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The study of how children learn numbers has yielded one of the most productive research programs in cognitive development, spanning empirical and computational methods, as well as nativist and empiricist philosophies. This paper provides a tutorial on how to think computationally about learning models in a domain like number, where learners take finite data and go far beyond what they directly observe or perceive. To illustrate, this paper then outlines a model which acquires a counting procedure using observations of sets and words, extending the proposal of Piantadosi et al. (2012). This new version of the model responds to several critiques of the original work and outlines an approach which is likely appropriate for acquiring further aspects of mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does one assess developmental change when the measures themselves change with development? Most developmental studies of word learning use either looking (infants) or pointing (preschoolers and older). With little empirical evidence of the relationship between the two measures, developmental change is difficult to assess. This paper analyzes 914 pointing, looking children (451 female, varied ethnicities, 2.5–6.5 years, dates: 2009–2019) in 36 word‐ or sound‐learning experiments with two‐alternative test trials. Looking proportions and pointing accuracy correlated strongly (r = .7). Counter to the “looks first” hypothesis, looks were not sensitive to incipient knowledge that pointing missed: when pointing is at chance, looking proportions are also. Results suggest one possible path forward for assessing continuous developmental change. Methodological best practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on early language input and socioeconomic status typically relies on correlations in small convenience samples. Using data from Baby's First Years, this paper assesses the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash transfers on child‐directed speech and child vocalizations among a large, racially diverse sample of low‐income U.S. mothers and their 1‐year‐olds (N = 563; 48% girls; 2019–2020). The monthly, unconditional cash transfers did not impact mothers' child‐directed speech during a 10‐min at‐home play session (effect sizes range from −.08 to .02), though there was wide variability within this sample. Future work will assess the impact of the continued cash transfer on children's language input and development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper used an evidence and gap map (EGM) to advance the scientific understanding of sibling relationship quality among children aged 2 to 18 years by synthesizing literature on 277 empirical studies from 1985 to 2022 to delineate patterns of study design, sampling, and measurement. Most existing research has utilized majority of White, middle‐to‐upper class, and/or two‐caregiver family samples. Nearly 85% (n = 235) of studies used quantitative methods to measure sibling relationship quality across eight domains: conflict, warmth/affection, quality, cohesion, hostility, power/control, positive engagement, and conflict management. A total of 122 studies used a measure of sibling relationship quality as a predictor of sibling behavior, social, psychological, cognitive, health, or physiological outcomes. Future directions for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current commentary explored the applicability of the methods described in “Mitigating invalid and mischievous survey responses: A registered report examining risk disparities between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning youth” by Dr. Joseph Cimpian and colleagues to explore sexual orientation disparities in preexisting data from a nonprobability sample. Understanding Affirming Communities, Relationships, and Networks was a study of mostly White (77.4%) 9674 sexual and gender‐minoritized youth aged 15–29 from the US and Canada. The influence of invalid data on the prevalence ratios of four health outcomes was assessed. The methods yielded similar effects to the original paper. The accuracy varied by outcome prevalence and was robust to misspecification of the model. Therefore, the applicability of this method to preexisting data seems feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the acute effect of community‐level homicides on early childhood language development and explores the moderating role of maternal efficacy and satisfaction in Chile. It uses data from the 2017 wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey of Chilean Children (N = 1194, Mage: 52.8 months, 52% girls). Children in municipalities with homicides 1 month before the Peabody Picture Vocabulary assessment scored between 0.18 and 0.41 SDs lower compared to children in the same municipality but for whom homicides happened after the assessment. On average, higher maternal satisfaction appears to have a protective effect, though it dissipates in the most violent municipalities. Evidence that higher maternal efficacy protects children from the negative effects of violence is inconclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used cross‐lagged panel models to test the longitudinal interplay between maternal cultural socialization, peer ethnic‐racial discrimination, and ethnic‐racial pride across 5th to 11th