for childcare, but the strategies for implementation…

The occurrence of developmental regression in autism is one of the more puzzling features of this disorder. Although several studies have documented the validity of parental reports of regression using home videos, accumulating data suggest that most children who demonstrate regression also demonstrated previous, subtle, developmental differences.…

Early detection of developmental and behavioral/mental health problems is greatly facilitated when quality instruments are deployed. This article describes how to identify accurate measures and presents standards for screening tests. Included is a table delineating accurate tools for primary care: typically those relying on information from…

The types of non-maternal child care received by more than 1000 U.S. children were examined from birth to 54 months and related to family selection factors and to child outcomes. Individual children tended to experience a variety of different types of care and not to fit into clear patterns of either stable care types or progressive patterns of…

This study was conducted to examine the impact of Relationship Focused Intervention (RFI) on a sample of Korean mothers and their preschool-aged children with disabilities. Subjects were 18 mothers of children with developmental problems (ages 3-8 years). Ten of these mothers were assigned to an RFI Treatment group and eight to a No RFI Control…

It has long been acknowledged that justificatory speech is linked with both social and cognitive development. Yet many studies suggest that pre-school children might lack the ability or experience to produce such discourse in routine interaction. In contrast, researchers such as Eisenberg and Garvey (1981) have found evidence of pre-schoolers'…

A right to development is one of the basic principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Several articles are specifically about protecting and promoting children's development, and other articles refer to developmental concepts of maturity and evolving capacity. Realizing young children's right to development is informed by numerous…

Young children below school-age, especially those under three, have gotten more and more attention paid to them during the last years. Is it for good or for bad? Extreme and consequential views and actions towards (especially) the youngest children may result in problems--for the children. This essay presents a discussion about different ways to…

Children at risk for familial dyslexia (n = 107) and their controls (n = 93) have been followed from birth to school entry in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) on developmental factors linked to reading and dyslexia. At the point of school entry, the majority of the at-risk children displayed decoding ability that fell at least 1…

A new report concludes that, judging by most indicators of well-being, life has improved over the past 10 years for the nation's children--except when it comes to their education and health. According to the Foundation for Child Development's "2006 Child Well-Being Index" released last week, children's educational achievement levels largely…

Continuity of Care Between Home and School is highly valued in early childhood education. Good teachers consider working closely with families of young children an integral part of their job. When teachers and families develop partnerships, children's learning is enhanced. The intimate contact between teachers and families calls for teachers to…