Understanding mind and emotion: Longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends.

Developmental changes in children's understanding of mind and emotion and their mental-state talk in conversations with friends were examined in a longitudinal study of 50 children (M age at each time point = 3 years 11 months, 4 years 6 months, 5 years 0 months). Significant and related improvements over time were found for both theory-of-mind task performance and affective perspective taking. Associated with these cognitive developments were quantitative and qualitative changes in children's references to mental states in their conversations with friends. Individual differences in theory of mind, emotion understanding, and mental-state talk were strikingly stable over the 13 month period. Although there were no gender differences in children's task performances, girls showed more frequent and more developed mental-state talk than boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A conceptual model for the development of externalizing behavior problems among kindergarten children of alcoholic families: Role of parenting and children's self-regulation.

The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model predicting children's externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten in a sample of children with alcoholic (n = 130) and nonalcoholic (n = 97) parents. The model examined the role of parents' alcohol diagnoses, depression, and antisocial behavior at 12-18 months of child age in predicting parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years of child age. Parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years was hypothesized to predict children's self-regulation at 3 years (effortful control and internalization of rules), which in turn was expected to predict externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten. Structural equation modeling was largely supportive of this conceptual model. Fathers' alcohol diagnosis at 12-18 months was associated with lower maternal and paternal warmth/sensitivity at 2 years. Lower maternal warmth/sensitivity was longitudinally predictive of lower child self-regulation at 3 years, which in turn was longitudinally predictive of higher externalizing behavior problems in kindergarten, after controlling for prior behavior problems. There was a direct association between parents' depression and children's externalizing behavior problems. Results indicate that one pathway to higher externalizing behavior problems among children of alcoholics may be via parenting and self-regulation in the toddler to preschool years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of Recall in 2- to 4-Year-Old Children.

Three studies were carried out to examine early development or recall. Children between 2 years and 9 months and 5 years of age were tested on nine-item lists containing three objects from each of three conceptual categories or nine objects from nine different conceptual categories. Recall was poor, although age differences were observed. There was no evidence of active or deliberate strategy use in either age group, No overt rehearsal was observed, parallel serial position curves indicating a lack of primacy effects were obtained, and there were similar low levels of clustering over the age range studied. There was evidence of semantic category effects on recall of both age groups. All children recalled more items from categorically related than unrelated lists, responded more rapidly when reporting adjacent pairs of related than unrelated items, produced above-chance-level category clustering, and profited from categorical blocking at presentation and categorical cuing at retrieval. Reliable Age × List Type interactions indicated that the presence of category relations was more facilitating to older than younger children. The results were discussed in terms of a nondeliberate, but categorical, nature of very young children's memory, and it was suggested that early improvements in recall may be related to growth in semantic category knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of social competence among children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents: Role of parental psychopathology, parental warmth, and self-regulation.

This study tested a conceptual model predicting children's social competence in a sample of children with alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents. The model examined the role of parents' alcohol diagnoses, depression, and antisocial behavior at 12–18 months of child age in predicting parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years of child age. Parental warmth/sensitivity at 2 years was hypothesized to predict children's self-regulation and externalizing behavior problems at 3 years. Parenting, self-regulation, and behavior problems were expected to predict social competence in kindergarten. Structural equations modeling was supportive of this model. Fathers' alcohol diagnosis was associated with lower warmth/sensitivity. Lower maternal warmth/sensitivity at 2 years was predictive of lower child self-regulation at 3 years. Parenting, self-regulation, and externalizing behavior problems were predictive of social competence in kindergarten, although associations varied by reporter (parents or teacher). There was a direct association between fathers' alcohol diagnosis and father reports of social competence, and between fathers' depression and teacher reports of social competence. The study elucidates developmental processes in predicting social competence and the role of fathers' alcoholism and associated risk factors in this process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collateral benefits of the family check-up on early childhood school readiness: Indirect effects of parents' positive behavior support.

The authors examined the longitudinal effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on parents' positive behavior support and children's school readiness competencies in early childhood. It was hypothesized that the FCU would promote language skills and inhibitory control in children at risk for behavior problems as an indirect outcome associated with targeted improvements in parents' positive behavior support. High-risk families in the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program participated in a multisite preventive intervention study (N = 731) with 3 yearly assessments beginning at child age 2 years. Positive behavior support was measured using 4 indicators derived from at-home observations of parent-child interaction during semistructured tasks. Longitudinal structural equation models revealed that parents in families randomly assigned to the FCU showed improvements in positive behavior support from child age 2 to 3, which in turn promoted children's inhibitory control and language development from age 3 to 4, accounting for child gender, ethnicity, and parental education. Findings suggest that a brief, ecological preventive intervention supporting positive parenting practices can indirectly foster key facets of school readiness in children at risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making numbers count: The early development of numerical inferences.

