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Pretend play universally emerges during early childhood and may support the development of causal inference and counterfactual reasoning. However, the amount of time spent pretending, the value that adults place on pretence and the scaffolding adults provide vary by both culture and socioeconomic status (SES). In middle class U.S. preschoolers, accuracy on a pretence-based causal reasoning task predicted performance on a similar causal counterfactual task. We explore the relationship between cultural environment, pretence and counterfactual reasoning in low-income Peruvian ( N = 62) and low-income U.S. ( N = 57) 3- to 4-year olds, and contrast findings against previous findings in an age-matched, mixed-SES U.S. sample ( N = 60). Children learned a novel causal relationship, then answered comparable counterfactual and pretence-based questions about the relationship. Children's responses for counterfactual and pretence measures differed across populations, with Peruvian and lower-income U.S. children providing fewer causally consistent responses when compared with middle class U.S. children. Nevertheless, correlations between the two measures emerged in all populations. Across cohorts, children also provided more causally consistent answers during pretence than counterfactually. Our findings strengthen the hypothesis that causal pretend play is related to causal counterfactual reasoning across cultural contexts, while also suggesting a role for systematic environmental differences. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.

Most children born to women with epilepsy (WWE) are normal, but have increased risks for malformations and poor neuropsychological outcomes. Antiseizure medications (ASMs) are among the most commonly prescribed teratogenic medications in women of childbearing age. However, WWE typically cannot avoid using ASMs during pregnancy. Teratogenic risks vary across ASMs. Valproate poses a special risk for anatomic and behavioral teratogenic risks compared with other ASMs. The risks for many ASMs remain uncertain. Women of childbearing potential taking ASMs should be taking folic acid. Breastfeeding while taking ASMs seems safe. WWE should receive informed consent outlining risks before conception.

We leveraged nationally representative data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement (N = 3,562) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (N = 18,174), to chart the development of working memory, indexed via verbal forward and backward digit span task performance, from 3 to 19 years of age. Results revealed non-linear growth patterns for forward and backward digit span tasks, with the most rapid growth occurring during childhood followed by a brief accelerated period of growth during early adolescence. We also found similar developmental trajectories on digit span task performance for males and females across the U.S. population. Together, this study highlights the relative importance of the childhood period for working memory development and provides researchers with a reference against which to compare the developmental changes of working memory in individual studies. From a practical perspective, clinicians and educators can also use this information to understand important periods of working memory growth using national developmental trends.

Prior to widespread availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa, children who were HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) had increased mortality, morbidity and undernutrition compared with children who were HIV-unexposed. Scale-up of ART has led to impressive declines in vertical HIV transmission, but over 15 million children are now HEU, 90% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. There are ongoing health disparities among children who are HEU, with higher mortality, morbidity and stunting and modest impairments in early child development, which collectively hamper health and human capital in high prevalence countries. The underlying causes are multifactorial and include exposure to HIV, co-infections and a skewed antenatal inflammatory milieu, particularly if mothers start ART once they have advanced disease, as well as socioeconomic risk factors, which may cluster in HIV-affected households. Improving maternal health through early and sustained ART, ensuring optimal breastfeeding, and implementing evidence-based priority interventions for all children in areas of high HIV prevalence, will likely improve outcomes. A more comprehensive intervention package based on the Nurturing Care Framework may have particular benefits for children who are HEU, to close health gaps and ensure that the next generation of HIV-free children survive and thrive, and lead healthy and productive lives.

Кілька десятиліть тому етичні питання визначалися в термінах шахрайської поведінки та умов праці на робочому місці, наразі саме поняття розширилося. Дитяча праця, яка в глобалізованому світі вважається дешевою та легко керованою робочою силою, є однією з повсякчасних проблем низки розвинених країн та країн, що розвиваються, включаючи Туреччину. Останні дослідження показують, що сфери застосування дитячої праці дедалі більше диверсифікуються, а сама дитяча праця стає важливим фактором на глобальному ринку дешевої робочої сили. При цьому універсальною етичною проблемою є те, що діти працюють на рівні дорослих в різних галузях, від гірничодобувної промисловості до текстильної, від сільського господарства до автомобільної промисловості. У рамках даного дослідження, питання дитячої праці в Туреччині розглянуто в контексті принципів ділової етики. Авторами визначено три головні фактори (демографічні, освітні та ділові) як детермінанти причин залучення дітей до трудового життя. Для перевірки взаємозв'язків між змінними була використана багатофакторна логіт-модель. Емпіричне дослідження ґрунтується на даних для 1128 дітейпрацівників, отриманих з мікробази даних дослідження дитячої робочої сили, проведеного Турецьким статистичним інститутом у 2019 році. За результатами дослідження встановлено, що змінні, пов'язані з освітнім життям (освітній статус дитини, освітній статус сім'ї, освітній статус учнівства) та змінні, пов'язані з діловим життям (робочий сектор, робочий час, дохід та робочий статус сім'ї), впливають на трудові мотиви дітей. За результатами дослідження автори приходять до висновку, що в умовах посилення міжнародної співпраці та конкуренції під впливом глобалізації, відображення загального визначення дитячої праці кожною країною у власному національному законодавстві є одним з найважливіших кроків, які необхідно зробити для запобігання використанню дитячої праці. Крім того, у слаборозвинених країнах та країнах, що розвиваються, важливими кроками будуть подолання бідності, покращення умов для відвідування школи та підвищення обізнаності про існування прав дітей як особистостей. Авторами наголошено, що припинення використання дитячої праці є неможливим без розвитку суспільства, а також втручання керівництва державного та приватного секторів, які діють з точки зору етичної відповідальності. Until a few decades ago, ethical issues were defined in terms of fraudulent behavior and workplace working conditions, but the concept itself has now expanded. Child labor, considered cheap and easily manageable labor in the globalizing world, is one of the chronic problems of many developing and developed countries, including Turkey. Recent studies show that child's work areas are increasingly diversified, and child labor has become an important factor in the global cheap labor market. For whatever reason, it is a universal ethical issue that children work as young adults in many different sectors, from mining to textiles and agriculture to the automotive industry. In this context, the issue of child labor in Turkey has been discussed in the context of business ethics principles. In the study, three main factors were determined as demographic, educational life, and business life variables as the determinants of the reasons for the involvement of children in work life. The multinomial logit model was used to test the relationships between the variables. The research used data from 1128 children in employment obtained from the Child Labor Force Research Micro Data Set carried out by the Turkish Statistical Institute in 2019. According to the results of the research, it has been determined that the variables related to the education life (educational status of the child, family education status, apprenticeship education status) and the variables related to the business life (working sector, working time, income and family working status) affect the working reasons of children. As a result, in an environment of increasing cooperation and competition between countries with the effect of globalization, each country's reflection of a common definition of child labor in its own national legislation is one of the most important steps to be taken in preventing child labor. In addition, in underdeveloped and developing countries, eliminating poverty, expanding school attendance conditions, and raising awareness about the existence of children's rights as individuals will be important steps. It must be admitted that it will not be possible to end child labor in all its aspects without developing a society, and public and private sector management that acts with a sense of ethical responsibility.

