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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]

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]

Suboptimal parenting characterized by low self-efficacy and perceived impact is associated with poor child mental health and academic outcomes, especially for at-risk families. This study capitalized on a longitudinal study conducted prior to and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to test how prior parenting cognitions and environmental risk factors predict mental health and educational challenges faced by children during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic parenting and environmental risk data are available for a sample of 252 low-income mother-child dyads in Toronto, Canada. Research Findings: Mothers who had lower parental self-efficacy, but higher perceived parental impact prior to COVID-19 reported that their children faced educational challenges during the pandemic. In addition, mothers who reported lower levels of pre-pandemic parental self-efficacy reported that their children were more likely to have emotional and conduct problems greater than the sample average during COVID-19. Practice or Policy: Parents with specific profiles of parenting cognitions may need additional support to help their children cope during the pandemic. [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]

Research from the medical and social science literature has found that spacing births closely together leads to adverse health and socioeconomic outcomes for the younger child. More recent evidence using inter-family comparisons is challenging the validity of those results. However, while inter-family comparisons allow for time-invariant unobservable heterogeneity across families, they cannot fully control for changes in families that occur over time and may affect both decisions about birth intervals as well as child outcomes. To our knowledge, this paper provides the first examination of the effects of birth spacing on later childhood cognitive outcomes that accounts for both time-invariant and time-varying heterogeneity in the same models. Instrumental variables estimations on data from Indonesia indicate that younger siblings perform significantly better on maths assessment exams when they are spaced farther apart from their immediately older sibling. This effect appears to be concentrated among the poorest and least educated households. The data thus suggest that close spacing may be detrimental to the socioeconomic outcomes of the younger sibling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: Research with older children and adults reliably demonstrates that individuals raised in poverty tend to evaluate concerns related to moral concerns (i.e., related to harm, welfare, and justice) differently than do wealthier individuals. However, little work has examined these patterns in young children. Children (N=214, Mage = 53.30 months, SD = 18.3 months) completed tasks regarding accidental and prototypic moral transgressions, and a standard verbal assessment. Parents reported family size and household income, which were used to compute individuals' income-to-needs ratio (INR) compared to federal standards. Using generalized linear mixed modeling (GLMM), a repeated-measure analysis, results indicate that children in low-income families (INR < 2.0) were more lenient in how they evaluate both accidental and prototypic issues, compared to more affluent children. Moreover, they were more likely to evaluate issues based on communal welfare (e.g., equitable resource distribution), whereas more affluent children were more likely to reference psychological harm. Practice or Policy: Practitioners and researchers of early childhood should be cognizant and sensitive to differences in children's social understanding. We encourage scholars to use a strength-based, adaptive approach in future research on children's cognition, particularly involving SES, class, and the like. [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]

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]

In this article, we sought to determine whether perceived enjoyment (PE), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and perceived usefulness (PU) impacted children's attitude toward using an augmented reality mobile application (app) to search for books in a smart library. We used an experiment and a questionnaire survey to measure the perceptions of 238 children of the proposed app. Structural equation modeling was applied in conjunction with the technology acceptance model and flow theory to analyze the collected data. Participants tended to take less notice of their spatial context while using the app and rather focused on their experience of the route. Children's attitudes toward the app were most influenced by PEOU, followed by PE, and PU. This article provides evidence that children with limited cognition abilities using ego-centered navigation to find selected targets tend to emphasize PEOU and thus prioritize processing temporal concepts over emotional and spatial concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small but robust differences in cognition exist between the sexes in adult populations. Studying sex differences in children's cognition can bring insight into when, where and how these differences might emerge in development. Here, we focus on differences in working memory because of its importance in underpinning a wide range of complex cognitive tasks and developmental outcomes for children. Using two levels of difficulty on a standard test of working memory (N-Back), data from 104 6- to 7-year-olds in Cuba showed that boys have quicker reaction times, but girls provide more accurate responses. With a comparable true positive rate between boys and girls, the sex differences in both accuracy and reaction times were limited to false-positive responses. Sex differences were consistent across levels of task difficulty and persisted after speed-accuracy trade-offs were considered. We argue that avoiding false positives requires a particularly strong role for inhibitory control and that this emerges in development according to a different maturational schedule for girls than it does for boys, underpinned by quantitative and qualitative differences in the development of brain areas that support this function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with ADHD are reported to accompany by various degrees of recognition memory cognitive deficits. We aimed to investigate age-related changes of the amplitude in event-related potential recordings on recognition memory in Chinese children with ADHD and to provide theoretical basis of neuro-electrophysiology for the cognition development of children ERP and behavioral data of 6- to -10-year-old children with ADHD (n = 94) and typically developing controls (TD, n = 96) were collected while the children performed a classical visual study-test paradigm task. Children with ADHD have defects in pictures recognition and showed a significantly smaller P2 component than that of TD children. The development of