The capacity to sustain attention over time develops rapidly over early childhood and is associated with socioemotional and cognitive outcomes. However, sustained attention has largely been studied ...in either shared or independent contexts, leading to gaps in our understanding of how trade-offs between sustained attention to shared versus individual targets may predict later outcomes. We examined this question in a longitudinal sample of 1,290 children (49% female, 43% Black), living in predominately rural, low-income regions, using a naturalistic shared picture book reading task. Children’s sustained attention to individual relative to shared targets during the book reading task was measured at 24 and 35 months. Using latent profile analysis, we identified four developmental profiles of children’s attentional trajectories: three of the profiles differed in the extent that children’ attention shifted toward more socially directed relative to individually directed attention; a fourth profile showed atypical decreases in both socially directed and individually directed attention across development. Importantly, heterogeneity in children’s attentional profiles were associated with differences in executive functions at 48 months of age. Specifically, children who showed greater relative increases in socially directed attention had higher executive functions performance, whereas children with atypical decreases in attention showed substantial deficits in this domain. These findings reveal distinct longitudinal patterns of sustained attention in naturalistic contexts and show that heterogeneity in these patterns are robust predictors of subsequent executive functions. This person-centered approach provides novel insights into how quantitative and qualitative changes in attention may impact executive functions development and may help identify children at risk for nonnormative trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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The strong association of early language skills to later reading ability suggests that supporting the development of these skills in children who enter preschool or kindergarten with below-average ...language abilities may lead to stronger reading skills. Despite this, few evidence-based supplemental language instructional programs exist for school-based implementation. The current study reports on two large-scale randomized trials of combinations of small-group, intensive language-focused instructional component lessons implemented in preschool and kindergarten settings. After screening on two listening comprehension measures, 740 preschool and 870 kindergarten children were randomized to business-as-usual general education or to 18 weeks of instruction that paired two of three possible 9-week component programs. Children were assessed pre- and postinstruction on a battery of proximal, instructionally aligned measures and on standardized language and early literacy measures. Results indicated significant and often sizeable impacts on measures aligned with the content of instruction received. Moderation by order of instructional components and child characteristics provides insight into the overall and specific benefits of early intensive support for language development.
Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis study evaluated the efficacy of small-group language interventions for children in preschool and kindergarten who qualified based on having low or below-average language skills at the beginning of the school year. Results indicated moderate-to-large significant impacts on researcher-developed measures and also significant impacts on some standardized language measures. These findings suggest that children with a range of initial language skills can be responsive to intensive language intervention provided in structured, highly interactive lessons by well-trained paraprofessionals.
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Parental engagement in stimulating activities and support in both formal and informal learning environments are important for early childhood development. However, little is known about how parental ...mental health and beliefs about early childhood development shape such investments. We draw on a sample of young children and their primary caregiver from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( N = 3,000; M age = 34.1 months; 48.5% girls) and examine how parental distress and beliefs predict investments in learning at home and how these, in turn, predict children’s development across multiple domains. We examine these associations separately for infants/toddlers (0–35 months) and preschool-aged children (36–72 months), for whom enrollment in preprimary school is also included as an additional form of parent investment. Results showed different patterns of associations between the two age groups. Specifically, for infants and toddlers, parental distress and beliefs did not predict parent investments or child outcomes, but both access to learning materials and cognitive stimulation at home positively predicted child development in every domain. For preschool-aged children, parental beliefs positively predicted hours in preschool, and parental distress negatively predicted the availability of learning materials and cognitive stimulation at home; these three forms of parent investments each positively predicted children’s outcomes across all developmental domains. Collectively, these findings deepen our understanding of parent factors that shape children’s formal and informal learning experiences and point to several important areas for future research to more fully understand early childhood development in low-resource contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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Young children learn language from their caregivers, family members, and friends. However, with few exceptions, contemporary developmental scientists have studied language input and language learning ...through the lens of the primary caregiver and the nuclear family, rather than the infants’ broader communities. In many communities—and increasingly in the United States—nonnuclear family structures are common, and extended kin, fictive kin, and intergenerational relationships are relied upon for child care. Understanding children’s relationships within kinship networks can allow for more inclusive depictions of children’s social interactions and their language experiences. We drew upon methods used by researchers studying social networks to assess U.S. infants’ and toddlers’ network composition. Results showed that young children with a greater number of close relationships (but not those with larger networks overall) had larger vocabularies, after controlling for age and socioeconomic status. These findings suggest that distributed models of child-rearing are an influential factor in early language growth and call for increased attention to social networks for understanding children’s developmental trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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This study aimed to identify profiles of young children’s early home environment and explore their association with development in motor, inhibitory control, language, and emotional competence ...skills. The sample included 2,158 children (51.4% male), 35.47 months old on average. Four home environment profiles emerged: high support and high discipline (HS-HD), high support and low discipline (HS-LD), average support and average discipline (AS-AD), and low support and low discipline (LS-LD). Notably, children from higher socioeconomic status (SES) families were more likely to be associated