Introduction Paediatric acquired brain injury (ABI) causes cognitive and behavioural difficulties and alters the course of child development. The ABI unit at Hospital Infantil Universitario Nino Jesus is the first within the public Spanish health system to provide comprehensive coverage to these patients and their families. Objective This study aims to show the working methodology followed with patients and their families, and to describe the clinical characteristics of the patients treated and the outcomes of treatment. Patients Fifty-three patients aged between three months and 16 and a half years received treatment. The conditions treated were brain tumours, stroke, traumatic brain injury, damage secondary to epilepsy surgery, and hypoxia. Methods All patients were evaluated at admission and at discharge. Treatments were adapted to each patient's difficulties and their severity, as well as to the patient's age. Families received individual and group therapy. Results Older age was associated with better cognitive recovery and shorter duration of treatment. Different conditions show differential impact on intelligence quotient and developmental quotient scores at the beginning of treatment, with hypoxia and encephalitis being associated with greatest severity. Intelligence quotient and developmental quotient scores and visual memory and attention scores at discharge improved significantly after the faceted neuropsychological treatment with respect to scores registered at admission. Conclusions The care of patients with ABI should include neuropsychological rehabilitation programmes and provide emotional support to the family so that they may actively participate in the recovery of the child or adolescent.

Shared picture-book reading is well-recognized as beneficial for children’s early language development, especially where ‘dialogic book-sharing’ techniques are used. Possible benefits of dialogic book-sharing to other aspects of child development have been little investigated, and it has not been widely studied in European populations. We conducted a randomized trial of dialogic book-sharing in Children’s Centers in the UK, with parents of 2-4-year-old children, hypothesizing that it would benefit parenting and a range of child developmental outcomes.\ud Intervention group parents (n = 110) received seven, weekly, group training sessions and control parents (n = 108) the usual center input. Parenting and a range of child outcomes (language, attention, executive function, social development and emotional-behavior difficulties) were assessed on three occasions: before, after, and 4-6 month following intervention. For all study outcomes we compared controls with each of the Intention-to-Treat population and the perprotocol population (participants attending the requisite number of sessions); and, for primary child outcomes only, the population of parents who engaged well with the intervention. There were substantial benefits of dialogic book-sharing training to parental behavior during booksharing, especially for sensitivity and cognitive scaffolding. For all three sets of comparisons there were small-medium effects of on child expressive language, and, for the per protocol and engaged populations, similar sized effects on child receptive language and attention. There was no evidence of benefit of dialogic book-sharing for the other areas of child development; we suggest that specific intervention components need to be added to standard dialogic book-sharing to effect change in these areas.

A questão dos abusos infantis são um problema de saúde pública e por isso necessita de ser estudado de forma consciente e ponderada. A literatura especializada, além de definir o tema e os seus constructos, evidencia a importância de se conceberem ferramentas aliadas a políticas públicas de proteção e segurança. Reticências foi projetado em respeito pelo 16. Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável - Paz, Justiça e Instituições Eficazes – e, por isso, é um projeto de inovação social, delineado de forma a dar resposta a necessidades e problemas sociais a propósito desta problemática. Este projeto partiu do problema do abuso infantil, do ponto de vista sistémico, de forma a alcançar o objetivo de criar um instrumento que servisse de diagnóstico e ao mesmo tempo tivesse um caracter pedagógico. Procede-se a uma revisão narrativa da literatura, pelo que o modo de abordagem compreende o método qualitativo. De forma a assegurar a pertinência da construção da ferramenta incorpora-se a análise SWOT. De modo a se atingir o objetivo, conjeturou-se a construção da ferramenta onde se incorporou o termo “abuso” e as tipologias inerentes, os fatores de risco e de proteção, os instrumentos jurídicos e o modelo Bioecológico de desenvolvimento humano também utilizado para compreender a violência e a estratégia de quality circle time, pois é considerada uma poderosa estratégia de intervenção. Desta simbiose resultou a conceção de um jogo queestáem fase de prétestagem, aguardando autorização das entidades competentes para ser testado em escolas junto de crianças de 1. 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Espera-se demonstrar a coerência da construção e a validade científica de uma ferramenta de diagnóstico para detetar possíveis situações de risco e/ou perigo, assim como de utilidade pedagógica, que capacite as crianças e auxilie os profissionais a detetar possíveis situações abusivas., The issue of child abuse is a public health problem and therefore needs to be consciously and thoughtfully studied. The specialized literature, besides defining the issue and its constructs, highlights the importance of designing tools allied to public policies for protection and safety. Reticências was designed in respect of the 16th Sustainable Development Goal - Peace, Justice and Effective Institutions – and therefore, it is a social innovation project, designed to respond to social needs and problems regarding this issue. This project started from the problem of child abuse, from a systemic point of view, in order to achieve the objective of creating an instrument that would serve as a diagnosis and at the same time have a pedagogical character. A narrative literature review was conducted, so the approach was based on the qualitative method. In order to ensure the relevance of the construction of the tool, SWOT analysis is incorporated. In order to achieve the objective, the construction of the tool was designed to incorporate the term “abuse” and its inherent typologies, the risk and protection factors, the legal instruments and the Bio-ecological model of human development, which is also used to understand violence and the quality circle time strategy, as it is considered a powerful intervention strategy. This symbiosis resulted in the design of a game, which is currently being pre-tested, awaiting the authorization of the competent entities, in order to be tested in schools, with children of first and second cycle. We hope to demonstrate the coherence of the construction and the scientific validity of a diagnostic tool to detect possible situations of risk and/or danger, as well as its pedagogical usefulness, which capacitates children and helps professionals to detect possible abusive situations., Este trabalho foi financiado por Fundos Nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia no âmbito do projeto do CIEC (Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança da Universidade do Minho) com a referência UIDB/00317/2020.

