Years before they set foot in school, children in poor families differ dramatically from children in richer families in their cognitive and noncognitive abilities. The differences have powerful and enduring consequences for individuals’ health, well-being, education, and longevity, as well as for the societies in which children grow into adulthood. What is the source of these consequential diff...

The Permanente Journal/ Fall 2005/ Volume 9 No. 4 Habits are difficult to change. Change is an ordeal. Consider how difficult it is to give up smoking, excessive eating, or taking the time to get sufficient exercise. Pediatricians have the same problem approaching behavioral issues in children. They all have traditional approaches to children or families. Much of the time it is successful. Why ...

Culturally appropriate techniques for monitoring child psychosocial development were prepared and tested in China, India and Thailand on a total of 28,139 children. This is the largest study of its kind ever undertaken. Representative groups aged between birth and 6 years were examined and the results were used to produce national development standards-separately for rural and urban children in...

The nature of the childhood development of immediate recall has been difficult to determine. There could be a developmental increase in either the number of chunks held in working memory or the use of grouping to make the most of a constant capacity. In 3 experiments with children in the early elementary school years and adults, we show that improvements in the immediate recall of word and pict...

A child's early experiences and environments have a significant, measurable effect on later life trajectories of health and well-being. Each child's own world, especially parents and other caregivers, literally sculpts the brain and impacts stress pathways. Effective early childhood interventions exist that can improve adult and societal outcomes. In this statement, the Canadian Paediatric Soci...

International research on parenting and child development can advance our understanding of similarities and differences in how parenting is related to children's development across countries. Challenges to conducting international research include operationalizing culture, disentangling effects within and between countries, and balancing emic and etic perspectives. Benefits of international res...

Background It has long been recognised that social competence is an important aspect for human development, particularly for early childhood development, and it has been considered as a construct in developmental theory (Waters and Sroufe 1983). Different views have been put forward on the definition of social competence over the past two decades. These different perspectives range from the inn...

under-five mortality rate is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five, if current age-specific mortality rates be continued. under-5 mortality, a millennium development goal indicator, is a leading indicator of child health and overall development. this indicator measures child survival. it also, reflects the social, economic and environmental conditions i...