Games have an increasingly important role in modern contemporary culture. Indeed, the effects of games upon culture, childhood development and social relationships have all gained considerable academic attention. Studies have documented how games support interaction (Brown 2004, Moore 2006), creative player activities (Wright 2002), the development of ‘economies’ (Castronova 2005), friendships ...

BACKGROUND There are still a lot of unknown aspects about the childhood development of sociability which are based on neuroscientific basis. Purpose of the Japan Children's Study (JCS) was to verify the normal process of child development of sociability; the trajectory and factors related development of sociability, and to collect findings and integrate the knowledge to make the plan of long-te...

The origins of conventional literacy skills are evident in early childhood development. Emergent literacy skills, as measured in preschool and kindergarten, are strong predictors of later literacy achievement. Current educational research and policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, PL 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425, 2001) emphasize assessment of preschool children to inform identification and ...

The goal of this study is to address directly the predictive value of birth inputs and outputs, particularly birth weight, for measures of early childhood development in a simultaneous equations modelling framework. Strikingly, birth outputs have virtually no structural/causal effects on early childhood developmental outcomes, and only maternal smoking and drinking during pregnancy have some ef...

Introduction. Professionals who assess early childhood development highly benefit from reliable development screening measures. The Ages & Stages Questionnaire was adapted Brazil in 2010 and named ASQ-BR. Modifications in some items were required to improve the instrument's psychometric properties. The present study modified the ASQ-BR to verify if those changes increase its characteristics. Me...

Background The past two decades have seen increasing recognition about the importance and potential of large longitudinal cohort studies, not only for informing our understanding of child development and evidence-based interventions, but also for informing the development and evaluation of government policy and programmes for children and families. In New Zealand, our diverse contemporary longi...