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This study aims to examine the reliability and validity of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Revised (HTKS-R) as a measure of self-regulation in Brazilian children aged 3–5. The early childhood period is crucial for laying the foundations for personal, social and cognitive functioning, influencing development throughout life. Self-regulation, a malleable construct, plays a vital role in academic performance and behaviors throughout life. The HTKS-R, a widely used measure, assesses behavioral self-regulation, including cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibitory control. The study included 379 children between the ages of 3 and 5 from a variety of backgrounds. Data were collected using the HTKS-R, a standardized self-report measure that integrates executive functions into a game to assess self-regulation. Exploratory Graphical Analysis (EGA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to analyze the data. The results of the EGA and BootEGA indicated a unidimensional structure for the HTKS-R, confirming its internal consistency and stability. The CFA supported the fit of the unidimensional model, demonstrating the test’s construct validity. The HTKS-R showed factorial invariance between genders. The results suggest that the HTKS-R is a reliable and valid measure of self-regulation in Brazilian children aged 3–5. The applicability of the test in different age groups and environments provides valuable information about children’s self-regulation skills. The study contributes to the literature by validating the HTKS-R in the Brazilian context and highlights its potential for assessing self-regulation in diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with ADHD suffer from impaired attentional, executive, and emotional processing. This study aimed to compare attentional and executive processing using (non)emotional stimuli in children with and without ADHD. Eighty-five children with ADHD and 72 matched typically developing children performed the Stroop, continuous performance, and Go/No-Go tasks using (non)emotional stimuli. Greater performance in selective attention, inhibitory control, and sustained attention was found in emotional stimuli compared to non-emotional stimuli in both groups. Emotional stimuli facilitated attentional and executive functions in children with and without ADHD. Impaired attentional and executive functions in children with ADHD are not valence-sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research with 2-day-old neonates shows that they create mental representations—schemata—for their experiences and that this cognitive ability is hardwired and functional at birth. This research and studies with older infants indicate that both the formation and the expansion of schemata occur through moderate discrepancies, a concept that Jerome Kagan promoted conceptually and through his research. Discrepancy, as distinct from novelty, is insufficiently acknowledged in the literature on schema theory. The schema is both cognitive and affective and develops in unison in a curvilinear pattern with a gradual onset and exponential expansion. Optimal attentiveness and positive affect occur at the peak of formation and to moderate discrepancies. Redundancy beyond the optimal level produces decreasing interest and positive affect and increasing negative affect resulting in boredom and avoidance. These characteristics of schema development are difficult to study with older children and adults. Rumelhart (1980) regarded the schema as the "building block of cognition" and Kagan (2002) called its expansion through moderate discrepancies an "engine of change" implying widespread application for cognition and behavior throughout life. Kagan urged the search for structure (form) as opposed to function in cognition, and the curvilinear pattern of schema development and its characteristics, it is argued, is the structure he sought. Implications and select applications of schema development and expansion are presented. Public Significance Statement: The work in this review underscores that the creation of schemata, mental representations of experiences that develop through moderate discrepancies, is fully functional at birth. The schema expands in a replicable curvilinear pattern with characteristics that determine much of human behavior and is the prototype for cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of theory of mind, anticipated emotions before actual behavior, and consequential emotions following the behavior on sharing and allocation behavior in 4–6-year-old children. In Experiment 1, 95 children were randomly assigned to three conditions (external emotion expectancy condition, internal emotion expectancy condition, and control condition) to explore the role of cognition and emotions in children's sharing and allocation behaviors. Experiment 2 employed a dictator game to further validate the influence of theory of mind and consequential emotions on behavior. The findings indicated that both anticipated and consequential emotions influence sharing behavior, but neither serves as a key predictor of allocation behavior. Theory of mind influences children's sharing behavior and is related to the fairness of allocation. Children with higher levels of theory of mind tend to rate consequential emotions more positively, while those with lower ratings of consequential emotions are more likely to reconsider sharing after reflection. Notably, theory of mind and emotional factors demonstrate distinct motivational effects on children's prosocial sharing and resource allocation, with negative emotions exhibiting a more pronounced impact on decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our aim was to (a) develop a sentence comprehension measure that distinguished between cognitive capacity and syntactic knowledge in schoolage children and (b) examine the relationship between comprehension performance and cognitive variables (working memory capacity and retrieval from long-term memory). Method: We developed and administered a picture selection sentence comprehension task to 122 school-age children representing varied cognitive abilities. We evaluated comprehension accuracy and response time in two syntactically identical conditions but with different cognitive demands incorporated in picture foils--one with low demand using superfluous adjectives and another with high demand using contrastive adjectives. Children also completed tasks measuring working memory capacity and long-term memory retrieval. Results: Comprehension accuracy was significantly lower, and response times were longer in the high-cognitive demand condition compared to the lowdemand condition. Errors frequently involved incorrect attribute selection in the high-demand condition that included contrastive adjectives in picture foils, while reversal errors prevailed in the low-demand condition, which included superfluous adjectives. Accuracy correlated positively with the memory variables. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that after adjusting for comprehension in the low-cognitive demand condition (38.60% variance), memory variables accounted for 4.50% additional variance in the high-demand condition with only working memory capacity as the unique predictor. Conclusions: The significant role of working memory capacity in comprehending sentences with high cognitive demand indicated the recruitment of active attention and verbal rehearsal. Data support the newly developed measure's potential for assessing cognitive skills integral to sentence comprehension in school-age children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the influence of parental cognition, including attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of anxiety, on emotion dysregulation in children with anxiety disorder. A total of 47 clinically anxious children (6–17 years old) and their parents were involved in the current study. The mothers and fathers separately completed a self-reported questionnaire assessing their attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of their children's anxiety, while the children completed a self-report questionnaire assessing emotion dysregulation. Pearson correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used for data analysis. The results indicated that only fathers' higher levels of unhelpful attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of anxiety were positively and significantly associated with greater emotion regulation (ER) difficulties in anxious children. Furthermore, fathers' unhelpful cognitions regarding anxiety uniquely predicted their children's emotion regulation difficulties. These findings highlight the importance of including fathers in preventive and therapeutic interventions in promoting ER abilities in children with anxiety disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To understand intake frequency of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and the consumption habit among primary and secondary students. To explore the relationship of SSBs cognition and behavior, and to provide a basis for reducing students' intake of SSBs. Methods A multi-stage sampling process was employed to select subjects