Recently play environments and materials have changed with digital materials becoming increasingly available for young children. Parents' preferences about the importance and appropriateness of digital play may influence the quality and the quantity of digital play opportunities children receive at home. The purpose of this research is to examine…

Recent years have witnessed increasing attention to early childhood education and care as a foundation for children's successful development in school and beyond. The great majority of children in postindustrial societies now attend preschools or daycare, making this setting a major part of their culturally constructed developmental niches.…

Purpose: Past research shows that parentally responsive behavior toward the child positively influences language development in both neurotypical children and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including those with fragile X syndrome (FXS); however, most studies have focused exclusively on the mother--child relationship.…

Given the chronic stress that families experienced during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic accompanied by school closures, many parents were vulnerable to parental burnout as they supervised their children's remote learning in addition to other roles. According to self-determination theory (SDT), when parents' basic needs are met, they…

Limited access to screening and evaluation for autism spectrum disorder in children is a major barrier to improving outcomes for marginalized families. To identify and evaluate available digital autism spectrum disorder screening resources, we simulated web and mobile app searches by a parent concerned about their child's likelihood of autism…

Indiscriminate friendliness (IF) is a prominent issue with children adopted from China to the United States. Through a mixed methods design, the authors explored four Chinese adoptees' experiences of IF within their real-life context, investigated potential factors associated with IF, and examined the IF-attachment relationship. This mixed methods…

Studies on the relationship between bookreading and language development typically lack data about which books are actually read to children. This paper reports on an Internet survey designed to address this data gap. The resulting dataset (the Infant Bookreading Database or IBDb) includes responses from 1,107 caregivers of children aged 0-36…

Improving family economic security in the United States requires new strategies to support parents while they develop skills and attain postsecondary education to prepare them for well-paid jobs. Parents need stable, affordable, convenient, and high-quality child care to attend and complete college, but child care costs are unaffordable for many…

Although electronic technology currently plays an integral role for most youth, there are growing concerns of its excessive and compulsive use. This study documents patterns and impact of electronics use in individuals with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing peers. Participants included 172 parents of typically developing…

The UK prevalence of parent-reported autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were estimated from the Millennium Cohort Study. Case definition was if a doctor or health care professional had ever told parents that their child had ASD and/or ADHD. Data were collected in 2008/2009 for 14,043 children. 1.7%…

"Concerted cultivation" has been described as a common, urban middle-class practice concerning the enrollment of children in a variety of age-specific activities that may promote the learning of valuable life skills as well as the development of individual abilities (Lareau, 2003). Music is one such activity. This study investigated the…

The outlook for teaching and learning in the homes of family child care (also called "day care" and "child minding" [the latter term is used in the United Kingdom]) is both promising and precarious. The authors believe such programs hold potential for high-quality learning, yet they suffer from lack of recognition and support.…

The purpose of this study was to examine Hispanic families' perspectives on using a prepared kit to enhance their preschoolers' vocabulary development at home. Families enrolled in a public prekindergarten program were provided with a bilingual (English/Spanish) home literacy kit that included ways in which to engage their children in activities…

Children of immigrants have nearly doubled as a share of pre-K to 3rd grade students since 1990. The share of children under age 8 with immigrant parents stood at 24 percent in 2008, up from 13 percent in 1990. Young children of immigrants account for more than 30 percent of children in seven states, with California leading the nation at 50…

The number of children who experience parental incarceration continues to rise with the United States. In 1999, an estimated 1.5 million minor children had a parent in a United States prison. One-fifth of these children are under 5 years of age (Mumola, Incarcerated parents and their children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 2000). A…