The purpose of this study is to identify the future expectations of graduates who have graduatedfrom the child development undergraduate department and who are not currently assigned to their profession.Phenomenological pattern, a qualitative research method, was utilized in the study. The study was conductedwith 14 graduated from the department of child development, 13 of whom were female and 1 male, who werepreparing for the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) in a private teaching institution located in theEastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Participants were chosen using criterion sampling, one of the purposivesampling methods. The research data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Descriptive and contentanalysis methods were used to analyze the data. The gathered data were coded, categorized into themes, andevaluated. When the opinions of the individuals who graduated from the child development department abouttheir future expectations are examined; it is detected that the participants chose to study in this department forvarious reasons, including a fondness for children, the ease of getting a job, and having studied the same subjectin their previous educational life, they have fears for the future, they want to be in a positive social environmentin the future, they have professional and career objectives for their field, desire a prosperous economic future,question the criteria for appointment or finding a job in their field, have a tendency to come up with alternatesolutions for getting hired or finding a job, place importance on personal growth in order to live a good life, andhave various plans for their personal life.

Our previous cross-sectional investigation (Chetcuti et al., 2020) showed that infants with autism traits could be divided into distinct subgroups based on temperament. This longitudinal study builds on this existing work by exploring the continuity of temperament subgroup classifications and their associations with behavioral/clinical phenotypic features from infancy to toddlerhood. 103 infants (68% male) showing early signs of autism were referred to the study by community healthcare professionals and seen for assessments when aged around 12-months (Time 1), 18-months (Time 2), and 24-months (Time 3). Latent profile analysis revealed inhibited/low positive, active/negative reactive, and sociable/well-regulated subgroups at each timepoint, and a unique reactive/regulated subgroup at Time 3. Cross-tabulations indicated a significant likelihood of children having a recurrent subgroup classification from one timepoint to the next, and no apparent patterns to the movement of children who did change from one subgroup to another over time. Temperament subgroups were associated with concurrent child social-emotional functioning and autism traits, but unrelated to child age, sex, or developmental level. These findings suggest that temperament subgroup classifications might represent a reliable and very early indicator of autism characteristics and social-emotional functioning among infants/toddlers with autism traits.

El presente artículo analiza el estado actual de la psicología del desarrollo en Colombia. El punto de partida es la producción académica más significativa de los grupos de investigación, registrada en el Sistema Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de Colombia (Scienti) en las últimas tres décadas. La revisión documental se organizó a partir de las principales áreas de trabajo identificadas: desarrollo en contextos de pobreza, desarrollo cognitivo, relaciones vinculares, desarrollo afectivo y emocional, desarrollo moral, psicología cultural del desarrollo y desarrollos atípicos. Se identificaron 44 grupos de investigación que aportan al campo de la psicología del desarrollo desde diferentes ámbitos teóricos, conceptuales y metodológicos. Cada uno de estos grupos brinda sus aportes desde diferentes regiones del país y en distintos segmentos de la población, en los que se destaca una preocupación por poblaciones en contextos de pobreza y violencia, respondiendo así a la situación del país. Algunos de esos estudios han contribuido a la identificación de factores protectores en poblaciones vulnerables y al fortalecimiento de bases seguras en familias, así como en la formulación de políticas públicas a favor de la niñez colombiana. This paper analyzes the current state of developmental psychology in Colombia. The starting point is the most significant academic production of research groups, registered in the National System of Science and Technology of Colombia in the last three decades. The documentary review was organized according to the main areas of work identified: development in contexts of poverty, cognitive development, bonding relationships, affective and emotional development, moral development, cultural psychology of development and atypical developments. Forty-four research groups have been identified that contribute to the field of developmental psychology from different theoretical, conceptual, and methodological fields. Each of these groups provides their contributions from different regions of the country and in different segments of the population, in which a concern for populations in contexts of poverty and violence stands out, thus responding to the situation of the country. Some of these studies have contributed to the identification of protective factors in vulnerable populations and to the strengthening of safe bases in families, as well as to the formulation of public policies in favor of Colombian children.

The most critical period of human development is from conception to age six years when important brain structures develop. These structures influence child development, well-being, learning, and behaviours that follow. Research shows children from economically disadvantaged areas have poorer developmental, health, and lifelong outcomes. A considerable proportion of developmental delay is avoidable and early detection and intervention can improve child, family, and community outcomes. Ireland’s disjointed early intervention system sees children from more affluent communities access services faster through paid private assessment and intervention. KidScope is the only community paediatric clinic in Ireland to offer assessment and onward referral from birth to six years within a disadvantaged area. The clinic intercepts the gap within the early intervention system and breaks the cycle of intergenerational poverty by disrupting the impact exclusion to healthcare has on vulnerable children and families. We aim to evaluate KidScope in order to contribute to the evidence on addressing avoidable developmental delay in disadvantaged areas through early detection and timely referral to services. Findings to date highlight the challenges vulnerable families face when accessing paediatric healthcare, the healthcare needs of children experiencing adversity, and how community paediatric clinics identify and support developmental delay.

Introduction: Mental health is one of the relevant parameters to assess the quality of life. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, children make up one of the most fragile groups to mental health due to social isolation. Childhood mental disorders are a public health problem because of their impact on children's lives and the community. Objectives: To trace the occurrence of depressive symptoms in schoolchildren during the social isolation period to contain the viral spread and assess possible risk factors for these symptoms' emergence. Method: This study is a cross-sectional with 102 children aged 7 to 10 years who attended Elementary School I in a Municipal School in Belo Horizonte - MG. It was realized during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Two questionnaires were applied, Socioeconomic Questionnaire to describe the sample profile and to evaluate possible risk factors related to depressive symptoms, and the Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI) tassesses depressive symptoms in children. Results: 2.9% of the children presented depressive symptoms. The profile was girls with unmarried parents, absence of father and mother as joint caregivers of the child, poor coexistence between close family members, the occurrence of family unemployment, and interference in lifestyle habits during the pandemic. However, these variables did not obtain a statistically significant association with probable depression. However, symptoms such as crying frequency, boredom, loneliness, and not feeling loved were significantly associated with potential depression. Conclusion: The rate of depression among students aged 7 to 10 years in a Municipal School was 2.9% during the pandemic. There was no association between sociodemographic characteristics and the presence or absence of symptoms of depression. There was a significant association between worsening symptoms such as crying, boredom, loneliness, and not feeling loved and the presence of depressive symptoms.

