The evolution of counselling

The history of counselling in the USA is presented in terms of four developmental stages: infancy, early childhood, late childhood, and adolescence. It is suggested that client-centred counselling may be an inadequate model as counselling moves into adulthood. The emphasis on relationship is necessary but not sufficient. A more active approach is needed in which the counsellor is prepared to use a wider variety of techniques, to take actions about clients' problems rather than just talk about them, and to devote more attention to a training and support role in relation to a wide variety of community agencies.     

Development of a Screening Instrument for Early Language Delay in Hong Kong Chinese: A Preliminary Study

Having language delay—one of the common neurodevelopmental difficulties during childhood—does not only imply an impairment in communication in the 1st few years of life. Previous studies have suggested that language problems have long-term implications for social, emotional, and intellectual development. Researchers have found that early identification and intervention of speech and language delay yields better treatment effects. However, unlike most of the motor developmental assessment tools, language assessment tools are not readily transferred across cultures because of the different linguistic features and the developmental stages of such features in a particular language or dialect. The present study presents an empirical example of the initial development of a culturally sensitive screening protocol, using vocabulary size as the indicator to minimize the effect of linguistic differences.     

Social development from infancy to adolescence: longitudinal and concurrent factors in an adoption sample

In the present longitudinal study, early adopted children (N = 160) were followed from infancy to adolescence to assess the influence of previous and concurrent factors on the children's social development. This study allowed for more conclusive evidence of the influence of early and concurrent rearing experiences and temperament on adolescents' social development, independent of shared genetic factors between children and parents. Results showed that social development and temperament were stable over time and that both previous and current parental sensitivity were important in predicting social development in adolescence. Quality of the early parent-child relationship was indirectly associated with social development in adolescence through the influence on social development in middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity in middle childhood and in adolescence partly buffered the negative effects of difficult temperament on social development in adolescence. Adaptation emerged as the product of both developmental history and current circumstances.     

The juvenile transition: A developmental switch point in human life history

This paper presents a new perspective on the transition from early to middle childhood (i.e., human juvenility), investigated in an integrative evolutionary framework. Juvenility is a crucial life history stage, when social learning and interaction with peers become central developmental functions; here it is argued that the “juvenile transition” is a developmental switch point in the human life history, when both sex-related and individual differences in reproductive strategies are expressed after the assessment period provided by early childhood. Adrenarche, the secretion of adrenal androgens starting at the beginning of middle childhood, is proposed as the endocrine mechanism mediating the juvenile transition. It is argued that, in connection with the stress system, adrenal androgens enable adaptive plasticity in the development of reproductive strategies through integration of environmental and genetic factors. Finally, evidence is reviewed of both sex-related and individual differences arising during the juvenile transition, in the domains of attachment and aggression. Juvenility plays a central role in the ontogeny of behavior and personality; this paper contributes to defining its place within an integrated model of human development.     

Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition: evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesis

Does age constrain the outcome of all language acquisition equally regardless of whether the language is a first or second one? To test this hypothesis, the English grammatical abilities of deaf and hearing adults who either did or did not have linguistic experience (spoken or signed) during early childhood were investigated with two tasks, timed grammatical judgement and untimed sentence to picture matching. Findings showed that adults who acquired a language in early life performed at near-native levels on a second language regardless of whether they were hearing or deaf or whether the early language was spoken or signed. By contrast, deaf adults who experienced little or no accessible language in early life performed poorly. These results indicate that the onset of language acquisition in early human development dramatically alters the capacity to learn language throughout life, independent of the sensory-motor form of the early experience.     

Speed of word recognition and vocabulary knowledge in infancy predict cognitive and language outcomes in later childhood

The nature of predictive relations between early language and later cognitive function is a fundamental question in research on human cognition. In a longitudinal study assessing speed of language processing in infancy, Fernald, Perfors and Marchman (2006) found that reaction time at 25 months was strongly related to lexical and grammatical development over the second year. In this follow-up study, children originally tested as infants were assessed at 8 years on standardized tests of language, cognition, and working memory. Speed of spoken word recognition and vocabulary size at 25 months each accounted for unique variance in linguistic and cognitive skills at 8 years, effects that were attributable to strong relations between both infancy measures and working memory. These findings suggest that processing speed and early language skills are fundamental to intellectual functioning, and that language development is guided by learning and representational principles shared across cognitive and linguistic domains.     