grade among Mexican American youth (N = 674, Mage = 10.86; 72% born in the United States; 50% girls; Wave 1 collected 2006–2008). Maternal cultural socialization predicted increases in subsequent youth ethnic‐racial pride, and youth ethnic‐racial pride prompted greater maternal cultural socialization. However, peer ethnic‐racial discrimination was associated with subsequent decreases in ethnic‐racial pride. The magnitude of these associations was consistent across 5th to 11th grades suggesting that maternal cultural socialization messages are necessary to maintain ethnic‐racial pride across adolescence, thus families must continually support the development of ethnic‐racial pride in their youth to counter the effects of discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the roles of specificity and commonality in social‐emotional development? We begin by highlighting the conceptual context for this timely and timeless question and explain how responses to it can inform novel lines of theoretical and empirical inquiry, as well as sociocultural generalizability. Next, we describe how the selection of papers included in this special section contributes to our understanding of specificity and commonality in social‐emotional development. We then explain how applying the complementarity principle to social‐emotional development can inform a future research agenda in this domain. Lastly, we discuss how specificity and commonality fundamentally impact the way we conceptualize and implement interventions aimed at nurturing social‐emotional development in every child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined long-term mediating effects of the smalltalk parenting intervention on children's effortful control at school age (7.5 years; 2016-2018). In 2010-2012, parents (96% female) of toddlers (N = 1201; aged 12-36 months; 52% female) were randomly assigned to either: standard playgroup, smalltalk playgroup (group-only), or smalltalk playgroup with additional home coaching (smalltalk plus). Multi-informant data indicated that smalltalk plus had unique indirect effects on children's effortful control, through parents' capacity to 'maintain and extend' children's focus during joint interactions. Possible mediating pathways via parent verbal responsivity, home learning activities, and descriptive language use were not supported. When parents received a structured playgroup program with additional home coaching, sustainable benefits were evident in children's self-regulation, assessed in the early school years., (© 2024 The Author(s). Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

This article presents a commentary on Sen and Gredebäck’s “Methodological integrity assessment in the mobile paradigm literature: A lesson for understanding opportunistic use of researcher degrees of freedom in psychology” presented in this issue. The authors discuss the operant mobile paradigm in infant memory research as well as degrees of freedom and an evaluation of the paper’s simulation analyses.

Understanding how early reading and mathematics co‐develop is important from both theoretical and pedagogical standpoints. Previous research has provided mixed results. This paper investigates the development of reading and mathematics in a longitudinal sample of N = 355,883 students from the United Kingdom (2005–2019) aged 5 to 12 (49% girls). Results indicate a positive relation between the development of the two domains. In addition, a substantial statistically significant positive association between prior reading scores and subsequent changes in achievement in mathematics was found, whereas changes in reading were smaller for students with a higher prior performance in mathematics. The findings suggest that acquiring good reading skills is highly relevant for developing mathematics skills. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progress of developmental research demands reliable measurement techniques, yet inconsistency persist across laboratories, subfields, and settings. To address this, the NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIHTB)® has been extended to create a universal assessment for developmental and pediatric communities: The NIH Infant and Toddler (“Baby”) Toolbox. Currently undergoing norming in a sample of 2550 children demographically representative of the 2020 U.S. census, the Baby Toolbox is slated for release in late 2024. This paper introduces the Baby Toolbox, details its objectives, development, and technological innovations, describes plans for reliability and norming, and invites researchers to consider the Baby Toolbox in the future studies. Ultimately, this initiative stands to enhance cross‐study comparability and advance comprehensive developmental evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we introduce a Special Section of Child Development entitled "Formalizing Theories of Child Development." This Special Section features five papers that use mathematical models to advance our understanding of central questions in the study of child development. This landmark collection is timely: it signifies growing awareness that rigorous empirical bricks are not enough; we need solid theory to build the house. By stating theory in mathematical terms, formal models make concepts, assumptions, and reasoning more explicit than verbal theory does. This increases