This study aimed to explore whether early developmental abilities are related to future executive function (EF) in children with motor delays. Fourteen children with motor delays (Mean age = 10.76, SD = 2.55) were included from a larger study. Object interaction and developmental outcomes (Bayley-III) were evaluated at baseline and 3, 6, and 12…

A growing number of toddlers are attending childcare institutions as part of China's establishment of its infant-toddler childcare service system. However, there is limited empirical evidence available regarding the quality of these childcare services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the quality of teacher - child interactions in…

To examine whether children's acquisition of perspective-marking language supports development in their ability to reason about mental states, we conducted a longitudinal study testing whether proficiency with complement clauses around age 3 explained variance in false-belief reasoning 6 months later. Forty-five English-speaking 2- and 3-year-olds…

This study examined the roles of parental gender and context in the communicative functions of parents' child-directed speech. Seventy three families with toddlers participated in the study. Dyadic and triadic parent-toddler interactions were videotaped during structured play activities. Results indicated context-dependent variability in parents'…

Mirror self-recognition (MSR) is considered to be the benchmark of objective self-awareness--the ability to think about oneself. Cross-cultural research showed that there are systematic differences in toddlers' MSR abilities between 18 and 24 months. Understanding whether these differences result from systematic variation in early social…

This paper discusses collaborative research between academics and practitioners to enhance the level of play engagement in nine groups of toddlers in The Netherlands. Researchers and pedagogic counsellors designed a structured experiment to test the effects of four pedagogical strategies: confronting the children with a rearranged activity corner;…

Engaging in prosocial behavior is costly. By selectively directing prosocial behavior toward individuals with a high probability of reciprocating, we are able to offset these potential costs and maintain a sustainable prosocial system. Often, we determine whether an individual will make a good prosocial partner through the observation of their…

PlayWisely is a novel approach to early learning designed to target the positive development of a wide range of cognitive and physical/motor abilities by stimulating the rapidly developing brain of very young children (from 4 months to 3 years of age). The current pilot study represents a first step toward providing an evidence base for the…

For infants and young children who are identified as deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), best practice principles indicate the provision of family-centered early intervention (FCEI). However, factors such as geographical inaccessibility and workforce shortages can limit families' access to FCEI in their local area. One strategy for overcoming these…

Children's early interactions with adults during the first three years of life are instrumental in the development of their language, cognitive, and social skills, which in turn are strongly related to later achievement and success into adolescence. Early childhood professionals working with infants and toddlers need to understand children's…

Background: The Language Development Survey (LDS) and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI) are two parental report forms that have been productive in providing data on early child language during the past 30 years. The instruments have been used both in studies relating to typical developing children and in screening…

This study described infant/toddler teachers' (N = 106) perceptions of stress intensity and exhaustion (emotional, physical, mental) intensity. We examined the associations between stress and exhaustion and teachers' reports of stress sources and coping strategy use. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), teachers from Early Head Start…

Parents of infants and toddlers have expressed concerns that their children's social-emotional development has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to gather information about parents' and caregivers' perspectives of experiences in a remote early childhood music class that incorporated explicit…

In successful communication, it is critical to have the ability to identify what a speaker is referring to from previously mentioned information. This ability requires the identification of the topic initially introduced by lexical forms and its continuity in discourse expressed by anaphora such as null and pronominal forms in the subsequent…

Research Findings: The Quality of Care for Infants and Toddlers (QCIT) observational measure was designed to address the need for a valid and reliable measure of the quality of caregiver-child interactions that could be used in both center-based and family child care (FCC) settings, and with diverse populations. Results from a psychometric field…