P2 and P3 component were different between the two groups. Moreover, the TD children showed the frontal old/new effect (N2) taken as a correlate of familiarity at 6 years old, and a parietal old/new effect (P3) taken as a correlate of recollection at 9 years old, while children with ADHD showed a parietal old/new effect (P3) only at 6 years old. Our study provided the novel evidence that recognition memory follow different developmental trajectories at the age of 6–10 between TD and ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital sensorineural hearing loss is a common congenital condition. The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between nonverbal mental development and the effect of post-cochlear implant in children. The study is a retrospective analysis of the CI program implemented at the ENT in the Lanzhou University Second Hospital (China). We reviewed data of 225 children who received CI between 2015 and 2018. Finally, 115 children met the inclusion criteria. Our hospital used The Griffith mental development scales to evaluate the preoperative non-verbal intelligence. The outcome of CI was evaluated using the categories of IT-MAIS, MUSS, CAP and SIR at 2 years after surgery. The associations between the preoperative non-verbal development quotient (DQ) and the postoperative outcomes were analyzed. Preoperative non-verbal DQ correlates with the long-term postoperative result, especially the Eye‐hand co-ordination and Performance DQ. Preoperative non-verbal intelligence would predict postoperative effect. The single postoperative scale does not fully reflect the postoperative result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Vocabulary relates to overall language proficiency and is important for academic success. Word definition (WD) tasks can be used to assess vocabulary depth and definition skills. We investigate monolingual and bilingual children's performances on a WD task, and how bilingualism, level of parental education, school characteristics (proportion of students with Swedish as second language and proportion of parents with tertiary education), CELF-4 Core Language Score, and non-verbal IQ contribute to their performance. We also evaluate the level of difficulty of the test items and the test's internal consistency. Method: Two hundred and eight children (mean age 7:8, range 6:8–9:0) were assessed with a 10-item WD task. Amount of information included in the definitions gave the WD score and number of words with at least partially correct information gave a Word knowledge score. Result: The bilingual group had lower scores on both measures. In isolation bilingualism explained 15% of the variance of the WD score. With all background factors included, the only significant predictor was CELF-4 Core Language Score, uniquely explaining 24.3% of the variance. Response patterns on the WD score were similar between groups. Internal consistency was > α = 0.7 for both measurements. Conclusion: Bilingual children performed lower than monolingual children on a WD task, but bilingualism alone cannot explain poor results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated perceptual simulation and its relationship with literacy ability in Chinese children. Ninety-three third-grade Hong Kong Chinese children completed a sentence-picture verification task for perceptual simulation. In this task, a sentence mentioning an object was presented first, followed by a picture involving the object. The picture was either a perceptual match with the preceding sentence or a mismatch. The participants were asked to judge whether the object in the picture was mentioned in the preceding sentence. Literacy ability was measured by a Chinese character reading task. Model analysis revealed a significant mismatch effect: the children gave faster correct responses to the perceptually matched pictures than to the mismatched ones. Furthermore, the children with lower literacy abilities displayed larger mismatch effects than those with higher literacy abilities. The results suggest that children with lower literacy abilities may rely more heavily on reactivated perceptual representations in language comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the use of child safety seats can effectively ensure the safety of children in cars, the utilization rate of such seats in China is still low (<5%, 2021). Therefore, it is urgent to promote the use of child safety seats. The goal of this study was to examine the factors affecting parents' support for child safety seat legislation. Data were collected via 1200 questionnaires distributed in several community hospitals in Nanjing. We used the data to do a multivariate logistic regression analysis to find the influencing factors of parental support for child safety seat legislation. On the whole, the respondents had low support for legislation mandating the installation of child safety seats. Although only 5.83% of the respondents expressed opposition to the relevant legislation, more than 40% expressed a neutral attitude rather than a supportive attitude. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that gender, monthly household income, educational level, number of children in the family, comprehension of child safety seat-related publicity information, and cognition of children's riding safety significantly affected parents' support for child safety seat legislation. In addition to gender and cognition of children's riding safety, other influential factors had significant positive impacts on legislative support for compulsory installation of child safety seats. These results have implications for making more effective recommendations to advance child safety seat legislation and keep child passengers safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive processes play an imperative role in children's mathematics learning. Difficulties in cognitive functioning are a core feature of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children, who also tend to show lower levels of mathematics attainment than their typically developing peers. This review (registration number: CRD42020169708) sought to aggregate findings from studies assessing the relationship between cognition and mathematics in children with a clinical ADHD diagnosis aged 4–12 years. A total of 11,799 studies published between 1992 and August 2020 were screened for eligibility using various database (PsycINFO, PubMed, SCOPUS, EMBASE, ERIC, Web of Science, and additional sources), from which four studies met inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis was conducted on the correlations between mathematics and cognitive domains, including an evaluation of the risk of bias within the studies. Across four studies meeting inclusion criteria, memory, inhibitory control, and processing speed were assessed. The results showed a positive association between cognition and mathematics performance in this population. The strength of associations across these studies varied as a function of the cognitive domain in question, means by which mathematics performance was assessed, as well as whether