falsifiability, promotes cumulative science, and enables integration with mathematical theory in allied disciplines. The Special Section contributions cover a range of topics: the developmental origins of counting, interactions between mathematics and language development, visual exploration and word learning in infancy, referent identification by toddlers, and the emergence of typical and atypical development. All are written in an accessible manner and for a broad audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper presents an integrated formal model of typical and atypical development based on the mechanisms of mutualism and resource competition. The mutualistic network model is extended with the dynamics of competition for limited resources, such as time and environmental factors. The proposed model generates patterns that resemble established phenomena in cognitive development: the positive manifold, developmental phases, developmental delays and lack of early indicators in atypical development, developmental regression, and "quasi‐autism" caused by extreme environmental deprivation. The presented modeling framework fits a general movement towards formal theory construction in psychology. The model is easy to replicate and develop further, and we offer several avenues for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluent conversation requires temporal organization between conversational exchanges. By performing a systematic review and Bayesian multi‐level meta‐analysis, we map the trajectory of infants' turn‐taking abilities over the course of early development (0 to 70 months). We synthesize the evidence from 26 studies (78 estimates from 429 unique infants, of which at least 152 are female) reporting response latencies in infant–adult dyadic interactions. The data were collected between 1975 and 2019, exclusively in North America and Europe. Infants took on average circa 1 s to respond, and the evidence of changes in response over time was inconclusive. Infants' response latencies are related to those of their adult conversational partners: an increase of 1 s in adult response latency (e.g., 400 to 1400 ms) would be related to an increase of over 1 s in infant response latency (from 600 to 1857 ms). These results highlight the dynamic reciprocity involved in the temporal organization of turn‐taking. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for future avenues of enquiry: studies should analyze how turn‐by‐turn exchanges develop on a longitudinal timescale, with rich assessment of infants' linguistic and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-racist efforts require talking with children about race. The present work tested the predictors of U.S. adults' (N = 441; 52% female; 32% BIPOC participants; Mage  = 35 years) conversations about race with children across two timepoints in 2019. Approximately 60% of adult participants talked to their children (3-12 years) about race during the preceding week; only 29% talked to other adults about race during the same period. This paper describes the content and predictors of conversations about race, revealing how conversations differ depending on the participant's race, a child's age, and whether the conversation occurs with children or another adult. These data have important implications for theorizing about when, why, and how adults actually talk about race with children and adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends the analytic approach conducted by Watts et al. (2018) to examine the long-term predictive validity of delay of gratification. Participants (n = 702; 83% White, 46% male) completed the Marshmallow Test at 54 months (1995-1996) and survey measures at age 26 (2017-2018). Using a preregistered analysis, Marshmallow Test performance was not strongly predictive of adult achievement, health, or behavior. Although modest bivariate associations were detected with educational attainment (r = .17) and body mass index (r = -.17), almost all regression-adjusted coefficients were nonsignificant. No clear pattern of moderation was detected between delay of gratification and either socioeconomic status or sex. Results indicate that Marshmallow Test performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes. The predictive and construct validity of the ability to delay of gratification are discussed., (© 2024 The Author(s). Child Development © 2024 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Over the past decade, there has been a growing appreciation of metascience issues in psychological science. Using data collected from 2615 posters presented at the 2021 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, this article examines the use of transparent research practices to increase rigor and reproducibility as well as generalizability through greater inclusivity of diverse samples. Research presented through poster presentations was heavily skewed toward quantitative studies featuring American researchers using Western hemisphere samples. Sharing of data/materials, preregistrations, and replications were uncommon. During a time when governments are increasingly requiring more open practices and access, this research provides an important baseline by which developmental science can benchmark progress toward the goals of greater inclusivity and openness., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.)

