Often included within 'high-risk sibling' studies, the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) has only one independent replication study and no evaluation with community-ascertained cohorts. We administered the AOSI and established clinical measures with 103 infants (68% male) at 'high autism likelihood' on the Social Attention and…

The effectiveness of Promoting First Relationships (PFR), a 10-week home visiting program with video feedback, was tested in a randomized controlled trial involving 252 mothers and their 8- to 12-week-old infants. Mothers were eligible if they initiated treatment after mental health screening (depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder…

Social cognition is a set of complex processes that mediate much of human behavior. The development of these skills is related to and interdependent on other cognitive processes, particularly inhibitory control. Brain regions associated with inhibitory control and social cognition overlap functionally and structurally, especially with respect to…

Purpose: The algorithm of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system for calculating language environment measures was trained on American English; thus, its validity with other languages cannot be assumed. This article evaluates the accuracy of the LENA system applied to Korean. Method: We sampled sixty 5-min recording clips involving 38 key…

Over the past three decades, our understanding of science learning in early childhood has improved exponentially and today we have a strong empirically based understanding of science experiences for children aged three to six years. However, our understanding of science learning as it occurs for children from birth to three years, is limited. We…

Child care quality in general, and caregiver-child interactions in particular, are salient predictors of children's outcomes. While the importance of process quality is well known, the complex relations between structural quality and process quality are far less researched in family child care, compared to centre based child care. Flanders shows…

Maternal responses to infant facial expressions were examined in two socioeconomically diverse samples of South African mothers (Study I, N = 111; and Study II, N = 214; age: 17-44 years) using pupil and gaze tracking. Study I showed increased pupil response to infant distress expressions in groups recruited from private as compared to public…

Auditory speech discrimination is essential for normal language development. Children born preterm are at greater risk of language developmental delays. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy at term-equivalent age, the present study investigated early discrimination of speech prosody in 62 neonates born between week 23 and 41 of gestational…

The global pandemic has caused some sudden changes in education. The Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE), which aims at the musical education of babies (0-3) and conducts the lessons face-to-face, is one of the areas most affected by the pandemic. Due to the nature of babies, in these lessons, where digital technology is rarely involved,…

Infants show shifting patterns of visual engagement to faces over the first years of life. To explore the adaptive implications of this engagement, we collected eye-tracking measures on cross-sectional samples of 10-25-month-old typically developing toddlers (TD;N = 28) and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;N = 54). Concurrent language…

Decisions being made on Capitol Hill and in state capitals may seem remote from the experiences of early childhood professionals, but policymakers have a big impact on babies and families. Early childhood professionals and parents bring key expertise and passion to policy advocacy and have a powerful role to play. This article identifies the…

Emerging audio technologies over the last decade have provided a new, unprecedented window into the everyday lives of infants and young children. These new approaches will allow us to begin to address longstanding questions about the nature of language experiences across languages, communities and situations and the role of these experiences in…

Purpose: To evaluate the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of the novel Means-End Problem-Solving Assessment Tool (MEPSAT). Methods: Children with typical development and those with motor delay were assessed throughout the first 2 years of life using the MEPSAT. MEPSAT scores were validated against the cognitive and motor subscales of the…

Families across the United States face a variety of challenges securing early care and education (ECE) for their children. The supply and price of ECE programs in local areas tell part but not all the access story for families. Describing access across multiple dimensions provides decision makers with a deeper understanding of families' ECE needs…

The purpose of this pilot study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of an experiential teaching and learning initiative that trained undergraduate students studying speech-language pathology to serve as family navigators promoting social communication and language development in infants and toddlers from lower-income backgrounds. Three…