Telehealth in pediatric physiotherapy presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in lower-resource settings where health service access and equity remain concerns. Focus of attention (FOA) for instructions and feedback, which influences motor learning outcomes, may be crucial in this context. While earlier studies have relied mainly on self-reports, direct observation can identify physiotherapists' actual use of FOA in practice. This study used an exploratory observational design to examine pediatric physiotherapists' use of FOA when delivering instructions and feedback during telehealth. The study involved two therapy centers in the capital region. Six physiotherapists each selected two clients with neurodevelopmental disorders who received weekly telehealth physiotherapy. Three sessions per client were recorded via Zoom (n = 36). Physiotherapists completed the Developmental Profile-4th Edition forms assessing clients' physical and cognitive development. Transcriptions were coded as instructions, feedback, or general chatter and classified by focus, modality, and recipient. Frequencies were calculated to derive relative focus scores, indicating physiotherapists' FOA preference. Paired t tests revealed significant differences (p < .001) in physiotherapists' relative focus scores for instructions (mean 42.62 SD 25.03) and feedback (mean 58.98 SD 23.8). Pearson's correlations revealed that overall relative focus scores were significantly associated with clients' age (r = 0.396, p = .017), cognitive development (r = 0.552, p < .001), and physical development (r = 0.552, p < .001). Physiotherapists prefer an external FOA during instructions and an internal FOA during feedback. Relative focus scores were associated with clients' age and development levels. Given the heightened reliance on verbal instructions during telehealth, these findings offer baseline evidence to inform knowledge translation and context-specific application of FOA principles in pediatric physiotherapy practice.

The alpha rhythm, first identified by Hans Berger 100 years ago, is the dominant noninvasive electrophysiological signature of the healthy human brain in the awake state. For decades, it was believed that the alpha rhythm reflected rest or idling; however, this perspective changed in the 2000s when researchers found that alpha oscillations increase with cognitive demands. This discovery led to a paradigm shift, demonstrating that alpha oscillations reflect the functional inhibition of brain regions that are not needed for a specific task, thereby directing information to task-specific areas. We have reviewed the physiological mechanisms involved in generating alpha oscillations, which have informed computational models explaining how these oscillations emerge within physiologically realistic networks. At the behavioral level, alpha oscillations are strongly modulated across nearly all cognitive paradigms tested in humans, reflecting the allocation of computational resources within the active brain network. Research in individuals with attention-related issues has highlighted their impaired ability to modulate alpha oscillations, which is associated with performance deficits. Therefore, further exploration of alpha oscillations has the potential to uncover causal mechanisms underlying attention problems, such as those related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and aging. Finally, advancements in technology are opening new avenues for characterizing alpha oscillations in ecologically valid settings and across the lifespan. This progress sets the stage for exploring the role of alpha oscillations in cognitive development and their functioning in natural environments.

Participation in sports contributes substantially to children's physical health, psychological well-being, and cognitive development. Despite national initiatives to increase youth sports participation, inequities remain. Socioeconomic disadvantage, racial and ethnic minority status, and other social determinants of health (SDOH) are associated with lower engagement. However, most research addresses isolated factors rather than cumulative neighborhood-level SDOH. This study identified neighborhood SDOH profiles and examined their associations with sports participation. Baseline data of 9400 children from 9 to 10 yr in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study were analyzed. Eighty-two neighborhood indicators spanning seven SDOH domains were aggregated into domain scores, with higher scores reflecting more advantaged conditions. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering identified neighborhood SDOH profiles. Associations between cluster membership and sports participation were examined using regression models adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, parental education, and household income. Outcomes included the total number of sports and qualitative indices by sport skill type (open vs closed) and context (team vs individual). Four neighborhood profiles were identified, ranging from high affluence to urban high-risk environments. Children from disadvantaged clusters participated in fewer sports. Those in the most deprived neighborhoods played approximately 1.5 fewer sports than peers in affluent areas ( P < 0.01) and had reduced odds (open-skill or team sport participation odds ratios approximately 0.35-0.37, P < 0.01). Associations were attenuated after adjustment for individual- and family-level socioeconomic factors, with disparities remaining significant primarily in moderately advantaged and highly socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods. Distinct neighborhood social conditions are associated with differences in youth engagement in organized sports. These findings underscore the importance of considering structural and community-level factors when examining disparities in youth sports participation.

