High-quality communicative interactions between caregivers and children provide a foundation for children's social and cognitive skills. Although most studies examining these types of interactions focus on child language outcomes, this paper takes another tack. It examines whether communicative, dyadic interactions might also relate to child…

Previous studies have found correlations between parent input and child language outcomes, providing prima facie evidence for a causal relation. However, this could also reflect the effects of shared genes. The present study removed this genetic confound by measuring English vocabulary growth in 29 preschool-aged children (21 girls) aged…

The aim of the study is to examine the symbolic play behaviours of the child and mother at home and to determine how the mother participated when playing with her child. The study included 19 mothers and their children with 24-36 months old children from Turkey. The symbolic play that the mother and child played together in their home environment…

This study on mother-child interactions is in line with Sigel's theoretical approach to distancing. The current study aimed at analyzing the distancing postures used by mothers with their young child in school-like tasks, according to their level of education and children's sex. The main hypothesis was that mothers with higher levels of education…

This longitudinal multiple-case study research focused on the scaffolding strategies that two Israeli deaf mothers use to boost their young hearing children's engagement in reading interactions. Despite being significant to language learning, few studies have examined the dialogic reading practices of deaf-signing mothers. The study shows that…

Childcare services are widely used by families and thereby exert an important influence on many young children. Yet, little research has examined whether childcare may impact the development of child executive functioning (EF), one of the pillars of cognitive development in early childhood. Furthermore, despite persisting hypotheses that childcare…

Background: To document whether the sociocognitive peculiarities of people with Down Syndrome impact the construction of attachment at different ages, a systematic review of the literature was carried out. Method: This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and MetaAnalyses, was conducted on three databases: psycINFO,…

Measures of parasympathetic regulation, such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), predict executive function outcomes, including inhibitory control, across childhood. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia augmentation tends to be associated with more maladaptive outcomes, compared to RSA suppression, but the literature regarding RSA profiles and…

This multi-method study examined mothers' and fathers' cognitive stimulation during parent--child interactions and toddlers' moral regulation (assessed via parent reports) as predictors of their executive functioning skills approximately 2½ years later. Forty children (23 girls and 17 boys) and their parents participated in both timepoints.…

This study explored child behaviours that enable mothers to perceive their child's minds. We administered the Mind Perception Questionnaire to 216 women with children aged between 0 and 24 months and 221 working women without children. Participants responded with mind perceptions for various entities, including for their children (a 0--2-year-old…

Children learn math concepts long before they enter school. Across all cultures, children are exposed to number and spatial language to varying degrees during everyday home routines. Yet most studies of math talk occur in the lab and target non-Hispanic, English-speaking families. We expanded inquiry to the spontaneous math language (i.e., number…

Purpose: To investigate the language environments experienced by preterm-born infants, this study compared the linguistic and interactive features of parent--infant conversations involving 2-year-old preterm- and term-born infants. The study also explored how mother-infant and father-infant conversations may be differentially affected by…

Researchers and practitioners need robust measurement tools for evaluating knowledge of child development to better support parents and their children during pregnancy and the transition to parenthood. We addressed this need by evaluating the psychometric properties of the Domains of Development Instrument (DoDI) for measuring knowledge of…

Globally, malnutrition is an issue that has never been overcome, even after a series of efforts by experts, which have never been impressive. The world's malnutrition burden remains unsatisfactory since malnutrition is solely responsible for more illnesses than other reasons. Malnutrition continues to be a significant problem in Malaysia. The most…

To address the variability of naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention outcomes, the current study sought to isolate the effects of the instructional strategies of caregiver-mediated naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions. In this comparative efficacy trial, mothers of 111 autistic children (18-48 months) were randomized to…