Background: Heightened familial stress and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to increased negative parenting practices, particularly for parents with substantial adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Objective: To determine whether families' COVID-19-related distress is associated with young children's emotional/behavioral functioning…

This study investigated whether transitory and persistent poverty spells were associated with children's learning (literacy and numeracy scores) and executive function outcomes in Ghana. Children resided in the Greater Accra region (N = 2,154; 49% female; M[subscript age] = 5.2 years at wave-1) and were followed at four-time points over three…

There is scant empirical work on associations between current and past cannabis use in parents of young children. As recreational cannabis use is now legal in nearly half of states in the U.S., cannabis use is becoming more ubiquitous. In the current study, parents of toddler and pre-school age children were randomly assigned to participate in an…

Aim: There is a lack of evidence-based tools for measuring problem-solving in young children with motor delays. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct validity and responsiveness of the Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play. Methods: 125 young children (10.72, SD 2.62 months) with mild, moderate, and severe motor delays were…

Despite agreement about the importance of executive function (EF) for children's early math achievement, its treatment in correlational studies reflects a lack of agreement about the theoretical connection between the two. It remains unclear whether the association between EF and math operates through a latent EF construct or specific EF…

This article examined longitudinal relations among socioeconomic risk, maternal language input, child vocabulary, and child executive function in a large sample (N =1,009) recruited for a prospective longitudinal study. Two measures of maternal language input derived from a parent- child picture book task, vocabulary diversity and language…

Objectives: Although research has established a strong link between socioeconomic status (SES) and health in Western settings, comparable work in China lags behind. Similarly, studies showing a unique relationship for subjective social status (SSS) and health above and beyond SES have yet to be tested in China. The present study addresses these…

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationship between early motor skills, such as sitting, and the development of problem-solving skills in children with motor delays. Methods: Motor (Gross Motor Function Measure) and problem-solving (Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play) skills of 134 children 7-16 months adjusted age…

It is often claimed that theory of mind is facilitated by pretend play. This perspective piece challenges that view, proposing instead that theory of mind might be useful for driving social pretend play, rather than the reverse. There is a fundamental similarity between pretend play and theory of mind. Pretend play involves projecting a different…

It is often claimed that theory of mind is facilitated by pretend play. This perspective piece challenges that view, proposing instead that theory of mind might be useful for driving social pretend play, rather than the reverse. There is a fundamental similarity between pretend play and theory of mind. Pretend play involves projecting a different…

This study explored transactional associations among visuomotor integration, attention, fine motor coordination, and mathematics skills in a diverse sample of one hundred thirty-five 5-year-olds (kindergarteners) and one hundred nineteen 6-year-olds (first graders) in the United States who were followed over the course of 2 school years.…

Most children experience some form of grouping in the classroom every day. Understanding how teachers make grouping decisions and their impacts on children's social development can shed light on effective teacher practices for promoting positive social dynamics in the classroom. This study examined the influence of teachers' grouping strategies on…

There has been little research connecting underlying emotion processes (e.g., emotion regulation) to frequent behavior problems in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the stability of emotion regulation and its relationship with other aspects of child functioning. Participants included 108 children with ASD,…

Linking relations described in text with relations in visualizations is often difficult. We used eye tracking to measure the optimal way to extract such relations in graphs, college students, and young children (6- and 8-year-olds). Participants compared relational statements ("Are there more blueberries than oranges?") with simple…

We examined parents' satisfaction with multiple aspects of their children's individualized education programs (IEPs). Parents (n= 142) raising children ages 4 to 8 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reported their satisfaction with four aspects of their children's IEPs: (a) content of the IEP document, (b) services provided, (c)…