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BackgroundWe sought to quantify the efficiency and acceptability of Internet-based recruitment for engaging an especially hard-to-reach cohort (college-students with type 1 diabetes, T1D) and to describe the approach used for implementing a health-related trial entirely online using off-the-shelf tools inclusive of participant safety and validity concerns.MethodWe recruited youth (ages 17-25 years) with T1D via a variety of social media platforms and other outreach channels. We quantified response rate and participant characteristics across channels with engagement metrics tracked via Google Analytics and participant survey data. We developed decision rules to identify invalid (duplicative/false) records (N = 89) and compared them to valid cases (N = 138).ResultsFacebook was the highest yield recruitment source; demographics differed by platform. Invalid records were prevalent; invalid records were more likely to be recruited from Twitter or Instagram and differed from valid cases across most demographics. Valid cases closely resembled characteristics obtained from Google Analytics and from prior data on platform user-base. Retention was high, with complete follow-up for 88.4%. There were no safety concerns and participants reported high acceptability for future recruitment via social media.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that recruitment of college students with T1D into a longitudinal intervention trial via social media is feasible, efficient, acceptable, and yields a sample representative of the user-base from which they were drawn. Given observed differences in characteristics across recruitment channels, recruiting across multiple platforms is recommended to optimize sample diversity. Trial implementation, engagement tracking, and retention are feasible with off-the-shelf tools using preexisting platforms.

Prior work has found links between consistency in toddler handedness for the fine motor skill role-differentiated bimanual manipulation (RDBM), and language development at 2 and 3 years of age. The current study investigated whether consistency in handedness from 18 to 24 months (N = 90) for RDBM predicts receptive and expressive language abilities assessed using the Preschool Language Scales 5th edition (PLS-5) at 5 years old. Latent class growth analyses identified 3 stable RDBM hand preference trajectories: a left hand preference with moderate right hand use (left-moderate right), a right hand preference with moderate left hand use (right-moderate left), and a right hand preference with only mild left hand use (right-mild left). At 5 years of age, children with a right-mild left handedness trajectory as toddlers scored significantly higher on receptive and expressive language abilities compared to children with a left-moderate right hand preference. Children with a right-mild left hand preference for RDBM also scored significantly higher on receptive language abilities compared to children with a right-moderate left RDBM hand preference. Children with left-moderate right and children with a right-moderate left hand preference for RDBM as toddlers did not differ in receptive or expressive language abilities at 5 years. Results indicate that individual differences in hand preference consistency for fine motor skill in toddlerhood have cascading effects on language outcomes into the preschool years.

Background: Parents' conceptualizations of adulthood for their emerging adults with Down syndrome have the potential to impact the transition planning process as families prepare for life after graduation. Aims: This study aimed to explore parent perceptions of the meaning of adulthood for their emerging adults with Down syndrome. Methods: In this qualitative study, we interviewed 11 parents of emerging adults with Down syndrome using phenomenological methodology and analysed these data using thematic analysis. Results: Three topics emerged: (1) Parents' constructions of the meaning of adulthood; (2) Parents' perceptions about the transition to adulthood; and (3) Parents' perceptions of current adult life skills. Ten themes arose out of these topics. Conclusions: Parents expressed ambivalence about the meaning of adulthood for their emerging adults with Down syndrome, sharing that in some ways they were adults and in others they were not. The meaning of adulthood was closely tied to obtained skills, particularly those related to personal safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How infants engage with objects changes dramatically over the first year of life. While some infants exhibit a consistent hand preference for acquiring objects during this period, others have no identifiable preference. The goal of this study was to test whether lateralization confers an advantage in the development of early object management skills. We examined whether lateralized infants show different rates of growth in how they interact with multiple objects as compared to infants without a hand preference. In a longitudinal study consisting of seven monthly visits from 6 to 12 months, 303 infants were assessed for their hand preference and object management skill (i.e., holding up to three objects). Group-Based Trajectory Modeling (GBTM) identified the following three hand preference trajectory groups: Left, Right, and No Preference (NP). A Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM) with the NP infants as the reference group for statistical comparisons revealed that while all the infants showed similar trends in their object management skills over time, the lateralized infants had an advantage over the non-lateralized infants. The infants in the Right and Left groups transitioned from holding one to two objects more quickly relative to the NP infants. Further research is needed to determine if this early object skill advantage cascades to a more complex handling of multiple objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies found that hand preference trajectories predict preschool language outcomes. However, this approach has been limited to examining bimanual manipulation in toddlers. It is not known whether hand preference during infancy for acquiring objects (i.e., reach‐to‐grasp) similarly predicts childhood language ability. The current study explored this motor‐language developmental cascade in 90 children. Hand preference for acquiring objects was assessed monthly from 6 to 14 months, and language skill was assessed at 5 years. Latent class growth analysis identified three infant hand preference classes: left, early right and late right. Infant hand preference classes predicted 5‐year language skills. Children in the left and early right classes, who were categorized as having a consistent hand preference, had higher expressive and receptive language scores relative to children in the inconsistent late right class. Consistent classes did not differ from each other on language outcomes. Infant hand preference patterns explained more variance for expressive and receptive language relative to previously reported toddler hand preference patterns, above and beyond socio‐economic status. Results suggest that hand preference, measured at different time points across development using a trajectory approach, is reliably linked to later language. Highlights: Hand preference trajectories reliably predict preschool language above and beyond SES.Infants with a consistent hand preference for reaching had greater language skills at 5 years.Infant hand preference explained more variance in language than toddler hand preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A defining feature of most primates is a hand with five fingers. Spider monkeys are an exception because they have four fingers and no thumb. Despite the prevalence of reach-to-grasp research in primates, it is not known how the lack of a thumb affects reaching and grasping in spider monkeys. Drawing on patterns that have been well described in human adults, human infants, and other nonhuman primates, this study characterized prehension in Colombian spider monkeys (Ateles fusciceps rufiventris). Monkeys reached for two differently sized food objects and reaches were digitized offline for two-dimensional kinematic analysis. Grasp strategy was coded from video as preshaped when the hand was adjusted to grasp the food before contact, or not preshaped when the hand was adjusted to grasp the food after contact. Monkeys exhibited variability in reach smoothness that contrasted with the typical pattern seen in other adult primates and instead resembled the pattern observed in human infants. Monkeys anticipated the object to be grasped approximately half of the time. Reaches where the hand was preshaped to the object were smoother than reaches where the hand was adjusted to grasp after object contact. For the small object, reaches with preshaping were straighter than reaches without preshaping. Results are the first evidence of kinematic signatures for reach-to-grasp actions in spider monkeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that the future of comparative cognition is not what we study but how we study it. I suggest that future scientists should ask questions from a developmental framework. I review common challenges in longitudinal research that scientists in comparative cognition encounter. Leveraging emerging large-scale collaborations within and across taxa (i.e., big team science) can enable us to overcome these challenges to answer how cognitive abilities develop. This appeal for a developmental lens will facilitate interdisciplinary discussion in comparative cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have long been interested in the relationship between handedness and language in development. However, traditional handedness studies using single age groups, small samples, or too few measurement time points have not capitalized on individual variability and may have masked 2 recently identified patterns in infants: those with a consistent hand-use preference and those with an inconsistent preference. In this study, we asked whether a consistent infant hand-use preference is related to later language ability. We assessed handedness in 38 children at monthly intervals from 6-14 months (infant visits) and again from 18-24 months (toddler visits). We found that consistent right-handedness during infancy was associated with advanced language skills at 24 months, as measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III; Bayley, 2006). Children who were not lateralized as infants but who became right-handed or left-handed as toddlers had typical language scores. Neither timing nor direction of lateralization was related to cognitive or general motor skills. This study builds on previous literature linking right-handedness and language during the first 2 years of life.