The study examined how children's self-regulation skills measured by the strengths and weaknesses of ADHD symptoms and normal behavior rating are associated with story comprehension and how verbal engagement and e-book discussion prompts moderate this relation. Children aged 3-7 (N = 111, 50% female, Chinese as first language) read an interactive Chinese-English bilingual story e-book with or without discussion prompts twice with their parents (2020-2021). Results demonstrated that the lower children's self-regulation skills, the more they struggled with story comprehension. Critically, our data suggest that embedding e-book discussion prompts and more verbalization in English can mitigate this negative association for children with inattention/hyperactivity. These findings have critical implications for future e-book design, interventions, and home reading practice for children with inattention/hyperactivity and those at risk for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder., (© 2024 The Author(s). Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

Research has found mixed evidence for the production effect in childhood. Some studies have found a positive effect of production on word recognition and recall, while others have found the reverse. This paper takes a developmental approach to investigate the production effect. Children aged 2–6 years (n = 150) from a predominantly white population in Ottawa, Canada were trained on familiar words which were either seen, heard or produced, followed by a recall task. Results showed a developmental shift: younger participants showed a reverse production effect, recalling more words that were heard during training, while older children showed the typical production effect, recalling more produced words. The effect of production on recall is not unidirectional and varies by age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of how children learn numbers has yielded one of the most productive research programs in cognitive development, spanning empirical and computational methods, as well as nativist and empiricist philosophies. This paper provides a tutorial on how to think computationally about learning models in a domain like number, where learners take finite data and go far beyond what they directly observe or perceive. To illustrate, this paper then outlines a model which acquires a counting procedure using observations of sets and words, extending the proposal of Piantadosi et al. (2012). This new version of the model responds to several critiques of the original work and outlines an approach which is likely appropriate for acquiring further aspects of mathematics.

This large-scale and longitudinal study examines early home support for learning, formal/informal home mathematics activities, and their associations with children's mathematical development between age two and six. Data were collected in Germany between 2012 and 2018, N = 1184 (49% girls, 51% boys), and 15% of children had parents with a migration history. Linguistically and mathematically stimulating, attentive, and responsive parent-child engagement at age two predicted children's mathematical skills at age four and six (small-to-medium effect size). Both formal and informal home mathematical activities at age five predicted children's mathematical skills at age six (small effect size), and were associated with children's prior mathematics attainment. This study also provides indicators where individual differences and social circumstances are relevant to understanding different early mathematics outcomes., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

The current study provides new evidence on the sustained benefits of preschool attendance on a broader range of skills-both academic and executive functioning (EF)-than many prior studies have examined. Using propensity score methods, we predicted children's (N = 920, M age at 1st = 6.5 years) literacy, language, math, and EF skills in kindergarten and again at first-grade (2020-2021) based on whether they had attended public preschool (school-based pre-k; Head Start) versus no preschool. In our race-ethnically diverse sample of children (48% Hispanic/Latinx; 21% Black; 14% White; 9% Native American; 9% multiracial) from low-income families, preschool attenders showed advantages on English literacy, English language, and math in kindergarten, which mostly persisted into first-grade. Preschool did not boost EF in kindergarten or first-grade., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This article provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the current evidence for universal school-based (USB) social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions for students in kindergarten through 12th grade available from 2008 through 2020. The sample includes 424 studies from 53 countries, reflecting 252 discrete USB SEL interventions, involving 575,361 students. Results endorsed that, compared to control conditions, students who participate in USB SEL interventions experienced significantly improved skills, attitudes, behaviors, school climate and safety, peer relationships, school functioning, and academic achievement. Significant heterogeneity in USB SEL content, intervention features, context, and implementation quality moderated student experiences and outcomes. Strengths and limitations of this evidence and implications for future USB