Competing theories are quite common in education. In spelling research, two general perspectives have emerged over the years: stage theory and repertoire/alternative theories. Exploring these perspectives is important because teachers need to understand how spelling knowledge is critical for learning to read words and to write them. Stage theory…

Purpose: Instances of laryngeal constriction have been noted as a feature of infant vocal development. The purpose of this study was to directly evaluate the developmental occurrence of laryngeal constriction phenomena in infant crying, cooing, and babbling vocalizations. Method: The cry and noncry vocalizations of 20 healthy term-born infants…

Multifinality, equifinality, and fanning are important developmental concepts that emphasize understanding interindividual variability in trajectories over time. However, each concept implies that there are points in a developmental window where interindividual variability is more limited. We illustrate the multifinality concept under…

Using data from the All Our Families study, a longitudinal study of 1992 mother-child dyads in Canada (47.7% female; 81.9% White), we examined the developmental pathways between infant gestures and symbolic actions and communicative skills at age 5. Communicative gestures at age 12 months (e.g., pointing, nodding head "yes"), obtained…

Each language has its unique way to mark grammatical information such as gender, number and tense. For example, English marks number and tense/aspect information with morphological suffixes (e.g., -"s" or -"ed"). These morphological suffixes are crucial for language acquisition as they are the basic building blocks of syntax,…

Modern developmental science is informed by several shared principles and adopts a lifespan approach that goes from infancy to senescence. Increasingly, disciplines outside psychology are adopting research frameworks (e.g., fetal origins, developmental origins of health and disease, first 1000 days) that prioritize prenatal experience as a driver…

The systematic literature review is based on a critical need in the area of values, where there are many uncertainties around universal definitions and drivers of values and traits. The study evaluated definitions, categories, drivers and the interdependence between values and personality traits and behaviours. Over 5,873 studies over a 70-year…

Psychosocial skills are variables related to human behavior, beliefs, and attitudes and shape social interactions, learning processes, academic achievements, and general goal-directed behavior. Psychosocial skills seem particularly important during the adolescent period when large changes in goal setting, learning attitudes, and ability…

This study evaluates the Children's Worlds Psychological Well-Being Scale (CW-PSWBS) within a diverse international cohort of children aged 10 and 12, utilising Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) methodologies. Through a detailed psychometric analysis, this research assesses the CW-PSWBS's structural integrity, focusing on…

This study focused on the importance of developmental assessment in early childhood and the approaches used by teachers in this process. This study examined how teachers conduct assessment processes based on individual differences and child-centered approaches. This study used a mixed-method design and was conducted with 181 preschool teachers in…

New motor skills supply infants with new possibilities for action and have consequences for development in unexpected places. For example, the transition from crawling to walking is accompanied by gains in other abilities--better ways to move, see the world, and engage in social interactions (e.g., Adolph & Tamis-LeMonda, 2014). Do the…

In the concept of early childhood education and care (ECEC), certain foundational principles stand out as vital and of paramount importance for ensuring ideal child development through different stages during the age of 1-5 years. While rooted in extensive research and best practices, the following five principles serve as guiding lights for…

When making decisions, the amount of time remaining matters. When time horizons are long, exploring unknown options can inform later decisions, but when time horizons are short, exploiting known options should be prioritized. While adults and adolescents adapt their exploration in this way, it is unclear when such adaptation emerges and how…

We investigated performance levels on conducting continuous two-footed jumping of preschool children (4 years old) to high school students (16 years old) to clarify the developmental progression and sex differences in motor coordination and agility. In total, 450 children (boys: 227; girls: 223) participated in this study. We set 10 obstacles to…

The architecture of sleep undergoes distinct changes during childhood and early adolescence. Slow wave sleep is involved in memory processing and may support active consolidation of newly encoded representations to support the formation of abstracted "gist" memories. Here, we examined sleep and overnight memory formation in German school…