Two experiments examined preschool children's ability to draw inferences about numerosity from correspondences between sets. In Experiment 1, 3- and 4-year-old children made numerical inferences about a hidden set from their own counts of a corresponding visible set and also from numerical information about that set stated by the experimenter. Experiment 2 contrasted a count condition with a move condition, in which children's attention was not explicitly drawn to the numerosity of the visible set. Again, children were able to make numerical inferences as early as 3 years of age. However, differences between the 2 conditions implicate production deficiencies in young children's use of counting as a problem-solving strategy when they are not explicitly told to count. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toddlers' language development: Sex differences within social risk.

Sex differences in the association between environmental risk and language development were examined in a longitudinal study of 54 high-social-risk families. Measures of the environment included information about family stress and coping, opportunities for cognitive and linguistic stimulation, the nature of learning experiences, and the affective quality of the infant–mother relationship. Despite apparently similar family conditions and early experiences, there were significant sex differences favoring girls on observational measures of spontaneous language production at 20 and 30 mo of age. For the group as a whole, sex differences on standardized tests at 24 and 36 mo of age were nonsignificant. In addition, relations between aspects of the learning environment and children's language performance differed for boys and girls, supporting a moderator interpretation of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early language and intelligence development and their relationship to future criminal behavior.

Investigated the relationship between intelligence, measured regularly from the ages of 3 to 17 yrs, and registered criminality in 122 boys in a birth-to-maturity study. Significant negative correlations appeared at several ages, even for intelligence assessed as early as at the age of 3 yrs. The hypothesis was advanced that the early language development of the Ss would be negatively associated with future criminality. Information on language development, obtained by applying the Brunet-Lézine psychomotor developmental test for infants, substantiated this hypothesis. Significant correlations with registered criminality appeared for language development at 6, 18, and 24 mo. Further support for the hypothesized link was provided by psychologists' ratings of children's verbal behavior and by maternal reports of their child's speech at ages 3–5 yrs. The role of early language retardation in contributing to later criminality is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of the acquisition of language by two German-speaking children with cochlear implants and of their mothers' speech

The development of language in two children with cochlear implants was analyzed using longitudinal data of videorecorded mother-child interactions. Recordings were made over a period of 14 months for child A and over a period of 3 years for child B. At the beginning of data collection the children were 2;11 and 3;7 respectively. Results reveal substantial differences between the two children and their mothers. Child B was slow in acquiring grammar, with vocalizations and non-linguistic communicative behavior persisting. The child also used language in a labeling function. Child B's MLU (mean length of utterance) never exceeded 2.7 morphemes and his syntax remained rudimentary. Child A had a highly imitative style at the beginning, but then progressed to the spontaneous use of multi-word utterances very quickly, reaching an MLU of 5.6 morphemes in less than 2 years. Child A progressed to correct morphology and a fairly complex syntax. The children's mothers differed with respect to their use of exaggerated intonation patterns, repetitions and expansions, the use of labeling, questions, and directives. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of children's information processing styles and mothers' speech input.     

Early home language use and later vocabulary development.

This longitudinal study examined the association between early patterns of home language use (age 4.5 years) and vocabulary growth (ages 4.5 to 12 years) in English and Spanish for 180 Spanish-speaking language minority learners followed from ages 4.5 to 12 years. Standardized measures of vocabulary were administered to children from ages 4.5 to 12 years, and home language use was assessed via parent survey at study entry. Three predominant home language use patterns were identified: mostly Spanish, equal amounts of Spanish and English, and mostly English. Individual growth modeling results demonstrated initial English vocabulary differences between the three language groups, with the mostly English group outperforming the other two language groups. However, the rate of growth for the equal amounts and mostly Spanish groups surpassed that of the mostly English group; by age 12 years, the gaps among the 3 groups had narrowed, but participants' vocabulary skills remained below national norms. In contrast, students' patterns of Spanish vocabulary growth did not vary, resulting in parallel but widening gaps through age 12 years. Results suggest that early Spanish use in language minority learners' homes, in and of itself, does not interfere with the development of English vocabulary. However, despite their English instructional context, all learners' vocabulary knowledge was below average and the gap compared with national norms persisted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gesture and early bilingual development.