Premature birth has long-term effects on sensory, motor, and cognitive development. Despite evidence of impaired motor function in young children born preterm, there is less known about motor learning and the characterization of the acquisition and retention of motor skills in this population. Furthermore, bimanual movements, important for performing everyday activities, may be preferentially affected in preterm children. In this study, we compared unimanual and bimanual motor skill learning in young children born preterm compared to children born at term age. Unimanual and bimanual de novo visuomotor learning tasks were implemented on a computerized tablet (Apple iPad). Fifty-five participants (N=14 preterm), corrected age 5-8years, completed three testing sessions: initial practice (72 practice attempts), 24-h retention (24 practice attempts), and 7-day retention (24 practice attempts). Speed (completion time) and accuracy (movement path length) characterized motor performance. Learning was determined by comparing performance at the end of initial practice to each retention test. Overall, preterm children exhibited reduced speed and accuracy on both tasks compared to term-born children. All children performed better on the unimanual version of the task. Retention was similar between groups and tasks. Biological age had a small, nonlinear relationship with performance. These results confirm that preterm children have impaired unimanual and bimanual skills but are capable of learning new visuomotor patterns, with potential differences in skill retention. This evidence provides insight into the varied trajectories of motor development of preterm children.

Optimal brain development is context-dependent: How socioeconomic status moderates brain-behavior relationships in cognitive and academic development.

Exploring early intervention models at home to support the development of preterm infants: A literature review to guide professionals and involve parents.

The rare X-linked female-restricted Hardikar syndrome (HDKR, OMIM # 301068) is characterized by multiple congenital anomalies including orofacial clefts, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and cardiac anomalies, but cognitive and neurobehavioral development is rarely impaired. HDKR is caused by heterozygous frameshift, splice or nonsense variants in the MED12 gene. Besides HDKR, MED12 pathogenic variants cause a broad spectrum of developmental disorders, collectively referred to as MED12-related disorders, including Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome or FG syndrome type 1 (OKS, OMIM #305450), Lujan-Fryns syndrome (MRXSLF, OMIM #309520), X-linked Ohdo syndrome (OHDOX, OMIM #300895) and isolated intellectual disability. Here we report four individuals with HDKR, including the first of maternally inherited HDKR, and we review molecular and clinical data from 33 individuals with HDKR and 215 individuals with other MED12-related disorders retrieved through a literature and public database search. We highlight sella turcica cysts as a new Hardikar syndrome-related feature, and we introduce clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of individuals with HDKR.

The preschool years are a crucial period for development. Stable environments and responsive caregivers support children's cognitive and motor development, two interrelated and essential domains. Caregiver smartphone use in front of children may reduce attention and responsiveness, which have been negatively associated with young children's health and development. We examined associations between the frequency of caregiver smartphone use in a child's presence and motor skills and executive functions, and whether these associations vary by country income level. We analysed cross-sectional data from 27 countries participating in the SUNRISE International Study. Caregivers reported the frequency of smartphone use in the child's presence across five scenarios: mealtime, playtime, travel, walk and bedtime routines. Children's motor skills were assessed using four established tests. Early Years Toolbox games were used to assess children's visual-spatial working memory and inhibition. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to assess the associations, including interaction terms to test variation by country income level. Models were adjusted for the child's sex, age, daily screen time, time spent outdoors, sleep duration and the caregiver's highest level of education. The analytical sample included 2232 preschoolers (mean age = 4.2 ± 0.6 years, 50.9% girls). In fully adjusted models, the frequency of caregiver smartphone use in a child's presence was not associated with gross motor skills, fine motor skills, visual-spatial working memory or inhibition (all p > 0.05). Results did not differ by country income level. Findings suggest that the frequency of caregiver smartphone use in a child's presence alone may not be associated with performance on motor skills and executive function. There is a need for more sensitive measures that capture the frequency, duration and context of interruptions and more longitudinal studies that examine motor development and cognition. Future research should also account for socioeconomic and demographic diversity, environmental factors and cultural context when assessing such associations.

Prenatal maternal anxiety and offspring development: Insights from neurobehavioral assessments and cord blood metabolomics.

