The authors explore children's symbolic play that involves themes of fear and darkness, and they investigate the nature of children's binary oppositions, particularly between self and other. Their account is based on a year-long qualitative study they conducted with seven children, four to ten years of age. They observed the children engage with…

Visual motor integration (VMI) is considered a key predictor of adaptive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, information regarding the VMI characteristics of children with ASD is scarce because existing assessment methods have focused on outcome measures while neglecting process measures due to the high failure…

The problem to be addressed by this study is to discover the effectiveness of early art education exposure in reaching student academic and social achievement through the eyes of early childhood educators. The concept of art integration has experienced many theoretical changes in relation to educating children in early education. It has been…

Preventative parent-coaching programs can improve early interaction quality, language skills, and academic outcomes for children experiencing economic adversity. Using a community-based participatory research framework, we piloted Duet, a preventative, parent-implemented, early language intervention. We assigned home visitors to provide Duet or…

Background: There are no psychometrically validated instruments available to measure motor skills of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). In this study, the construct validity and reliability (Rho) of the Motor Development List for children with PIMD (MDL-PIMD), a proxy-reported measure, was investigated. Methods:…

Observational studies have shown that caregiver sensitivity predicts child language skills. These studies, however, have entirely relied on between-family designs (single parent-child dyad per family), which cannot rule out the contribution of shared family confounds (e.g., genetics, books in home). The current study investigates whether observed…

Children have a robust social preference for people similar to them, like those who share their language, accent, and race. In the present research, we show that this preference can diminish when children consider who they want to learn about. Across three experiments, 4- to 6-year-olds (total N = 160; 74 female, 86 male, from the Waterloo region…

Entry of children to primary schools in India marks a sudden shift in the pedagogical approach as play-based pedagogy gives way to formal instruction. This paper argues that children's play motives do not subside when they enter school, rather play takes a more mature form and represents a strong linkage between their thought and reality. The…

Purpose: This mixed-method, collaborative study investigated parents' perceptions of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning through use of STEM kits specifically designed for in-home use by parents and preschool-age children. Design/methodology/approach: Parents with a child attending a community-based childhood…

Because of the condition of limited gross motor learning, especially in basic movements based on the play method for children aged (5-6 years) is the main problem in this study. This study aims to develop a learning model for non-locomotor, locomotor and manipulative basic movements as an effort to improve basic movement skills in students and…

It is well established that parenting influences child behavior at home, but less is known about the associations between parenting and teacher reports of child behavior at school, an environment more distal from the home context. This study investigated the presence of authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved parenting styles (PS)…

Purpose: Comparative data of autism-sensitive standardized measures of emotion regulation and lability, describing percentage change over time for populations of young autistic children, are currently publicly unavailable. We propose publication of such data as a support for future therapeutic intervention studies. Methods: We generate and present…

Sleep problems are prevalent among autistic children and children with Rare Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders (RGND). Behavioral interventions are commonly used to treat sleep problems, with most involving extinction. While effective, the occurrence of a response burst (i.e., temporary worsening of the behavior) can result in a temporary…

Exchanges of help between children are common and often have positive consequences. But not all help is equally beneficial, for example because some help does not provide an opportunity to practice and develop skills. Here I examine whether young children might perpetuate competence-based inequality by providing incompetent peers with less…

Using data from the Applied Problems subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement (Woodcock & Johnson, 1989/1990, "Woodcock-Johnson psycho-educational battery-revised. Allen, TX: DLM Teaching Resources") administered to 1,364 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early…