The relationship between speech and gestural proficiency was investigated longitudinally (from 2 years to 3 years 6 months, at 6-month intervals) in 5 French-English bilingual boys with varying proficiency in their 2 languages. Because of their different levels of proficiency in the 2 languages at the same age, these children's data were used to examine the relative contribution of language and cognitive development to gestural development. In terms of rate of gesture production, rate of gesture production with speech, and meaning of gesture and speech, the children used gestures much like adults from 2 years on. In contrast, the use of iconic and beat gestures showed differential development in the children's 2 languages as a function of mean length of utterance. These data suggest that the development of these kinds of gestures may be more closely linked to language development than other kinds (such as points). Reasons why this might be so are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother–infant interaction and the development of individual differences in children's cognitive competence.

Assessed the antecedents of individual differences in children's cognitive/language competence at age 24 mo using multivariate methods at ages 6, 13, and 24 mo in 121 Ss. Assessments included detailed observations of mother–children interaction, standardized tests of child cognitive development (including the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment and the Bayley Mental Scale of Infant Development), and examiner and maternal ratings of child sociability. There were meaningful patterns of continuity in the child and especially mother behavior factors across ages, and mother–child warm, verbal interactions at each age were associated with a composite index of child competence at 24 mo. A path analysis showed that altogether, 40% of the variance in competence outcome was explained by the 4 variables in the model (interaction at 3 ages and SES). The analysis also showed that the original bivariate correlation between interaction at 6 mo and later competence could be explained by continuity in interaction qualities at 6 and 24 mo rather than as a direct effect. However, the 13-mo interaction showed both a direct path to competence and an indirect one via age 24-mo interaction. SES had a modest significant correlation with competence, but in the path analysis this was dissipated in nonsignificant paths to the interaction variables. Partial correlations suggested that child developmental competence and sociability at earlier ages did not mediate the relationships between mother–infant interaction and later child competence. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The significance of children's age in estimating the effect of maternal time use on children's well-being

The women's initiative launched by the United Nations Decade for Women has sparked unresolved controversy over the consequences of mothers' increased participation in economically productive activities on children's well-being. Clearly, in many developing countries, poor mothers face stringent time constraints requiring trade-offs in time allocated to various activities, including child caregiving. However, the impact of these trade-offs on children's well-being remains unclear. The effect of maternal time use on children's nutrition and health status requires more rigorous examination. In particular, the role of children's age in this relationship is critical. Although children's requirement for maternal care varies with factors such as their age (a proxy for stage of psychobiological and sociocultural development), season of year and family size and structure, children's age has not been highlighted in the debate or in the relevant research. This paper documents children's age as a critical factor in the relationship between maternal patterns of time use and the well-being of children 18-30 months of age in peri-urban Egypt. It describes differences in maternal patterns of daily time use according to children's age and illustrates the differential associations between maternal daily activity patterns and children's well-being by children's age. Quantitative data collected on 161 mother-toddler pairs included information on maternal daily time allocation, children's dietary energy intake and diarrheal morbidity, maternal hemoglobin, and household and individual sociodemographics. Data were stratified by children's age at 24 months and were analyzed cross-sectionally using multiple linear and logistic regression. Results indicated that the age of two is critical in Kalama. At this age, toddlers begin to receive less time-intensive care freeing mothers for economic and self production. With respect to children's well-being prior to age two, frequency of feeding was positively related to their energy intake and more time spent in household sanitation activities reduced children's risk of diarrhea (during the diarrhea season). After two years of age, the maternal behaviors measured did not affect children's energy intake; however, children's diarrheal risk was reduced (during the diarrhea season) when mothers held them more and allocated more time to household sanitation year-round. We recommend that other investigators carefully examine the relationships between children's well-being according to developmentally-defined child age intervals and maternal patterns of time use. Results will help to resolve concern over the effect of maternal participation in economically productive activities on children's well-being.     

Infants' joint attention skills predict toddlers' emerging mental state language.

To assess predictive relations between joint attention skills, intention understanding, and mental state vocabulary, 88 children were tested with measures of comprehension of gaze and referential pointing, as well as the production of declarative gestures and the comprehension and production of imperative gestures, at the ages of 7–18 months. Infants' intention-based imitation skills were assessed at 12, 15, and 18 months. At the ages of 24 and 36 months, toddlers' internal state lexicon was evaluated by parents with a German adaptation of the Mental State Language Questionnaire (Olineck & Poulin-Dubois, 2005). Regression analyses revealed that 9-months-olds' comprehension of referential pointing contributed significantly to the prediction of intention-based imitation skills at 15 months, as well as to children's volition and cognition vocabularies at 24 and 36 months, respectively. Moreover, 12-month-olds' comprehension of an imperative motive was shown to selectively predict toddlers' use of volition terms at 24 months. Overall, these results provide empirical evidence for both general and specific developmental relations between preverbal communication skills and mental state language, thus implying developmental continuity within the social domain in the first 3 years of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in preschool children's conceptual strategies when thinking about animate entities and artifacts.