from primary and middle school in Shenzhen. Network questionnaire survey was conducted to collecting information in September and October, 2021. Spearman rank correlations was used to analyze relationships of various types of SSBs consumption frequency. Multivariable linear regression model was used to examine the relationship between SSBs cognition score and consumption frequency score. Hierarchical analysis to explore the interactions. Results A total of 16 840 primary and secondary students aged 6 to 18 years old were included. The prevalence of SSBs consumption at least 3 time/week was 58.9%, the grades 1-3, 4-6 and middle school students were 52.3%, 60.3% and 67.6%. Parents (73.3%) were the main buyers of SSBs, convenience stores (73.7%) were the main places and delicious (77.2%) was the major cause of choices. There was a positive correlation between the intake frequency of different types of SSBs (P < 0.001). The results of multivariate linear regression showed that the higher the cognition was, the lower the intake frequency of SSBs was (β = 0.179, 95%CI: 0.155-0.204). There was a multiplicative interaction between the cognitive score of SSBs and the educational level of parents (P < 0.00l). Conclusion The intake frequency of SSBs was high among primary and middle school students in Shenzhen, and the cognitive level of SSBs was related to the intake frequency and the educational level of parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is increasing use of standardised tools to assist in determining decision-making capacity in adults, there is limited literature evaluating these tools in children/adolescents. The current PRISMA guided systematic review aimed to evaluate standardised capacity assessment tools used in the child/adolescent population, and to examine the relationship between these capacity assessment tools and cognition. Inclusion criteria comprised: (1) validation of a new/existing tool to assess capacity or competence; (2) participants < 18 years; (3) involved validation on normative or non-normative populations; (4) published in English in a peer review journal. Ten studies were included. The majority applied a version of the Macarthur Competence Assessment Tool. Findings suggest capacity assessment tools demonstrate sound psychometric properties, but research into capacity assessment in children is still in its infancy. Limitations include the lack of diagnostic gold standard of capacity and the inconsistent and minimal incorporation of cognitive functioning into standardised capacity assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between multidimensional household poverty and cognitive and behavioural development during the formative years of childhood (from 9 months to 9 years), using nationally representative longitudinal data from Ireland for the cohort of children born in 2007-2008. The results indicate substantial inequalities in Irish children's cognitive and behavioural outcomes at age 9 by multidimensional poverty duration. Children with at least one spell in poverty (out of four interviews) have worse cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Dynamic structural equation models provide evidence in support of a hybrid family investment/family stress model. Although family investment processes account for some of the cumulative effects of childhood poverty on cognitive outcomes, family stress processes help explain the links between poverty and both cognitive and behaviour outcomes in early childhood. Overall, poverty is strongly related to child outcomes over time via the direct effects of current poverty on child outcomes and path dependency in both poverty and child outcomes over time. There are also indirect effects via the two child outcomes reinforcing each other as children grow older (with the effects of behaviour problems dominating those of cognitive ability), even as the parental investment and maternal stress pathways become less pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postcontrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), obtained under anesthesia, is often used to evaluate brain parenchymal and vascular abnormalities in young children, including those with Sturge-Weber syndrome. However, anesthesia and contrast administration may carry risks. We explored the feasibility and potential diagnostic value of a noncontrast, nonsedate MRI acquisition in Sturge-Weber syndrome children and their siblings with a wide range of cognitive and behavioral functioning. Methods: Twenty children (10 with Sturge-Weber syndrome and 10 healthy siblings; age: 0.7-13.5 years) underwent nonsedate 3-tesla (T) brain MRI acquisition with noncontrast sequences (including susceptibility-weighted imaging) prospectively along with neuropsychology assessment. All images were evaluated for quality, and MRI abnormalities identified in the Sturge-Weber syndrome group were compared to those identified on previous clinical pre- and postcontrast MRI. Results: Nineteen participants (95%) completed the MRI with good (n = 18) or adequate (n = 1) quality, including all children with Sturge-Weber syndrome and all 5 children ≤5 years of age. The Sturge-Weber syndrome group had lower cognitive functions than the controls, and both groups had several children with behavioral issues, without an apparent effect on the success and quality of the MR images. Susceptibility-weighted imaging detected key venous vascular abnormalities and calcifications and, along with the other noncontrast sequences, provided diagnostic information comparable to previous clinical MRI performed with contrast administration under anesthesia. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the feasibility and the potential diagnostic value of a nonsedate, noncontrast MRI acquisition protocol in young children including those with cognitive impairment and/or behavioral concerns. This approach can facilitate clinical trials in children where safe serial MRI is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nurses play an integral role in the care of children hospitalised with a serious illness. Although information about diagnostics, treatments, and prognosis are generally conveyed to parents and caregivers of seriously ill children by physicians, nurses spend a significant amount of time at the child's bedside and have an acknowledged role in helping patients and families understand the information that they have been given by a doctor. Hence, the ethical role of the nurse in truth disclosure to children is worth exploring. Methods: A systematic academic database and grey literature search strategy was conducted using CINAHL, Medline Psych Info, and Google Scholar. Keywords used included truth, children, nurse, disclosure, serious illness, and communication. A total of 17 publications of varying types were included in the final data set. Ethical Considerations: As this was a review of the literature, there were no direct human participants. Empirical studies included in the review had received ethics approval. Results: Of the 17 articles included in the review, only one directly reported on the experiences of nurses asked to withhold the truth from patients. Empirical studies were limited to HIV-positive children and children diagnosed with cancer and the dying child. Conclusion: A paucity of literature exploring the experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of nurses with regard to truth-telling to seriously ill children is evident. Little consideration has been given to the role nurses play in communicating medical information to children in a hospital setting. The 17 articles included in the review focused on cancer, and HIV, diagnosis, and end-of-life care. Further research should be undertaken to explore the experiences and attitudes of nurses to clinical information sharing to children hospitalised with a wide range of serious illnesses and in diverse clinical scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although metacognition plays a pivotal role in theoretical accounts of mind wandering, their longitudinal relationships have not yet been investigated during the important developmental period of early adolescence. This study aimed to examine the developmental trajectories of spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering and the dynamic associations between metacognition and two types of mind wandering in early adolescence. A sample of 4302 Chinese students beginning in Grade 4 (47.4% female; initial Mage = 9.84, SDage = 0.47) completed questionnaires on five occasions over 2.5 years. The results showed that deliberate mind wandering, but not spontaneous mind wandering, gradually increased from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Metacognition was negatively related to spontaneous mind wandering but positively related to deliberate mind wandering. These findings provide empirical evidence for theoretical viewpoints from both individual differences and developmental perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text of picture books is a fertile source through which young children learn about mental states. By focusing on English and Japanese books (N = 100; for children aged 3–5 years) as respective representatives of independent and interdependent cultures, the present study examined the cultural differences in the use of two types of mental state language: emotion and cognition. While our findings revealed no cultural differences in emotional word tokens or types, cognitive word tokens and types were higher in English picture books than in Japanese ones. Importantly, English picture books exhibited more self‐oriented mental state references, while Japanese picture books had more other‐oriented mental state references. Our study suggests that mental state references in picture books reflect culture‐specific characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Magnetic resonance imaging in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) children showed altered connectivity, suggesting underlying deficits in networks, which may be related to cognitive outcome. Functional connectivity has been of interest in neurophysiological research with quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) as useful tool for measuring pathology, not detectable by normal EEG. