Joint attention (JA) initiation is defined in cognitive-developmental psychology as a child's actions that verify or produce simultaneous attending by that child and an adult to some object or event in the environment so that both may experience the object or event together. This paper presents a contingency analysis of gaze shift in JA…

The family and the home are both critical education institutions where children begin learning before they start school, and where they spend much of their time after they start school. It therefore follows that improving a child's home environment to make it more conducive to learning is critical to improving the educational achievement of the…

As the first title in the new series, "New Directions in Communication Disorders Research: Integrative Approaches", this volume discusses a unique phenomenon in cognitive science, single-word reading, which is an essential element in successful reading competence. Single-word reading is an interdisciplinary area of research that incorporates…

We use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to investigate national patterns addressing (a) who repeats kindergarten, and (b) the subsequent cognitive effects of this event. Using OLS regression techniques, we investigate 1st-time kindergartners who are promoted, 1st-time kindergartners who are retained, and children who are already repeating…

In this article we explore educators' use of Jean Piaget's theories concerning cognitive development to refute proposed social studies standards in Arizona. We describe the work of Piaget as well as the National Association for the Education of Young Children's developmentally appropriate practices as they apply to primary-grade children's…

How can language and literacy enhance emotional development in the very young (birth to three years)? Although all children begin to understand their world through language and social interaction, literacy differs from culture to culture. It can range from oral stories of personal and cultural relevance to songs of ethnic pride and includes a…

The new call for a universal preschool system is prompting an important policy debate across California. How preschooling is expanded and improved with limited public resources depends on several key issues. The hopeful ideals of "preschool for all"--with children beginning school ready to learn--spark enthusiasm and broaden public will.…

Mother-child play of 12-month-old infants (N = 130) from maltreating (N = 78) and nonmaltreating (N = 52) families was analyzed as a context that integrates infants' developing social and cognitive skills. Play was coded from semistructured and unstructured play paradigms. No group differences were found in infants' play maturity. Infants from…

In our clinical practice, we have attempted to use a positive psychology approach in working with people with schizophrenia and youths with behavioral disorders. We present three clinical applications that use a positive psychology approach with these populations: group treatment with persons with schizophrenia; individual cognitive stimulation…

This study investigates features of interaction between children that are linked to the development of understanding of mind, and asks whether these associations are evident across different relationships. Comparisons are made of the naturally occurring conversations in a sample of 43 4-year-old children, each observed with a sibling and with a…

This report is part of a long-term research on the construction of mathematical meanings through the interaction with various technologies. The research involved a set of teaching experiments based on body motion with sensors and calculators at different school levels, from kindergarten to secondary school. Here I refer to the one developed in a…

In accordance with McLoyd's model of African American children's development, we examined the linkages among family income, maternal psychological distress, marital conflict, parenting, and children's outcomes in early and middle childhood, using a sample of 591 African American children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Income…

The explosion in the rate of multiple births has led to new questions about how adequately prepared parents are for the demands of raising triplets and the implications for the healthy development of the infants. The authors examined the relationship between mothering, infant social behavior, and cognitive development in a longitudinal study of 23…

This longitudinal study investigated the relative contributions of infant temperament, maternal sensitivity, and psychosocial risk to individual differences in preschool children's cognitive development. It also examined specific moderating effects between predictors as well as the specific mediating role of maternal sensitivity in the relation…

This article outlines six primary stages of a child's development. These basic functions show the way mental capacities work together as a team. Cognitive, motor, language, emotional, and social skills act together to help the child learn to deal with the world. Helping a child through these stages and fostering these core capacities requires a…