confounding factors such as age and IQ were controlled for. Collectively, this review demonstrates a lack of research in this area and points to various methodological considerations for identifying the association between cognition and mathematics performance in ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Occupational Therapy Pediatric Inventory of Cognitive Skills (OT-PICS) is being developed to evaluate functional cognition skills in children in the domains of play, educational participation, and self-care. This study aimed to determine the content validity and inter-rater reliability of the OT-PICS. Seven content experts agreed that all 15 items of the tool are essential items to examine functional cognition in children (k = 0.71–1.0; I-CVI = 0.71–1.0; S-CVI = 0.96. The OT-PICS also has moderate reliability (ICC = 0.63) between nine trained raters. The tool was then revised and refined for clarity based on therapist's comments and feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysregulation Profile (DP) describes the psychopathological construct of concurrent impairments in the ability to regulate emotion, behaviour, and cognition measured by the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). Such transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology play an important role in addition to core symptoms of psychiatric diagnosis in clinical practice. Evaluation of DP in children with different mental disorders may improve our understanding and treatment of both contents. 911 clinically referred children between 6 and 18 years were investigated. The sample consisted of five 'pure' disorders groups, that is, tic disorder (TIC), anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and two comorbid disorder group, that is, ADHD + TIC and ADHD + oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). DP level and latent structure were compared across groups. The rate of severe/abnormal dysregulation rates varied from 15% to 44% when the 210 cut-off was used, and 5% to 18% when stringent cut-off was used (i.e. ≥70 on all DP-subscales). The most affected population were children with comorbid ADHD with ODD/TIC, while least were those with TIC only. Five different latent phenotypes of DP were found. DP above clinical cut-off level widely exists in clinically referred children in parallel to core symptoms of their diagnosis, especially among children with comorbidities. During clinical assessment it would be worth to clarify the role of DP-related problems within the general psychosocial impairment of the patient to improve a personalized approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how specific characteristics of multipiece, miniature, realistic play props (thematically open-ended village set versus thematically closed-ended train set) designed to enhance children's pretense influenced their scenario creativity, object transformations, and the frequency and use of specific internal-state language. The sample consisted of 7-year-olds (n = 52) focal children playing with a sibling and a friend and focused on associations of play scenarios (i.e., set-up/organization, expected scenarios, creative scenarios), object use (i.e., set-up/organization, expected use, creative use, and no object), and internal-state language (i.e., references to cognitions, goals, emotions, preferences). Children engaged in more expected scenarios and object use with the closed-ended train set than with the open-ended village set. Play set differentially impacted the use of internal-state language: More references to goals were evident during train play, whereas a trend indicated that children employed more references to cognitions with the village. The pattern of findings indicates that children's play communications may be associated with specific types of play props; thus, different play props may enhance pretense in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many dysregulated behaviours, used to cope with intense or unwanted emotion, can be learned in an interpersonal context. Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is potentially one such behaviour. In this study we explored whether knowing a parent self-injured was related to NSSI among young adults, and whether such an association was associated with thoughts and beliefs about NSSI. Specifically we tested the roles of anticipated outcomes of NSSI, and belief in the ability to resist urges to self-injure, in this relationship. A sample of 669 university students, aged between 17 and 30 years (M = 20.77, SD = 2.31), completed self-report measures of the constructs of interest. Of the sample 43 (6.4%) were aware of a parent self-injuring; this was associated with a threefold increase in history of NSSI reported by participants. This relationship was mediated by expectations that NSSI would relieve negative affect, and weaker expectations of resulting physical pain. The relationship between pain expectancies and NSSI was moderated by self-efficacy to resist NSSI. The results suggest that knowledge of parental NSSI may be a risk factor for NSSI among their children, and that cognitions about NSSI could be a potential mechanism explaining this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When China was a low-income country chasing middle-income status, the nation required a labor force that was numerate, literate, and disciplined; China delivered. Salaried work in the formal sector is also a dominant feature of China's middle class, accounting for the income of 70 percent of middle-class individuals.[38] China divides its people into two categories from birth: urban and rural Most of the 900 million people classified as rural in China have been kept out of the middle class largely because the I hukou i system explicitly restricts access to high quality education and healthcare to urban families. China's economy has doubled in size every eight years since 1979, making it over 32 times bigger now then it was then and the second largest in the world today.[1] Four decades of growth have ushered more than 400 million people in China into the global middle class.[2] According to the World Bank, China is currently an upper middle-income country. 13 Li et al., "Human Capital and China's Future Growth"; National Bureau of Statistics of China, I China Statistical Yearbook i (Beijing: China Statistical Press, 2010), http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2010/indexeh.htm. [Extracted from the article]