Infants who undergo surgery for congenital heart disease are at risk of neurodevelopmental delay. Cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (CS-AKI) is common but its association with neurodevelopment has not been explored.This was a single-center retrospective observational study of infants who underwent cardiac surgery in the first year of life who had neurodevelopmental testing using the Bayley Scale for Infant Development, third edition. Single and recurrent episodes of stages 2 and 3 CS-AKI were determined.Of 203 children with median age at first surgery of 12 days, 31% had one or more episodes of severe CS-AKI; of those, 16% had recurrent CS-AKI. Median age at neurodevelopmental assessment was 20 months. The incidence of delay was similar for patients with and patients without CS-AKI but all children with recurrent CS-AKI had a delay in one or more domains and had significantly lower scores in all three domains, namely, cognitive, language, and motor.This study has assessed the association of CS-AKI with neurodevelopmental delay after surgery for congenital heart disease in infancy. Infants who have recurrent CS-AKI in the first year of life are more likely to be delayed and have lower neurodevelopmental scores.

Cardinal and non-cardinal dysmorphic features are associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE); however, their association with neurodevelopment is less clear. The objective of this study was to determine whether alcohol-related dysmorphic features predict neurodevelopmental delay in infants and toddlers.We analyzed a prospective pregnancy cohort in western Ukraine enrolled between 2008 and 2014. A dysmorphology examination comprising body size and three cardinal and 14 non-cardinal dysmorphic features was performed at approximately 6 to 12 months of age. PAE was self-reported and operationalized as absolute ounces of alcohol per day around the time of conception. Neurodevelopment was assessed at 6 to 12 months with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II), and at 3.5 to 4.5 years of age with the Differential Ability Scales-II, the Child Behavior Checklist, and multiple measures that were used to create an executive functioning factor score. We performed logistic regression to predict children's neurodevelopment from dysmorphic features, growth measures, sex, and PAE.From an analytic sample of 582 unique children, 566 had BSID-II scores in infancy, and 289 completed the preschool battery. Models with all cardinal and non-cardinal dysmorphic features, growth measures, sex, and PAE performed better than models with subsets of those inputs. In general, models had poor performance classifying delays in infancy (area under the curve (AUC)0.7) and acceptable performance on preschool-aged outcomes (AUC ~0.75). When the sample was limited to children with moderate-to-high PAE, predictive ability improved on preschool-aged outcomes (AUC 0.76 to 0.89). Sensitivity was relatively low for all models (12% to 63%), although other metrics of performance were higher.Predictive analysis based on dysmorphic features and measures of growth performed modestly in this sample. As these features are more reliably measured than neurodevelopment at an earlier age, the inclusion of dysmorphic features and measures of growth in predictive models should be further explored and validated in different settings and populations.

Emotion regulation is foundational to children's psychological wellbeing and future school adjustment. As young children are spending increasing amounts of time in preschool programs, investigating how early childhood classrooms can foster emotion regulation development is warranted. In this study, we tested individual children's interactions with teachers and peers as potential mechanisms through which inhibitory control supports emotion regulation in the preschool classroom. Participants included 767 preschool children (49% female

Whereas previous research has examined the role that parenting and home environments play in explaining the relation between family socioeconomic status and children's language development in the United States, relatively little is known about the associations between these constructs in other cultures. This study tested an integrated model of language development within a longitudinal data set of 1,894 socioeconomically diverse Korean children (48.35% girls;99% native-born Korean citizens) from the first year of life (age 3-8 months) to ages 3 and 6 years. A model integrating parent and environmental characteristics from the family stress model and the family investment model that also included maternal self-efficacy and knowledge of child development was shown to adequately explain the associations between family socioeconomic status and children's language development. Implications for applying similar integrated models in international contexts are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Funder: UCLH Biomedical Research Centre; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100012621, BACKGROUND: Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are recommended in threatened preterm labour to improve short-term neonatal outcome. Preclinical animal studies suggest detrimental effects of ACS exposure on offspring cardiac development; their effects in humans are unknown. OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the human clinical literature to determine the effects of ACS on offspring cardiovascular function. SEARCH STRATEGY: A systematic review was performed according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines in MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases. SELECTION CRITERIA: Offspring who had been exposed to ACS during fetal life, in comparison with those not receiving steroids, those receiving a placebo or population data, were included. Studies not performed in humans or that did not assess cardiovascular function were excluded. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two authors independently screened the studies, extracted the data and assessed the quality of the studies. Results were combined descriptively and analysed using a standardised Excel form. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-six studies including 1921 patients were included, most of which were cohort studies of mixed quality. The type of ACS exposure, gestational age at exposure, dose and number of administrations varied widely. Offspring cardiovascular outcomes were assessed from 1 day to 36 years postnatally. The most commonly assessed parameter was arterial blood pressure (18 studies), followed by echocardiography (eight studies), heart rate (five studies), electrocardiogram (ECG, three studies) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, one study). There were no clinically significant effects of ACS exposure on offspring blood pressure. However, there were insufficient studies assessing cardiac structure and function using echocardiography or cardiac MRI to be able to determine an effect. CONCLUSIONS: The administration of ACS is not associated with long-term effects on blood pressure in exposed human offspring. The effects on cardiac structure and other measures of cardiac function were unclear because of the small number, heterogeneity and mixed quality of the studies. Given the preclinical and human evidence of potential harm following ACS exposure, there is a need for further research to assess central cardiac function in human offspring exposed to ACS.

This study investigated developmental trajectories of observationally coded engagement across the early elementary years and whether these trajectories were associated with children's academic achievement. Furthermore, we evaluated if these relations varied as a function of children's family socio-economic status and early reading and math skills. Data were collected from 301 children who were studied from kindergarten (M

Children born very preterm (≤32 weeks gestational age) show poorer cognitive and language development compared with their term-born peers. The importance of supportive maternal responses to the child's cues for promoting neurodevelopment is well established. However, little is known about whether supportive maternal behavior can buffer the association of early brain dysmaturation with cognitive and language performance.Infants born very preterm (N = 226) were recruited from the neonatal intensive care unit for a prospective, observational cohort study. Chart review (e.g., size at birth, postnatal infection) was conducted from birth to discharge. Magnetic resonance imaging, including diffusion tensor imaging, was acquired at approximately 32 weeks postmenstrual age and again at term-equivalent age. Fractional anisotropy, a quantitative measure of brain maturation, was obtained from 11 bilateral regions of interest in the cortical gray matter. At 3 years (n = 187), neurodevelopmental testing (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III) was administered, and parent-child interaction was filmed. Maternal behavior was scored using the Emotional Availability Scale-IV. A total of 146 infants with neonatal brain imaging and follow-up data were included for analysis. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine whether maternal support interacted with mean fractional anisotropy values to predict Cognitive and Language scores at 3 years, accounting for confounding neonatal and maternal factors.Higher maternal support significantly moderated cortical fractional anisotropy values at term-equivalent age to predict higher Cognitive (interaction term β = 2.01, p = .05) and Language (interaction term β = 1.85, p = .04) scores.Findings suggest that supportive maternal behavior following early brain dysmaturation may provide an opportunity to promote optimal neurodevelopment in children born very preterm.