SEL research, policy, and practice are discussed., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Academic cheating is common, but little is known about its early emergence. It was examined among Chinese second to sixth graders (N = 2094; 53% boys, collected between 2018 and 2019) using a machine learning approach. Overall, 25.74% reported having cheated, which was predicted by the best machine learning algorithm (Random Forest) at a mean accuracy of 81.43%. Cheating was most strongly predicted by children's beliefs about the acceptability of cheating and the observed prevalence and frequency of peer cheating at school. These findings provide important insights about the early development of academic cheating, and how to promote academic integrity and limit cheating before it becomes entrenched. The present research demonstrates that machine learning can be effectively used to analyze developmental data., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phonology on second language (L2) early reading skills in Sylheti-English bilinguals (N = 58; 48% girls; British Bangladeshi) and their monolingual-English peers (N = 43; 45% girls; 96% White British, 4% multiethnic British) in a diaspora context. Language-specific phonological awareness and nonword repetition were tested at two time points (6;2-7;8 years-old). At Time 1, the bilinguals had lower productive accuracy for phonological sequences that violated their L1 phonology (d = .56; .84), and these skills accounted for a significant amount of variance in their reading accuracy. At Time 2, the language-specific effects were no longer present. These findings highlight the importance of considering language structure in multilingual early literacy development., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

This study examined whether positive development (PD) in adolescence and young adulthood predicts offspring behavior in two Australasian intergenerational cohorts. The Australian Temperament Project Generation 3 Study assessed PD at age 19-28 (years 2002-2010) and behavior in 1165 infants (12-18 months; 608 girls) of 694 Australian-born parents (age 29-35; 2012-2019; 399 mothers). The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Parenting Study assessed PD at age 15-18 (years 1987-1991) and behavior in 695 preschoolers (3-5 years; 349 girls) and their New Zealand born parents (age 21-46; 1994-2018; 363 mothers; 89% European ethnicity). In both cohorts, PD before parenthood predicted more positive offspring behavior (β range  = .11-.16) and fewer behavior problems (β range  = -.09 to -.11). Promoting strengths may secure a healthy start to life., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

The COVID-19 pandemic led to extended school closures globally. Access to remote learning opportunities during this time was vastly unequal within and across countries. Higher-quality early childhood education (ECE) can improve later academic outcomes, but longer-term effects during crises are unknown. This study provides the first experimental evidence of how previously attending a higher-quality ECE program affected child engagement in remote learning and academic scores during pandemic-related school closures in Ghana. Children (N = 1668; 50.1% male; M age  = 10.1 years; all Ghanaian nationals) who attended higher-quality ECE at age 4 or 5 years had greater engagement in remote learning (d = .14) in October 2020, but not better language and literacy and math scores. Previous exposure to higher-quality ECE may support educational engagement during crises., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development © 2022 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Early childhood education contributes to improved school readiness but impacts on high school remain unclear. This study estimates the effects of Tulsa, Oklahoma's universal pre-K and Head Start programs through the junior year of high school (in 2018/2019; N = 2902; M age  = 16.52, SD = .39; 48% female; 28% white, 34% Black, 27% Hispanic, 8% Native American). Propensity score weighted regressions suggest students who attended pre-K, but not Head Start, missed less school, were less likely to fail courses and be retained in grade, were more likely to take an Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate course, but did not have higher test scores or grades. Subgroup analyses by race/ethnicity demonstrated some differences in the pattern of associations favoring students of color., (© 2022 The Authors. Child Development © 2022 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This paper estimates the acute effect of community-level homicides on early childhood language development and explores the moderating role of maternal efficacy and satisfaction in Chile. It uses data from the 2017 wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey of Chilean Children (N = 1194, M[subscript age]: 52.8 months, 52% girls). Children in municipalities with homicides 1 month before the Peabody Picture Vocabulary assessment scored between 0.18 and 0.41 SDs lower compared to children in the same municipality but for whom homicides happened after the assessment. On average, higher maternal satisfaction appears to have a protective effect, though it dissipates in the most violent municipalities. Evidence that higher maternal efficacy protects children from the negative effects of violence is inconclusive.