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the EEG interhemispheric coherence (ICoh) in children diagnosed with FASD compared with healthy controls and to relate the results to cognitive scores. Method Analysis of ICoh in 81 FASD children (4-Digit Code) compared with 31 controls. The children underwent cognitive assessment, and EEG was performed and used for analysis. Group comparisons and analysis of covariance interaction models were used to test for differences between FASD and controls but also to look for differences between FASD subgroups. Significant findings were correlated to cognitive scores. Results Lower ICoh was found in the frontal and temporal derivations in the FASD group. When comparing FASD subgroups, children with fetal alcohol syndrome had lower ICoh occipital. Reduced ICoh in the temporal alpha band was correlated with lower performance IQ in the FASD group. Conclusion Our findings could imply hypoconnectivity between the hemispheres with impact on cognition. We suggest that EEG coherence analysis could be a sensitive parameter in the detection of electrophysiological abnormalities in FASD with possible clinical relevance. These results may indicate that QEEG could be used as biomarker for FASD. However, further research is needed to determine the role of QEEG analysis in the diagnosis of FASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol, the most consumed drug in the United States, is associated with various psychological disorders and abnormal personality traits. Despite extensive research on adolescent alcohol consumption, the impact of early alcohol sipping patterns on changes in personality and mental health over time remains unclear. There is also limited information on the latent trajectory of early alcohol sipping, beginning as young as 9–10 years old. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is crucial for cognitive control and response inhibition. However, the role of the dACC remains unclear in the relationship between early alcohol sipping and mental health outcomes and personality traits over time. Methods: Utilizing the large data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (N = 11,686, 52% males, 52% white, mean [SD] age 119 [7.5] months, 9807 unique families, 22 sites), we aim to comprehensively examine the longitudinal impact of early alcohol sipping patterns on psychopathological measures and personality traits in adolescents, filling crucial gaps in the literature. Results: We identified three latent alcohol sipping groups, each demonstrating distinct personality traits and depression score trajectories. Bilateral dACC activation during the stop‐signal task moderated the effect of early alcohol sipping on personality and depression over time. Additionally, bidirectional effects were observed between alcohol sipping and personality traits. Conclusions: This study provides insights into the impact of early alcohol consumption on adolescent development. The key finding of our analysis is that poor response inhibition at baseline, along with increased alcohol sipping behaviors may accelerate the changes in personality traits and depression scores over time as individuals transition from childhood into adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural languages distinguish between telic predicates that denote events leading to an inherent endpoint (e.g., draw a balloon) and atelic predicates that denote events with no inherent endpoint (e.g., draw balloons). Telicity distinctions in many languages are already partly available to 4–5-year-olds. Here, using exclusively nonlinguistic tasks and a sample of English-speaking children, we ask whether young learners use corresponding temporal notions to characterize event structure—that is, whether children represent events in cognition as bounded temporal entities with a specified endpoint or unbounded temporal units that could in principle extend indefinitely. We find that 4–5-year-old children in our sample compute boundedness during an event categorization task (Experiment 1) and distinguish event boundedness from event completion (Experiment 2). Furthermore, 4–5-year-olds in our sample evaluate interruptions at event endpoints versus midpoints differently—but only for events that are construed as bounded, presumably because in such construals, events truly culminate (Experiment 3). We conclude that young children represent events in terms of foundational and abstract temporal properties. These properties could support the acquisition of linguistic aspectual distinctions and further scaffold the way children conceptualize and process their dynamic experiences. Public Significance Statement: The present study shows that 4–5-year-old children classify and interpret events in terms of abstract temporal structure (i.e., the way an event begins, develops, and ends). The sensitivity to event temporal profiles could support the acquisition of temporal distinctions in language and further scaffold the way children conceptualize and process their dynamic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of infant gaze has long been a key tool for understanding the developing mind. However, labor-intensive data collection and processing limit the speed at which this understanding can be advanced. Here, we demonstrate an asynchronous workflow for conducting violation-of-expectation (VoE) experiments, which is fully "hands-off" for the experimenter. We first replicate four classic VoE experiments in a synchronous online setting, and show that VoE can generate highly replicable effects through remote testing. We then confirm the accuracy of a state-of-the-art gaze annotation software, iCatcher+ in a new setting. Third, we train parents to control the experiment flow based on the infant's gaze. Combining all three innovations, we then conduct an asynchronous automated infant-contingent VoE experiment. The hands-off workflow successfully replicates a classic VoE effect: infants look longer at inefficient actions than efficient ones. We compare the resulting effect size and statistical power to the same study run in-lab and synchronously via Zoom. The hands-off workflow significantly reduces the marginal cost and time per participant, enabling larger sample sizes. By enhancing the reproducibility and robustness of findings relying on infant looking, this workflow could help support a cumulative science of infant cognition. Tools to implement the workflow are openly available. Public Significance Statement: Infant looking time experiments have provided critical insights into early cognition, but traditionally very time-consuming and expensive. We run a classical violation-of-expectation experiment through a workflow in which data collection and analysis are automated and compare the results to the same study run in the lab and on Zoom. The automated workflow shows a small reduction in effect size and power, while allowing for significantly larger sample sizes, thereby enabling a more robust developmental science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Carotenoids are plant pigments that accumulate in human tissue (e.g. macula and skin) and can serve as biomarkers for diet quality; however, knowledge on skin and macular carotenoids in relation to cognition in children is limited. This study aimed to address this gap by assessing links between skin and macular carotenoids and academic achievement in school-aged children.Methods: Children 7-12 years old (n = 81) participated in a crosssectional study. Skin and macular carotenoids were measured with reflection spectroscopy and heterochromatic flicker photometry, respectively. Academic achievement was measured using Woodcock-Johnson IV (WJ-IV). Body Mass Index was calculated using height and weight measurements, demographic information was collected using a family demographics and pediatric health history questionnaire, and carotenoid intake was assessed using 7-day diet records.Results: Skin carotenoids were not related to macular pigment (r = 0.08, p = 0.22). Adjusting for age, sex, BMI percentile, household income, and total carotenoid consumption (mg/1000kcal), skin carotenoids were predictive of math (β = 0.27, p = 0.02), broad math (β = 0.36, p < 0.01) and math calculation (β = 0.38, p < 