Conversational turns are an important predictor of cognitive and language development, but little is known about their relationship with socioemotional development. In a previous study using LENA technology, Gómez and Strasser (2021) found that conversational turns assessed with 43 infants at 18 months predicted socioemotional competencies at 30…

Fine motor skills (FMS) have been intensely studied in developmental contexts, with little attention to their empirical structure and developmental changes. We tested the factor structure of FMS on 5- to 10 year old children in two cohorts from 2020 to 2023, beginning in kindergarten and grade 2 and followed up 1 year later (n = 240 and 310, 49.7%…

In 2024, amendments regarding, inter alia, early childhood development (ECD) were promulgated in South Africa, most notably the inclusion of the Reception Grade (Grade R) into basic education, rendering its attendance compulsory. All parents are now compelled to see to it that their young children attend school from Grade R. With special reference…

Stories constitute a significant part of the Indian preschool curriculum due to their various benefits in preschool child development. However, the teachers' practice of stories and their perception regarding the influence of stories on preschool child development are vital determining factors in the benefit preschoolers receive from stories. The…

As adults, we represent and think about number, space, and time in at least two ways: our intuitive--but imprecise--perceptual representations, and the slowly learned--but precise--number words. With development, these representational formats interface, allowing us to use precise number words to estimate imprecise perceptual experiences. We test…

Research on gesture development has mostly focused on home environments. Little is known about early communicative development in other relevant contexts, such as early-year-schools. These settings, rich in diverse educative situations, objects, and communicative partners, provide a contrast to parent-child interactions, complementing our…

Maria Montessori's work remains popular and influential around the world. She provided fascinating descriptions of her observations of children's learning. Yet at the heart of her work is a lacuna: the issue of how children learn their first language. For Montessori, it was a marvel, a miracle--but a mystery. We argue that the later philosophy of…

The development of young children's counting has been extensively researched, yet detailed studies that examine development over multiple years are curiously absent from the literature. This research examined 15 preschoolers' (ages 3-4) use of number words as they engaged in two counting tasks, an oral counting task and counting a collection of 31…

A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the possible association between maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. Twelve datasets from five observational studies were included. Results showed that maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy was not independently associated with ASD (risk ratio:…

Antifascists have developed action-oriented principles and practices for collective resistance to fascism. In this article, we discuss antifascism as "praxis," which is the nexus of theory and practice through collective reflection and action. Antifascist praxis can inform developmental science at individual and contextual levels of…

Life skills development among youth in foster care is critical in helping them overcome the barriers they face when leaving care. While foster care agencies, child welfare professionals, and caregivers play important roles in life skills development, little research has examined the topic from their perspectives. This study examined the barriers…

This research sets out to examine digital games containing sexuality and sympathetic violence. The study group of the research consists of 5 digital games; 3 digital games with sexuality and 2 digital games with sympathetic violence. A checklist developed by the researcher is used as a data collection tool in the study. The research has been…

This was a cross-sectional study that aimed to evaluate the association between breastfeeding and motor development of infants at 3-4 months of age in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. The outcome, infant motor development, was evaluated through the Bayley Scale of Infant Development (Bayley III). The prevalence of infants that stopped…

Knowing how children become oriented to imaginary play can help educators in centres better support development. But how this begins in the first years of life is not well understood. How toddlers transform through their imagination concrete objects (such as play accessories, figurines, and books) to become props in play (placeholders and pivots)…

The author contends that, although most early childhood educators agree about the value of play for child development, preschools and kindergartens often do not reflect this belief, and she discusses this anomaly in the adult notion of play and how it manifests in classroom practices. She argues that it produces schoolroom practices in which…