The present study investigated the relations among fetal testosterone, child socio-emotional engagement and language development in a sample of 467 children (235 boys) from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. Bioavailable testosterone concentration measured in umbilical cord blood taken at birth was found to be significantly…

Background: Previous cross-sectional studies have suggested an association between asthma and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but the temporal relationship was not determined. Using a nationwide population-based prospective case-control cohort study (1:4, age-/gender-matched), we hypothesized that asthma in infanthood or early…

In this follow-up study, we evaluated children's communication development at the ages of 8 ("n" = 50), 18 ("n" = 46), 24 ("n" = 44) and 36 months ("n" = 36) using the Finnish version of the "MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories" (MCDI). A sample of children ("n" = 14)…

It has long been thought that the prefrontal cortex, as the seat of most higher brain functions, is functionally silent during most of infancy. This review highlights recent work concerned with the precise mapping (localization) of brain activation in human infants, providing evidence that prefrontal cortex exhibits functional activation much…

A lack of breastfeeding has negative consequences on mother and infant by creating health disparities with a higher incidence of morbidity and mortality. Nationwide, fewer than 60% of mothers younger than age 20 years breastfed exclusively, while fewer than 20% did so in the community being studied. The purpose of this qualitative case study was…

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in infancy is relatively common, and is likely to lead to poorer outcomes than injuries sustained later in childhood. While the headlines have been grabbed by infant TBI caused by abuse, often known as shaken baby syndrome, the evidence base for how to support children following TBI in infancy is thin.…

The present study examines coviewing of "Baby Mozart" by 6- to 18-month-old infants and their caregivers under naturalistic conditions. We had two questions. First, extending the method of Barr, Zack, Garcia, and Muentener (Infancy, 13 [2008], 30-56) to a younger population, we asked if age, prior exposure, and caregiver verbal input would predict…

Adults, preschool children, and nonhuman primates detect and categorize food objects according to substance information, conveyed primarily by color and texture. In contrast, they perceive and categorize artifacts primarily by shape and rigidity. The present experiments investigated the origins of this distinction. Using a looking time procedure,…

Prosocial behavior in early childhood is a precursor to later adaptive social functioning. This investigation leveraged mother-reported, physiological, and observational data to examine children's prosocial development from age 2 to age 4 (N = 125). Maternal emotion socialization (ES) strategies and children's parasympathetic regulation have each…

This research brief explores how emotions and relationships drive learning and are a fundamental part of how our brains develop. The authors explain how emotionally safe and cognitively stimulating environments contribute to brain development; how brain development that supports learning depends on social experiences; and how sensitive periods in…

Illinois' youngest children--nearly half-a-million infants and toddlers--are at the leading edge of a demographic transformation. They herald a state, and a nation, more diverse with respect to race/ethnicity, country of origin, language, and family type than at any time in recent history. Yet, this is a generation notable for marked inequities,…

Within the United States a significant population of foster care infants and toddlers access early special education services under the parameters of the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA)-Part C (United States Congress 2004). A dearth of literature exists about special education interventionists' services for this…

What do preschool teachers know about infant/toddler care and education? The answer to the question in the title is "Lots!" "if" they are fans of Lilian Katz. The author would not have said that before she sat down to read the new book Lilian wrote with her son Stephen. It's called "Intellectual Emergencies." It starts out with 12 of Lilian's…

Explanations of variability in long-term recall typically appeal to encoding and/or retrieval processes. However, for well over a century, it has been apparent that for memory traces to be stored successfully, they must undergo a post-encoding process of stabilization and integration. Variability in post-encoding processes is thus a potential…

The present article investigates spatial- and social-cognitive processes in toddlers' mapping of concepts to real-world events. In 2 studies we explore how event segmentation might lay the groundwork for extracting actions from the event stream and conceptually mapping novel verbs to these actions. In Study 1, toddlers demonstrated the ability to…