The development of (early) numerical cognition builds on children's ability to understand and manipulate quantities and numbers. However, previous research did not find conclusive evidence on the role of symbolic and non-symbolic skills in the development of (early) numerical cognition. The aim of the current study was to clarify the relation between different types of non-symbolic quantity skills, symbolic numerical skills and early numerical cognition. A sample of 43 children was tested at the age of 3.5 years and at the age of 5 years. At 3.5 years, non-symbolic number line estimation, non-symbolic quantity comparison and symbolic enumerating skills were measured. At 5 years, early numerical cognition, defined as symbolic number line estimation and counting, were measured It was found that non-symbolic number line estimation at 3.5 years could predict both symbolic number line estimation and counting at 5 years. Enumerating at 3.5 years could only predict counting at 5 years. This suggests that both non-symbolic and symbolic skills play a role in the development of early numerical cognition, although enumerating skills do not transfer to all types of early numerical cognition. Furthermore, not all non-symbolic skills seem to play an important role in the development of early numerical cognition. The results suggest that non-symbolic quantity comparison does not contribute much to the development of early numerical cognition. Associations between non-symbolic quantities and space, operationalized here as non-symbolic number line estimation, seem central to the development of early math from preschool to kindergarten age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Asenze study has the long-term goal of promoting better physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning of children in a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, 50 km from Durban, with a view to planning interventions to promote growth and development for very young children. The specific objective in this paper was to provide information for the Child Health and Development project of the Valley Trust to assist with intervention planning. The broader goal was to assess developmental delays in communities ravaged by the HIV epidemic. The Asenze study was designed in two phases from 2008 and 2012. The current paper reports on 1 581 4–6-year-old children in the baseline phase (2008–2010) in the five adjacent tribal areas in the study area. Method: The participants included all the 4–6-year-olds whose parents had consented to inclusion in the project and their caregivers. Data were derived from a brief questionnaire administered in the homes of participants, and subsequently from medical and psychological assessments of the children and their caregivers at the Asenze clinic. The association between child factors and other factors (geographic area, socioeconomic status (SES), parental level of education, the child's preschool education) on the one hand, and the child's cognitive performance (as measured by the Grover Counter and subtests of the KABC-11) were analysed. Linear regression models were employed to determine which predictor variables of interest in a model were associated with the children's cognitive scores as the dependent variables. Results: Based on the data, the principal factors associated with children's cognitive outcomes were height-for-age z-score (HAZ), preschool education and the area of residence. Generally children who had low cognitive scores were more often stunted (as defined by the WHO anthropometric tables), had not had preschool education, and came from areas less favourable in terms of local infrastructure and access to employment opportunities and arable land. Conclusion: The finding from this cross-sectional analysis of baseline data showed that in addition to height for age and preschool education, which are commonly thought to impact on cognition, the local authority area where the children lived was associated with their scores on cognitive tests. This has implications for intervention planning. The functioning of local government in promoting the type of community development that will protect the rights of children should be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to verify the effects of swimming–learning program of mental health parameters, cognition and motor coordination in students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Thirty-three children of both sexes between 11 and 14 years were randomized into trained group (n = 18) and untrained group (n = 15). The training was performed for 8 weeks. Then, before and after 48 h of training period of both groups were submitted to find the mental health, cognition, motor coordination test, and physical fitness. Our results demonstrate that the aquatic exercise program significantly improved the depression parameters (p = 0.048), stress (p = 0.039), cognitive flexibility (p = 0.042) and selective attention (p = 0.047). In relation to motor coordination and physical fitness, the results showed significant improvements in the coordination of lower limbs laterality (p = 0.05), flexibility (p = 0.049), and abdominal resistance (p = 0.037). Taken together, the results suggest that swimming–learning program significantly improved the mental health, cognition, and motor coordination in children with ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature has shown the importance of social cognition for emotional wellness. However, to our knowledge, few studies so far investigated the relationship between social cognition and anxiety in childhood. No study systematically examined social cognition in relation to specific domains of anxiety. By a correlational design and multivariate models, we explored in a sample of 337 children the association between five anxiety phenotypes and two social cognition domains (Mentalization/Attributional style). After controlling for depressive symptoms, we found that a good performance in the mentalization task was predicted by high levels of generalized anxiety and low levels of separation anxiety. Moreover, positive attributions for good events were predicted by low levels of social anxiety. The present findings remark the importance of rehabilitating social cognition skills in children with social/separation anxiety and depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of programming in computing education for children has grown rapidly in recent years with the proliferation of specially designed programming tools, which is grounded on Seymour Papert's theoretical work in Constructionism. Studies show that some children can develop computational thinking skills and practices with programming activities when learning with the tools through a well-design curriculum in elementary education (or primary education). However, existing studies may not completely address whether programming skills and computational thinking can be connected to the development of other generic skills, which are considered important to the learning and cognitive development of children. This study investigates the impact of programming on three learning competencies (creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving) known as twenty-first century skills. The conceptual mapping between programming, computational thinking and the three learning competencies is presented. In a one-year intervention in a primary school, students were taught how to build interactive games through programming, and thus explored some basic computational thinking concepts in class. Our results show that children perceived a significant impact of programming on their learning competencies. Yet, the transferability of twenty-first century skills developed through computational thinking and programming may require a further study. Our study provides insights from children as primary respondents to help direct future research in the field of programming and computational thinking education and its potential impact on twenty-first century skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to assess the impact of maternal common mental disorders (CMD) among caregivers living with HIV on the cognitive functioning of their child. Data were collected at baseline and 12 months follow-up from mother–child dyads recruited as part of an ongoing trial in Zimbabwe. Symptoms of CMD were assessed using the Shona Symptom Questionnaire. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to assess child cognitive scores at follow-up (using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning) in relation to caregiver CMD prevalence over 12 months. At baseline, caregivers reporting CMD (n = 230; 40.1%) were less likely to have completed higher education (46.9% vs. 56.9%; p = 0.02), more likely to be unmarried (27.8% vs. 16.0%; p < 0.01), and experience food insecurity (50.0% vs. 29.4%; p < 0.01) compared to the group without CMD (n = 344). There were 4 CMD patterns over time: (i) Emerging CMD (n = 101; 19.7% of caregivers) defined as those who were below the cut-off at baseline, and above it at 12 months; (ii) Improving CMD (n = 76; 14.8%) defined as those who reported CMD at baseline, and were below the cut-off by follow-up; (iii) No CMD (n = 206; 40.1%) defined as those who did not report CMD symptoms at either time point; and (iv) Chronic CMD (n = 131; 25.5%) defined as those who reported CMD above the cut-off at both time points. Children of caregivers with chronic CMD (n = 131, 25.5%) had lower receptive language scores (aMD:−2.81, 95%CI −5.1 to −0.6; p = 0.05) compared to the reference group with no CMD (n = 206, 40.1%). Exposure to caregiver CMD over a prolonged period may affect child receptive vocabulary skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research investigating the cognition of children exposed to non-familial trauma is scarce and the effects of post-traumatic stress symptoms in this population remain unclear. Thus, this research aimed to investigate the cognition of children exposed to motor vehicle accidents given the high incidence of this trauma globally. It was hypothesized that children with post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS; i.e., children with subthreshold or a full diagnosis of PTSD; n = 6) would perform significantly worse on cognitive measures compared to children exposed to trauma only (TO; i.e., children with very minimal or no PTSS; n = 10) and a healthy control group (n = 19). Analyses showed children with PTSS demonstrated significantly poorer perceptual reasoning F(2,32) = 7.21, p =.01, partial η2 =.31; verbal learning F(2,32) = 3.87, p =.05, partial η2 =.20; and delayed verbal memory F(2,32) = 4.40, p =.05, partial η2 =.22, compared to HCs. The magnitude of the differences between the groups was large. Differences in immediate verbal recall, executive functioning, and verbal intellectual abilities were moderate to large in magnitude, with the PTSS group performing worse than both groups, but these findings did not reach significance. Overall findings from this study provide further support for the notion that children exposed to non-familial trauma with significant PTSS display cognitive difficulties compared to healthy children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Recent work suggests potential postprandial benefits for cognition and on-task behavior in children, depending on the macronutrients consumed, as well as individual differences such as sex and glucoregulation. We examined the effects of 1% milk versus apple juice on cognition and on-task behavior among healthy school-age children, predicting that milk would promote better performance and a greater presence of on-task behavior compared to juice. We also examined how sex and glucoregulation influenced cognition and behavior following each beverage. Methods: Eighty-four English-speaking children ages 8–12 (45 female, 39 male) attended two 0800 testing sessions after fasting overnight in a crossover design. Participant sessions were counterbalanced to include 237 mL of 1% milk or apple juice. Behavioral measures and complex attentional and executive function tasks were assessed at baseline, 30, 90, and 120 min post-ingestion. Outcomes were analyzed using repeated measures mixed models. Results: Participants with fasting glucose levels above 89.91 mg/dL responded more quickly in an inhibitory control paradigm following milk. Females performed faster on a vigilance task, but less accurately in a working memory paradigm after milk versus juice. No effects were found for on-task behavior. Discussion: Results demonstrated modulatory effects of glucoregulation and sex on postprandial cognition. Milk may improve cognitive performance in school-aged children with higher fasting glucose, and may be the optimal choice for speed among females, whereas juice may be better for accuracy. Future work should utilize designs incorporating glucoregulation and sex, and consider additional biological variables to better understand postprandial cognition and behavior in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore how children bring together motor processes, language and perception when embodying emotional states (Condition 1) versus factual events (Condition 2) through the story characters of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. Children aged 3–4 years (N = 33) were observed while enacting each story-character through adult-initiated sessions. Findings showed that when children embodied the characters with emotional implications, they spent more time, they indicated higher frequencies of motor skills (criteria adapted from Castañer et al. [2009. "Identifying and Analyzing Motor Skill Responses in Body Movement and Dance." Behavior Research Methods 41 (3): 857–867]) and they were more likely to use emotions in their discussions. Such findings have implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the contributions of the environmental context on cognitive development in a representative sample of children (24–59 month-olds) in Nicaragua. Multivariate regression models revealed that children who experienced high levels of structure in the home, encountered more social interaction, and were enrolled in early education programs, exhibited higher cognitive skills. These factors were related to, but better accounted for, variability in children's skills than the socio-economic endowment of the home or maternal education levels – the two most commonly used proxies to quantify children's early contexts. Results from this study provide validation of the relation between children's proximal early social environment and cognitive outcomes in a novel context. The results also provide motivation for deeper empirical investigation in the specific aspects of the home environment that may be central to providing resilience to low wealth populations, and to reducing inequality in developmental skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little evidence regarding the benefits of early center-based care attendance (before three years old) for child development and most studies have focused on developed countries. Addressing this gap, this study examines the relationship between center-based care attendance during toddler years and children's cognitive outcomes. Research Findings: Data used for this study came from the first and second wave of the Longitudinal Survey of Early Childhood (ELPI, 2010 and 2012). The nationally representative sample was 1,544 children aged 12 to 24 months in 2010, who received full-time home care during this period. Propensity score matching (PSM) and difference-in-differences techniques were used in the study. Compared to those in full-time home care, children who attended center-based care from the age of 24 months had higher cognitive scores in the endline (they were measured at some point between 36 and 48 months old). Children in center-based care scored higher on cognitive skills compared to children who were in full-time home care, according to the Child Development and Cognitive Evaluation Test (Test de Aprendizaje y Desarrollo Infantil, TADI) and the Battelle test (d =.21 p <.01 and d =.22 p <.01, respectively). However, we observed that children in low-income households benefited less from early center-based care attendance. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that Chilean national policies supporting increased center-based care coverage in early years are a step in the right direction, but more work focused on helping disadvantaged children is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on examining the impact of cognitively engaging physical activity on preschool children's cognitive outcomes. Topics include a six-week intervention comparing different activity types, the assessment of executive functions and enjoyment, and the potential benefits of integrating movement with cognitive tasks in educational settings.

A person-oriented approach examined the extent to which patterns of school readiness across social and cognitive domains in 944 typically-developing 54-month-old children forecast academic achievement, social-emotional development, risk taking, and executive functioning at age 15. Prior work identified six distinct profiles of school readiness at 54 months that predicted group differences in achievement in first grade, as well as achievement and social-emotional outcomes in fifth grade. After controlling for demographics, early language skills, and home and school factors, the 54-month readiness profiles demonstrated different performance on risk-taking and executive function behaviors assessed at age 15. Children with attention problems at 54 months were most likely to believe that peers were engaging in risky behaviors and to have smoked more than 2 cigarettes by age 15. Children with low working memory and low to average social skills at 54 months were outperformed by their peers on working memory and executive function tasks at age 15. Results are discussed in terms of continuity in forms of developmental function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the role of empathy (cognitive, emotional) as a moderator in the link between coping and proactive and reactive relational aggression (RA) among 328 Greek preadolescents. The results indicated positive associations between emotion-focused coping (i.e., minimization), maladaptive coping, including resignation, passive avoidance, rumination, and aggression, and proactive and reactive RA. Negative associations were found between cognitive and emotional empathy and both RA functions. The findings also revealed that both components of empathy moderated the associations between rumination and aggressive coping and reactive RA. With regards to proactive RA, its link with rumination was moderated by low cognitive and emotional empathy. This evidence confirms prior research and sheds more light on the socio-emotive characteristics of relational aggressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes an interaction design approach to explore how children perceive augmented toys, assign symbolic meaning, and perform pretence socially in technology-mediated playing. We developed a system with three kinds of toys—each with distinct abstract appearances and audiovisual augmentation—based on several design decisions. An observational user study with thirty-two young children aged 3–7 years revealed that children utilized digital augmentation as a facilitator of pretending behaviour with the possibility for subjective interpretation while substituting an object for another. Digital augmentation was not only a social cue for children to respond by gathering together and negotiating socially for mutual pretence—it was also a hindrance by amplifying conflicts in a shared space. Our study empirically clarifies children's cognition and behaviour in an interactive system for pretend play and provides broader insight for the design of an interface enriching symbolic interpretation and social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intestinal parasites affect millions of children globally. We aimed to assess effects of deworming children on nutritional and cognitive outcomes across potential effect modifiers using individual participant data (IPD). We searched multiple databases to 27 March 2018, grey literature, and other sources. We included randomised and quasi randomised trials of deworming compared to placebo or other nutritional interventions with data on baseline infection. We used a random-effects network meta-analysis with IPD and assessed overall quality, following a pre-specified protocol. We received IPD from 19 trials of STH deworming. Overall risk of bias was low. There were no statistically significant subgroup effects across age, sex, nutritional status or infection intensity for each type of STH. These analyses showed that children with moderate or heavy intensity infections, deworming for STH may increase weight gain (very low certainty). The added value of this review is an exploration of effects on growth and cognition in children with moderate to heavy infections as well as replicating prior systematic review results of small effects at the population level. Policy implications are that complementary public health strategies need to be assessed and considered to achieve growth and cognition benefits for children in helminth endemic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Existing research has shown that children with significant hearing loss who use cochlear implants (CIs) perform worse than their hearing peers on behavioral measures of spoken language. The present study sought to examine how children with CIs process lexical–semantic incongruence, as indexed by electrophysiological evidence of the N400 effect. Method: Twelve children with CIs, aged between 6 and 9 years, participated in a spoken word–picture matching task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. To determine whether the N400 effect elicited in this group deviated from normal, independent