McCarty and colleagues (1999) developed the elevated spoon task to measure motor planning in human infants. In this task, a spoon containing food was placed on an elevated apparatus that supported both ends of the spoon. The handle was oriented to the left or right on different trials. We presented naive adult rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with the elevated spoon problem, and observed how monkeys learned the affordances of spoons over sessions. Strikingly, monkeys developed two different strategies for efficient spoon transport in just 12 to 36 trials. In subsequent testing with a novel double bowl spoon approximately 1 year later, monkeys demonstrated that they were attending to the baited spoon bowl and continued to select efficient grips for transporting the spoon. Monkey data were contrasted with previous studies in human infants using a perception-action perspective in an effort to understand the fundamentals of tool use and motor planning that may be common in the development of these abilities across species and their origins in human behavior.

Unlike in human research, infants are poorly represented in the literature on nonhuman primate laterality. Studies have traditionally measured adults, a trend captured by prior reviews. The extent of the knowledge gaps related to laterality measured early in the lifespan is unknown. As a starting point, this systematic review examined the evidence on behavioral laterality across the first year of life in nonhuman primates using the PRISMA guidelines. The inclusion criteria were at least one measure of behavioral laterality in at least one subject < 1 year old. Database searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed, and OVID Medline using the filterNHP search builder tool, and additional records were identified through citation searching. Two independent reviewers screened abstracts and full texts; 47 articles were retained (0 prosimian, 6 platyrrhine, 27 catarrhine, and 14 ape studies). Macaca and Pan were overrepresented. Nipple preference was the most-studied behavior, followed by hand preference. Modifying how data are collected and analyzed will increase developmental rigor in primate studies. To facilitate comparisons with the human infant literature, we suggest measuring a behavior more than once to test for change or continuity in preference over time and measuring different behaviors at different timepoints to test for potential developmental cascades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questionnaires are commonly used to measure handedness. However, popular measures do not capture hand preference by skill type, thus reducing handedness to a single dimension. An exception is the Home Handedness Questionnaire (HHQ), an action-based measure developed initially for children, which measures skills across two dimensions of handedness: unimanual actions and role differentiated bimanual manipulation (RDBM). The goal of the current study was to confirm the factor structure of the HHQ in a large sample of adults (N = 1051). A secondary goal was to measure RDBM hand preference in adults. To further validate the HHQ, participants also completed the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). Confirmatory factor analysis verified the two-factor structure of the HHQ, and a one-factor solution was replicated for the EHI. Individuals that were classified as consistent on the EHI had stronger preferences for unimanual and RDBM hand use on the HHQ. Right hand patterning was reduced for RDBM compared to unimanual on the HHQ, and the EHI. The HHQ was found to be reliable and valid against the EHI. The HHQ offers researchers a tool to examine individual differences across manual skills that comprise the neuropsychological phenomenon handedness, and to more broadly examine laterality patterns with respect to cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]