Advances in Child Development and Behavior最新文献

In this chapter, we highlight research and practice considerations related to the science of reading. First, we provide a review of five cognitive-linguistic skills/constructs that are important for early literacy assessment and instruction across diverse contexts. These skills include pure copying, delayed copying, vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and word reading. We discuss how research on assessment of these skills across languages and scripts facilitates early identification of children at-risk for reading and spelling difficulties and provides ideas and guidance for instruction. The second section of this chapter focuses on optimizing online literacy assessment and teaching while decreasing barriers to access (i.e., cost, accessibility) prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic brought with it new challenges and considerations for research and practice when the sudden pivot to an online modality was necessary. Finally, we highlight our shared interests and efforts related to the science of reading movement in the US. A brief overview of the science of reading movement in Indiana, our current context, is provided, in addition to observations of considerations that must be addressed when states move to implementing science of reading legislation. A shared excitement in and commitment to promoting research-aligned practices and informing legislation on assessment and instruction in science-based reading and writing from multiple disciplinary perspectives (i.e., developmental psychology, speech and hearing sciences, and education) fuels our efforts in advancing research and practice in the science of reading and writing.

Research on reading and reading intervention has benefited from studies that have employed cognitive neuroscience tools. These efforts have established the brain basis of reading disability (RD) and have shown plasticity in the underlying neural systems for reading as children gain proficiency through instruction or intervention. Most of this work has utilized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to reveal differences in functional activation (regional blood flow) during reading between typically developing (TD) and RD readers and/or to look at pre-post intervention change in this activation. While this work has revealed which regions of the brain are involved in reading and how regional activation changes in response to intervention, it is limited in its ability to reveal differences or changes in the temporal dynamics of neural function. Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs), which can measure these temporal dynamics, have also been used to explore individual differences in reading as well as reading intervention-associated changes, albeit to a more limited extent. These studies have also revealed differences in the neurobiology of RD and TD readers and changes in the neural signal following intervention. In this chapter, we provide a systematic review of studies that have utilized EEG or ERPs to investigate reading intervention associated changes in neural function. While studies differ in their interventions and ERP components of interest, they reveal a general pattern of reading improvement and ERP component change from pre to post-intervention suggesting plasticity in the neural systems that support reading.

The current chapter reviews 25 years of research on the so-called consonant bias in lexical processing, according to which consonants, rather than vowels, are most relevant to build the lexicon. The evidence so far suggests the C-bias might be prevalent in adulthood, though more work is needed on tone languages that might change this view. The findings from developmental studies offer a more nuanced approach, showing important crosslinguistic differences in the timing of acquisition of asymmetrical processing of consonants and vowels in lexically-related processes, and in the direction of the bias observed. This suggests that the bias is acquired on the basis of phonological and lexical cues. We propose a new model for the acquisition of these biases, the Sound-of-Words model, that could be used to guide further research on this issue.

This manuscript examines how home visiting by educators aligns with and informs culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy (CR-SP) through the lens of developmental theory. Drawing on a synthesis of multiple qualitative studies, we analyze evidence of home visiting's influence on four dimensions of CR-SP: teachers' beliefs, dispositions, instructional practices, and integration of family and community knowledge. We find the strongest alignment between home visiting and teacher beliefs, including enhanced self-reflection, cultural competence, and asset-based thinking. While evidence of impact on responsive instructional practices is emerging, findings show limited influence on teachers' sociopolitical consciousness, curriculum adaptation, or integration of family knowledge into classroom environments. To guide our analysis, we apply asset-based educational frameworks alongside developmental theories, including Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, and developmental systems theory. This interdisciplinary approach highlights home visiting as a potentially powerful relational and developmental bridge between families and schools, while also underscoring the need for structural supports-such as targeted professional learning, reflection tools, and policy guidance-to realize its full promise. We conclude with implications for theory, research, and practice, calling for more robust and longitudinal inquiry into how home visiting can support equity-driven, developmentally aligned teaching across varied educational contexts.

A hallmark of preschool and kindergarten classrooms are manual production tasks, including handwriting, drawing, building, and other arts and crafts activities produced manually with the hands. This chapter explores the potential mechanisms through which early manual production activities lay a solid foundation to support learning throughout the lifespan. First, we present behavioral research that explores the use of production tasks in preschool and kindergarten classrooms as early precursors to writing in the later elementary school years when writing becomes a critical element of lessons across multiple academic domains. Second, we present neuroimaging research on the brain correlates of handwriting and drawing in pre-reading children and literate adults that, together, suggest that these production tasks are supported by sensorimotor brain connections in childhood that develop into the sensorimotor brain connections observed in adulthood. Finally, we discuss the foundational role of production tasks in early childhood by synthesizing the behavioral and neuroimaging research, concluding that manual production tasks may leave behind sensorimotor brain changes that lead to better learning in the future. We end by discussing the need for more research on the effects of production activities for early writing development and other long-term educational outcomes.

