This article gives a reflective account of lessons learned from the experiences of three cognitive developmental scientists conducting psychological research in educational settings. First, we describe and analyze four key cultural distinctions between traditional approaches to research in psychology and education: 1) different structures, 2)…

Children growing up in adversity are well known to be at risk of educational failure. Recent advances in neuroscience indicate that the nature of the caregiving environment in the first weeks and months of life influences the neural architecture of the developing brain, via epigenetic processes. Neglectful caregiving is hypothesised to contribute…

Children in the 21st century are avid users of technology--more so than generations past. This rise in use has led to much attention on the consequences of technology use, and how this impacts children's brains and their socio-emotional, cognitive and physical development. Much of the research in these fields, especially brain-based research, is…

Considerable research has examined interventions that facilitate school readiness skills in young children. One intervention, "Red Light, Purple Light Circle Time Games" (RLPL; Tominey and McClelland, 2011; Schmitt et al., 2015), includes music and movement games that aim to foster self-regulation skills. The present study (N = 157)…

Although executive functioning (EF) difficulties are well documented among children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little is known about real-world measures of EF among adults with ASD. Therefore, this study examined parent-reported real-world EF problems among 35 adults with ASD without intellectual disability and their…

This study examined executive control in sixty-two 5-year-old children who were monolingual or bilingual using behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) measures. All children performed equivalently on simple response inhibition (gift delay), but bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on interference suppression and complex response…

The purpose of this evaluation study was to examine children's longitudinal academic and social outcomes associated with attendance in Georgia's Pre-K Program and to examine the quality of the classrooms attended. This report covers pre-k to 4th grade outcomes collected between the 2013-2014 and 2018-2019 school years as well as a sub-study…

This study examines differences in English language comprehension, reading fluency, and executive functions among Spanish-English bilinguals with reading difficulties. Reading difficulties examined included general reading difficulties, defined by low word reading and reading comprehension, and specific-reading comprehension difficulties, defined…

This study examines differences in English language comprehension, reading fluency, and executive functions among Spanish-English bilinguals with reading difficulties. Reading difficulties examined included general reading difficulties, defined by low word reading and reading comprehension, and specific-reading comprehension difficulties, defined…

Conflict adaptation is key in how children self-regulate and assert cognitive control in a given situation compared with a previous experience. In the current study, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify age-related differences in conflict adaptation. Participants of different ages (5-year-old children, 10-year-old children, and…

In recent years, increased attention has been given to executive function and its relationship to the overall learning and development of young children. Because of this, it is essential that educators have the skills needed to effectively facilitate the development of executive function throughout early childhood. The focus of the current paper…

Between three and five years of age, both emotional competence (EC) and cognitive self-regulation (CSR) have been documented as undergoing remarkable growth and as being strong predictors of concurrent and future positive outcomes. EC encompasses three interrelated and progressively developing skills: emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and…

Little is known about the relation between cognitive processes and imagination and whether this relation differs between neurotypically developing children and children with autism. To address this issue, we administered a cognitive task battery and Karmiloff-Smith's drawing task, which requires children to draw imaginative people and houses. For…

We examined the development of 3 executive function (EF) components--inhibition, updating, and task shifting--over time in monolingual and bilingual school-age children. We tested 41 monolingual and 41 simultaneous bilingual typically developing children (ages 8-12) on nonverbal tasks measuring inhibition (the Flanker task), updating (the Corsi…

Nutrition plays an important role in the development of a child, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where malnutrition is often widespread. The relation between diet, hemoglobin, nutritional status, motor development, stimulation and mental development was examined in a cross-sectional sample of 1,079 children 12-18 months of age…