A comparative developmental framework was used to determine whether mutual gaze is unique to humans and, if not, whether common mechanisms support the development of mutual gaze in chimpanzees and humans. Mother-infant chimpanzees engaged in approximately 17 instances of mutual gaze per hour. Mutual gaze occurred in positive, nonagonistic…

In a first study, we considered whether modelling and the type of an adult's request influenced children's ability at 1;8 and 2;2 to comprehend gestures and replica objects as symbols for familiar objects. In a second study, we evaluated whether modelling and type of request influenced children's ability at 1;8 (N=24) to understand unfamiliar…

The association between nonverbal requesting (as measured by the Early Social Communication Scales) and problem-solving skills (as measured by an object retrieval task) was examined in 16 toddlers who had Down syndrome, 18 toddlers with developmental disabilities of mixed etiologies, and 19 typically developing infants and toddlers. Toddlers with…

This study reflects a social constructivist theoretical framework in which the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a central element, as two teaching approaches, communicative language teaching (CLT) and explicit focus on form (FonF) are examined. Research questions include: Are CLT and explicit FonF conducive to reaching the ZPD? Is there a…

The aim of this study is to find out and analyze the role of gender and age on the perceptions of students to the distant online program offered by Vocational High School in Sakarya University. The research is based on a questionnaire as a mean of data collection method to find out the role of age and gender on the student's perceptions toward…

Women living in poverty are at increased risk for depression, especially during their childbearing years. Whereas poverty has known adverse effects on children's cognitive, social, and communication development, maternal depression may place these children at additional risk of developmental delays. The maternal sensitivity of mothers with and…

A significant number of studies in the literature stress the important role of teacher immediacy behaviors on learners' perceptions of social presence and satisfaction in open and distance learning environments. Yet, those studies were conducted in different open and distance education institutions than the current example of which unique…

The linguistic and cognitive profiles of five deaf adults with a sign language disorder were compared with those of matched deaf controls. The test involved a battery of sign language tests, a signed narrative discourse task and a neuropsychological test protocol administered in sign language. Spatial syntax and facial processing were examined in…

Response to joint attention (RJA) is impaired in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is pivotal to social and communication development. Response to joint attention was examined at 14 and 24 months in 51 children at high risk for autism (siblings of children with autism). Outcome groups at age 3 years included ASD (n = 16),…

Humans are adapted to spontaneously transfer relevant cultural knowledge to conspecifics and to fast-learn the contents of such teaching through a human-specific social learning system called "pedagogy" ( Csibra & Gergely, 2006). Pedagogical knowledge transfer is triggered by specific communicative cues (such as eye-contact, contingent reactivity,…

The development of visual interaction between mother and infant has received much attention in developmental psychology, not only in humans, but also in non-human primates. Recently, comparative developmental approaches have investigated whether the mechanisms that underlie these behaviors are common in primates. In the present study, we focused…

The study investigated ten early childhood teachers' perceptions of their relationships with 120 children (mean age = 4 years 3 months), of whom 41 children spoke English as an additional language (EAL: mean age = 4 years 2 months). The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) was employed to elicit teachers' perceptions of their relationships in…

From birth, infants prefer to look at faces that engage them in direct eye contact. In adults, direct gaze is known to modulate the processing of faces, including the recognition of individuals. In the present study, we investigate whether direction of gaze has any effect on face recognition in four-month-old infants. Four-month infants were shown…

This study examined the interaction effect of nonverbal immediacy and expected instructional technology use on students' initial reports of instructor credibility. Participants included 549 college students who were randomly assigned to one of eight scenarios depicting first-day class sessions across four levels of technology use and two levels of…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how learners of Japanese as a second language (n=16) and Japanese native speakers (n=17) interpret a Japanese refusal gesture, the so-called Hand Fan, to observe how these interpretations are accompanied by similar manual gestures, and to see how participants perceive its comprehensibility. Results…