The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) is a widely used measure of psychopathology in developmental research and serves as the primary measure in the landmark Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (N=11,861; 8-11years). However, its psychometric properties in this sample have not been assessed in detail. Analyses using a multi-method framework (CFA, B-CFA, FMM, IRT, ESEM) indicate that a commonly used bifactor structure of the CBCL does not fit the data and instead the scale can be adequately described as unidimensional. Moreover, seven of eight subscales demonstrate insufficient construct validity and are not valid indicators of any higher-order models. All exhibit poor measurement precision below the mean of the latent traits, and item-level exploratory methods produce unstable factors with weak discriminant validity. These findings suggest caution in using the CBCL for dimensional measurement in this dataset and highlight the need for measures explicitly developed and validated for dimensional psychopathology in population-scale research. SUMMARY: The CBCL is a widely used measure of child and adolescent psychopathology, but its psychometric properties in the ABCD study cohort remain unclear. Using a multi-method approach we show that the CBCL is unidimensional and is not well represented by the commonly used bifactor model. CBCL subscales demonstrate insufficient construct validity and demonstrate poor measurement precision across the latent trait continuum. In combination, our findings caution against the use of the CBCL for dimensional measurement of developmental psychopathology in the ABCD study cohort.

Children learning words face at least one challenge, maybe two. First, children must gather enough information to identify which concept maps to which word (a linguistic bottleneck). Second, for this mapping to be possible, children may need to acquire the concept itself if it is not already available (a conceptual bottleneck). We investigate whether children face both challenges or only the first when learning the English words for negation, a concept that is abstract and nonreferential, yet universal across human thought and languages. We tested whether a linguistic bottleneck is sufficient to explain how children learn to express negation by comparing negation production in typical English learners and older internationally adopted preschoolers, who are more conceptually mature but face a similar language-learning task. If infants normally face a conceptual bottleneck, older adoptees, who do not, should learn negation faster. If the only bottleneck is linguistic, the two groups should learn negation at the same rate relative to their acquisition of English. In Study 1, parent reports on the Communicative Development Inventory showed that older international adoptees and language-matched infant first-language learners begin producing no and not at the same point in vocabulary growth. Study 2 examined children's production of logical denial uses of negation words in longitudinal corpora of parent-child interactions. Adopted preschoolers' and language-matched infants' production of denials increased at the same rate relative to the mean length of children's utterances. Matching patterns of negation acquisition in internationally adopted preschoolers and first-language-learning infants support a solely linguistic, not conceptual, bottleneck on learning negation words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Early learning takes place within complex, multimodal environments where curiosity plays a critical role in guiding exploratory behaviors and supporting cognitive development. While trait curiosity shapes children's early learning experiences, state curiosity is context-dependent fostering early learning, in-part, through information seeking behaviors. Here, we explore whether state-induced curiosity can influence exploratory behaviors and facilitate word-learning within a multimodal search task that mirrors real-world learning environments. Children (2.5- to 4-year-olds) will be introduced to novel objects and labels via a storybook. After exposure to each novel object, participants will locate the target object (i.e., a sticker depicting the novel object), hidden within one of ten boxes uniformly distributed across a real-world space. Unbeknownst to participants, the target will only be hidden within a single hemispace. In the "High-Curiosity" condition, the storybook should elicit greater curiosity, whereas the "Low-Curiosity" condition will present novel words in a context that should invoke lower levels of curiosity. Following the search task, participants will complete a forced-choice word learning task. Findings will provide insights into whether and how curiosity facilitates word learning in rich, multimodal contexts and how this relationship can be impacted by children's explorative strategies, including their sensitivity to environmental statistics. SUMMARY: Curiosity drives early development, but the extent to which it facilitates learning within a multimodal environment remains underexplored. The study examines how high versus low induced curiosity states influence toddlers' exploratory behavior, including search efficiency and adaptation to spatial probability cues. The study assesses whether higher state-induced curiosity leads to stronger retention and recognition of novel word-object mappings compared to the lower curiosity condition. The study examines how curiosity-driven search strategies relate to novel word learning and whether learning is moderated by how children choose to search for information.

The effect of family capital on critical thinking skills of primary and middle school students in rural county-level regions of China: The chain mediating role of home-school cooperation and teachers' expectations.