The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: a longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12 years

The present study is the first long-term longitudinal examination of the etiology of individual differences in language from early childhood through to adolescence. We applied a multivariate latent factor genetic model to longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study in order to (a) compare the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on language skills in early childhood (2, 3 and 4 years), middle childhood (7, 9 and 10 years), and early adolescence (12 years); and (b) determine to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors underlie variation in language skills at these three stages of language development. We found that while shared environmental influences appear to be dominant (latent factor c2 = .74) in early language, with a smaller though significant role for genetic factors (latent factor a2 = .24), the pattern is reversed by middle childhood such that genetic influences are substantially more important (latent factor a2 = .57-.63 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .47-.57 at 12 years) and shared environmental influences less so (latent factor c2 = .31-.37 at 7, 9 and 10 years and .31-.32 at 12 years). The increase in the heritability of language skills between early and middle childhood appears to be due to new genetic factors that come into play at that transition. In contrast, genetic factors remain stable from middle childhood through to early adolescence, and account for the phenotypic continuity in language skills across these two stages.     

Derived embodiment and imaginative capacities in interactional expertise

Interactional expertise is said to be a form of knowledge achieved in a linguistic community and, therefore, obtained entirely outside practice. Supposedly, it is not or only minimally sustained by the so-called embodied knowledge. Here, drawing upon studies in contemporary neuroscience and cognitive psychology, I propose that ‘derived’ embodiment is deeply involved in competent language use and, therefore, also in interactional expertise. My argument consists of two parts. First, I argue for a strong relationship among language acquisition, language use and the real world (i.e. the world accessible to the senses). Biological constraints in very early childhood anchor language to the body. These constraints are by-products of our evolutionary peculiarity that we gain because of our physical and psychological immaturity at birth. Thus, infancy is predominantly concerned with the bodily needs and experiences of the concrete while language acquisition takes place. Particular interest in the concrete furnishes our linguistic world and installs ‘concrete’ language as the principal constituent of competent language use. Second, I argue that well-established concrete language implicitly and explicitly elicits mental representations, namely partial reactivations of sensorimotor states that occur during experience. These are stepping stones by which we subsequently make sense of expressions in new linguistic areas. Like any competent language user, the interactional expert, therefore, prompts multimodal imagination and re-enacts concrete experiences when acquiring linguistic knowledge pertaining to a specialist field. Finally, I outline the characteristics of those imaginative powers to identify mechanisms that improve interactional expertise and discuss the obvious relation between interactional expertise and ordinary knowledge acquisition after the concrete language stage.     

The Implications of Childhood Bacterial Meningitis for Language Development

Bacterial meningitis is a life threatening infection of the central nervous system. This illness is most prevalent early in life when the healthy child is rapidly acquiring language. This study investigated whether children with a history of bacterial meningitis were at risk for language difficulties post illness. Thirty post-meningitic children, aged between 9 years 0 months and 11 years 0 months, participated in this study. Each subject was administered a measure of non-verbal cognitive ability and a range of language tasks. These children performed poorly on applied language tasks, which tap skills used in effective discourse. These deficits occurred despite age appropriate performances on measures of linguistic/grammatical knowledge. These findings clearly illustrate that bacterial meningitis has implications for ongoing language development, which emphasises the importance of long term follow up. In developmental terms, this discrepancy between verbal knowledge and problem solving represents a dissociation between language skills which develop early in life and those which emerge later. This pattern of results suggests that bacterial meningitis may result in a delay in language development. A young age at illness was identified as an additional risk factor for adverse outcome. This study highlights the need to inform parents/guardians that post-meningitic children are at risk for experiencing language difficulties throughout childhood.     

The implications of childhood bacterial meningitis for language development.