samples t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses were used to compare the results of children with CIs against those of a similarly aged typically hearing (TH) group (n = 30). Correlational analyses were also conducted within each group to gauge the degree to which the N400 effect related to behavioral measures of spoken language. Results: An N400 effect was elicited in both groups of CI and TH children. The amplitude and latency of the N400 effect did not differ significantly between groups. Despite the similarity in ERP responses, children with CIs scored significantly lower on behavioral measures of spoken word- and sentence-level comprehension. No significant correlations between ERP and behavioral measures were found, although there was a trending relationship between sentence-level spoken language comprehension and the TH group's N400 effect mean amplitude (p =.060). Conclusions: The results suggest that, at a neural level, children with CIs can process lexical–semantic incongruence, and that other underlying processes not measured by the N400 effect contribute to this population's spoken language difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined currently popular children's television shows to determine the prevalence of violent, prosocial, educational, and fantastical content (including fantastical events and anthropomorphism). Network, style, and content ratings were collected for 88 shows using a combination of Common Sense Media and laboratory ratings applied to two randomly-selected episodes of each show. Overall, currently popular children's television shows were most often animated and contained little violent, prosocial, or educational content, but a great deal of fantastical content. Interrelations among variables were also examined. Shows with fantastical events were both more violent and more prosocial than shows without, and shows with anthropomorphism were more prosocial than shows without. The network on which a show aired predicted violent, prosocial, and educational content, but not fantastical content. Children's television today is not as violent as might be believed, but nor is it particularly prosocial or educational. It is highly fantastical. The implications of the landscape for children's behavior, learning, and cognition are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical thinking when engaged in science problem solving around even simple tasks such as the Piagetian volume conservation task is a complex endeavor. Tasks such as the conservation task often require the interaction of multiple cognitive systems. Parity judgment, retrieval, and lateral thinking are three examples of such systems interacting with critical thinking during a student's attempt to solve the Piagetian task. The purpose of this computational ablation study is to establish the role of critical thinking as a necessary component of a system of cognition used for the completion of the Piagetian volume conservation task. This ablation study consists of three phases. The confidence interval between the ablation model and the elementary students do not overlap, indicating they are not statistically significantly different. This provides evidence that the model successfully emulates aspects of human cognition and the model can provide a robust picture of science student cognitive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Playing is essential for the development of higher psychological functions. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that playing constitutes an essential step in children's socio-cognitive development by describing playtime as the indicator of the gradual overcoming of self-centred thinking, with a view to acquiring new social adjustment strategies. The research activity included 64 children from nursery schools in Italy (average age 4.3) and was based on the direct and video-recorded observation of children's spontaneous play at school. Two coding systems were applied to analyse variations in ideation, exploration, socializing, and imitation activities. The preliminary results seem to confirm that playing provides a framework within which it is possible to articulate and express the child's progress in terms of both social development and cognitive skills. The mutual adjustment of the development of these two processes is also shown in the stepwise changing of the way in which conflicts are negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because shy children are at risk for poor academic achievement, it is important to examine factors that contribute to variability in the relation between individual differences in shyness and cognitive functioning before school entry. The authors examined whether on-task facilitative private speech—a proxy of self-regulation—moderated the association between individual differences in shyness and performance on an executive function (EF) task in 52 typically developing 4-year-olds. They found that private speech interacted with shyness to predict performance on the EF task in girls but not in boys. More specifically, shyness was inversely related to EF task performance when girls used low amounts of regulatory private speech, but was positively related to performance when girls used high amounts of regulatory private speech. These preliminary findings are discussed in the context of implications for shy children in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of autobiographical memory is as a gradual process beginning in early childhood and continuing through late adolescence. Substantial attention has been paid to early childhood when first personal memories are formed; less attention has been focused on the flourishing of memories from the late preschool years onward. We addressed this void with a three-year cohort-sequential study of age-related changes in the length, completeness, and coherence of autobiographical narratives by children 4-10 years. We also examined the unique and combined variance in autobiographical narrative explained by children’s own language, maternal narrative style, domain-general cognitive abilities, non-autobiographical story recall, and memory-specific skills. There was substantial growth in autobiographical narrative skill across the 4-10-year period. Non-autobiographical story recall was a strong concurrent and cross-lagged predictor for all autobiographical narrative measures. Memory-specific and domain-general cognitive abilities systematically predicted narrative completeness and coherence but not length. Children’s language and maternal narrative style did not contribute additional variance when these predictors were considered. The findings highlight that age-related changes in autobiographical memory are the results of combined contributions of a variety of domain-general and domain-specific predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work suggests that the estimated age in adults’ earliest autobiographical memories depends on age information implied by the experimental context [e.g., Kingo, O. S., Bohn, A., & Krøjgaard, P. (2013). Warm-up questions on early