Nearly 5.5 million children in the United States grow up in the shadows of undocumented status. We review the ecological domains of influence in children's and adolescents' lives and briefly consider health, cognitive, socioemotional, educational, and labor market outcomes ripe for study. We also reflect upon the ethical policy…

In this article, the author outlines Plato's notions of play in ancient Greek culture and shows how the philosopher's views on play can be best appreciated against the background of shifting meanings and evaluations of play in classical Greece. Play--in various forms such as word play, ritual, and music--proved central to the development of…

In an article in the January 2013 "Psychological Review," Lillard, Lemer, Hopkins, Dore, Smith, and Palmquist set out to critique the customary claim that pretend play contributes to healthy child development. Following Peter Smith, they distinguished three possibilities for the impact of pretend play. Pretend play, they proposed, might…

Background: Recent research shows that parental sensitivity can explain a significant and unique amount of growth in speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants. In this intervention study we explored the impact of an intervention designed to support parental sensitivity on children's communication development. Aims: This…

Many parents seeking a sound education for their children are looking beyond the narrow boundaries of test scores into the realm of character education. This article explores how parenting approaches can help children live fulfilling lives in the present and also prepare them for future adult roles in personal, social, and professional spheres.…

The article draws on the elements of poststructural theory to explore the mismatches and alignments in language and literacy teaching discourses in urban Fijian primary schools. More specifically, it compares the liberal progressivism of whole language and literacy pedagogies with the culturalism that informs a key reading resource in the teaching…

Individuals with spatial strengths have preferences for visual ideation, holistic reasoning, and innovation. With the emphasis on verbal skills, American schools rarely provide opportunities for children to excel in these areas. Standardized assessments used to judge achievement do not value reflective thinking and innovation; therefore, students…

Purpose: The authors examined the language used by mothers from low-income and rural environments with their infants at ages 6 and 15 months to identify predictors of maternal language use at the 15-month time point. Method: Maternal language use by 82 mothers with their children was documented during book-sharing interactions within the home in a…

One of the major questions of human development is how early experience impacts the course of development years later. Children adopted from institutional care experience varying levels of deprivation in their early life followed by qualitatively better care in an adoptive home, providing a unique opportunity to study the lasting effects of early…

Compared to skilled adult readers, children typically make more fixations that are longer in duration, shorter saccades, and more regressions, thus reading more slowly (Blythe & Joseph, 2011). Recent attempts to understand the reasons for these differences have discovered some similarities (e.g., children and adults target their saccades…

Hachey (2013) aptly describes a recent surge in attention to mathematics for young children. The value of math for children as young as preschool age, however, was discovered before the 21st century. This is presently not a revolution but rather a potentially important step in an evolution of work that began at least a half century ago. Some…

Worksheets hold a special place among the many well-intentioned--yet ineffective--items in the early childhood and elementary toolkit. They are nearly ubiquitous in some elementary classrooms and are even popular in preschools. Parents are encouraged when they see worksheets in their children's backpacks; they see such papers as indicators that…

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with its excellent spatial resolution and ability to visualize networks of neuroanatomical structures involved in complex information processing, has become the dominant technique for the study of brain function and its development. The accessibility of in-vivo pediatric brain-imaging techniques…

Recent changes made by the Council for Professional Recognition to the Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialing program create an opportunity to redesign high school child development programs. On April 1, 2011, the Council for Professional Recognition lifted the age restriction in the CDA credentialing requirements, now allowing students…

Parents of gifted children play a powerful role in expanding their world and helping them discover what they love. When gifted children have impassioned, open-minded, and creative family members, they are free to discover what they love and who they are as people. For gifted learners, curiosity, passion, and interest are absolute essentials.…