Executive functions (EF) play an essential role in many spheres of child development. Therefore, it is crucial to get a better understanding of their etiology. Using a genetic design that involved 934 twins (400 monozygotic), this study examined the etiology of cognitive flexibility, a component of EF, at 5 years of age and its phenotypic and etiological associations with maternal control. Cognitive flexibility was measured in a laboratory setting at 5 years of age using a well-known EF-task, i.e. the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Maternal control was measured using a self-report questionnaire. The univariate genetic model demonstrated that environmental factors mainly explained individual differences in preschoolers' performance on the DCCS task. A bivariate genetic model demonstrated that non-shared environmental mechanisms mainly explained the association (

Paediatricians and child psychiatrists review children with complex comorbidity, noting similarities between tertiary Child Development Service (CDS) and Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) cohorts. Mental health comorbidity is common in developmental services. Developmental comorbidity in mental health cohorts is uncharacterised. The study aimed to describe CDS and CYMHS cohorts using measures of child development, mental health, physical health and psychosocial risk.A questionnaire was completed by parents of CDS and CYMHS new clients aged 4-11. It included measures of mental health symptoms, child development, physical health, stressful life events, family functioning, parent mental health and socio-economic variables. Sample rates were compared to population norms. CDS and CYMHS cohorts were compared.The study population had elevated rates of psychosocial risk, family dysfunction, physical illness, developmental risk and mental health symptoms. CDS had higher levels of developmental risk and family dysfunction. Most CDS clients (81%) had mental health difficulties. CYMHS clients were older, and had more mental health symptoms, stressful life events and child safety contact; 81% of CYMHS clients demonstrated developmental risk. CDS and CYMHS had similar socio-demographic profiles and parent mental health difficulties, and similarly high rates of physical health problems.Consideration should be given to mental health screening and support in CDS, and to developmental screening in CYMHS. Both services support at-risk children with complex developmental, mental health and physical co-morbidity necessitating shared approaches to clinical and population health, including care integration, and collaborative cross-disciplinary models of service provision and training, and advocacy.

To identify perinatal antecedents associated with neurodevelopmental impairment for very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants at ages 6, 12, and 24 months and the stability of neurodevelopmental assessments.A multicenter-based VLBW cohort was recruited, and the mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor development index (PDI) were used to evaluate children's neurodevelopment stages at ages 6, 12, and 24 months. Perinatal risk factors were determined through univariate and multivariate hierarchical linear analyses. Differences and predictability in MDI or PDI scores between ages 6 and 24 months were assessed.Covariates including father's education level; teenage pregnancy, multiple pregnancies; infant's gestational age, gender, and birth weight999 gm, duration of neonatal intensive care unit stay; and presence of various diseases were adversely associated with poor MDI or PDI scores in 8517 eligible VLBW infants during the study period. Polyhydramnios, emergency cesarean delivery, birth weight of1250 gm, and periventricular/intraventricular hemorrhage stage I-II were additional risk factors of VLBW infants with an adverse PDI score. An increased number of infants with a MDI or PDI score of55 at age 24 months was observed. Six-month MDI or PDI assessments had a low ability to predict outcomes at 24 months, with sensitivity and positive predictive values under 60% and specificity and negative predictive values over 85%.Multiple perinatal risk factors are associated with poor MDI and PDI scores among VLBW preterm infants. Six-month developmental assessments exhibited low sensitivity and positive predictive values for outcomes at 24 months.

Families of young children diagnosed with autism around the spring of 2020 were especially vulnerable as Covid-19 pandemic-related restrictions interrupted the delivery of their specialized early intervention services. This paper examined 34 families' perceptions of the impact of this situation in Quebec on their child and their family using a mixed-methods design. Parents reported largely detrimental effects on their access to, and relationships with, service providers and their child's transition to school. They noted negative changes in several domains of child development. The need to combine childcare responsibilities with telework was also a source of stress. This situation resulted in family adjustment challenges and in the exacerbation of pre-existing vulnerabilities. However, parents also remarked on their family's ability to adapt and mobilize resources.

Growth is a multifarious phenomenon that has been studied by nutritionists, economists, paediatric endocrinologists; archaeologists, child psychologists and other experts. Yet, a unifying theory of understanding growth regulation is still lacking.Critical review of the literature.We summarise evidence linking social competition and its effect on hierarchies in social structures, with the neuronal networks of the ventromedial hypothalamus and body size. The endocrine signalling system regulating growth hormone, Insulin-like-Growth-Factor1 and skeletal growth, is well conserved in the evolution of vertebrata for some 400 million years. The link between size and status permits adaptive plasticity, competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments also in humans. Humans perceive size as a signal of dominance with tallness being favoured and particularly prevalent in the upper social classes.Westernised societies are competitive. People are tall, and "open to change." Social values include striving for status and prestige implying socio-economic domination. We consider the transition of political and social values following revolutions and civil wars, as key elements that interact with the evolutionarily conserved neuroendocrine competence for adaptive developmental plasticity, overstimulate the hypothalamic growth regulation and finally lead to the recent historic increases in average height.

Children's early life experiences of language and parenting are thought to have pervasive, long-term influence on their cognitive and behavioural development. However, studies are scarce that collected naturalistic observations to broadly assess children's early life experiences and test their associations with developmental outcomes in middle childhood. Here, we used digital audio-recorders to collect three full days of naturalistic observations from 107 British families with children (46 boys) aged 2-4 years, of whom 89 participated in a follow-up assessment four years later when the children were 5-8 years old. We found that children's early life experiences of language and parenting were not significantly associated with their later language ability, academic performance and behavioural outcomes. We explore differences in methodology, sample characteristics and the role of developmental periods as possible explanations for the discrepancy in findings between the current and previous studies.

There is a lack of information highlighting associations between different pathogenic variants of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and childhood growth. Pathogenic variants of E. coli from stool samples, collected from 22,567 children enrolled in the Global Enteric Multicenter Study from December 2007 to March 2011, were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We estimated the associations of different pathogenic variants of diarrheagenic E. coli with child growth. The association between an explanatory variable and the outcome variable was assessed using multiple linear regression, where the dependent variables were height-for-age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height z-scores, and the independent variable was the presence of different pathogenic variants of diarrheagenic E. coli. After adjusting for potential covariates, such as age, gender, diarrhea, breastfeeding status, mother’s education, number of under-5 children, handwashing practice, handwashing material, source of drinking water, wealth index, available toilet facility, copathogens, comorbidity, time, and study site, the multivariable model identified a negative association between different pathogenic variants of diarrheagenic E. coli and child growth. Our analyses may provide the cornerstone for prospective epidemiologic investigation for the development of preventive measures for diarrheagenic E. coli and combat childhood undernutrition.