Bacterial meningitis is a life threatening infection of the central nervous system. This illness is most prevalent early in life when the healthy child is rapidly acquiring language. This study investigated whether children with a history of bacterial meningitis were at risk for language difficulties post illness. Thirty post-meningitic children, aged between 9 years 0 months and 11 years 0 months, participated in this study. Each subject was administered a measure of non-verbal cognitive ability and a range of language tasks. These children performed poorly on applied language tasks, which tap skills used in effective discourse. These deficits occurred despite age appropriate performances on measures of linguistic/grammatical knowledge. These findings clearly illustrate that bacterial meningitis has implications for ongoing language development, which emphasises the importance of long term follow up. In developmental terms, this discrepancy between verbal knowledge and problem solving represents a dissociation between language skills which develop early in life and those which emerge later. This pattern of results suggests that bacterial meningitis may result in a delay in language development. A young age at illness was identified as an additional risk factor for adverse outcome. This study highlights the need to inform parents/guardians that post-meningitic children are at risk for experiencing language difficulties throughout childhood.     

稳定性与可变性：西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展研究概述

弄清儿童青少年人格发展特点,可为人格发展与教育工作提供参考。文章梳理了近30年西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展的研究进展,区分了人格发展的两种主要表现形式,并分别从这两方面总结出儿童青少年“大五”人格结构的稳定性、人格特质平均水平的可变性。最后基于现有研究存在的问题,结合当前时代特点,提出未来研究方向。     

Remaining or becoming secure: Parental sensitive support predicts attachment continuity from infancy to adolescence in a longitudinal adoption study

In a longitudinal study with 125 early adopted adolescents, we examined continuity of attachment from infancy to adolescence and the role of parental sensitive support in explaining continuity or discontinuity of attachment. Assessments of maternal sensitive support and infant attachment (Strange Situation Procedure) were completed when infants were 12 months old. When the children were 14 years old, we observed mothers' sensitive support during a conflict discussion. The adolescents' attachment representations were assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview. Mothers of secure adolescents showed significantly more sensitive support during conflicts than did mothers of insecure adolescents. Overall, no continuity of attachment from infancy to adolescence was found. However, maternal sensitive support in early childhood and adolescence predicted continuity of secure attachment from 1 to 14 years, whereas less maternal sensitive support in early childhood but more maternal sensitive support in adolescence predicted children's change from insecurity in infancy to security in adolescence. We conclude that both early and later parental sensitive support are important for continuity of attachment across the first 14 years of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The relation between infant freezing and the development of internalizing symptoms in adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study

Given the long‐lasting detrimental effects of internalizing symptoms, there is great need for detecting early risk markers. One promising marker is freezing behavior. Whereas initial freezing reactions are essential for coping with threat, prolonged freezing has been associated with internalizing psychopathology. However, it remains unknown whether early life alterations in freezing reactions predict changes in internalizing symptoms during adolescent development. In a longitudinal study (N = 116), we tested prospectively whether observed freezing in infancy predicted the development of internalizing symptoms from childhood through late adolescence (until age 17). Both longer and absent infant freezing behavior during a standard challenge (robot‐confrontation task) were associated with internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Specifically, absent infant freezing predicted a relative increase in internalizing symptoms consistently across development from relatively low symptom levels in childhood to relatively high levels in late adolescence. Longer infant freezing also predicted a relative increase in internalizing symptoms, but only up until early adolescence. This latter effect was moderated by peer stress and was followed by a later decrease in internalizing symptoms. The findings suggest that early deviations in defensive freezing responses signal risk for internalizing symptoms and may constitute important markers in future stress vulnerability and resilience studies.     

Linking preschool language and sustained attention with adolescent achievement through classroom self-reliance

This study examined self-reliant classroom behaviors during middle childhood as a mechanism through which early language and sustained attention become associated with academic achievement in adolescence. Participants were enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364). Path analyses revealed that preschool language and sustained attention predicted self-reliant classroom behaviors during middle childhood and that self-reliant classroom behaviors predicted changes in math achievement in adolescence. Self-reliant classroom behaviors mediated the relations of preschool sustained attention and linguistic ability with adolescent math achievement, but not reading achievement. These findings extend research highlighting the importance of self-reliant classroom behaviors for children's academic outcomes.     

Maternal sensitivity and language in early childhood: a test of the transactional model

This study examined the relation between mothers' sensitive responsiveness to their children and the children's expressive language skills during early childhood. Reciprocal effects were tested with dyads of mothers and their children participating in the National Institute of Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Sensitive maternal interactions positively affected children's later expressive language in the second and third years of life. Although maternal sensitivity predicted later language skills in children, children's language did not affect later maternal sensitivity as indicated in a structural equation model. These results do not support the 1975 transactional model of child development of Sameroff and Chandler. A consistent pattern of sensitivity throughout infancy and early childhood indicates the importance of fostering maternal sensitivity in infancy for prevention or remediation of expressive language problems in young children.     