with HS-HD and HS-LD profiles. Girls exhibited a higher likelihood of belonging to the HS-LD profile. Utilizing regression analyses, children showed the highest motor, inhibitory control, language, and emotional competence development when they were in the HS-LD home environment profile. A concerning finding is that high discipline from parents was negatively associated with children’s development, despite providing a high-quality physical environment. The text highlights the positive implications of providing a high-quality home learning environment and offers constructive recommendations for improving practice and future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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Widespread concerns about the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC), and the desire for better child outcomes, have led to a focus on improving teachers’ professional development (PD) ...as a cost-effective means of improving ECEC quality. However, most randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PD programs have taken place in areas with advanced educational systems. This study aims to fill this research gap by adapting (both educationally and culturally) an evidence-based PD program entitled “Leadership for Learning” in the Chinese context where there is a paucity of effective PD programs. Ninety-five classrooms, 202 teachers, and 547 children (3–5 years old) from 24 kindergartens (12 control, 12 intervention) participated in this RCT program which was designed to improve teachers’ teaching quality and child development. The results of the multilevel modeling indicated that the intervention was positively predictive of classroom quality and child developmental outcomes in literacy and executive function skills. As one of the first studies exploring PD effectiveness in China, this study has several meaningful implications for PD intervention as well as cross-cultural research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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Counterfactual outcomes (i.e., events that did not happen) vary in their closeness to reality. Whereas some are viewed as distant possibilities, others are seen as close, barely unrealized outcomes. ...Here, we investigate whether young children distinguish between two kinds of counterfactual closeness: one based on proximity and the other on ability. In two experiments, 4–7-year-olds (total N = 304) saw stories where two agents lost a race against a competitor. One of the losing racers finished just behind the winner (proximity), whereas the other losing racer was much faster than the winner (ability) but lost after tripping on a stone. When asked which racer almost won the race, children across the full age range predominantly picked the racer who finished in second place, close behind the winner. However, when asked which racer easily could have won and when asked which racer should have won, children at older ages picked the fastest racer. Together, these findings show that children’s understanding of proximity-based closeness is already present at Age 4, earlier than children were previously thought to grasp counterfactual closeness. Moreover, the findings suggest young children have differentiated concepts of counterfactual closeness and do not conflate the two kinds of closeness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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Parent-child coregulation, thought to support children's burgeoning regulatory capacities, is the process by which parents and their children regulate one another through their goal-oriented behavior ...and expressed affect. Two particular coregulation patterns-dyadic contingency and dyadic flexibility-appear beneficial in early childhood, but their role in the typical development of self-regulation is not yet clear. The present study examined whether dynamic parent-child patterns of dyadic contingency and dyadic flexibility in both affect and goal-oriented behavior (e.g., discipline, compliance) predicted multiple components of preschoolers' self-regulation. Mother-child dyads (N = 100) completed structured and unstructured dyadic tasks in the laboratory at age 3, and mothers completed child self-regulation measures at age 4. Findings showed that more flexible and contingent affective parent-child processes, as long as the affective content was primarily positive or neutral, predicted higher levels of self-regulation in early childhood. However, when dyads engaged in more negative affective and behavioral content, higher levels of affective and behavioral contingency and behavioral flexibility predicted lower levels of child self-regulation. Findings suggest parent-child coregulation processes play a meaningful role in children's typical regulatory development and that parent-child coregulation patterns can be potentially adaptive or maladaptive for child outcomes depending on the content of the interaction.
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This study aims to describe tahfidz education in early childhood in terms of the perspective of the development and religious spirit of children during the golden age at the Markaz Tahfizh Balita ...(MARTABA) Al-Makki Pekanbaru. This type of research is qualitative research with a Case Study model. The informants of this research were teachers and students at MARTABA Al-Makki Pekanbaru. The data collection techniques use in-depth interviews (depth interviews) and observation. While the data analysis technique is done by data reduction, data display, and verification. In general, tahfizd learning activities are to form good habits from an early age that can form a religious spirit and stimulate developmental aspects in children. The tahfizd learning program at MARATABA Al-Makki Pekanbaru has facilitated aspects of early childhood development which include; aspects of internalizing moral and religious values, aspects of gross motor development, and aspects of fine motor development, aspects of language development, aspects of cognitive development, and aspects of social-emotional development. In addition to the aspects of psychological development above, the learning program also pays attention to adequate nutritional intake to stimulate children's development. Tahfizh learning is also able to optimize the development of children's religious spirit from an early age. For this reason, tahfidz learning activities for early childhood at MARTABA Al-Makki Pekanbaru can be an example of organizing a tahfidz program for early childhood.
We leveraged nationally representative data from the Panel study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement (N = 3,562) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal study (N = 18,174), to chart the ...development of working memory, indexed via verbal forward and backward digit span task performance, from 3 to 19 years of age. Results revealed nonlinear growth patterns for forward and backward digit span tasks, with the most rapid growth occurring during childhood followed by a brief accelerated period of growth during early adolescence. We also found similar developmental trajectories on digit span task performance for males and females across the U.S. population. Together, this study highlights the relative importance of the childhood period for working memory development and provides researchers with a reference against which to compare the developmental changes of working memory in individual studies. From a practical perspective, clinicians and educators can also use this information to understand important periods of working memory growth using national developmental trends.
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