Food routines are an ecocultural asset of Latino families. This cluster-randomized trial with 248 children (M age  = 67 months; 50% girls; 13 schools) investigated the impact of a 4-week family program designed to capitalize on food routines in improving Latino kindergarteners' outcomes in the United States. There were moderate-to-large impacts on child vocabulary (especially food-related) at end-of-treatment and the 5-month follow-up, and suggestive evidence of moderate impacts on approaches to learning (ATL; including ATL math) and executive function at the 5-month follow-up (d = .38-.95). There were no statistically significant impacts on children's math or literacy skills. A strengths-based, culturally responsive family intervention that is integrated into Latino family life can improve the skills needed to succeed in school., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Ability-grouping has been studied extensively in relation to children's academic, but not emotional and behavioral outcomes. The sample comprised 7259 U.K. children (50% male) with data on between-class and within-class ability-grouping at age 7. Peer, emotional, hyperactivity, and conduct problems were measured at ages 7, 11, and 14 years. Children in low within-class ability groups showed more hyperactivity and emotional problems across the study period compared to non-grouped children, after adjustments for the different types of ability grouping and confounding. Additionally, children in the middle within-class ability groups showed more, and those in the top within-class groups less, hyperactivity compared to non-grouped children, after adjustment. Children in lower within-class groups should be monitored closely to ensure that their well-being is not compromised., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.)

National-level monitoring of quality of early childhood education (ECE) is key to achieving inclusive and equitable education. Most countries report structural quality while process characteristics are rarely observed at the national level. This study examined the associations between ECE and children's development in a middle-income country using data from a nationally representative sample of public centers serving Colombian children (N = 3163; M = 4.3 years, 50% girls; 42% Mestizo, 16% White, 15% Afro-Colombian, 4% Indigenous, 23% not reported). Descriptive findings evidenced low to moderate quality. Multilevel models showed several positive associations between structural and process quality and child outcomes. Results have implications for the existing literature and highlight the feasibility of quality monitoring in low- and middle-income countries., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This study examined indirect associations of MyTeachingPartner coaching with pre-K students' (N = 1,570; 73% low income) school readiness, via improvements of teachers' (N = 393; 47% Black; 41% Head Start) classroom interactions. Data were collected across 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 in 10 urban sites across the eastern United States. The number of completed coaching cycles was examined as a predictor of teacher-student interactions, as were direct or indirect associations with students' literacy, receptive language, and working memory skills. Significant findings indicated that teachers engaged in more feedback cycles showed greater improvements in instructional interactions, in turn predicting greater increases in students' early literacy and working memory. Results confirm the theory of change for coaching and an ecological-developmental conceptualization of school readiness., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This study is a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week community-based group parenting intervention ("CASITA") in Lima, Peru. CASITA improved neurodevelopment in a pilot study of 60 Peruvian children and subsequently scaled to 3,000 households throughout the district. The objective of this study was to assess intervention effectiveness when implemented at scale. A total of 347 children ages 6-20 months (52.7% male, 100% identified as "mestizo") at risk for developmental difficulties were randomized to immediate or delayed CASITA. At 3 months after enrollment, the immediate arm showed significantly higher overall development, based on the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores (Cohen's ds = .36 and .31, respectively). Programs demonstrably effective at scale could help address children's development risks worldwide., (© 2021 The Authors. Child Development © 2021 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This study examined 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds' incremental interpretation of size adjectives, focusing on whether contrastive inferences are modulated by speaker behavior. Children (N = 120, 59 females, mostly White, tested between July, 2018 and August, 2019) encountered either a conventional or unconventional speaker who labeled objects in a correspondingly typical or atypical way. Critical utterances contained size adjectives (e.g., "Look at the big duck"). With conventional speakers, gaze measures indicated that children rapidly used the adjective to differentiate members of a contrasting pair, indicating that even 4‐year‐olds derive contrastive inferences. With unconventional speakers, contrastive inferences were delayed in processing. The findings demonstrate that preschoolers adjust their use of pragmatic cues when presented with evidence disconfirming their default assumptions