Subterms
Intelligent, curious toddlers are easy to spot in Western societies. Typically, they announce themselves with an endless string of “why” questions: “Why are we eating these?”; “Why are we getting in the car?”; “Why are you going to work?” But this isn’t how children’s learning operates in much of the world. We have found that “why” questions, seeking explanations, are […] More
The phenomenon of children learning mainly from each other – a typical practice in many hunter-gatherer communities – may provide important lessons about how to prepare children in post-industrial societies for rapid change and uncertain futures. We have found that when children learn from other children in two sub-Saharan African forager societies, it fosters independence […] More
Two key perspectives have emerged to explain how poverty affects family functioning and early childhood development. One focuses on stress and how it reduces the quality of parent-child relationships and thus the child’s social and emotional development. The other focuses on parents’ limited resources to provide cognitive stimulation, resulting in less advanced cognitive development. One […] More
Is maltreatment by parents associated with less quantity and quality of parent-child reminiscing on the child’ past, and, if so, is this a mechanism by which maltreatment leads to poorer early childhood emotional development? Researchers who asked this question in a recent study found a pathway between maltreatment and emotional development. Specifically: Maltreatment predicts less […] More
Our recent study of more than 1,300 families in the United States makes a compelling cognitive development case for investments to help mothers and other caregivers provide stimulating and responsive care of infants and toddlers. We found that mothers’ stimulating and responsive care of children in the first three years predicts improved cognitive development – […] More