Sound symbols, such as "woof woof" for a dog's barking, imitate the physical properties of their referents. Turkish is a sound symbolically rich language that allows flexible use of such words in different linguistic forms. The current study examined Turkish-speaking parents' use of sound symbolic words to their 14- and 20-month-olds and the concurrent and longitudinal relations between parents' sound symbolic input and infants' vocabulary knowledge. Thirty-four (n = 34) infants were observed at Time-1 (M

The associations of early-life head circumference (HC) with child neurodevelopmental and mental health among generally healthy population remain unclear. We aimed to examine the associations of early-life HC trajectories with cognitive development and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence and to identify the HC growth-sensitive period. We conducted a prospective, community-based birth cohort study in rural western China, and 745 adolescents aged 10-14 years were followed between June and December 2016. We assessed their HC eight times during the first 2 years of life and their adolescent cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV and Youth Self-Report-2001, respectively. We applied group-based trajectory modeling to identify the HC trajectories and conditional growth to derive the HC growth-sensitive periods. We identified five distinct HC trajectories characterized as Start below average-then decrease (7.8% of the sample), Start below average-then increase (6.8%), Start average-then decrease (33%), Consistently average (38%), and Consistently above average (14%). Infants in the trajectory of consistently above average had higher cognitive scores in adolescence compared to those from suboptimal trajectories, with adjusted mean differences ranging from 2.84 to 8.99 points. The conditional gains showed that the HC growth-sensitive period was between 0 and 18 months for child cognition. We found null associations between HC measures and adolescent emotional and behavioral problem scores.Early-life HC trajectories were associated with adolescent cognitive development. HC may serve as an inexpensive screening tool to monitor child development at risk during the first 18 months, particularly in resource-limited settings.• Postnatal head circumference (HC) has been shown to be associated with cognitive development in infants who were born premature and/or fetal growth restriction, while inconsistent associations were reported among generally healthy populations, especially in low- and middle- income countries, challenging its utility in public health practices.• Adolescents in the HC growth trajectory of consistently above average had higher cognitive scores compared to those with other suboptimal trajectories, while null findings were observed for adolescent emotional and behavioral health. • HC may serve as an inexpensive screening tool to monitor child development at risk during the first 18 months of life, particularly in resource-limited settings.

The relation between language and cognition in child development is one of the oldest and most debated questions, which has recently come back to the forefront of several disciplines in the social sciences. The overview below examines several universalistic vs. relativistic approaches to this question, stemming both from traditional developmental theories and from more recent proposals in psycholinguistics that are illustrated by some findings concerning space in child language. Two main questions are raised for future research. First, substantial evidence is necessary concerning the potential impact of linguistic variation on cognitive development, including evidence that can provide ways of articulating precocious capacities in the pre-linguistic period and subsequent developments across a variety of child languages. Second, relating language and cognition also requires that we take into account both structural and functional determinants of child language within a model that can explain development at different levels of linguistic organization in the face of cross-linguistic diversity. Keywords: Linguistic relativity, Child development, Structure, Function, Space.

While vocabulary knowledge is considered a foundational element for young learners of a second or foreign language (L2/FL), pedagogically useful information on this topic is not easily accessible for practitioners. This is in part due to the fact that the relevant information is scattered across multiple fields, including first-language acquisition, child development, and education. The aim of this paper is to synthesize recent knowledge from the related fields and to provide theoretically sound and evidence-based information that is useful for teaching vocabulary to young learners of L2/FL. I identify four major recommendations for vocabulary instruction: (a) ensure frequent and repeated exposure to the target words (as well as nontarget words); (b) provide explicit word definitions and meanings in context; (c) create opportunities for discussions and interactions around the words in question; and (d) use multimodal approaches to teach vocabulary. I also suggest future research directions, with the goal of finding effective approaches that teachers can use to improve their vocabulary instruction while meeting the specific needs of their young L2/FL students.

Context The importance and benefits of breastfeeding in children are well recognized, and it may improve motor development. Motor skills are fundamental to childhood development. Although some studies report a positive association between breastfeeding and motor development in children, others have suggested that these differences could be influenced by confounding variables. Objective To estimate the degree to which breastfeeding duration and exclusivity is associated with motor development in children. Thus, a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analysis was conducted. Data Sources MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Web of Science databases were systematically searched from inception to June 2021. Data Extraction The most adjusted relative risks (RRs) or odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) reported by included studies were used. The “breastfeeding duration” category defined by each study was used as the reference category. Additionally, subgroup analyses were performed based on the duration of breastfeeding. Data Analysis Eighteen published studies were included in the systematic review and 14 studies in the meta-analysis. The results showed that the effect size (ES) for exclusively breastfed vs never breastfed children was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.32, 1.41, I2 = 90.3%), and the ES for children breastfed for any length vs never breastfed children was 0.95 (95% CI: 0.80, 1.10, I2 = 88.0%). The remaining groups studied did not show significant differences in outcomes. Conclusions Although our data suggest that breastfeeding may improve motor development in children, more studies are needed because publication bias has been detected. Nevertheless, our results support the promotion of breastfeeding.

BACKGROUND: There is emerging evidence that exposure to prenatal methylmercury (MeHg) from maternal fish consumption during pregnancy can differ between individuals due to genetic variation. In previous studies, we have reported that maternal polymorphisms in ABC-transporter genes were associated with maternal hair MeHg concentrations, and with children’s early neurodevelopmental tests. In this study, we add to these findings by evaluating the contribution of genetic variation in children’s ABC-transporter genes to prenatal MeHg exposure and early child neurodevelopmental tests. METHODS: We genotyped six polymorphisms (rs2032582, rs10276499 and rs1202169 in ABCB1; rs11075290 and rs215088 in ABCC1; rs717620 in ABCC2) in DNA from cord blood and maternal blood of the Seychelles Child Development Study Nutrition Cohort 2. We determined prenatal MeHg exposure by measuring total mercury (Hg) in cord blood by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. We assessed neurodevelopment in children at approximately 20 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II). We used linear regression models to analyze covariate-adjusted associations of child genotype with cord MeHg and BSID-II outcomes (Mental Developmental and Psychomotor Developmental Indexes). We also evaluated interactions between genotypes, cord MeHg, and neurodevelopmental outcomes. All models were run with and without adjustment for maternal genotype. RESULTS: Of the six evaluated polymorphisms, only ABCC1 rs11075290 was associated with cord blood MeHg; children homozygous for the T-allele had on average 29.99 μg/L MeHg in cord blood while those homozygous for the C-allele had on average 38.06 μg/L MeHg in cord blood (p