about a speaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political violence affects more than 25% of children globally, yet little is known about how to support positive adaptation among conflict‐affected children. Using a sample of 3797 Nicaraguan child‐caregiver dyads (MAgeTime1 = 1.5 years, MAgeTime2 = 5.9 years; 51% male), this registered report used a novel quasi‐experimental approach to examine how exposure to political violence relates to child and caregiver outcomes, and to test three policy‐relevant moderators: participation in a large‐scale home visit parenting program, household economic disruption, and media exposure. Results revealed positive associations between political violence and harsh discipline practices (0.33 SD), but there was no evidence that political violence affected children's behavior, caregiver depressive symptoms, or responsive parenting practices, and there was no evidence of moderation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Registered Reports (RRs) are an emerging format for publishing empirical journal articles in which the decision to publish an article is based on sound conceptualization, methods, and planned analyses rather than the specific nature of the results. This article introduces the Special Section on Registered Reports in Child Development by describing what RRs are and why they are necessary, outlining the thought process that guided the Special Section, describing key thematic insights across the eight articles included in the collection, and providing recommendations for developmental researchers interested in publishing via the RR format. This article also serves as a formal announcement that RRs will be a standard publishing option at Child Development, effective immediately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that spatial interventions lead to improvements in mathematics. However, outcomes vary based on whether physical manipulatives (embodied action) are used during training. This study compares the effects of embodied and non‐embodied spatial interventions on spatial and mathematics outcomes. The study has a randomized, controlled, pre‐post, follow‐up, training design (N = 182; mean age 8 years; 49% female; 83.5% White). We show that both embodied and non‐embodied spatial training approaches improve spatial skills compared to control. However, we conclude that embodied spatial training using physical manipulatives leads to larger, more consistent gains in mathematics and greater depth of spatial processing than non‐embodied training. These findings highlight the potential of spatial activities, particularly those that use physical materials, for improving children's mathematics skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This registered report evaluated the efficacy of an Italian adaptation of the Identity Project, a school‐based intervention promoting adolescents' cultural identity. Migration background and environmental sensitivity were explored as moderators. After adapting and piloting the intervention, a randomized controlled trial was conducted between October 2021 and January 2022 on 747 ethnically diverse adolescents (Mage = 15 years, 53% girls, 31% with migration background) attending 45 classrooms randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition. Bayesian analyses confirmed the efficacy of the Italian IP in enhancing exploration processes (Cohen's d =.18), whereas no cascading effect on resolution emerged. Youth with higher (vs. lower) levels of environmental sensitivity benefited more in terms of exploration. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a Registered Report, the authors propose a new survey‐bias‐mitigation method—incorporating inverse probability weighting via boosted regression—to better understand lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ)‐heterosexual youth risk disparities. This method is tested using the 2019 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‐collected Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) national data, which contain 12,847 observations (ages 12–18 [M = 16, SD = 1.25]; 49.1% male [8.7% LGBQ] and 50.9% female [22.4% LGBQ]; nationally representative regarding race and ethnicity). Looking across 44 outcomes, the authors found that the YRBS contains responses that are potentially biased against LGBQ youth in systematic ways, inflating perceived risk for this group in some outcomes. This potential bias is more pronounced among reported males than among reported females, and it is more pronounced for low‐incidence outcomes. For example, the steroid‐use disparity estimate among reported males reduced by 67%, while the reduction in bullying victimization was small and not statistically significant. The authors discuss robustness of results, the new method, and data policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When making moral judgments of past actions, adults often think counterfactually about what could have been done differently. Considerable evidence suggests that counterfactual thinking emerges around age 6, but it remains unknown how this development influences children's moral judgments. Across two studies, Australian children aged 4–9 (N = 236, 142 Females) were told stories about two characters who had a choice that led to a good or bad outcome, and two characters who had no choice over a good or bad outcome. Results showed that 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds' moral judgments were influenced only by the actual outcome. From age 6, children's moral judgments were