Prior theoretical and empirical studies have linked the first 3 years of children's life with later life outcomes. One primary explanation is the critical role these experiences play in children's early brain development (including their early language and cognitive abilities) and subsequent schooling achievement. The current study is a registered…

This study explores the cognitive development of children born to adolescent mothers within South Africa compared to existing reference data, and explores development by child age bands to examine relative levels of development. Cross-sectional analyses present data from 954 adolescents (10-19 years) and their first-born children (0-68 months).…

This article aims to account for the impact of the interactional setting on adults' referential uses by determining if telling a story to/with a child impacts the referential strategies of adults. The long-term goal of this study is to better understand the models of reference in narratives children are exposed to in order to account for young…

Few studies have investigated associations of milestone development in early childhood with intelligence in adulthood in typically developing children. The current study is an extension of 2 previous studies on smaller samples and investigated associations of age at attainment of 32 developmental milestones attained between 0 and 3 years of age…

This study examined the predictive significance of maternal sensitivity in early childhood for electrophysiological responding to and cognitive appraisals of infant crying at midlife in a sample of 73 adults (age = 39 years; 43 females; 58 parents) from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. When listening to an infant crying,…

Assessment of communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is challenging in an unfamiliar clinical environment due to their limited verbal output and inadequate motivation to communicate. To analyze whether the communication sample recorded at clinic represents the child's competence and performance, this study compared…

Most adults experience childhood amnesia: They have very few memories of events prior to 3 to 4 years of age. Nevertheless, some early memories are retained. Multiple factors likely are responsible for the survival of early childhood memories, including external representations such as videos, photographs, and conversations about past experiences,…

The study examines whether speakers exaggerate prosodic cues to syntactic structure when addressing young children. In four experiments, 72 mothers and 48 non-mothers addressed either real 2-4-year old or imaginary children as well as adult confederates using syntactically ambiguous sentences like "Touch the cat with the spoon" intending to convey…

Communication interactions between a child (2 to 5 years of age) and the language users around him were studied by means of a descriptive model which employs interrogation as the index of audit speech patterns. It was hypothesized that adult demands would correlate with a child's language response capability and would constitute a useful index of…

This study examined family stressors among 3-year-old children who were classified as hyperactive (HYP), hyperactive and oppositional defiant (HYP/OD), and non-problem based on mothers' reports of behavior. Children with HYP/OD were found to experience higher levels of family stressors than non-problem children on almost every family stressor…

Examined attitudes toward smoking, current smoking behavior, mental health difficulties, and nicotine addiction among 38 pregnant women, mothers of young children, and their partners in East Surrey, England. Found that 11 female respondents presented symptoms of depression, anxiety, or social dysfunction. Smokers did not differ from ex-smokers or…

Analyses involving 105 biological mothers of children (ages birth to adult) with mild/moderate or severe/profound retardation revealed a low level of use of respite care across groups and no significant difference between groups. The discrepancy between demonstrated need and service utilization is highlighted. (Author/JDD)

This study longitudinally examined attributes of children's social networks as they changed from the preschool period to middle childhood. The social networks of 75 middle class white children at 3, 6, and 9 years of age were assessed for daily contact and number of contacts with kin, nonkin, adults, peers, and same and opposite sex friends. Data…

Examines types and frequency of posttreatment contacts among bereaved parents who participated in an experimental support program. Compares those who reported high versus low social support and high versus low numbers of network confidants on selected outcome and coping variables. Number of network confidants did not significantly affect the…

Disorganized attachment relationships were first formally identified on the basis of the anomalous behavior of some infants during laboratory separations and reunions with the parent. This book presents new research and theory on the topic of attachment disorganization, an area of investigation that is of increasing importance in the study of…