Despite the relative increase in early care and education (ECE) investment over recent decades, access to infant and toddler care continues to be a hurdle for countless families across the nation. While access is a multifaceted issue, main contributors include a lack of available slots and the high cost of providing care to infants and toddlers.…

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) predicts that people adjust their language to match that of the other to promote comprehension, coordinate action, and facilitate harmonious relationships. CAT predicts that mothers will adjust their sentence length and complexity to match those of children. Prior tests of CAT confounded trait-like language…

Despite the documented rise of children's use of mobile media devices in the United States, particularly in lower-income homes, there is limited research on how children and parents interact together with these types of devices. This study sought to describe and investigate how parents and their 3-year-old children use one type of mobile digital…

States need a policy and systems infrastructure that creates a robust continuum of mental health supports and services for infants, young children, and families. One critical element of this continuum is developmentally appropriate diagnosis. "DC:0-5[TM]: Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and…

Purpose: Few caregiver-implemented naturalistic language interventions (NLIs) are available for Spanish-speaking Latinos who have young children under 3 years with language delays, and there is a scarcity of studies that provide information about intervention development or social validity of interventions for this group. This study introduces…

Purpose: Few caregiver-implemented naturalistic language interventions (NLIs) are available for Spanish-speaking Latinos who have young children under 3 years with language delays, and there is a scarcity of studies that provide information about intervention development or social validity of interventions for this group. This study introduces…

The observation that children's activity level (AL) differs between novel and familiar situations is well established. What influences individual differences in how AL is different across these situations is less well understood. Drawing on animal literature, which links rats' AL when 1st placed in a novel setting with novelty seeking phenotypes,…

Parent- and lab-based observer ratings were employed to examine genetic and environmental influences on continuity and change in inhibitory control (IC) in over 300 twin-pairs assessed longitudinally at 2 and 3 years of age. Genetic influences accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in parent-rated IC at both ages. Although many of the…

The first eight years of life, beginning before birth and continuing through third grade, are a critical developmental period that sets the stage for future success. Research over the past 15 years has demonstrated the importance of high-quality care and education throughout the prenatal-through-third-grade (P-3) continuum, including prenatal and…