0.01). Skin carotenoids displayed trending relationships with broad reading (β = 0.23, p = 0.05) and reading fluency (β = 0.22, p = 0.07). There were no significant associations between macular pigment and academic achievement (all β's ≤ 0.07, all p's ≥ 0.56).Discussion: Skin carotenoids were positively associated with academic abilities in children, while macular carotenoids did not display this relationship. Future interventions examining prospective effects of changes in carotenoids in different tissues on childhood academic achievement are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive research with developmental samples requires improved methods that support large‐scale, diverse, and open science. This paper offers initial evidence to support the Mobile Toolbox (MTB), a self‐administered remote smartphone‐based cognitive battery, in youth populations, from a pilot sample of 99 children (Mage = 11.79 years; 36% female; 53% White, 33% Black or African American, 9% Asian, and 15% Hispanic). Completion rates (95%–99%), practice performance (96%–100%), internal consistency (0.60–0.98), and correlations with similar NIHTB measures (0.55–0.77) provide the first evidence to support the MTB in a youth sample, although there were some inconsistencies across measures. Preliminary findings provide promising evidence of the MTB in developmental populations, and further studies are encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the current situation of child safety seat use and children's cognition of safe riding in Leshan City, and to provide a basis for the promotion and application of child safety seats in Leshan City. Methods: From November 2021 to February 2022, a total of 500 car-owning families who visited or were hospitalized in the department of pediatrics of our hospital were surveyed by self-filling questionnaire method. Through the investigation of personal situation, family situation, travel habits, use of child safety seat, cognition of safe riding, etc., the influencing factors of possession and use of child safety seat and cognition were analyzed. Results: The ownership rate of car seats was 57.8%, the use rate was 47.6%, and the always use rate was 18.8% among all families with children surveyed. There were no statistically significant differences in the use rate and always use rate of child safety seats among different genders of children, parents' education background, and car ownership price. The use rate and constant use rate of child safety seats in urban households were significantly higher than those in rural areas. When the main driver was the mother, the use rate of child safety seats was higher, and the difference was statistically significant. From the perspective of cognition, the use rate and constant use rate of the child safety seat of parents with correct cognition were 64.5% and 25.7% respectively, while the use rate and constant use rate of the child safety seat of parents with incorrect cognition were only 11.1% and 4.3%, which were significantly lower than those with correct cognition, and the difference was statistically significant. In terms of cognition, 10.4% of parents think it is safe for children to sit in the back seat with adults in their arms, and 9.0% of family members think it is safe for children to sit in the back seat with seat belts alone. Conclusions: At present, the ownership rate, utilization rate, and parents' correct cognition of child safety seats in Leshan City are all at a low level, and there is a lack of regional legal guidance, so the safety situation of children in cars is worrying. To effectively improve the use of child safety seats, the promotion of child safety seats should be promoted from three aspects: improving parents' cognition, forming good traffic habits, and legal guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders, often experience challenges in memory functioning. This literature directs to the imperative implications of working memory (WM), especially in academics. Objective: Given the distinct nature of WM in children and those with neurodevelopmental disorders, our study explored the role of alpha and beta visual entrainment on their WM performances. Methods: NCPs (n = 19) and CPs with ADHD and comorbid conditions of autism (n = 15) participated in our study. We adopted a repeated measure intervention-based design along with alpha-and-beta visual entrainment. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up data were collected using digit span tests. Electroencephalography (EEG) was further recorded during the entrainment phase. We administered statistical and coherence factor analysis to derive our results. Results: We observed that experimental participants performed better following the visual entrainment sessions. We further observed that alpha entrainment affected the digit span scores among clinical participants, whereas beta entrainment affected the performance of the nonclinical group. The entrainment effects additionally varied depending on the participant's clinical symptoms. However, we found negligible long-term entrainment effects on their WM. Conclusion: Our observations explore the probability of individual effects of alpha and beta entrainment sessions on children's WM performances and open an avenue for further research in the clinical domain. The study suggests translating brainwave entrainment into an intervention to promote cognition among children, especially those with neurodevelopmental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of OSA-related cognitive impairment by investigating the altered topology of brain white matter networks in children with OSA. Graph theory was used to examine white matter networks' network topological properties in 46 OSA and 31 non-OSA children. All participants underwent MRI, polysomnography, and cognitive testing. The effects of the obstructive apnea-hypopnea index (OAHI) on topological properties of white matter networks and network properties on cognition were studied using hierarchical linear regression. Mediation analyses were used to explore whether white matter network properties mediated the effects of OAHI on cognition. Children with OSA had significantly higher assortativity than non-OSA children. Furthermore, OAHI was associated with the nodal properties of several brain regions, primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes. The relationship between OAHI and verbal comprehension index was mediated through clustering coefficients in the right temporal pole of the superior temporal gyrus. OSA affects the development of white matter networks in children's brains. Besides, the mediating role of white matter network properties between the OAHI and the verbal comprehension index provided neuroimaging evidence of impaired cognitive function in children with OSA. • The assortativity of OSA children was significantly higher than that of control. • OAHI is related to the topology of white matter networks. • Disturbed WM network topology mediate the OAHI and cognition in children with OSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: In recent years there has been a re-evaluation regarding the clinical implications of temporal lobe arachnoid cysts (temporal arachnoid cysts) in children. These cysts have often been considered asymptomatic, or if symptomatic, only causing focal neurological symptoms or signs of increased intracranial pressure. However, several studies have more recently reported on cognitive symptoms improving after surgery. This study aimed to evaluate if reported cognitive improvement after surgery of temporal arachnoid cysts were stable after five years. Method: Ten consecutive children (m = 14.65; range 12.1–19.415 were assessed cognitively five years after micro-neurosurgical fenestration of a temporal arachnoid cyst. Results were compared to results from their pre- and post-surgical evaluations. Evaluations included the Wechsler-scales, Boston Naming Test (BNT), Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), verbal fluency test (FAS) and Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT). Results: The analysis revealed significant postsurgical improvement compared to baseline on the Wechsler-scales measures of general intelligence (FSIQ), verbal abilities (VCI) and processing speed (PSI). Mean differences after surgery were 8.3 for FSIQ, (p = 0.026), 8.5 for VI (p = <.01) and 9.9 for PSI (p = 0.03). There were no significant differences in mean test results when comparing postsurgical scores with scores five years after surgery, indicating long-term stability of improvements. Conclusion: The results indicate that affected cognitive functions in children with temporal arachnoid cysts improve after surgery and that the improvements remain stable five years later. The improvements and long term stability were also consistent with the experience of both parents and children. The findings provide a strong argument for neurosurgical fenestration of temporal arachnoid cysts in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind wandering occurs when attention becomes disengaged from the here-and-now and directed toward internally generated thoughts; this is often associated with poorer performance on educationally significant tasks. In this study, 8- to 9-year-old