Despite policy and theoretical support for mixed-age classrooms in early childhood, research examining associations between age-mixing and children's outcomes is inconclusive and warrants further investigation, particularly in preschools serving children who are at risk for poor adjustment to formal schooling. One recent study conducted in…

Young-for-grade students have been shown to receive lower grades and have a higher likelihood of retention compared to their oldest peers upon kindergarten entry. Our study of 1474 economically disadvantaged first-time kindergarteners investigates if preschool attendance may ameliorate some of the risks potentially associated with being…

This study documented the consistency of child engagement across two settings, toddler child care classrooms and mother-child dyadic play. One hundred twelve children, aged 14-36 months (M = 25.17, SD = 6.06), randomly selected from 30 toddler child care classrooms from the district of Porto, Portugal, participated. Levels of engagement were…

Attachment is the emotional bond between children and their caregivers (parents or otherwise). Infants and young children usually have more than one selective attachment, and all of these attachment relationships, including those between children and teachers, have important effects on cognitive and social development. Secure attachment to a…

This study examined the extent to which mothers' trust toward the classroom teacher of their child in first grade is related to observed teaching practices in Finland and Estonia. Sixty-six teachers (32 in Finland, 34 in Estonia) were observed using the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM; Stipek & Byler, 2004). Mothers in Finland…

Recent research has shown that parents, through conversations during shared book reading, play a pivotal role in promoting children's social cognition, particularly their theory of mind (ToM). This study compared mothers' mental-state discourse during two kinds of interactions with their children--storybook reading and wordless storybook telling.…

Two studies from English-speaking samples investigated the methodologically difficult question of whether the later reading achievement of children learning to read earlier or later differs. Children (n = 287) from predominantly state-funded schools were selected and they differed in whether the reading instruction age (RIA) was either five or…

This study examined the joint effects of home environment and center-based child care quality on children's language, communication, and early literacy development, while also considering prior developmental level. Participants were 95 children (46 boys), assessed as toddlers (mean age = 26.33 months; Time 1) and preschoolers (mean age = 68.71…

The study examined the efficacy of an intervention designed to promote parents' and preschoolers' references to storybooks' plot and socio-cognitive themes during shared reading within a sample of 58 families from low-SES background. All parents were given four books, one new book weekly, and were instructed to read each book four times per week…

A key factor identified in friendship formation and stability is similarity. Homophily of externalizing problems has been reported frequently, but less attention has been directed at homophily of internalizing problems. Whether young children who are friends resemble each other in their internalizing problems is thus largely unknown. In order to…

The urban-rural continuum provides unique contexts for development. Differences in access to resources and childrearing norms and practices in urban, suburban, and rural areas may be linked to disparities in early achievement. Yet, few studies examine associations between urbanicity and children's early academic skills. Using nationally…

The Arnett Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS) has been widely used in research studies to measure the quality of caregiver-child interactions. The scale was modeled on a well-established theory of parenting, but there are few psychometric studies of its validity. We applied factor analyses and item response theory methods to assess the psychometric…

Although mother-child attachment has been shown to predict cognitive performance, there has been a lack of attention to the mediating mechanisms that explain these associations. In the present study, we investigated relations of early mother-child attachment and cognitive performance in middle childhood (the latter in terms of both academic…

The purpose of this study was to determine effects of the Joint Attention Mediated Learning (JAML) intervention on acquisition of joint attention and other early social communication competencies for toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-three parents and their toddlers were randomly assigned to JAML or a control condition.…

The present research explored how mothers' own childhood experiences are linked to their perceptions of their children's sleep regulation. It focused on collective sleeping; a practice used in the past in the Israeli kibbutz, and used a quasi-experimental research design to examine whether mothers who were raised in collective sleeping…