This study aimed to determine if a sample of children currently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) would have shown motor milestone delays before age three as compared to typically developing children. Given delays in motor skills, the study also strived to determine which specific skills might be delayed. Parents of 44 children who…

Many countries face a growing debate on the balance between ensuring children's safety and allowing children to play in physically and emotionally stimulating and challenging environments. This study is theoretically and conceptually situated within this debate, focusing on how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners perceive the…

Research Findings: Research on the effect of experience on the structure and function of the brain across the lifespan pertains directly to the concerns of professionals involved with children's early development and education. This paper briefly reviews (a) the role of experience in shaping the developing brain, (b) individual adaptation to the…

To chart the developmental path of children's attribution of pride to others, we presented children (4 years 0 month to 11 years 11 months of age, N = 108) with video clips of head-and-face, body posture, and multi-cue (both head-and-face and body posture simultaneously) expressions that adults consider to convey pride. Across age groups, 4- and…

This paper presents a study of learning experiences in peer conflicts among two- and three-year-olds in Dutch daycare centres. Data were collected from individual sampling of 96 children during their free play. As in earlier studies, the results we obtained showed that three-year-olds used fewer unilateral strategies and more bilateral strategies…

Much of what gets in the way of learning in elementary, middle, and high schools has to do with lessons missed, skills undeveloped, and experiences in the world that have shaped the early development of the brain. Neuroscience tells people that early experience, even experience in the womb, is the soil in which the young brain grows and that early…

Early learning standards have been articulated in an effort to improve and create cohesion between and within informal and formal learning environments for young children. To fulfill these goals, early learning standards need to be implemented in a manner that is: (1) tailored to the variable nature of early childhood development, (2) adapted for…

In May 2011, the Council for Professional Recognition and the contemporary ballet troupe the Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) combined their passion for community outreach by bringing TMP dancers to perform for young children who are hospitalized in the Washington, D.C., area. The Council for Professional Recognition, which administers the Child…

Sleep is an important aspect of a child's early development and is essential to family well-being. During their first 3 years, infants and toddlers spend more than 50% of their lives sleeping. However, concerns about sleep and sleep problems are among the most common issues brought to the attention of pediatricians. Although sleep is one of the…

Infant brain development is a dynamic process dependent upon endogenous and exogenous stimulation and a supportive environment. A critical period of brain and neurosensory development occurs during the third trimester and into the "fourth" trimester (first three months of life). Disruption, damage, or deprivation in the infant's social and…

Childhood gender identity development is reviewed in the context of biological, environmental, cultural, and diagnostic factors. With the upcoming 5th revision of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," the authors offer a critical consideration of childhood gender identity disorder, along with proposed diagnostic changes.…

Background: The capacity to control or regulate one's emotions, cognitions and behavior is central to competent functioning, with limitations in these abilities associated with developmental problems. Parenting appears to influence such self-regulation. Here the differential-susceptibility hypothesis is tested that the more putative "plasticity…

Adults can improve their performance on many perceptual tasks with training, but when does the response to training become mature? To investigate this question, we trained 11-year-olds, 14-year-olds and adults on a basic auditory task (temporal-interval discrimination) using a multiple-session training regimen known to be effective for adults. The…

Joint attention is a skill that involves coordinating the attention of at least two individuals towards an object or event. Although it is seen as a critical skill in early child development, it is frequently absent in children with autism and has been linked to poorer language outcomes for those children. As a result, multiple interventions have…

Across many academic disciplines visualisation and notation systems are used for modelling data and developing theory, but in child development visual models are not widely used; yet researchers and students of developmental difficulties may benefit from a visualisation and notation system which can clearly map developmental outcomes and…