We investigated the impact of parents' open-ended questions during collaborative science activities. Specifically, we randomly assigned 116 parents (69.8% mothers; 89.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearchers argue that theory of mind (ToM) abilities are needed for text (listening or reading) comprehension. Although many studies have supported this claim, findings are mixed and researchers have disagreed on how fundamental this relation is-for example, whether ToM and text comprehension are related merely because of shared variance with verbal and executive function skills. To address these issues more definitively, we conducted a meta-analysis examining ToM and text comprehension, which included 47 independent samples with 5,123 participants ranging in age from 3 to 70 years of age ( = 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn gaining word knowledge, children's semantic representations are initially imprecise before becoming gradually refined. We developed and tested a framework for a digital receptive vocabulary assessment that captured varied levels of representation as children learn words. At pre-test and post-test, children selected one of four images to match a word's meaning: a correct target, a conceptually-related foil, a thematically-related foil, and a phonologically-similar foil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildren learn about much of the world through testimony and may hear explicit belief statements (e.g., "I believe in God" or "climate change is real") about entities whose existence is controversial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Child Psychol
February 2022
Factors that make stories more or less similar to children's lives may influence learning. One such factor, the similarity of characters in a story to its readers, may influence learning because of children's social preference for similar others, because of stronger identification with similar characters, or because some types of similarity may indicate to children whether the story is relevant to their lives. The current studies examined the effects of two types of character similarity (race and gender) on 6- to 8-year-olds' learning from stories to begin to disambiguate these possibilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTV use could be detrimental to children's development because it may displace enriching activities like shared reading and caregiver-child interaction or disrupt children's interactions with the adults in their lives by distracting both parties. Some prior research has shown that demographic factors (maternal education, siblings) and maternal mental health (depression risk and parenting stress) may predict household TV, but findings are mixed. Household TV is defined here as whether or how much the TV is on in the home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated the relations among theory of mind (ToM), mental state talk, and discourse comprehension. Specifically, we examined the frequency of mental state talk in children's oral recall of narrative texts and informational texts as well as relations among ToM, mental state talk (inclusion of mental state words in the recall of narrative and informational texts), and narrative and informational text comprehension. Results from children in Grade 4 (N = 132; M = 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Dev Behav Pediatr
October 2021
Objective: This study examines the media use of children from low-income homes during school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Caregivers of 151 kindergarteners from low-income homes completed questionnaires as part of a larger study. Caregivers reported how much time children spent watching television/videos and using apps on the most recent weekday and weekend days.
In the current study, we examined whether the quantity of toddlers' exposure to media was related to language skills and whether meeting the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations of limiting media exposure to one hour or less per day was related to language skills. We examined these associations in a sample of toddlers (N = 157) living in low-income homes. Toddlers were about two years of age (M = 28.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEven prior to the COVID-19 crisis, one of the children's most common screen activities was using the video-sharing platform YouTube, with many children preferring YouTube over television. The pandemic has significantly increased the amount of time many children spend on YouTube-watching videos for both entertainment and education. However, it is unclear how children conceptualize the people they see on YouTube.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedia use could be detrimental to children's language and literacy skills because it may displace other language-enhancing activities like shared reading and caregiver-child interactions. Furthermore, the extent to which children use media with adults (joint media engagement), the extent to which they use interactive media (apps/games), and the time of the day and week during which media use occurs may attenuate any negative effects. The current study examines the relation between characteristics of children's media use and gains in first graders' language and literacy skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the unprecedented coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, virtual education activities have become more prevalent than ever. One activity that many families have incorporated into their routines while at home is virtual storytime, with teachers, grandparents, and other remote adults reading books to children over video chat. The current study asks how dialogic reading over video chat compares to more traditional forms of book reading in promoting story comprehension and vocabulary learning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedia use is a pervasive aspect of children's home experiences but is often not considered in studies of the home learning environment. Media use could be detrimental to children's language and literacy skills because it may displace other literacy-enhancing activities like shared reading and decrease the quantity and quality of caregiver-child interaction. Thus, the current study asked whether media use is associated with gains in children's language and literacy skills both at a single time point and across a school year and whether age moderates any association.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Psychol Health Well Being
July 2020
Background: Nearly 13 million American children experience food insecurity. Research suggests that maternal depression is associated with food insecurity, such that mothers who experience depression are more likely to be food insecure. Maternal self-efficacy may be an important protective factor against depression during the postpartum year, interrupting the link between depression and food insecurity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPretend play presents an interesting puzzle. Children generally must keep pretense separate from reality or else pretend would confuse their real-world representations. Children spend a great deal of time pretending, and so failing to take any information from pretend scenarios would present a lost opportunity; however, little research has investigated whether it is possible or efficient for children to learn new information they encounter during pretend play.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial values theory was used to examine how parents make decisions for their adolescent children. Social values theory states that decision making for others is based on the social value of an action, leading to a norm for how to decide for others, whereas self decisions are influenced by a number of additional factors. Consistent with a risk-aversion norm, in hypothetical health and safety scenarios parents made more risk and inconvenience affected self decisions more risk-averse decisions for their adolescent children than for themselves.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAgainst a long tradition of childhood realism (Piaget, 1929), A. S. Lillard and J.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious research indicates that American adults, both Black and White, assume a priori that Black people feel less pain than do White people (Trawalter, Hoffman, & Waytz, 2012, PLoS One, 7[11], 1-8). The present work investigates when in development this bias emerges. Five-, 7-, and 10-year-olds first rated the amount of pain they themselves would feel in 10 situations such as biting their tongue or hitting their head.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe greatly appreciate the astute comments on Lillard et al. (2013) and the opportunity to reply. Here we point out the importance of keeping conceptual distinctions clear regarding play, pretend play, and exploration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPretend play has been claimed to be crucial to children's healthy development. Here we examine evidence for this position versus 2 alternatives: Pretend play is 1 of many routes to positive developments (equifinality), and pretend play is an epiphenomenon of other factors that drive development. Evidence from several domains is considered.
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