children (N = 60) listened to audio stories embedded with intermittent thought probes that were used to determine if participants' thoughts were on or off task. The key objective was to explore the impact of probe-caught mind wandering on both immediate and delayed memory retention. Children reported being off task approximately 24% of the time. Most inattention episodes were classified as task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., 'pure' instances of mind wandering, 9%) or attentional failures due to distractions (9%). Higher frequency of mind wandering was strongly associated with poorer memory recall, and task-unrelated thoughts strongly predicted how well children could recall components of the audio story both immediately after the task and after a 1-week delay. This study is the first to demonstrate the impact of mind wandering on delayed memory retention in children. Results suggest that exploring mind wandering in the foundational years of schooling could provide the necessary empirical foundation for the development of practical interventions geared toward detecting and refocusing lapses of attention in educational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document, titled "Materiality and Cognitive Development: Contemporary Debates and Empirical Studies in Early Childhood," explores the relationship between materiality and cognitive development in early childhood. It discusses the contributions of figures such as Gesell and Gibson who advocated for non-reductionist and anti-dualistic views of cognitive development. The document also highlights the growing interest in materiality and cognition within psychology and presents five theoretical and empirical contributions that examine how interactions between children, adults, and objects shape cognitive development in early childhood. These contributions provide insights into conceptual thinking, motor and cognitive development, social pretend play, and communication in educational settings. The document emphasizes the importance of material culture in human development and its potential to shape experiences and behaviors. [Extracted from the article]

Emerging evidence suggests proton radiation therapy may offer cognitive sparing advantages over photon radiation therapy, yet dosimetry has not been compared previously. The purpose of this study was to examine dosimetric correlates of cognitive outcomes in children with medulloblastoma treated with proton versus photon radiation therapy. In this retrospective, bi-institutional study, dosimetric and cognitive data from 75 patients (39 photon and 36 proton) were analyzed. Doses to brain structures were compared between treatment modalities. Linear mixed-effects models were used to create models of global IQ and cognitive domain scores. The mean dose and dose to 40% of the brain (D40) were 2.7 and 4.1 Gy less among proton-treated patients compared with photon-treated patients (P =.03 and.007, respectively). Mean doses to the left and right hippocampi were 11.2 Gy lower among proton-treated patients (P <.001 for both). Mean doses to the left and right temporal lobes were 6.9 and 7.1 Gy lower with proton treatment, respectively (P <.001 for both). Models of cognition found statistically significant associations between higher mean brain dose and reduced verbal comprehension, increased right temporal lobe D40 with reduced perceptual reasoning, and greater left temporal mean dose with reduced working memory. Higher brain D40 was associated with reduced processing speed and global IQ scores. Proton therapy reduces doses to normal brain structures compared with photon treatment. This leads to reduced cognitive decline after radiation therapy across multiple intellectual endpoints. Proton therapy should be offered to children receiving radiation for medulloblastoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Toddler growth and development are important aspects that are interrelated. Growth is an increase in physical size and body structure while development is an increase in body structure and function in terms of movement, speech, language, socialization, and independence. The first five years of a child's life are a time of building learning, social, and emotional skills.1Children who receive stimulation provide good benefits for growth in body weight and mental development.2However, the growth and development of toddlers can experience disorders. The role of parents in monitoring the growth and development of toddlers is very important because it will influence the child's behavior as an adult. Applying parenting knowledge to children as early as possible is beneficial for the development of children's cognition and socio-emotional behavior.3Parenting is the overall interaction of parents with children that affect children's psychological and social.4Parenting groups are effective for increasing children's development, especially physical growth. The application of parenting techniques can be a method or way to help parents take better care of their children. Objective: This study aimed to know the methods and implementers that can monitor the growth and development of toddlers. Methods: This systematic review refers to the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The databases used to search for articles are Pubmed and Google Scholar. The studies used were assessed using eight criteria from Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE). A total of 10 of 45,388 articles met the inclusion criteria for review. Results: The programs for monitoring the growth and development of toddlers using an application is considered more effective for training family independence in preventing disease. Monitoring the growth and development of toddlers can be carried out by health workers, child development agents, researchers, and parents. Conclusion: Parents can be effective implementers of monitoring because they are the closest people and the first for education place to their children. The use of the application is considered very effective for monitoring the growth and development of toddlers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper investigated cortical thickness and volumetric changes in children to better understand the impact of obstructive sleep disordered breathing (SDB) on the neurodevelopment of specific regions of the brain. We also aimed to investigate how these changes were related to the behavioral and cognitive deficits observed in the condition. Neuroimaging, behavioral, and sleep data were obtained from 30 children (15 non‐snoring controls, 15 referred for assessment of SDB) aged 7 to 17 years. Gyral‐based regions of interest were identified using the Desikan‐Killiany atlas. Student's t‐tests were used to compare regions of interest between the controls and SDB groups. We found that the cortical thickness was significantly greater in the right caudal anterior cingulate and right cuneus regions and there were volumetric increases in the left caudal middle frontal, bilateral rostral anterior cingulate, left, right, and bilateral caudate brain regions in children with SDB compared with controls. Neither cortical thickness nor volumetric changes were associated with behavioral or cognitive measures. The findings of this study indicate disruptions to neural developmental processes occurring in structural regions of the brain; however, these changes appear unrelated to behavioural or cognitive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic pathology that can lead to impaired social functioning that has a negative impact on patients' quality of life. To date, although the hypothesis of impaired social cognition has been proposed as a potential explanation for these difficulties, very few studies have focused on theory of mind in children with NF1. Furthermore, other complex sociocognitive abilities have never been investigated. The aim of the present study was to assess theory of mind, moral reasoning, and social information processing in children with NF1 compared with a control group. We administered the Paediatric Evaluation of Emotions, Relationships and Socialization® to 38 children with NF1 aged between 8 years and 16 years 11 months (mean = 11.4, SD = 2.3) and 43 control children with comparable sociodemographic characteristics. Patients performed significantly worse than controls on moral reasoning and social information processing tests, but there was no significant difference on theory of mind. These results seem to confirm the presence of social cognition difficulties in NF1 that could explain, at least in part, their social difficulties, although not all dimensions are concerned. The differences between the processes we assessed are discussed in relation to the methodologies used to measure them, and raises questions about the complementarity of traditional tools and more ecological assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adverse effects of general anesthesia on the long-term cognition of young children and senior adults have become of concern in recent years. Previously, mechanistic and pathogenic investigations focused on neurons, and little is known about the effect of commonly used intravenous anesthetics such as propofol and ketamine on astrocytes. Recently, astrocyte