Infant and Child Development最新文献

The home environment (HE) is one of young children's most proximal and impactful settings. Little research has examined the nature of variability in the HE for children from low-income homes, even as more recent work suggests heterogeneity within economically disadvantaged households. Using a subsample from a larger, longitudinal study, we examined the extent to which differential profiles of the HE of infants from low-income backgrounds could be identified. A latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three profiles of the HE: low responsivity, average HE, and high involvement. These three groups did not differ regarding family characteristics such as parental education, income, or marital status but did differ concerning maternal stress and material support. Specifically, maternal stress and material support were lower in the group with high involvement.

The current study examined the inter-brain coherence (IBC) between 34 dyads of fathers and infants 7–9 months of age using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We specifically focused on father–infant IBC to broaden the empirical base beyond the mother–infant connections, as the former has received limited attention. There were three conditions: a baseline condition and two task conditions when the infant and the adult participant jointly listened to maternal storytelling in Cantonese in infant-directed speech (IDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS). Father–infant IBC was compared with stranger–infant IBC in the same experimental settings. Our results found that father–infant IBC was greater in the baseline and ADS conditions but not in the IDS condition, compared to stranger–infant IBC. Further, stranger–infant dyads showed greater IBC in the IDS condition than in the ADS condition, with no significance in father–infant IBC between the two speech conditions. These results identified different inter-brain connection mechanisms between the two dyads. The IBC pattern in stranger–infant dyads is driven by neural entrainment to mothers' speech, whereas father–infant IBC is more resistant to mothers' behaviours in the co-presence of both parents.

The development of emotional competence is an important milestone during early childhood. Beyond early experience within the family, the (preschool) classroom is a relevant socialisation context, and both teachers and peers may contribute to children's emotion-related outcomes. Tracking changes in the emotion regulation competence of N = 173 preschool children (age in months: M = 43.3, SD = 6.6, 45% girls) over 6 months, the current study investigated whether and how peers contribute to differences in the development of emotion regulation in preschool classrooms. The research questions were addressed by examining three different kinds of peer groups: Classroom-level peer group, friendship group, and high-status peers (social network centrality). Teachers rated children's emotion regulation competence and empathic co-regulation behaviour—referring to preschoolers' supportive responses to their peers' emotional expressions—at three assessment points. Multilevel growth modelling provided evidence that friendship-group empathic co-regulation (empathy, helping, and comforting behaviour) predicted changes in preschoolers' emotion regulation over time, confirming that friendship groups influence young children's emotional development.

When children are aged around 2 years, many of the early foundations of mathematical skills are developing. Understanding this is important to shed light on theories of mathematical development. Nevertheless, little research has investigated 2-year-olds' early mathematical abilities, with most research focussing on either infants (aged 0–1 years) or pre-schoolers (aged 3–5 years). One possible reason for this lack of research may be the challenges associated with the methods used with this age group. Here, we review the methods used to assess 2-year-olds' basic mathematical skills and identify the gaps and issues with those methods. Our findings indicate several issues, both with individual methods used to test specific skills but also some common challenges applicable across all measures and skills. We discuss the identified issues and highlight a need for more appropriate approaches and for alternative methods of administration to better evaluate 2-year-olds' mathematical skills.

Codeswitching is a common feature of bilingual language practices, yet its impact on word learning is poorly understood. Critically, processing costs associated with codeswitching may extend to learning. Moreover, verbs tend to be more difficult to learn than nouns, and the challenges of learning verbs could compound with processing costs associated with codeswitching. In two Experiments, we taught 4–5-year-old bilingual children verbs (Experiment 1, N = 25, 13 girls, 69% white, 83% Hispanic) and nouns (Experiment 2, N = 29, 12 girls, 72% while, 68% Hispanic) within English-only and Spanish-English codeswitched learning contexts. Children's language ability across Spanish and English was modeled continuously, allowing us to test the impact of language ability on learning. Children learned novel words successfully in both experiments, with no difference between conditions. However, children with higher language ability demonstrated steeper learning rates l in the English-only condition relative to the codeswitched condition in both Experiment 1 (standardized coefficient of 0.19) and Experiment 2 (standardized coefficient of 0.14). Our findings indicate that bilingual children can successfully learn both verbs and nouns in codeswitched contexts but learning is modulated by a child's language skills as well as the number of learning opportunities they have had.

While studies have documented neural correlates of language delay in toddlers with developmental conditions, those at genetic risk for language delay, and those born premature, no studies have examined neural correlates in toddlers exhibiting early language delay without known aetiology. This study examines brain morphometry in toddlers with and without early language delay. To do so, we collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on toddlers with language delay (LD; n = 7, M_age = 19.67 months, 3 female, 2 Hispanic and 4 non-caucasian) and a typically developing (TD; n = 17, M_age = 22.73 months, 8 female, 2 Hispanic and 3 non-caucasian) comparison group. Exploratory analyses examined group differences in total brain volume, cortical thickness and cortical surface area using both a whole-brain and region of interest (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) approach. Results showed no gross brain anatomical differences between groups. However, there were group differences in cortical surface area in the temporal cortex (including Wernicke's area and left middle temporal gyrus, hedges' g = − 0.35) and Broca's area thickness. Results are reported using multiple analytic methods, age matching and exclusion of children later diagnosed with autism. While this exploratory study has a limited sample size, it provides novel findings that can be utilised to guide hypothesis-driven imaging studies on toddler language delay.

To address the need for interventions targeting social emotional development and mental health of young children in South Africa, the Mazi Umntanakho (‘know your child’) digital tool was co-designed, and piloted with caregivers and 3–5-year-old children involved in home visiting programmes promoting early childhood development. The aim of this study was to qualitatively evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this tool in four urban and four rural low-income communities, from the perspective of home visitors and caregivers. Focus groups were conducted with home visitors (n = 117) and caregivers (n = 72). Issues relating to the feasibility of implementing the tool included timing of using the tool, technical and social implementation challenges, WhatsApp as the preferred platform, and participants' recommendations for future implementation. Overall, the tool was acceptable for home visitors and caregivers and was perceived to have a positive impact on children's development, and the relationship between caregivers and children.

Cognitive tasks are seldom evaluated on their ability to provide valid and reliable measurements of the construct they intend to measure. This scarcity of psychometric evaluations makes it challenging to evaluate replications of experimental effects and to relate performance in cognitive tasks to other constructs of interest. In developmental science, these issues are compounded by the often-imprecise measures derived from tasks completed by child participants. Here, we focus on the spatial arrangement method when used to assess semantic structure in children and evaluate its psychometric properties. Using a new analytic approach to capture individual variability in participants' arrangement in this task, we show that the spatial arrangement method has appropriate construct validity (β = 0.40), internal consistency (r² = 0.20), and test–retest reliability (r² = 0.41; ICC = 0.56) when used to evaluate semantic structure in U.S. children (4–9 years of age; N = 200 across 4 datasets). We discuss the implications of these findings for examining semantic structure in children and for strengthening methodological practices in developmental science more broadly.