Two-, 3-, and 4-year-old children viewed 10 stimulus sets. Each set contained a sample picture (e.g., a dog), a basic-level taxonomic match (e.g., another dog), a thematic match (e.g., a bone), and an irrelevant match (e.g., a pen). The children were asked to choose a match that "goes with" each sample. Sample pictures were either animate entities or artifacts. The children's choice behavior indicated that a shift occurs between 3 and 4 years of age from a taxonomic bias to a thematic bias and that, at both ages, animate sample stimuli enhance the children's tendency to adopt thematic conceptual strategies. These data are consistent with recent suggestions that thematic thinking presupposes basic-level taxonomic thinking during early conceptual development and that this developmental progression occurs more rapidly in some domains of knowledge than in others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication of oral deaf and normally hearing children at 36 months of age

Eighteen orally educated deaf and 18 normally hearing 36-month-old children were observed in a play session with their mother. Communicative behavior of the child was coded for modality and communicative function. Although the oral deaf children used a normal range of functions, both the quantity and proportions differed from normally hearing children. Whereas the normally hearing 3-year-olds used speech almost exclusively, the deaf children exhibited about equal use of speech, vocalizations, and gestures. Spoken language scores of the deaf children at 5 years of age were best predicted by (a) more frequent use of speech at age 36 months, (b) more frequent use of the Statement function, and (c) relatively infrequent use of the Directive function. It is suggested that some communicative functions are more informative or heuristic than others, and that the early use of these functions is most likely to predict later language competence.     

Learning as a Task or a Virtue: U.S. and Chinese Preschoolers Explain Learning.

The purpose of this study was to examine cultural influences on conceptual orientations of learning in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers. A sample of 188 preschoolers 4-6 years of age provided free-narrative responses to 2 story beginnings about the learning behavior of 2 protagonists, 1 who worked hard and 1 who gave up. Results showed that despite some differences in the younger age groups, children from both cultures valued learning similarly at age 6. However, important cultural differences emerged in children's construals of the learning process. U.S. children showed a heightened awareness of the mind/task attributes of the learner, that is, ability, task attempting, and strategy use. By contrast, Chinese children perceived more the learner's dispositional qualities of diligence, persistence, and concentration. These trends increased as children's age increased. The U.S. findings are interpreted as reflecting the U.S. cultural emphasis on learning as a task, and the Chinese results, as reflecting the Chinese cultural focus on learning as a process of cultivating personal virtue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in visual self-recognition as a function of mother–infant attachment relationship.

Investigated whether individual differences in visual self-recognition are related to infants' early social relations by comparing 37 infants' attachment relationships at 12 mo of age to their visual self-recognition at both 18 and 24 mo of age. Infants and their mothers were observed in a modified strange-situation procedure (M. D. Ainsworth et al, 1978) when the infants were 12 mo old. Infants were seen again at 18 and 24 mo of age in the standard mirror-recognition procedure. Consistent with previous studies, self-recognition behavior increased from 18 to 24 mo of age. Individual differences in early attachment relations were related to later self-recognition. In particular, insecurely attached infants showed a trend toward earlier self-recognition than did securely attached infants. Results are discussed in terms of the relation between attachment and individuation. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschoolers' prosocial responses to their peers' distress.

52 preschoolers' (aged 36–56 mo) spontaneous responses to their crying peers were naturalistically observed, recorded, and analyzed in 3 child-care programs. Individual differences in age, gender, temperament, social competence, child-care experience, and friendship status were examined to understand how these variables shape children's prosocial behavior with peers. Variations in manner of responding were related to children's temperament, friendship status, and positive interactive style with peers. Results suggest that socioemotional functioning with peers and individual characteristics affect children's responses to a peer's distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital behavior and the security of preschooler–parent attachment relationships.

Longitudinal and concurrent relations among positive and negative marital behaviors in 2 contexts and preschoolers' security of attachment were examined for 53 families. At 6 months postpartum, couples were observed in their homes during couple discussion and family play. At 3 years, parents completed the Attachment Q-Set (E. Waters, 1987); marital and parenting behavior was also observed. Interparental hostility during family play at 6 months predicted less secure preschooler–mother attachment. Greater marital conflict at 3 years was associated with less security with mother and father, whereas positive marital engagement at 3 years was associated with more secure child-father attachment. Mothers' parenting partially explained the linkages between marital behavior and child–mother attachment. These results highlight the impact of positive and negative marital behaviors on children's abilities to use their parents as a secure base. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)