childhood memories affect the reported age of earliest memories in late adolescence. Memory, 21(2), 280-284. doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.729598] and that the age in decontextualised snippets of memory is younger than in more complete accounts (i.e., event memories [Bruce, D., Wilcox-O’Hearn, L. A., Robinson, J. A., Phillips-Grant, K., Francis, L., & Smith, M. C. (2005). Fragment memories mark the end of childhood amnesia. Memory & Cognition, 33(4), 567-576. doi:10.3758/BF03195324]). We examined the malleability of the estimated age in undergraduates’ earliest memories and its relation with memory quality. In Study 1 (n = 141), vignettes referring to events happening at age 2 rendered earlier reported ages than examples referring to age 6. Exploratory analyses suggested that event memories were more sensitive to the age manipulation than memories representing a single, isolated scene (i.e., snapshots). In Study 2 (n = 162), asking self-relevant and public-event knowledge questions about participants’ preschool years prior to retrieval yielded comparable average estimated ages. Both types of semantic knowledge questions rendered earlier memories than a no-age control task. Overall, the reported age in snapshots was younger than in event memories. However, age-differences between memory types across conditions were not statistically significant. Together, the results add to the growing literature indicating that the average age in earliest memories is not as fixed as previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low birthweight (<2500 g), associated with low socioeconomic status, has a negative effect on cognition and development. This is especially true for fluid intelligence and language. This study aimed to examine and identify (1) fluid intelligence and language in low- and adequate-birthweight children in a low-income Brazilian neighborhood and (2) the environmental factors that could account for potential group differences. There were 100 children participated in the study, of whom 53 had low birthweight and 47 had adequate birthweight. The children completed a battery of tests for fluid cognition and language. Their socioeconomic background and home environment were explored through a caregiver questionnaire. The results indicated significant group differences in fluid intelligence but not in language. Environmental factors partially explained the results. The variables ‘years of preschool’ and ‘number of learning games/books’ predicted better test results. Furthermore, the children underperformed in naming speed but not in accuracy, and the low-birthweight children also underperformed in fluid intelligence. It is concluded that environmental factors affect both birthweight groups and may compromise child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the play behavior. Three contemporary concepts of play merit special attention have been developed as numerous research studies popularize them. Descriptions of play from these theories include play as arousal-seeking behavior, play as a vital element in the cognitive development of children and a description of the outcomes of play as behaviors which lead to mastering modular routines for their incorporation into larger routines. Furthermore, implications of the theories on the play environment were discussed.

Cognitive neuroscience models suggest both reward valuation and cognitive control contribute to reward-based decision-making. The current study examined the relationship between cognitive control and delay discounting (i.e., choosing smaller, immediate over larger, delayed rewards) in a large sample of boys and girls diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; N = 95) and typically developing control children (TD; N = 59). Specifically, we examined performance on multiple measures of cognitive control (i.e., Go/No-Go task, Stop Signal task, and Spatial Span task) and delay discounting (i.e., Classic Delay Discounting and Real-Time Delay Discounting tasks), as well as the relationship between these measures. Results indicated that sex moderated the effects of group on task performance. Specifically, girls with ADHD, but not boys with the disorder, exhibited atypical delay discounting of real-time rewards. Results from correlational analyses indicated that delay discounting and cognitive control were not significantly correlated in the overall sample. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that among girls with ADHD poorer spatial working memory and inhibitory control predicted greater real-time discounting. Collectively, findings provide support for distinct patterns of cognitive control and delay discounting among school-aged girls and boys with ADHD. Additionally, findings suggest that among girls with ADHD, those who exhibit relatively poor working memory and inhibitory control might be a particularly vulnerable subgroup with the greatest propensity to exhibit maladaptive decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Research studies have shown that early intensive behaviour intervention is an effective treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However a research‐to‐practice gap exists, whereby the interventions effective in university‐based studies are not implemented effectively in community settings. The current study is an audit of outcomes achieved by children with ASD who have completed a community‐based early intensive behaviour intervention program in Australia. Method: The educational placement of 45 participants, following an average 20 hr of intervention per week for 24 months is reported. Standardised assessment results at entry and exit from intervention are reported for a subset of 32 participants. Results: On average the 32 participants demonstrated statistically significant increases in receptive and expressive language, cognitive, and adaptive behaviour skills. Three outcome groups emerged; a ‘substantial gain’ group (45%), ‘moderate gain’ group (27.5%), and a ‘minimal gain’ group (27.5%). Conclusions: The results demonstrate that by implementing ‘best practice’ early intensive behaviour intervention in a not‐for‐profit, community‐based setting, children with ASD can achieve outcomes comparable to those reported in university‐based research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about white matter microstructure and its role in information processing abilities of children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) early posttreatment. Twenty-one survivors of ALL and 18 controls (7-16 years) underwent neurocognitive assessment. A subsample underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. The ALL group performed poorer on measures of processing capacity, and had widespread areas of decreased fractional anisotropy and increased radial diffusivity. Significant group by white matter microstructure interactions was found when predicting processing speed. Findings provide evidence for an atypical brain-behavior relationship early posttreatment for childhood ALL. Replication in a larger sample is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]