Evolution and the hormonal control of sexually-dimorphic spatial abilities in humans

A number of hypotheses have been proposed for the evolution of sex differences in spatial ability. Two of these hypotheses assume a sex-based division of labor in foraging during human evolutionary history, three propose sexual selection for spatial ability, and two suggest that human life history has imposed sex-specific selection on spatial abilities. We derive predictions from each of these models and test the predictions against recent data on the effects of hormones on spatial ability across the lifespan. Sexual selection for increased range size in males might be the evolutionary origin of the enhancing effects of testosterone on spatial ability, while the benefits of reduced mobility in women at different stages of reproduction could be the origin of the inhibitory effects of oestrogen on spatial ability.     

Mapping the Landscape of Personality in Childhood and Adolescence

From infancy, children vary in their typical emotions and behaviors, and by the middle of childhood, children have richly differentiated personalities. In this paper, I review the personality differences that youths exhibit from early childhood through adolescence, using a three-part taxonomy developed by (McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. American Psychologist, 2006; 61, 204–217). First, children exhibit a dispositional signature, including first temperament traits and later the Big Five personality traits, which show some consistency across situations and over time. Second, youths display characteristic adaptations that are more specific to particular life contexts; these include mental representations, strategies, and goals. Third, adolescents form personal narratives, stories about their lives that reflect and shape their identities. I describe the differences youths exhibit in these three domains and situate these differences in the context of overall development in childhood and adolescence. New work on youths’ personalities can serve as the foundation for future lifespan perspectives on personality development.     

Language comprehension vs. language production: age effects on fMRI activation

Normal language acquisition is a process that unfolds with amazing speed primarily in the first years of life. However, the refinement of linguistic proficiency is an ongoing process, extending well into childhood and adolescence. An increase in lateralization and a more focussed productive language network have been suggested to be the neural correlates of this process. However, the processes underlying the refinement of language comprehension are less clear. Using a language comprehension (Beep Stories) and a language production (Vowel Identification) task in fMRI, we studied language representation and lateralization in 36 children, adolescents, and young adults (age 6-24 years). For the language comprehension network, we found a more focal activation with age in the bilateral superior temporal gyri. No significant increase of lateralization with age could be observed, so the neural basis of language comprehension as assessed with the Beep Stories task seems to be established in a bilateral network by late childhood. For the productive network, however, we could confirm an increase with age both in focus and lateralization. Only in the language comprehension task did verbal IQ correlate with lateralization, with higher verbal IQ being associated with more right-hemispheric involvement. In some subjects (24%), language comprehension and language production were lateralized to opposite hemispheres.     

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA): a psychometric evaluation

Despite the recognized importance of emotion regulation (ER) for healthy psychological development, ER research has focused predominantly on the developmental periods of infancy, early childhood, and adulthood, while the middle childhood to adolescence years have been relatively neglected. An obstacle to ER research during these periods is the paucity of valid age-appropriate measures. This study reports on the psychometric evaluation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA), a revision of the adult measure. The ERQ-CA was evaluated with a sample of 827 participants aged between 10 and 18 years. Results indicate sound internal consistency as well as stability over a 12-month period. Sound construct and convergent validity are also demonstrated. It is concluded that the ERQ-CA is a valid age-appropriate measure for investigating the use of 2 specific strategies of ER during the childhood and adolescence developmental periods.     

Children,childhood, and development in evolutionary perspective

We examine children, childhood, and development from an evolutionary perspective. We begin by reviewing major assumptions of evolutionary–developmental psychology, including the integration of “soft” developmental systems theory with ideas from mainstream evolutionary psychology. We then discuss the concept of adaptive developmental plasticity and describe the core evolutionary concept of developmental programming and some of its applications to human development, as instantiated in life history theory and the theory of differential susceptibility to environmental influence. We then discuss the concept of adaptation from an evolutionary–developmental perspective, including ontogenetic and deferred adaptations, and examine the development of some adaptations of infancy and childhood from the domains of folk psychology and folk physics. We conclude that evolutionary theory can serve as a metatheory for developmental science.