Considering that most educators think it is essential to help children attain meaningful, emotionally satisfying lives, teaching should start with developing ways of being that lead to healthy personal development. Teaching mindfulness--practices that focus and calm one's mind--is a key foundation of such development, according to the authors, who…

There is no gainsaying the fact that Early Childhood Education generally, and preschool education in particular, is faced with myriad of problems in Nigeria. Scholars, government agencies and nongovernmental organisations have been struggling to find lasting solutions to these problems but the successes recorded have been quite insignificant. This…

Non-marital childbearing is associated with many adverse outcomes for both the mother and the child. Most of these births are unintended. If these unintended births could be reduced it might improve children's prospects by enabling their mothers to get more education, earn more, and wait to have children within marriage. In this brief, the authors…

This qualitative study design utilizes embedded instruction with a constant comparative approach to explore the personal epistemologies of preschool children during peer focus groups. Personal epistemology is an individual's belief about knowledge and knowing, and little is known about early onset of epistemological development. This case study…

We have developed a software-based tool to support a dynamic micro-simulation model of life-course development (to age 13) as an aid to policy makers assessing the impact of policies affecting children. We demonstrate how this approach bridges the research-policy gap by creating: (1) an easy transfer of evidence in a form that policymakers can use…

Handedness for acquiring objects was assessed monthly from 6 to 14 months in 328 infants (182 males). A group based trajectory model identified 3 latent groups with different developmental trajectories: those with an identifiable right preference (38%) or left preference (14%) and those without an identifiable preference (48%) but with a…

The capacity to ascribe goals and intentions to others is a fundamental step in child cognitive development. The aim of the present study was to assess the age at which these capabilities are acquired in typically developing children. Two experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, 4 groups of children (age range = 3 years 2 months-7…

We tested the hypothesis that developmental precursors to aggression are apparent in infancy. Up to three informants rated 301 firstborn infants for early signs of anger, hitting and biting; 279 (93%) were assessed again as toddlers. Informants' ratings were validated by direct observation at both ages. The precursor behaviours were…

In a wide-ranging essay that reviews the major theories of plays and relates them to significant notions of the self, the author addresses the question of why we play. He does so to argue that play is a biologically driven project of self-understanding and self-realization, one that humans--although they also share the experience with other…

Two important and related developments in children between 18 and 24 months of age are the rapid expansion of object name vocabularies and the emergence of an ability to recognize objects from sparse representations of their geometric shapes. In the same period, children also begin to show a preference for planar views (i.e., views of objects held…

Functional independence in toilet training involves muscle control, the awareness and desire to stay dry, and the child's ability to dress themselves. This is a natural and gradual process beginning at home, and Sarah Moudry gives clear and encouraging ideas for supporting this process at school once the child is walking. [This talk was presented…

A survey was distributed to Part C early intervention (EI) service coordination (SC) stakeholders in one state in order to gain a deeper understanding of service coordinator knowledge, skills, and motivators for professional growth and recognition. Survey participants (N = 107), including dedicated service coordinators, program managers, social…

This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue of Prevention Science entitled, "Innovations and Applications of Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) and Related Data Harmonization Procedures in Prevention Science." This special issue includes a collection of original papers from multiple disciplines that apply individual-level data…

The COVID-19 crisis has made delivering early intervention services much more challenging and could exacerbate racial inequities in health and education. But we can only fix what we can measure--so it is vital that states collect and report better data. A survey of state coordinators of early intervention services in fall 2020 focused on Black and…

Just as schools are working to appropriately address K-12 students' unfinished learning caused by the pandemic, early intervention systems are focusing on addressing the missed opportunities the pandemic created for young children and their families. Young children missing these opportunities for early intervention services are potentially at…