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a polymer used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. An estrogen mimic, prenatal BPA exposure has been associated with several behavioral outcomes in children; however, the impact of maternal demographic and economic factors on associations between BPA and child behavioral outcomes have not been examined. The objective of this study was to examine associations between prenatal maternal urinary BPA and behavior in 4-5 year old girls, and to assess whether socio-demographic factors modify this relationship. Mothers enrolled in The Infant Development and Environment Study (TIDES) provided a single spot urine at enrollment (median gestational age 11 weeks) and completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2) and Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2) when their daughters were 4-5 years of age. Mother-daughter pairs with complete phthalate, BASC-2, SRS-2, and covariate data were included in this analysis (N=244). BPA was detectable in 93 % of urine samples. We used multivariable linear regression analyses to estimate associations between maternal urinary log10-transformed BPA concentration and BASC-2 subscale and composite scores and SRS-2 Total Score. To examine the role of socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with study site, we stratified by TIDES center, comparing those enrolled at University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), a predominately lower socioeconomic population, and those enrolled elsewhere: University of Washington, University of Minnesota, and University of California San Francisco, whose populations share similar higher socioeconomic demographic characteristics. Across all centers, no associations were seen between BPA and BASC-2 or SRS-2 scores. When stratifying by center, BPA was significantly associated with greater social impairment as measured by the SRS-2 Total Score (β-coefficient [95 % confidence intervals]: 5.1 [1.0, 9.2]) in URMC participants (N=61). In non-URMC participants (N=183), BPA was significantly associated with lower BASC-2 Internalizing composite (-3.3 [-6.7, 0.0]) and Depression subscale scores (-3.4 [-6.7, 0.0]) while no associations were seen between BPA and SRS-2 scores. Our findings suggest that sociodemographic factors may modify the impacts of maternal prenatal BPA on developmental endpoints.

Wealth, power, and status are distributed unevenly across social groups. A surge of recent research reveals that people being recognizing, representing, and reasoning about group-based patterns of inequity during the first years of life. We first synthesize recent research on what children learn about group-based social hierarchies as well as how this learning occurs. We then discuss how children not only learn about societal structures but become active participants in them. Studying the origins and development of children's thoughts and behavior regarding group-based social hierarchies provides valuable insight into how systems of inequity are perpetuated across generations and how intergroup biases related to wealth, power, and status may be mitigated and reshaped early in development.

Receptive vocabulary development was examined in 313 children (151 girls; 78% White) as a function of infant attention and maternal education (66% of mothers held a college degree or higher). Attention was measured at 10 months using a dynamic puppet task and receptive vocabulary was measured at 3-, 4-, 6-, and 9 years of age using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The best-fitting multilevel growth model was a quadratic model as a function of age. Results indicated that both infant attention and maternal education were predictors of receptive vocabulary initial status, with no differences as a function of child sex. In contrast, infant attention, but not maternal education, predicted growth in receptive language skill, and boys demonstrated a faster rate of receptive language development in comparison to girls. These findings illustrate that even after accounting for child sex and maternal education, infant visual attention predicts children's receptive language development starting from the early preschool period into the elementary school years. These findings demonstrate the importance and nature of the role that infant attention and maternal education play with respect to childhood receptive language development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Although socioeconomic disparities in cognitive ability emerge early in the life course, most research on the consequences of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has focused on school-age children or adolescents. In this study, we outline and test a theoretical model of neighborhood effects on cognitive development during early childhood that highlights the mediating role of exposure to neurotoxic lead. To evaluate this model, we follow 1,266 children in Chicago from birth through school entry and track both their areal risk of lead exposure and their neighborhoods' socioeconomic composition over time. With these data, we estimate the joint effects of neighborhood poverty and environmental lead contamination on receptive vocabulary ability. We find that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods reduces vocabulary skills during early childhood and that this effect operates through a causal mechanism involving lead contamination.

This case series documents developmental changes over time and in response to a novel intervention, Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play), in children with early-life seizures.Thirteen children with early-life seizures were included from a subset of participants in the START-Play multisite, randomized controlled trial. Seven received 3 months of twice weekly START-Play intervention; 6 continued with usual care early intervention. Bayley Scales of Infant Development-III (Cognitive Composite), Gross Motor Function Measure-66 Item Set, Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play, and reaching assessments were administered at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months postbaseline. Change scores are reported at 3 and 12 months postbaseline.Over time, plateau or decline was noted in standardized cognition measures; motor development improved or was stable. Children receiving START-Play showed positive trends in problem-solving (71.4%) and reaching behaviors (57.2%).Interventions such as START-Play that combine motor and cognitive constructs may benefit children with early-life seizures.

BACKGROUND: Evidence about physical activity of young children across developmental and health states is very limited. Using data from an inclusive UK cohort, ActiveCHILD, we investigated relationships between objectively measured physical activity, child development, social context, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: Children (12-36 months), purposively sampled across health pathways, developmental abilities, and sociodemographic factors, were recruited through thirteen National Health Service organisations in England. Data were collected from 07/2017 to 08/2019 on: weekly physical activity (3-7 days) using waist-worn accelerometer (ActiGraph 3GTX); sociodemographics, parent actions, child HRQoL, and child development using questionnaires; and child health conditions using clinical records. A data-driven, unsupervised method, called hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) segmented the accelerometery data and provided estimates of the total time spent active (any intensity) and very active (greater intensity) for each child. Relationships with the explanatory factors were investigated using multiple linear regression. FINDINGS: Physical activity data were obtained for 282 children (56% females, mean age 21 months, 37.5% with a health condition) covering all index of multiple deprivation deciles. The patterns of physical activity consisted of two daily peaks, children spending 6.44 (SD = 1.39) hours active (any intensity), of which 2.78 (SD = 1.38) hours very active, 91% meeting WHO guidelines. The model for total time active (any intensity) explained 24% of variance, with mobility capacity the strongest predictor (β = 0.41). The model for time spent very active explained 59% of variance, with mobility capacity again the strongest predictor (β = 0.76). There was no evidence of physical activity explaining HRQoL. INTERPRETATION: The findings provide new evidence that young children across developmental states regularly achieve mainstream recommended physical activity levels and challenges the belief that children with development problems need lower expectations for daily physical activity compared to peers. Advancing the rights of all children to participate in physical activity requires inclusive, equally ambitious, expectations for all. FUNDING: Niina Kolehmainen, HEE/NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Senior Clinical Lecturer, NIHR ICA-SCL-2015-01-00, was funded by the NIHR for this research project. Christopher Thornton, Olivia Craw, Laura Kudlek, and Laura Cutler were also funded from this award. Tim Rapley is a member of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria, with part of his time funded through the related award (NIHR200173). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS, or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. The work of Kianoush Nazarpour is supported by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), under grant number EP/R004242/2.