In this chapter, we summarize theoretical and empirical work on the development of ability concepts in children. We first examine the form of children's basic concept of ability, asking whether it undergoes major differentiation during development or whether, instead, a near adult-like ability concept is available early on. We then ask when in development children's ability beliefs begin to exhibit coherence and motivational force. The body of evidence reviewed here points to previously unnoticed sophistication, depth, and coherence in young children's ability concepts. We close with a discussion of how theoretical and empirical attention to early ability concepts might advance our understanding of motivational processes in early childhood, as well as offer insights into how to optimize these processes.

Among refugee children and youth, successful adaptation to life in a receiving country requires the acquisition of language and literacy skills in the language of school instruction (the children's L2), as well as maintenance of the heritage language (L1). In the current study involving a small sample of Syrian refugee families (n = 4) resettled in Canada for 3 years, we employed a mixed methods approach to achieve two objectives. First, through semi-structured interviews, we examined child experiences and practices with respect to L2 learning, as well as parental attitudes and practices with respect to L1 maintenance. Secondly, we examined child outcomes on key literacy skills (vocabulary, word reading, reading comprehension, narrative competence) in English and Arabic over a 1-year period to monitor progress from a quantitative perspective. Our child interview results suggested the importance of peer and teacher support in acquiring the L2 and revealed persistent difficulties in achieving proficiency in English. Our quantitative results suggested that, overall, the children were progressing in terms of individual scores but were struggling to close the gap in performance relative to English monolingual children. Progress was also noted in Arabic over time despite a lack of formal Arabic instruction.

The ability to integrate information from the auditory and visual sensory systems, also referred to as audiovisual integration (and as synchronization), is important for reading fluency. Several studies have pointed to atypical synchronization of the auditory and visual systems in individuals with reading difficulties, which in turn may help to explain their dysfluent reading and have been supported by neuroimaging evidence. This inefficient synchronization between the modalities has also been thought to be attributed to top-down (executive functions) and bottom-up (print characteristics) processes. Interestingly, a rhythmic reading training manipulation seems to be effective in enhancing this audiovisual integration (or synchronization) by triggering executive functions in affected readers and improving their reading fluency. Here we discuss the theories that underlie audiovisual integration (or synchronization), executive functions, the connections to reading fluency, and provide an overview of the literature related to neuroimaging of visual versus auditory-based rhythmic reading training.

The present chapter explores the processes of acquisition and development of arithmetic problem-solving strategies in school-age children, focusing on how the interplay of individual and contextual factors fosters proficiency and flexibility. Individual factors include domain-specific competencies such as number knowledge and arithmetic fluency, alongside domain-general processes like working memory and metacognition, which underpin strategy selection, planning, and execution. These factors are analyzed from a developmental perspective to illustrate their impact at different age periods. The contextual influences on arithmetic development are framed through Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, emphasizing interactions within family, school, and broader societal environments. Within the microsystem level, we highlight the roles of parents, siblings, teachers, and peers, with special attention to how socioeconomic factors shape access to resources and educational opportunities. At the macrosystem level, this chapter examines curricular approaches, particularly contrasting traditional efficiency-based instructions with flexible strategy-based methods. Emerging practices, such as Number Talks, are discussed as instructional practices aimed to promote conceptual understanding and diverse problem-solving strategies. Combining insights from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and educational practices, the chapter underscores the complexity of arithmetic strategy development and the need for interdisciplinary research. By identifying key influences and providing examples of effective instructional approaches, this chapter aims to systematize the available evidence regarding how arithmetic skills emerge and develop, bridging gaps between theory and practice to inform educational policies.

Learning to read changes children's neural organization for spoken language processing and creates new circuits that facilitate reading. How does the brain develop to support literacy in young bilinguals? To answer this question, we need to consider the formation of neural networks for word, sentence, and text-level processing in bilingual learners. Research on the development of the reading brain has predominantly focused on monolingual children, while bilingual children remain understudied in neuroimaging research. The lack of bilingualism studies often stems from assumptions of additional complexity due to socio-cultural and crosslinguistic influences. However, studying the brain bases of bilingual children contributes to our general understanding of the plasticity of neural networks; it also provides key insights that uniquely stem from examining the bilingual brain. First, bilingual language proficiency allows us to uncover how different levels of spoken and reading skills influence brain development across a broader empirical base. Second, language specificity effects in bilinguals allow same-language comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals as well as cross-linguistic comparisons of bilinguals to other bilinguals. Third, crosslinguistic effects enable within-child investigation between the bilingual's two languages. As an added value, the by-products from these three research areas yield persuasive evidence that overrides frequent misconceptions about child bilingualism. Altogether, research on the bilingual brain advances general knowledge of neural development and provides the literacy field with a greater understanding of the assets that bilingual children bring to learning.