dysfunction has been implicated in a wide range of age-related brain diseases. In this study, we examined the survival and viability of both young and senescent astrocytes in culture after adding propofol and ketamine to the media at varying strengths. Oxidative stimulus was applied to commercially available fetal cell lines of human astrocytes in vitro to induce morphological changes in cellular senescence. Our results indicate that propofol reduces the survival of young astrocytes as compared to controls, as well as to ketamine. These effects were seen in comparisons of total cell count and at both high and low dose concentrations. High doses of propofol also significantly reduced cell viability compared to those exposed to baseline controls and ketamine. Senescent astrocytes, on the other hand, demonstrated cell count reductions as compared to baseline controls and ketamine when exposed to either DMSO or propofol. The data show differential susceptibility of young astrocytes to propofol than to ketamine. The observed cell count reduction may be related to the adverse effects of propofol on mitochondrial function and free radical production, as described in previous studies. We speculate that ketamine may have a more favorable safety profile in infants and young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly calling for more computational thinking (CT) teaching tools and activities designed for young children. Considering young children's need to draw on their bodily experiences to learn abstract concepts, this study applied the embodied cognition perspective to design an unplugged (non-computer-based) toolkit with activities that foster CT. This study aimed to explore young children's experiences in unplugged activities. Specifically, children's perceptions about the activities were investigated, and their embodied interactions during the activities were analyzed to reveal how CT emerges as an embodied phenomenon. Results indicate that children had positive perceptions about the activities. In addition, young children's algorithmic thinking and debugging emerged most frequently. Furthermore, this study found that CT extended to both the unplugged toolkit and children's bodies and emerged in perception-action loops. This research provides insight into the instructional design of young children's CT and helps researchers understand how young children develop CT from an embodied cognition perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We applied a novel hierarchical Bayesian weighted quantile sum (HBWQS) regression to combine data across 3 study sites to examine associations between prenatal exposure to metals and cognitive functioning in childhood. Data from 326 mother-child dyads enrolled in an ongoing cohort study, the Programming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) Study, based in New York, New York (recruitment in 2013–2020) and Boston, Massachusetts (recruitment 2011–2013), and the First Thousand Days of Life (FTDL) cohort study (recruitment 2012–2019), based in northern Virginia, were used. Arsenic, cadmium, manganese, lead, and antimony were measured in urine collected during pregnancy. Cognitive functioning was assessed in children aged 3–11 years using the National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery. The HBWQS regression showed a negative association between the urinary metal mixture and the Cognition Early Childhood Composite Score in the PRISM New York City (β = −3.67, 95% credible interval (CrI): −7.61, −0.01) and FTDL (β = −3.76, 95% CrI: −7.66, −0.24) samples, with a similar trend in the PRISM Boston sample (β = −3.24, 95% CrI: −6.77, 0.144). We did not detect these associations in traditionally pooled models. HBWQS regression allowed us to account for site heterogeneity and detect associations between prenatal metal-mixture exposure and cognitive outcomes in childhood. Given the ubiquity of metals exposure, interventions aimed at reducing prenatal exposure may improve cognitive outcomes in children. This article is part of a Special Collection on Environmental Epidemiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children (N = 103, 4–9 years, 59 females, 84% White, c. 2019) completed visual processing, visual feature integration (color, luminance, motion), and visual search tasks. Contrast sensitivity and feature search improved with age similarly for luminance and color‐defined targets. Incidental feature integration improved more with age for color‐motion than luminance‐motion. Individual differences in feature search (β =.11) and incidental feature integration (β =.06) mediated age‐related changes in conjunction visual search, an index of visual selective attention. These findings suggest that visual selective attention is best conceptualized as a series of developmental trajectories, within an individual, that vary by an object's defining features. These data have implications for design of educational and interventional strategies intended to maximize attention for learning and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined how mothers' daily parenting cognitions and behaviors implicated by different theoretical perspectives (i.e., relational, learning theory, and cognitive perspectives) associated in linear or nonlinear ways with disruptive child behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined levels of heterogeneity between families in these patterns and whether this heterogeneity could be explained by mother and child characteristics. Mothers of 150 children, 3–8 years; 48% girls; 68% (sub)clinical conduct problems, completed 14 daily assessments (Nassessments = 1,993). Multilevel models indicate significant associations with daily disruptive child behavior for each of the parenting indicators, except for lax discipline. Positive involvement—implicated by relational perspectives—had a consistent, negative cubic association across families. Other associations were quadratic (for parental self-efficacy) or linear (for positive reinforcement, harsh discipline, and nonviolent discipline) and differed between families. Parenting behaviors indicative of learning theory and cognitive perspectives appeared more important in families with more maternal and child mental health problems; learning theory perspectives appeared more important also in families with older children. Our findings indicate the importance of considering nonlinear patterns of parent–child interactions in the context of disruptive behavior, at least in times where families are under pandemic-related stress. The identified between-family variation could potentially provide guidance as to what parenting support is most likely to benefit different families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants' sensitivity to transitional probabilities (TPs) supports language development by facilitating mapping high-TP (HTP) words to meaning, at least up to 18 months of age. Here we tested whether this HTP advantage holds as lexical development progresses, and infants become better at forming word–referent mappings. Two groups of 24-month-olds (N = 64 and all White, tested in the United States) first listened to Italian sentences containing HTP and low-TP (LTP) words. We then used HTP and LTP words, and sequences that violated these statistics, in a mapping task. Infants learned HTP and LTP words equally well. They also learned LTP violations as well as LTP words, but learned HTP words better than HTP violations. Thus, by 2 years of age sensitivity to TPs does not lead to an HTP advantage but rather to poor mapping of violations of HTP word forms. Public Significance Statement: Learning words is a fundamental aspect of early language development. This experiment sheds light on how the mechanisms that support word learning change across time, and suggests that experience with patterns in speech relevant to finding word forms play an important role in mapping word forms to meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of Protestant missionaries engaged in vernacular education in the late nineteenth century. To meet the demands of the new era, Christian church education faced challenges not only in its curriculum design but also in the way it presented new knowledge. Previous studies have focused on church education at the tertiary level while overlooking the elementary level. This article discusses vernacular church education and vernacular textbooks at the elementary level in the late Qing, with specific reference to Youxue baoshen yaoyan 幼學保身要言 (The Human Body for Children). It argues that the demand for spreading new knowledge urged Protestant missionaries to compile vernacular textbooks and present Western knowledge in the local settings. Vernacular church education should be regarded as the precursor of indigenous education proposed by the late Qing Court. The local dialect, Cantonese in this case, bridged the linguistic gap between new terms and children's cognition and became an effective means of presenting new knowledge. Vernacular textbooks had an unparalleled significance in the cultural sphere of dialect writing, since the language of textbooks could drastically influence the writing and reading habits of the young generation and further influence people's attitudes towards dialects and