Crying games in the theory of child development

Mathematical tools, such as static and dynamic optimization theory and game theory, are used to axiomatize developmental theory and to model the interaction between parents, their infant children and siblings. Parents allocate their time between parenting and other activities. They respond to their children's demand for attention. Children signal attention seeking by “crying”. Jealous siblings vie for their parents' attention. Parents, children and siblings are assumed to pursue their goals efficiently. The model solves for the equilibrium amount of crying by siblings, the allocation of parents' time between themselves and their children, and the sub-allocation of attention between rival siblings. Parents have an enlightened self-interest in promoting their children's independence, which they do by setting limits. In this they tread a fine line between spoiling and depriving their child. The model is dynamized to solve the optimal development policy of parents and to formalize the separation process of children from parents.     

Early child care and early child development: Major findings of the NICHD study of early child care

The changing landscape of maternal employment in the USA has led to more and more children at younger and younger ages experiencing routine, non-maternal care. Great debate about the effects of day care beginning very early in life led to the launch of a major study in the USA, following more than 1000 children from birth. Study findings through the start of school are summarized. These highlight the fact that good quality child care and exposure to centre-based care predict somewhat advanced cognitive-linguistic functioning, but that lots of time spent in any kind of care (irrespective of its quality) and greater exposure to centre-based care are related to elevated—but not clinical—levels of externalizing problem behaviour. Clearly, risks and benefits are associated with early child care, at least as routinely experienced in the USA. It is critically important to distinguish distinctive aspects of the child-care experience (i.e., quality, quantity, type) in order to understand its complex effect on child development.     

来自屏幕的纽带：视频聊天与儿童发展

随着近几年视频聊天的兴起, 越来越多的研究者开始探索视频聊天对儿童发展的影响。相较于传统通讯技术, 视频聊天具备了视听结合与即时互动的特征; 但同时, 作为数字媒体, 视频聊天仍然保持了传统屏幕媒体二维性的特征。汇总以往视频聊天与儿童学习的实证研究发现, 与录制视频教学比较, 视频聊天在婴幼儿词汇学习(d = 0.33)和动作学习(d = 0.90)上的教学效果更佳; 同时, 视频聊天也能够使婴幼儿在教学过程中保持较高的注意水平(d = 0.90)。视频聊天对儿童远距离亲子关系和同伴关系上均有一定的促进作用。视频聊天也可以作为一种辅助治疗手段应用于特殊儿童的干预中。未来研究仍需关注扩大视频聊天学习中儿童被试的年龄范围、共同观看者的不同支持行为对儿童视频聊天学习的效果产生的影响。     

Early awareness of death in normal child development

A first hand narrative report is used to trace the emergence of a concept of death in a normal male child between the ages of 21 and 36 months. The pattern at age 36 months was congruent with findings already described in the literature. Detailed observations from earlier months had not previously been reported.     

Interpersonal relationships and child development

In studies of psychological development, the child must be seen not as an isolated unit, but as a social being, forming part of a network of relationships. Interactions, relationships, social groups, and the sociocultural structure form successive levels of social complexity, each level involving properties not relevant to lower levels. The levels are connected by dialectical relations and are to be seen not as entities but as processes in continuous creation through the agency of the dialectics. It is rarely possible to study one level in isolation; the dialectics almost always obtrude. A relationships approach must be integrated with others in the field, and especially with that of family systems theorists.     

Taking parent personality and child temperament into account in child language development

Individual differences have become increasingly important in the study of child development and language. However, despite the important role parents play in children’s language, no work has examined how parent personality impacts language development. The current study examines the impact of parent personality as well as child temperament on language development in 460 16- to 30-month-old children and 328 31- to 42-month-old children. Findings from both groups suggest multiple aspects of children’s language abilities are correlated with their parent’s personality. Specifically, parent consciousness, openness, and agreeableness positively correlate with child vocabulary size and other language abilities. Results also replicate and expand research on child temperament and language – child effortful control and surgency were positively correlated, and negative affect negatively correlated with most language abilities even after controlling for parent personality. Critically, parent and child traits appear to impact a child’s language abilities above and beyond well-known predictors of language, such as age.     

The problem of good and evil in the development of the child

Abstract

Carl Jung's decision to undertake a thorough study of Western alchemy was inspired by his reading of The Secret of the Golden Flower, a ninth-century Chinese Taoist text describing the process of meditation in alchemical terms. When he first read this book in 1928 and wrote a commentary for it, he completely ignored its alchemical aspects. He simply tried to make the text comprehensible to Western readers by explaining its basic psychological concepts and assumptions.

In the foreword to the second German edition of The Secret of the Golden Flower. June acknowledged this oversieht¹     

Naturalistic research and ecological thinking in the study of child development

Different kinds of ideas that are labeled “ecological” have become popular among child psychologists in the recent years. The increasingly spreading use of the term “ecological” in contemporary psychology entails the hazard of inflating the usefulness of that concept by extending its meaning to wide domains of research and thinking without a careful scrutiny of the theoretical implications of the term. An example of such widening of the meaning of “ecological” in psychology is the case where the term is often used as a synonym for “naturalistic” and attached to any empirical study that takes place in some everyday life context. This article is aimed at defining the “ecological approach” in the context of the study of child-environment relationships. Such use of the term “ecological” fits an open-systems theoretical framework which is in principle different from the closed-systems (nonecological) perspective that has been dominant in traditional child psychology. The relevance of culturally constructed meanings that operate in the child-environment transaction is discussed as an important part of the ecological view of human development. Empirical research which is based on the open systems view of the nature of child development within culturally structured meaningful environments constitutes the core of the “ecological approach” in developmental psychology, irrespective of whether it is carried out in the field or in a laboratory.     

Language development in a child with left hemispherectomy

A longitudinal study of a left hemispherectomized boy (AB) was conducted to document linguistic evolution and maturation and determine the extent to which right hemisphere processes allow development of language. Resection of the left hemisphere occurred at age 5 years 6 months, following intractable epilepsy. Tests of language comprehension (pointing, understanding of prepositions, understanding of narratives) and production (naming, repetition, lexical diversity, grammatical production) were administered at ages 6:2, 6:4, 6:6, and 6 years 9 months. Observations showed little progress, if any, in most aspects of linguistic performance. In contrast to studies with left-hemispherectomized children, AB showed only a modest expansion of the semantic lexicon and the phonological repertoire more than a year after the surgical intervention. These observations indirectly suggest (1) poor functional involvement of the right hemisphere in the development of adequate linguistic abilities, (2) the necessary integrity of the LH for adequate development of language, or (3) that variations in individual brain maturation rates may account for AB's linguistic progress.