An emphasis on scribbles and drawing as important brain-building behavior makes this book's Neuroconstructive theory of child development and Scribbling/Drawing/Writing practice unique. A child's brain builds itself in response to genetics, DNA codes, and the environment. One of the pre-determined ways a child's brain naturally builds itself is by…

In a mere 3 decades, infant mental health has grown from an intriguing but obscure clinical approach to young children into a broad-based, multidisciplinary effort to enhance the development and well-being of young children and families through research, practice, and policy. The authors review some of the original premises of infant mental health…

Schooling in the U.S. is increasingly understood through the lenses of science and accountability. From the National Research Council's Scientific Research in Education (SRE) to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), colleges and schools have faced a marked increase (or steady reinforcement) in practices which conform to principles of scientific…

In 2 experiments, the interplay of action perception and action production was investigated in 6-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, infants received 2 versions of a means-end task in counterbalanced order. In the action perception version, a preferential looking paradigm in which infants were shown an actor performing means-end behavior with an…

Five experiments examined 79 newborns' ability to discriminate and categorize a spatial relation, defined by the left-right spatial position of a blinking object-target with respect to a vertical landmark-bar. Three-day-old infants discriminated the up versus low position of an object located on the same side of the landmark-bar (Experiment 1) and…

This phenomenological research investigated what fifteen preschool educators have come to know about children's self-regulation and emotion regulation development, and how we can better enable them to communicate with parents about their children's development. The data sources included over 100 pages of transcripts, field notes and journal…

The arithmetical performance of typically achieving 5- to 7-year-olds (N=29) was measured at four 6-month intervals. The same seven tasks were used at each time point: exact calculation, story problems, approximate arithmetic, place value, calculation principles, forced retrieval, and written problems. Although group analysis showed mostly linear…

Methodological issues relevant to magnetic resonance imaging studies of brain anatomy are discussed along with the findings on the neuroanatomic changes during childhood and adolescence. The development of the brain is also discussed.

The hierarchical competing systems model (HCSM) provides a framework for understanding the emergence and early development of executive function--the cognitive processes underlying the conscious control of behavior--in the context of search for hidden objects. According to this model, behavior is determined by the joint influence of a…

To determine whether children retain a preference for a previously accurate informant only in the short term or for long-term use, 3- and 4-year-old children were tested in two experiments. In both experiments, children were given accuracy information about two informants and were subsequently tested for their selective trust in the two informants…

Two experiments demonstrate that 14- to 18-month-old toddlers can adaptively change how they categorize a set of objects within a single session, and that this ability is related to vocabulary size. In both experiments, toddlers were presented with a sequential touching task with objects that could be categorized either according to some…

Cerebral folate deficiency (CFD) is associated with low levels of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with normal folate levels in the plasma and red blood cells. The onset of symptoms caused by the deficiency of folates in the brain is at around 4 to 6 months of age. This is followed by delayed development, with deceleration…

This study evaluated the phenomenon of autistic regression using population-based data. The sample comprised 285 children who met the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) case definition within an ongoing surveillance program. Results indicated that children with a previously documented ASD diagnosis had higher rates of autistic regression than children…

Twin studies are well known for their value in quantifying the contribution of genes to population variation in behaviors and personality traits. Twin studies also provide a unique opportunity to untangle the contribution of environmental experiences to emotional and behavioral development. This is particularly true when examining monozygotic (MZ)…

James L. Hymes, Jr., wrote prolifically from the 1930s through the 1980s on the need for adults to understand and regard children's socio-emotional needs. In the belief that the foundation for true education is relationship-based, this article highlights Hymes's respect for children and examines the relevance of his regard for humanity for today's…