Sense enables babies to perceive the physical and chemical changes that occur in the external environment. It occurs as a result of the dynamic interaction of sensory stimuli with sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin. The stimuli that newborns see, touch, and hear affect their brain development. The brain develops faster in…

Background: Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterised by several typical somatic characteristics and by developmental disabilities with various degrees of severity. Focusing on children with RSTS, the aim of this study was to describe their psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental…

The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) is a screening questionnaire for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Previous findings have confirmed the M-CHAT's sensitivity and specificity across several cultures, yet few studies have considered M-CHAT scores as a distributed trait in a sample of typical infants. The current study examined…

Researchers commonly use puppets in development science. Amongst other things, puppets are employed to reduce social hierarchies between child participants and adult experimenters akin to peer interactions. However, it remains controversial whether children treat puppets like real-world social partners in these settings. This study investigated…

The use of socially assistive robotics (SARs) is a promising method for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies conducted in this field in recent years show that the use of robots as collaborators may have positive effects on the development of social skills in children with ASD, especially in those…

This study examined the longitudinal associations between perception of sibling relationship quality (i.e., sibling warmth and conflict) and sibling influence (i.e., sibling modeling and differentiation), as well as the potential moderating role of birth order among Chinese adolescents. Participants were 150 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 12.84…

Imitation is a pivotal skill for children with and without disabilities, serving both learning and social interaction functions for young children. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently experience delays in acquiring this skillset, demonstrating challenges in the ability and/or propensity to imitate the actions of others. Current…

Specific features of adult linguistic input may play a larger, or smaller role, at different child ages, across different language outcomes, in different cohorts. This prospective, longitudinal study explored associations between the quantity and quality (i.e. diversity and responsiveness) of maternal linguistic input and child language. This…

Social studies education (SSE) commonly uses copying pedagogies (e.g., simulations) to help students develop a deeper understanding of self, others, curriculum, and society. This article argues that simulations are eminently mimetic (i.e., a theoretical orientation concerned with understanding the entangled relationships between originals and…

Admiration is often described as having a singular motivational profile -- the disposition to imitate. This article provides a developmental assessment of admiration's action-potential, proposing a series of stages between (1) naïve imitation, a basic mimetic impulse, and (2) non-imitative virtuous actions. The process is marked by an increasing…

In this paper we combine a philosophical theoretical analysis with human movement science empirical studies, in order to provide a better understanding of the possible links between free play and creativity. We deal in particular with some dialectical dynamics inherent to free play: the relation between rules and freedom, spontaneity which often…

In this article, we integrate cultural evolutionary theory with empirical research from developmental psychology, cultural anthropology, and primatology to explore the role of peer learning in the development of complex instrumental skills and behavioral norms. We show that instrumental imitation, contingent teaching, generative collaboration, and…

We examined the effects of the least-to-most prompting (LTM) procedure with contingent imitation (CI) on increasing the frequency and diversity of pretend play in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a multiple probe across toy sets single-case research design. Three children with ASD ages 5 to 6 years took part in the study. LTM was…

One of the most challenging questions in philosophical and anthropological inquiries on skill learning is how skills can be shared and acquired among people, especially when they cannot be easily verbalized or written. This paper examines the process of skill learning among Western and Eastern artists of puppetry. They learn the skill generally by…

The effectiveness of video modeling (VM) has been well documented in research studies completed in the Western world. VM has been used to establish skills in several areas, such as language, imitation, social behavior, play, academics, and other adaptive skills. VM has been shown to be particularly effective with children with autism. However,…