The objective of the current study was to assess how a LEGO intervention, implemented by a grandparent and a parent at home, affected social interactions for four children (two girls, two boys; ages 6-7 years) on the autism spectrum in China. A multiple probe design across four families was used. Grandparents and parents were trained to use…

This paper presents causal evidence on the impact of parenting practices on early child development. We exploit exogenous changes in nurturing care induced by a parent training intervention to estimate the impact of nurturing parenting practices on child outcomes. We find a large and significant impact measured at age two; in contrast, at age four…

Preventative parent-coaching programs can improve early interaction quality, language skills, and academic outcomes for children experiencing economic adversity. Using a community-based participatory research framework, we piloted Duet, a preventative, parent-implemented, early language intervention. We assigned home visitors to provide Duet or…

Parenting is widely considered to be among the most important influences on early childhood (EC) development. But to what extent and under what circumstances can EC parenting programs improve child learning outcomes? While substantial progress has been made toward addressing these questions in recent years, there have been few attempts to…

Purpose: Parent engagement is a critical component of optimizing services for young children with disabilities, including those with language disorders. Without training, however, many parents may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate their children's language development during the essential early childhood years. The Parents…

Infants develop attachment to their caregivers very early on. The quality of attachment is considered to be crucial for the emotional development of humans and animals alike. Despite its importance, very little is known about how attachment develops between children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their caregivers. The purpose of the…

This 6-wave longitudinal study (2014-2018) of 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds from a midsized city and rural area in southern Germany (89 females, 72 males; predominantly White; mostly middle class) found that scientific-reasoning abilities first develop at 6 years. Abilities were highly stable, with the kindergarten score predicting 25% of…

"Pashe Achhi" is a telecommunication model that emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh to provide support to 0- to 5-year-old children and their caregivers through mobile-to-mobile phone calls. It is a caregiver-child facing and/or only caregiver focused, low-resource, low-tech model that constitutes a 20-minute phone call.…

Challenging behaviors exhibited by young children negatively affect development and may also prevent children from receiving appropriate education. These behaviors may also hinder positive family interactions and have a significant impact on parents and other family members. Although various parent training approaches exist to increase parents'…

Background: Computational thinking (CT) has become a crucial skill for individuals in the 21st century, and while more educators are starting to recognize the importance of CT education, there is still a lack of research on how to teach young children CT, particularly outside of traditional school settings. Objectives: To fill the gap in…

Recognizing and appropriately responding to others' emotional expressions is important for children's moral and social development. Impairments in the emotion recognition of individuals high on Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are thought to explain their reduced empathic responding, interpersonal problems, and persistent antisocial behaviour. The…

This study examined long-term mediating effects of the "smalltalk" parenting intervention on children's effortful control at school age (7.5 years; 2016-2018). In 2010-2012, parents (96% female) of toddlers (N = 1201; aged 12-36 months; 52% female) were randomly assigned to either: standard playgroup, "smalltalk" playgroup…

Parents have a strong influence on young children's science learning. Factors such as parental education, interest, and child-directed speech influence how children perceive and engage with science. While the role of informal early learning settings in providing a space for parents and children to engage with science has been documented, the power…

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is considered to be an empirically supported parent-mediated treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but research on parental experiences is lacking. This qualitative study examined the perspectives of parents of young children with ASD who participated in a 14-week PRT with parent group…

The Parents Plus Early Years (PPEY) Programme was conceptualised as an early group intervention for parents of preschool children with behavioural, emotional and developmental difficulties. This systematic review sought to examine and critically evaluate the existing literature in which the PPEY Programme has been implemented. A number of…