dialect literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To examine the impact of displacement experiences on 0- to 6-year-old children's social-emotional and cognitive development, as well as influencing factors on reported outcomes. Study design: We systematically searched MEDline, Psyndex, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Elsevier, TandF, Oxford Journal of Refugee Studies, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, and Canada's Journal on Refugees for existing literature regarding social-emotional and cognitive outcomes in children directly exposed to forced displacement due to political violence. Results were synthesized in the discussion and displayed using harvest plots. Results: Our search generated 9,791 articles of which 32 were selected for review and evaluation according to NICE criteria. Included studies provided results for 6,878 forcibly displaced children. Measured outcomes were diverse and included areas such as peer relations, prosocial behavior, family functioning, play, intelligence, learning performance, and language development. Repeated exposure to adverse experiences, separation from parents, parental distress, as well as duration and quality of resettlement in the host country were reported as influencing factors in the reviewed studies. Conclusion: As protective factors like secure and stable living conditions help to promote children's development, we call for policies that enhance participation in the welcoming society for refugee families. Early integration with low-threshold access to health and educational facilities can help to mitigate the wide-ranging negative consequences of forced displacement on young children's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) comprises a combination of developmental, cognitive, and behavioral disabilities that occur in children exposed to alcohol prenatally. A higher prevalence of epilepsy and pathological electroencephalographic (EEG) features have also been reported in individuals with FASD. We examined the frequency of epilepsy, pathological EEG findings, and their implications for cognitive and adaptive functioning in children with FASD. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional study of 148 children with FASD who underwent a multidisciplinary assessment and a 120‐min EEG recording. Group comparisons and regression analyses were performed to test the associations between epilepsy and pathological EEG findings, FASD subgroups and neurocognitive test results and adaptive functioning. Results: The frequency of epilepsy was 6%, which compares with 0.7% in Norway overall. Seventeen percent of children without epilepsy had pathological EEG findings. Attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was diagnosed in 64% of the children. Children with epilepsy and/or pathological EEG findings had comparable cognitive and adaptive scores to those with normal EEG. However, children with frontal EEG pathology (without epilepsy) had significantly lower scores on the IQ indices Processing speed and Working memory than FASD children without such findings, irrespective of ADHD comorbidity. Conclusions: There was a greater prevalence of epilepsy among children with FASD than in the general Norwegian population. A greater frequency of EEG pathology was also evident in children without epilepsy, across all FASD subgroups. Irrespective of epilepsy, ADHD comorbidity, and FASD subgroup, children with frontal EEG pathology, despite having a normal total IQ, showed significantly slower processing speed and poorer working memory, which may indicate specific executive function deficits that could affect learning and adaptive functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined transitions in resilience profiles and the role of caregiver risk and protective factors in resilience transition probabilities over 18 months among children involved with the child welfare system, using latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis. The sample included 486 children (48% female, baseline Mage = 3.49). There were three resilience profiles at Time 1 (19.9% low emotional behavioral, 26.1% low cognitive, 54.0% multidomain) and two profiles at Time 2 (18.9% low emotional behavioral, 81.1% multidomain). Caregiver mental health problems were negatively associated with membership in the multidomain resilience group at Time 1. Higher levels of cognitive stimulation were associated with initial and continued membership in the multidomain resilience group. Implications for resilient child development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of research examining what parents in MENA region know about children's brain development and the type of activities they engage their young children at home to promote their cognitive development. This article describes and compares the views and behaviors of parents with children 0–6 years old from Casablanca, Morocco, the US, and the UK on early parental engagement. Seventy-eight Moroccan parents were compared to 1066 US/UK parents. The study utilizes survey data and explores parents' understanding of and support for their children's early cognitive development. Results reveal that more than fifty percent of Moroccan parents do not see themselves as having an impact on brain development until after the first year of their child's life compared to 10% of US parents, in part because they believe that babies' capacity for learning in the earliest years is limited. Yet Moroccan parents reported higher frequencies of teaching their young children letters and numbers and reading a book to them than US parents. These differences in at-home teaching practices may reflect the higher percentage of US/UK children who participate in early learning programs outside their own homes; such programs are not culturally accepted in Morocco. The belief that there is little capacity for learning in children's earliest years among Moroccan parents may minimize parents' motivation to function as their child's first teacher in the absence of early education programs. Policy implications and interventions are discussed concerning ways to change parents' knowledge and beliefs to motivate early learning activities. Highlights: Moroccan parents view themselves as having limited impact on their children's cognitive development in the early years compared to US parents. Moroccan parents reported higher frequencies of teaching their young children numbers and reading compared to UK parents. Sending very young children to early education centers is less acceptable in Morocco than in the US/UK. Moroccan parents turn to their extended family more than US parents do for guidance on child-rearing. Interventions should be culturally relevant and target sources to whom parents turn for support; home visits are promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work has shown that exposure to auditory white noise (WN) can improve cognitive performance in children with ADHD, but it is unknown whether this improvement generalizes to other sensory modalities. To address this knowledge gap, we tested the effect of Stochastic Vestibular Stimulation (SVS) on cognitive performance and reaction time (RT) variability in two groups: children with ADHD and typically developing children (TDC). Children with ADHD (N=42) and TDC (N=28) performed three cognitive tasks (Spanboard, Word Recall and N-back tasks) at two different occasions, with and without exposure to SVS, in a double blinded design. The results showed no main effects of SVS on neither performance nor RT variability for children in any of the groups, and no interactions between SVS and group. Based on these results we conclude that, using our stimulation protocol, the positive effects of WN exposure on cognition in children with ADHD do not generalize to Stochastic Vestibular Stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In psychiatric and social epidemiology studies, it is common to measure multiple different outcomes using a comprehensive battery of tests thought to be related to an underlying construct of interest. In the research that motivates our work, researchers wanted to assess the impact of in utero alcohol exposure on child cognition and neuropsychological development, which are evaluated using a range of different psychometric tests. Statistical analysis of the resulting multiple outcomes data can be challenging, because the outcomes measured on the same individual are not independent. Moreover, it is unclear, a priori, which outcomes are impacted by the exposure under study. While researchers will typically have some hypotheses about which outcomes are important, a framework is needed to help identify outcomes that are sensitive to the exposure and to quantify the associated treatment or exposure effects of interest. We propose such a framework using a modification of stochastic search variable selection, a popular Bayesian variable selection model and use it to quantify an overall effect of the exposure on the affected outcomes. The performance of the method is investigated empirically and an illustration is given through application using data from our motivating study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite social scientists' long-standing interest in