Understanding how early mother-child interactions are linked to children's social-cognitive processes requires methods capable of capturing the temporal structure of naturalistic behavior. This study introduces a computational framework based on Bayesian Network modeling to identify sequential dependencies among nonverbal behaviors (smiles, gaze, and social touch) exchanged during free play in mother-child dyads (n = 38; age 3 years). From each network, we derived the Order of Sequential Interaction (OSI), a compact index of interaction complexity. We then examined its associations with behavioral, physiological, and neural measures relevant to cognitive development. Although OSI was not associated with language or executive-function scores, analyses revealed links between OSI and prosocial behavior, facial EMG, and neural responses (rTPJ, lIFG) during prosocial-scene viewing. These findings suggest that OSI may capture aspects of interaction structure specifically connected to children's social and affective responsiveness. Building on this, the present framework demonstrates how probabilistic graphical models can structure complex interaction data and support future investigations into multimodal processes in early socialcognition. SUMMARY: A Bayesian-network framework is proposed to model multivariate sequential dependencies in naturalistic mother-child interaction. The order of sequential interaction (OSI) quantifies interaction complexity from behavioral time-series data. Higher OSI is associated with greater prosocial behavior and with neural (rTPJ, lIFG) and physiological (facial EMG) responses during social processing. Interaction complexity is not associated with general cognitive or language measures, suggesting that it reflects a distinct dimension of social behavior. The proposed framework provides a basis for studying social-cognitive development from naturalistic interaction data.

Neurocognitive functions play a fundamental role in children's learning and academic success. Among these functions, memorization-based on associative cognitive processes-is essential for knowledge acquisition. In Morocco, educational disparities between rural and urban environments and differences between public and private schools may influence cognitive development and learning outcomes among schoolchildren. This study aimed to analyze the memorization process among Moroccan school-aged children and to identify demographic and contextual factors associated with learning performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 441 children aged 8-15 years recruited from six public and private schools in the Marrakech-Safi region of Morocco between November 2022 and March 2023. Memorization and learning abilities were assessed using the adapted Moroccan version of the Rey-Taylor auditory-verbal learning test (AVLT). Key indicators included the total number of recalled words across 10 trials, the learning index, and retroactive interference. Associations between cognitive performance and contextual variables (age, gender, school type, and residence) were analyzed using Spearman correlation tests. The results show that the learning index is relatively higher among girls (M=4.8, standard deviation [SD]=2.70), children over 12 years old (M=5.0, SD=2.39), children from rural areas (M=5.0, SD=2.62), and those enrolled in the public sector (M=5.0, SD=2.59), compared with other categories. These variables were the least affected by retroactive interference except for the rural environment, which experienced an RI=68.8, SD=0.21. However, the data indicate a performance among private-sector and younger students in at least one learning assessment stage. The Spearman test showed a positive correlation between the learning index and the age variable (r=0.095; p=0.046), and between retroactive interference and the living environment (r=0.105; p=0.028) and the type of school (r=0.126; p=0.0008). Overall, improving memory and academic performance requires targeted pedagogy, extracurricular activities, equal school opportunities, and research on factors, such as motivation, social dynamics, and teaching methods. Similarly, longitudinal studies will help deepen the understanding of memory and guide educational policies.

Children with intestinal failure (IF) are vulnerable to adverse cognitive outcomes. We assessed intelligence quotient (IQ) and identified associated factors. Multicentre international cross-sectional study in children with IF and weaned children, treated at Erasmus MC Sophia Children's Hospital, Amsterdam UMC Emma Children's Hospital (both The Netherlands) and Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust (UK). Primary outcomes were IQ outcomes using Wechsler's preschool and primary scale of intelligence (WPPSI-III), Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC-V) or Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS-IV). Secondary outcomes were cognitive development outcomes, the correlation between IQ and possible related factors, and the linear relationship between the most influential factors and IQ outcomes using multiple linear regression. Fifty children were included: 50% boys; median age 9.1 (IQR 6.5-12.5) years; gestational age 34 (30-37) weeks; birth weight 2135 (1279-2545) grams; most common underlying condition was necrotising enterocolitis (28%); 21/50 children (42%) received home parenteral nutrition (PN), median PN-duration was 26.8 (7.5-66.5) months. Median IQ score was 92.0 (74.3-101.0), 15 children (30%) had very/extremely low IQ, both significantly different from the normal population (p < 0.001). Parental occupational and educational levels, number of line infections, and total hospital admission duration showed the strongest correlations with IQ outcomes, with line infections remaining significant after correction for multiple analyses (rho -0.52, p < 0.01). However, none were significant after multiple linear regression. Children with IF generally exhibit an average IQ but are at risk to have a below-average IQ. While separate factors were correlated with IQ outcomes, none remained significant after multiple linear regression. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: MEC 2019-098, NL-OMON54827, https://trialsearch.who.int/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=NL-OMON54827.