also influenced by the counterfactual choices that had been available to the characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trajectories of cognitive and neural development suggest that, despite early emergence, the ability to extract environmental patterns changes across childhood. Here, 5‐ to 9‐year‐olds and adults (N = 211, 110 females, in a large Canadian city) completed a memory test assessing what they remembered after watching a stream of shape triplets: the particular sequence in which the shapes occurred and/or their group‐level structure. After accounting for developmental improvements in overall memory, all ages remembered specific transitions, while memory for group membership was only observed in older children and adults (age by test‐type interaction η2 =.05). Thus, while young children form memories for specifics of structured experience, memory for derived associations is refined later—underscoring that adults and young children form different memories despite identical experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving is common during middle childhood, but links between move type and children's development are less well understood. Using nationally‐representative, longitudinal data (2010–2016) of ~9900 U.S. kindergarteners (52% boys, 51.48% White, 26.11% Hispanic/Latino, 10.63% Black, 11.78% Asian/Pacific Islander), we conducted multiple‐group fixed‐effects models estimating associations of within‐ and between‐neighborhood moves, family income, and children's achievement and executive function, testing whether associations persisted or varied by developmental timing. Analyses suggest important spatial and temporal dimensions of moving during middle childhood: between‐neighborhood moves had stronger associations than within‐neighborhood moves, earlier moves benefited development whereas later moves did not, and associations persisted with significant effect sizes (cumulative Hedges' g = −0.09–1.35). Research and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the dimensionality of oral discourse skills (comprehension and retell of texts) and the relations of language and cognitive skills to the identified dimensions. Data were from 529 English‐speaking second graders (Mage = 7.42; 46% female; 52.6% Whites, 33.8% African Americans, 4.9% Hispanics, 4.7% two or more races,.8% Asian Americans,.6% American Indians,.2% Native Hawaiians, 2.5% unknown; data from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that oral discourse skills are best described as four related but dissociable dimensions of narrative comprehension, narrative retell, expository comprehension, and expository retell (rs =.59–.84). Language and cognitive skills had different patterns of relations to the identified dimensions and explained larger amounts of variance in comprehension than in retell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a known association between LEGO® construction ability and mathematics achievement, yet the mechanisms which drive this association are largely unknown. This study investigated the spatial mechanisms underlying this association, and whether this differs for concrete versus digital construction. Between January 2020 and July 2021, children aged 7–9 years (N = 358, 189 female, ethnicity not recorded) completed spatial and mathematics tasks, and either a concrete or digital Lego construction task. Mediation analyses examining direct and indirect pathways (through spatial skills) between Lego construction ability and mathematics explained 8.4% to 26.6% of variance in mathematics scores. Exploratory moderated mediation analyses revealed that only the indirect path through mental rotation differed between Lego conditions. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of spatial‐numerical associations and the potential of Lego training for mathematics improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's hypothetical reasoning about a complex and dynamic causal system was investigated. Predominantly White, middle‐class 5‐ to 7‐year‐old children from the Greater Toronto Area learned about novel food chains and were asked to consider the effects of removing one species on the others. In Study 1 (N = 72; 36 females, 36 males; 2018), 7‐year‐olds answered questions about both direct and indirect effects with a high degree of accuracy, whereas 5‐year‐olds performed at chance. Six‐year‐olds showed intermediate performance. Using food chains with clearer constraints, Study 2 (N = 72; 35 females, 37 males; 2020–2021) replicated these findings. These results indicate that the ability to think about hypothetical changes to dynamic causal systems develops between 5 and 7 years. Implications for science education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to use knowledge to guide the completion of goals is a critical cognitive skill, but 3‐year‐olds struggle to complete goals that require multiple steps. This study asked whether 3‐year‐olds could benefit from "plan chunking" to complete multistep goals. Thirty‐two U.S. children (range = 35.75–46.59 months; 18 girls; 9 white, 3 mixed race, 20 unknown; tested between July 2020 and April 2021) were asked to complete "treasure maps," retrieving four colored map pieces by pressing specific buttons on a "rainbow box." Children completed more of the four‐step sequence correctly when the steps were presented in a way that encouraged chunking the steps into pairs. These findings suggest a potential mechanism supporting memory‐guided planning abilities in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]