Object exploration is facilitated by the physical and social environment in center-based child care.

Object exploration is considered a driver of motor, cognitive, and social development. However, little is known about how early childhood education and care settings facilitate object exploration. This study examined if children's exploration of objects during free play was facilitated by the use of particular spatial components (floor, tables, and activity centers) and types of play (solitary, social, and parallel).

Parental Beliefs About the Motor Development of Dutch Infants Born Very Preterm: A Cohort Study.

Purpose: To explore the influence of preterm birth on parental beliefs about gross motor development and parents' supportive role in infants' motor development.

Methods: Prospective cohort study: Parents of infants born very preterm (VPT) (gestation ≤32 weeks, birth weight <1500 g, without perinatal complications) and parents of healthy infants born full-term (FT) completed the Parental Beliefs on Motor Development questionnaire.

Results: Questionnaires from 37 parents of infants born VPT, aged 3.

Modeling gross motor developmental curves of extremely and very preterm infants using the AIMS home-video method.

Background: Motor development is one of the first signals to identify whether an infant is developing well. For very preterm (VPT) infants without severe perinatal complications, little is known about their motor developmental curves.

Aims: Explore gross motor developmental curves from 3 until 18 months corrected age (CA) of VPT infants, and related factors.

Infant walking experience is related to the development of selective attention.

Previous studies have shown that the way in which infants perceive and explore the world changes as they transition from crawling to walking. Infant walking onset generally precedes advances in cognitive development such as accelerated language growth. However, the underlying mechanism explaining this association between walking experience and cognition is largely unknown.

Individual Differences in Children's (Language) Learning Skills Moderate Effects of Robot-Assisted Second Language Learning.

The current study investigated how individual differences among children affect the added value of social robots for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary to young children. Specifically, we investigated the moderating role of three individual child characteristics deemed relevant for language learning: first language (L1) vocabulary knowledge, phonological memory, and selective attention. We expected children low in these abilities to particularly benefit from being assisted by a robot in a vocabulary training.

Modeling a gross motor curve of typically developing Dutch infants from 3.5 to 15.5 months based on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale.

Background: Interindividual variability in gross motor development of infants is substantial and challenges the interpretation of motor assessments. Longitudinal research can provide insight into variability in individual gross motor trajectories.

Purpose: To model a gross motor growth curve of healthy term-born infants from 3.

Attentional Flexibility Predicts A-Not-B Task Performance in 14-Month-Old-Infants: A Head-Mounted Eye Tracking Study.

Early individual differences in executive functions (EFs) are predictive of a range of developmental outcomes. However, despite the importance of EFs, little is known about the processes underlying these early individual differences. Therefore, we investigated the association between 14-month-old infants' attention on a reaching version of the A-not-B task and task success.

Two Cultural Models on Infant Motor Development: Middle Class Parents in Israel and the Netherlands.

Culture influences the way parents shape children's environment. Two studies examined cross-cultural differences in parental practices related to motor development in Israel and the Netherlands. In the first study, 198 Dutch and 206 Israeli parents of infants aged 1-7.

Children's reliance on the non-verbal cues of a robot versus a human.

Robots are used for language tutoring increasingly often, and commonly programmed to display non-verbal communicative cues such as eye gaze and pointing during robot-child interactions. With a human speaker, children rely more strongly on non-verbal cues (pointing) than on verbal cues (labeling) if these cues are in conflict. However, we do not know how children weigh the non-verbal cues of a robot.

Cross-cultural differences in parental beliefs about infant motor development: A quantitative and qualitative report of middle-class Israeli and Dutch parents.

The present study explored cultural differences in parental beliefs about motor development across 2 Western cultures: Israel and the Netherlands. Can 2 cultural models be distinguished regarding infant motor development in Israel and the Netherlands or are parental beliefs about motor development similar across these cultures? Using a questionnaire containing closed and open questions, beliefs of 206 Israeli and 198 Dutch parents of first-born children between 2 and 7 months old were analyzed. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, distinct cultural models were found showing that the Dutch attributed a bigger role to maturation and children's own pace than to stimulation.

Guidelines for Designing Social Robots as Second Language Tutors.

In recent years, it has been suggested that social robots have potential as tutors and educators for both children and adults. While robots have been shown to be effective in teaching knowledge and skill-based topics, we wish to explore how social robots can be used to tutor a second language to young children. As language learning relies on situated, grounded and social learning, in which interaction and repeated practice are central, social robots hold promise as educational tools for supporting second language learning.

The link between motor and cognitive development in children born preterm and/or with low birth weight: A review of current evidence.

The current review focuses on evidence for a link between early motor development and later cognitive skills in children born preterm or with Low Birth Weight (LBW). Studies with term born children consistently show such a link. Motor and cognitive impairments or delays are often seen in children born preterm or with LBW throughout childhood and studies have established a cross-sectional association between the two.

First Steps into Language? Examining the Specific Longitudinal Relations between Walking, Exploration and Linguistic Skills.

Recent empirical evidence demonstrates relationships between motor and language development that are partially mediated by exploration. This is in line with the embodied cognition approach to development that views language as grounded in real-life sensorimotor interactions with the environment. This view implies that the relations between motor and linguistic skills should be specific.

Development of exploration of spatial-relational object properties in the second and third years of life.

Within a perception-action framework, exploration is seen as a driving force in young children's development. Through exploration, children become skilled in perceiving the affordances in their environment and acting on them. Using a perception-action framework, the current study examined the development of children's exploration of the spatial-relational properties of objects such as the possibility of containing or stacking.

Exploration as a mediator of the relation between the attainment of motor milestones and the development of spatial cognition and spatial language.

The embodied-cognition approach views cognition and language as grounded in daily sensorimotor child-environment interactions. Therefore, the attainment of motor milestones is expected to play a role in cognitive-linguistic development. Early attainment of unsupported sitting and independent walking indeed predict better spatial cognition and language at later ages.

Self-locomotion and spatial language and spatial cognition: insights from typical and atypical development.

Various studies have shown that occurrence of locomotion in infancy is correlated with the development of spatial cognitive competencies. Recent evidence suggests that locomotor experience might also be important for the development of spatial language. Together these findings suggest that locomotor experience might play a crucial role in the development of linguistic-cognitive spatial skills.

Attainment of sitting and walking predicts development of productive vocabulary between ages 16 and 28 months.

Productive vocabulary was measured every four months in 16- to 28-months-olds. Attainment of motor-milestones was also measured. An earlier age of sitting and walking predicted a higher intercept and a larger slope (growth) of productive vocabulary respectively, suggesting that attainment of walking propels linguistic development.