For many years, research on attention has been dominated by theories based on the assumption that attention is limited in capacity. These include the limited-capacity-channel theories of Welford and Broadbent and capacity or resource theories by Moray, Posner, and Kahneman. This article challenges these theories and their many descendants by asking why capacity is limited and what role capacity plays in the computations required to perform attention tasks. There are few satisfactory answers in limited-capacity and resource theories of attention. I show that the effects of load on performance, which are commonly interpreted as evidence for limited capacity, can be produced by models that assume unlimited, limited, and fixed capacity. I argue that attention is better construed as a selection of information that we need to achieve our goals. Following current research on computational models of attention in associative learning, categorization, perceptual learning, cognitive development, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, I propose that attention is a process of choice in which selection is implemented as multiplicative gain control and processing is constrained by normalization. This perspective focuses on interactions between representations and decision processes applied to them, explaining many attentional phenomena without assuming attention is a limited resource.

Media Parenting Practices and Early Adolescent Cyberbullying: Findings From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

In this preregistered study, we used diffusion MRI (dMRI) to characterize the tissue properties of cerebellar pathways in 9-11-year-old early adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. We examined fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and number of streamlines (NoS) across five cerebellar pathways-the inferior, middle, and superior cerebellar peduncles, the input and Purkinje fibers, and the parallel fibers-in adolescents with (n = 135) and without (n = 7276) a parent-reported ASD diagnosis. We further tested whether cerebellar dMRI measures differentially related to core ASD symptom domains of social communication and interaction (SCI) and restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRB). Group comparisons revealed significant differences in cerebellar NoS (Pillai's trace p = .033), driven by greater NoS of the superior cerebellar peduncle in early adolescents with ASD; FA and MD showed no significant group effects. Cerebellar pathway dMRI measures exhibited significant interactions with diagnosis in relation to ASD symptom severity. The superior cerebellar peduncle demonstrated the strongest diagnosis-dependent interaction effects, with the NoS showing markedly stronger associations with both social communication (Δβ = 0.14, p = .0019) and restricted and repetitive behaviors (Δβ = 0.21, p < .0001) in children with ASD. These findings highlight the superior cerebellar peduncle as a key pathway of structural variability and highlight dMRI measures of the cerebellar pathways as meaningful correlates of ASD symptoms in early adolescence.

Adolescence involves pronounced changes in sleep timing and duration that have been linked to executive functioning, impulsivity, and risk behaviors, yet evidence for generalizable sleep - self-regulation associations remains limited. We used regularized canonical correlation analysis to examine multivariate relationships between sleep and self-regulation across two independent cohorts. In the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 11,143), later chronotype and shorter sleep duration were associated with higher impulsivity, particularly urgency and deficits in planning and perseverance (r = 0.21, permutation p < 0.001), with minimal contribution from delay discounting. Social jetlag showed weak loadings. In the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence cohort (n = 831), only one canonical function was statistically significant (r = 0.15, p = 0.011), characterized by later chronotype and greater social jetlag, with minimal contribution from sleep duration and primary loadings on impulsivity-related measures. Applying the ABCD-derived sleep - self-regulation pattern to NCANDA produced a small but nonzero association, driven primarily by social jetlag and delayed sleep timing, with minimal influence of sleep duration. These findings provide multivariate evidence linking delayed sleep timing and circadian misalignment to adolescent self-regulation, though effect sizes attenuate across cohorts. Longitudinal work is needed to clarify predictive pathways and inform sleep-focused interventions during this vulnerable developmental period.