This article describes a developmental systems approach to applied developmental science (ADS), which provides a framework to design and evaluate technology-rich programs that promote positive development by emphasizing the strengths and assets of young people instead of focusing on diminishing or preventing risk-taking behaviors. Until now, most…

Patterns of development in language and play for full term and preterm children from 6 to 54 months and the effects of maternal parenting strategies (i.e., maintaining attentional focus, use of directiveness) were examined. Significant risk differences in the growth of both language and play were found. The high risk children were more likely to…

When children are assessed as being developmentally ready for competitive game play, large group games and traditional low organizational games need to be replaced by an approach that uses small-sided games, modified equipment and playing areas, and emphasizes game tactics. Manipulating factors that affect the structure and understanding of games…

Research suggests that the development of emotional regulation in early childhood is interrelated with emotional understanding and language skills. Heuristic models are proposed on how these factors influence children's emerging academic motivation and skills. (Contains 2 figures.)

There is much evidence that parents' perceptions of children's competence affect the development of children's academic functioning. In the current research, the possibility that this is moderated by parents' theories about the stability of competence was examined. In a 2-wave, 1-year study of 126 children (9 to 12 years old) and their mothers,…

An instrument to measure teachers' instructional practices, the Instructional Practice Questionnaire, was developed and validated in three phases. The questionnaires focused on three domains of instructional practices: cognitive, interpersonal, and interpersonal. First, an initial questionnaire was developed for a pilot study, and data were…

Early interventionists are accountable for the progress of children receiving their services. Technically adequate measures of the progress of individual children are needed. While the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for infants and toddlers is one such measure, data to support its use are limited to a single research report. In this…

Over the course of development, the ability to switch between different tasks on the basis of feedback cues increases profoundly, but the role of performance monitoring remains unclear. Heart rate indexes can provide critical information about how individuals monitor feedback cues indicating that performance should be adjusted. In this study,…

A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo…

Recurrence analysis is introduced as a means to investigate syntactic coordination between child and caregiver. Three CHILDES ( MacWhinney, 2000) corpora are analyzed and demonstrate coordination between children and their caregivers in terms of word-class n-gram sequences. Results further indicate that trade-offs in leading or following this…

The purpose of this investigation was to explore childhood career development by examining 4th-and 5th-grade students' career and self-awareness, exploration, and career planning. Responses to written assignments provided qualitative data for analysis. Written narrative data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods as described…

This study considered the interrelationships among biological maturation and its physical correlates, social physique anxiety, and appearance-related physical self-perceptions in 113 adolescent female figure skaters participating in solo (n = 73) or partner contexts (n = 40). Participants were interviewed about their menarcheal status, underwent a…

There is considerable interest in the potential non-musical cognitive and academic benefits of music listening and instruction to children. This report describes three lines of research relevant to this issue, namely, the effects of: (1) focused music listening on subsequent task performance (the Mozart effect); (2) music instruction; and (3)…

Staff interviews and classroom observations based on predetermined observation criteria and open-ended questions were conducted at early care and education programs in Kakunodate, Akita, Japan; Tazawako, Akita, Japan; Butte, Montana; and Missoula, Montana. Differences in curriculum, classroom structure and educational strategies were found. For…

Home-school collaboration refers to the relationship between families and schools where parents and educators work together to promote the academic and social development of children. Eighteen empirical studies of home-school collaboration interventions that also measured a school-based outcome were identified and evaluated according to guidelines…