the influences of siblings, previous research has not settled the debates on how relevant sibship size is to child development and whether growing up with more siblings could be beneficial. Using 30 years of longitudinal data and fixed-effects models, this study offers the most comprehensive evidence on how sibship size is tied to cognitive and sociobehavioral development. We also advance the literature by systematically comparing the consequences of gaining a sibling for children with varying ordinal positions. Contrary to prior studies using selective data from limited observation spans, we find that children experience net decreases in cognitive test scores as their family size grows. At the same time, our analysis shows that sibling additions are only important to first- and second-born children's—not later-born children's—cognitive development. Even for the first- and second-born, the marginal effect of adding a sibling lessens with each addition. Our results thus demonstrate the time-dependent nature of family resource-dilution processes. For sociobehavioral development, the evidence indicates that having an older sibling is beneficial, but gaining a younger sibling increases behavioral problems for some (e.g., first-born children). Because more children from large families have older siblings, children from larger families exhibit less problematic behavior, on average. By uncovering the complex relationship between siblings and noncognitive development, this study also generally contributes to the sociology of family and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been extensive debates about the impact of the digital transformation on human development. A recent study by Yang and colleagues highlights the importance of considering context of use, beyond amount of use. In their study, children from parents who reported having TV‐on during family meals when they were 2 years old showed poorer cognitive development at age 3.5 as compared to those with TV‐off during family meals. This highlights the importance of considering the context of use when studying effect of screen use. While Yang et al. discuss the distracting effects of TV‐on sensory processing, we propose an alternative – and not mutually exclusive – interpretation based on TV induced deprivation of family interactions. On a more practical note, this should encourage to preserve screen‐free time, especially during structured time such as family meals, in order to maintain family interactions known to be critical to development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human milk is a highly complex liquid food tailor-made to match an infant's needs. Beyond documented positive effects of breastfeeding on infant and maternal health, there is increasing evidence that milk constituents also impact child neurodevelopment. Non-nutrient milk bioactives would contribute to the (long-term) development of child cognition and behavior, a process termed 'Lactocrine Programming'. In this review we discuss the current state of the field on human milk composition and its links with child cognitive and behavioral development. To promote state-of-the-art methodologies and designs that facilitate data pooling and meta-analytic endeavors, we present detailed recommendations and best practices for future studies. Finally, we determine important scientific gaps that need to be filled to advance the field, and discuss innovative directions for future research. Unveiling the mechanisms underlying the links between human milk and child cognition and behavior will deepen our understanding of the broad functions of this complex liquid food, as well as provide necessary information for designing future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) (cognitive disengagement syndrome) (CDS) describes a cluster of symptoms including slowness, lethargy, and daydreaming. This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI-SCT) scale and its relationship to other psychological difficulties. A total of 328 children and adolescents aged between 6-18 years were included in the study. CABI-SCT, Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), Barkley Child Attention Scale (BCAS), ADHD Rating Scale-IV, and Strengths and Challenges Questionnaire (SDQ) were administered to parents of participants. Reliability analysis demonstrated good internal consistency and reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the one-factor model of the Turkish version of CABI-SCT is an acceptable construct. This study supports the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of CABI-SCT for use in children and adolescents providing initial data concerning the psychometric properties and difficulties associated with the Turkish version of the CABI-SCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of kindergartens in promoting social and school adaptation for children. It emphasizes the importance of early childhood in shaping a child's personality and highlights how kindergartens provide psychological and social support for their development. The article argues that educational programs in kindergartens help meet children's basic needs and prepare them for the transition to school. It also discusses the concepts of social and school adaptation and their significance in the educational process. The text emphasizes the importance of kindergartens in fostering socialization, mental development, and positive attitudes towards work. It also acknowledges the potential for the education system to perpetuate social inequalities. Overall, the article underscores the importance of socialization and the role of kindergartens in achieving social and school adaptation. [Extracted from the article]

Summary: High levels of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) result in significant cognitive deficits in children, but the exact nature of the dose‐response relationship is less well understood. To investigate this relationship, data were assembled from six longitudinal birth cohort studies examining the effects of PAE on cognitive outcomes from early school age through adolescence. Structural equation models (SEMs) are a natural approach to consider, because of the way they conceptualise multiple observed outcomes as relating to an underlying latent variable of interest, which can then be modelled as a function of exposure and other predictors of interest. However, conventional SEMs could not be fitted in this context because slightly different outcome measures were used in the six studies. In this paper we propose a multi‐group Bayesian SEM that maps the unobserved cognition variable to a broad range of observed outcomes. The relation between these variables and PAE is then examined while controlling for potential confounders via propensity score adjustment. By examining different possible dose‐response functions, the proposed framework is used to investigate whether there is a threshold PAE level that results in minimal cognitive deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined whether variability in the topographical organization of global motion processing (GMP)/global form processing (GFP) at 5 months is associated with children's motor and language abilities at 18 months. Topics include the potential pathways that could underlie an association between GMP and language development, assessment of motor, language and visual abilities at 18 months and the predictive relationship between GMP/GFP and visual cognition.

Research combining physical activity with the training of cognitive skills such as executive functions is emerging as a novel and fruitful intervention approach for children. Purpose: This study aimed to examine the impact of an intervention program including cognitively engaging physical activity on preschool children's cognitive outcomes and physical activity. Methods: Children (N = 144, 65 female; Mage = 4.41 years, SD = 0.61), randomly assigned to one of three groups: cognitively engaging physical activity (CPA; i.e., storytelling, cognitive activities, and motor tasks, n = 55), cognition (i.e., storytelling and cognitive activities without motor tasks, n = 48), or control (i.e., traditional storytelling, n = 41). Sessions lasted approximately 17 minutes, conducted twice a week, for 6 weeks. Children's executive function, self-regulation, and related outcomes (i.e., numeracy) were assessed at baseline and again—along with perceived enjoyment—at the end of the program. Accelerometers measured children's physical activity during each session. Teachers completed a logbook for each session, and two fidelity checks per preschool took place by the researcher. Main analyses used linear mixed models adjusted for covariates (age, sex) and clustering at the preschool level. Results: Results showed no significant group by time interaction for executive function, self-regulation, numeracy, enjoyment. During the sessions, children in the CPA group were more physically active than children in the cognition and control groups. Conclusion: While we did not find the expected amplified cognitive benefits, making storytelling more active has the potential to meet two needs (increase cognitive stimulation and physical activity levels) in one deed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]