Child Development Perspectives最新文献

A decade ago, now-seminal work showed that children are strikingly unskilled at simple tool innovation. Since then, a surge of research has replicated these findings across diverse cultures, which has stimulated evocative yet unanswered questions. Humans are celebrated among the animal kingdom for our proclivity to create and use tools and have the most complex and diverse technology on earth. Our capacity for tool use has altered our ecological environments irrevocably. How can we achieve so much, yet tool innovation be such a difficult and late-developing skill for children? In this article, I briefly summarize what we know about the development of tool innovation, then discuss five outstanding questions in the field. With a focus on different empirical and theoretical perspectives, I argue that addressing these questions is crucial for understanding fully the ontogeny of one of humans’ most notable skills.

Smartphone use is ubiquitous in the lives of parents, and an emerging area of research is investigating how parental smartphone use during parent–child interactions affects children’s language outcomes. Findings point toward negative outcomes in language development, but it is less clear what processes affect language outcomes. Gaze following, parental responsiveness, and joint attention are also reduced when parents use their smartphone, and all are critical to language development. In this article, we propose that these factors may mediate the effects of technoference due to parents’ smartphone use on language development in children from birth to 5 years. Because of methodological differences in the limited research conducted on this topic, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about this proposal. We discuss these considerations and suggest directions for the field.

A remarkable amount of perceptual development occurs in the first year after birth. In this article, we spotlight the case of color perception. We outline how within just 6 months, infants go from very limited detection of color as newborns to a more sophisticated perception of color that enables them to make sense of objects and the world around them. We summarize the evidence that by 6 months, infants can perceive the dimensions of color and categorize it, and have at least rudimentary mechanisms to keep color perceptually constant despite variation in illumination. In addition, infants’ sensitivity to color relates to statistical regularities of color in natural scenes. We illustrate the contribution of these findings to understanding the development of perceptual skills such as discrimination, categorization, and constancy. We also discuss the relevance of the findings for broader questions about perceptual development and identify directions for research.

The goodness-of-fit model, which proposes that developmental outcomes result from combinations of environmental and children’s factors, has contributed substantially to the recognition of person × environment processes. However, which pattern of person × environment interactions characterizes this model remains unclear, making it difficult to test or compare with other models (e.g., the differential-susceptibility model). In this article, we offer solutions for these issues. We propose that a contrastive effect pattern best summarizes both goodness of fit and poorness of fit. We outline methodological considerations that help determine whether a person × environment interaction supports the goodness-of-fit model. We then discuss how person × environment interactions can be culturally specific, an issue aligned with the goodness-of-fit model but not other models. We illustrate cultural specificities in socialization-by-temperament interactions with evidence from different sociocultural groups. These theoretical and methodological refinements help clarify how person × environment interactions can be interpreted and predicted by the goodness-of-fit model.

How does language shape mathematical development? In this article, we consider this question by reviewing findings from cross-sectional and longitudinal research. In this literature, we find that differences in the structures of languages and individual variations in language ability are associated with mathematical performance in both obvious and unexpected ways. We then consider the causal nature of these relations, with a focus on experimental studies that have tested the effects of language instruction on mathematical outcomes. Findings from this work show that certain forms of language instruction meaningfully improve performance in several mathematical domains, providing strong evidence of a linguistic pathway in mathematical development. However, much additional research is needed to understand how language instruction may be integrated optimally into math education. We conclude with recommendations for research.

In the United States, the long-term effects of early childhood programs have been given particular weight in research on early childhood education and in policy debates about the value of prekindergarten. Many research teams were building the evidence base on U.S. early childhood programs to inform that discussion when studies were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we describe the theoretical and practical risks the COVID-19 pandemic poses for longitudinal studies of preschool intervention programs. We also discuss the potential opportunities the crisis offers by introducing new variation in postprogram experiences for addressing new questions. The article intersects the resilience and disaster literatures with theoretical frameworks for the persistence of preschool effects. We conclude with recommendations for how longitudinal studies of cohorts affected by COVID-19 can enhance our understanding of the mechanisms behind the persistence of preschool effects.

In this article, we identify approaches for understanding more thoroughly the academic and social experiences of homeschooled students. The growth of the homeschooling movement in the United States, questions about the need for additional regulation, and the importance of high-quality education for children motivate this scholarly effort. We begin by defining homeschooling and outlining why it is a topic worthy of study. Next, we describe who is homeschooled, motivations for homeschooling, and ways parents engage in homeschooling. Preliminary evidence suggests that homeschoolers perform equal to or better than their conventionally schooled peers on measures of achievement and socioemotional functioning, but methodological limitations, especially selection effects, make it premature to draw definitive conclusions. Throughout the article, we offer suggestions for advancing knowledge on homeschooling.

Neglect is the most prevalent form of maltreatment, but it has been understudied relative to abuse. Additionally, developmental outcomes associated with early maternal withdrawal have been understudied relative to outcomes associated with harsh treatment. However, a large body of studies on rodents has documented the causal effect of low maternal care on altered stress responses in offspring. Other evidence from human studies links early maternal withdrawal to clinical levels of neglect. Studies of both rodents and humans suggest that, rather than the aversive responses (e.g., fight, flight, freeze) modeled in relation to threat of attack or harsh treatment, early maternal withdrawal is associated with increased calling and contact seeking to mothers. Moreover, two longitudinal studies indicate that early maternal withdrawal, but not negative-intrusive interaction, contributes to adolescent borderline psychopathology. The field needs prospective studies with well-operationalized constructs of maternal withdrawal to delineate the distinct developmental pathways that may be associated with neglect.

Developmental change emerges from dynamic interactions among networks of neural activity, behavior systems, and experience-dependent processes. A developmental cascades framework captures the sequential, multilevel, cross-domain nature of human development and is ideal for demonstrating how interconnected systems have far-reaching effects in typical and atypical development. Neurodevelopmental disorders represent an intriguing application of this framework. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is complex and heterogeneous, with biological and behavioral features that cut across multiple developmental domains, including those that are motor, cognitive, sensory, and bioregulatory. Mapping developmental cascades in ASD can be transformational in elucidating how seemingly unrelated behaviors (e.g., those emerging at different points in development and occurring in multiple domains) are part of an interconnected neurodevelopmental pathway. In this article, we review evidence for specific developmental cascades implicated in ASD and suggest that theoretical and empirical advances in etiology and change mechanisms can be accelerated using a developmental cascades framework.