Introduction The motivation behind the mechatronic orrery was to create a fun and educational orrery to teach students about the position of the Moon and Earth. The students would be able to operate the orrery as a method of exciting students and so that it would be more engaging than other orreries. Lastly, it was designed with some artistic sense so that it is naturally beautiful if students simply want to look at it. The motivation behind the STS research paper was also an educational purpose, but rather than students, it was to educate parents on their children’s television viewership. I knew that television had been advertised as bad for my health growing up, but I wanted to know if it was truly detrimental to my development. Additionally, I really wanted to know if the worries of television being a detriment to development carried over to other technologies, such as virtual reality. Technical Project Orreries are models of the Solar System that accurately show the positions of the planets around the sun through the use of gear ratios. The reason that these orreries are limited in their use is that you cannot look far into the future. Our project will instead create a mechatronic orrery that can snap automatically into a position that corresponds to any date. The orrery will be able to rotate at a constant rate to show how the Earth and Moon will look while they revolve around the sun. The orrery will allow user input and the orrery will automatically rotate to the exact position of the date entered by the user. 3-D printing will be used to manufacture the majority of the orrery as a way of rapid prototyping. This way of rapid prototyping led to a much better product because more iterations of the shafts could be created and eventually perfected. To control the system, sensors will feed information to microcontrollers which will send data to the motors to tell them when to start. So, the microcontroller will be the brain that determines when the rest of the system will move. STS Research Project My STS research paper is focused on the developmental impacts of television on young children. Media sources have long been scared of television impacts and have portrayed it in a negative light. Books like Fahrenheit 451 and The Veldt have sold millions of copies telling a tale of television atrocities. This has undoubtedly led to a massive concern from many parents over television. What this paper has found though, is that a lot of the worries of television’s effects on children are not quite right. The real problem with television is that it takes away from real world learning. If a child focuses solely on television as entertainment and learning, they are not spending time in a real world environment, which has been proven to be better for childhood education and learning. Television is simply not a good replacement and if children watch it too much, they could fall behind. A similar connection can be made to virtual reality because of the goals that television and virtual reality have. Since VR and TV both want to entertain and immerse, parents should be wary of the technology, and should make sure that children do not consume too much of either technology, otherwise they are losing out on valuable real world learning experiences. Conclusion Conducting my research paper at the same time as my technical project helped me find a new perspective. My technical project focused on educating people on a specific topic, but I also learned a lot about the evolution of technologies. Technologies will continue to become more entertaining and more engaging as innovation occurs. Therefore, the new technologies need to be tested to make sure it does not harm anyone. Also, in understanding my research paper and the fact that technology can be used for education if done correctly, my technical group made sure to add an education aspect into it. So, by conducting both projects at the same time, I was able to pull from each to add to the other. If I had done both of them in isolation, I would have definitely lost out on some aspects of each. For my technical project, I likely would not have made the educational function of showing the seasons and having user input. For my research project, I likely would not have been able to showcase how technologies evolved as well.

Resumo O Programa Criança Feliz (PCF) atinge 1,4 milhão de crianças brasileiras menores de três anos com visitas domiciliares visando o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor. Com base em modelo conceitual, avaliou-se implementação e impacto do PCF em estudo randomizado, em 30 municípios. Ao todo 3.242 crianças foram alocadas para o grupo intervenção (GI) ou controle (GC), sendo 80,0% acompanhadas prospectivamente durante três anos. O desenvolvimento foi avaliado pelo Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ3). Análises por intenção de tratar mostraram escores médios de 203,3 no GI e 201,3 no GC. Análises adicionais com variáveis instrumentais e emparelhamento por escores de propensão tampouco mostraram efeito, uma vez que o número de contatos recebidos não esteve associado aos escores ASQ3. Tampouco foi observado impacto sobre estimulação, interações responsivas ou atributos psicológicos das crianças. As visitas foram interrompidas durante 12 meses devido à COVID-19, sendo substituídas por contatos virtuais. O estudo de implementação revelou baixa cobertura no GI, contaminação do GC, deficiências na gestão e baixa qualidade das visitas em muitos municípios. O estudo não demonstrou impacto do PCF implementado sob condições de rotina e fornece elementos para seu aprimoramento. Abstract The Happy Child Program (Programa Criança Feliz - PCF, in Portuguese) reaches 1.4 million Brazilian children under three years of age with home visits aimed at promoting neuropsychomotor development. Based on a conceptual model, PCF implementation and impact were evaluated in a randomized study in 30 municipalities. A total of 3,242 children were allocated to the intervention (IG) or control (CG) group, 80.0% of whom were prospectively followed up from late 2018 to late 2021. Development was assessed by the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ3). During the three-year study period, visits were replaced by virtual contacts for an average of 12 months due to COVID-19. At the endline survey, intent-to-treat analyses showed mean scores of 203.3 in the IG and 201.3 in the CG. Additional analyses using instrumental variables and propensity scores matching also showed no effect, since the number of contacts with the program was not associated with ASQ3 scores. No impact was observed on stimulation, responsive interactions or psychological attributes of children. The implementation study revealed low coverage in the IG, contamination of the CG, deficiencies in management and low quality of visits in many municipalities. The study did not demonstrate an impact of PCF implemented under routine conditions, but provides elements for its improvement.

Parenting is a determinant of children’s behaviors and personalities. However, parenting styles differ across societies and among individuals and depend on culture, level of education, and income. This paper examined the impact of parenting styles on child development in Qatar. We used the links among socioeconomic factors, parent—child relationships, and child outcomes in identifying parenting styles. The data were collected using a national survey conducted in 2017. The sample was selected using stratified random sampling. The results showed how differences between maternal and paternal parenting styles and work—family balance influence childrearing and children’s personalities. The findings call for mechanisms aimed at generating foundational policies and awareness programs to encourage parents to adopt positive parenting practices.