Set Of Toys Research Articles

Less frequent face looking in infancy is related to autism likelihood status but not diagnosis: A study of parent-infant interaction

BackgroundPrevious research suggest that autistic children look less at faces than neurotypically developing children, but this finding is based predominantly on screen-based eye tracking studies, with unfamiliar faces used as stimuli. The aim of the current study was to assess 10-month-olds’ gaze to faces in a more naturalistic context - during free play with a parent - in relation to later autism diagnosis. MethodParents were asked to play with their infant ‘as they usually would’ with a set of toys on the floor. During the first 5 min of play, infant gaze to parent’s face was video coded. ResultsInfants at elevated likelihood of autism (N = 18 with later diagnosis; 46 without later diagnosis), regardless of later diagnostic status, produced fewer gaze shifts towards their parents’ faces than infants at low likelihood of autism (N = 18). Infants in all groups spent only ∼3 % of their time looking at parents’ faces, and there was no group difference in terms of the proportion of time spent looking at faces. There was neither a correlation between infant face looking and scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2, nor between infant face looking and autistic traits in the parent. ConclusionsDuring toy play, all infants – irrespective of later diagnosis – spent very little time looking at parents’ faces. Infants at elevated likelihood of autism made fewer gazes to their parents’ faces than neurotypically developing infants, which could potentially affect opportunities for social learning. The effect was not specifically linked to later autism diagnosis.

A short report on a preliminary interventional study to evaluate play-mediated interaction skills in caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder from Sri Lanka.

Most children with autism spectrum disorder live in low- and middle-income countries. Most of them do not have access to timely and culturally acceptable interventions. Research from high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries, such as Sri Lanka, show that parent-mediated intervention programmes improve functional outcomes, highlighting the importance of parents as partners. We undertook a preliminary study to evaluate how play-based parent coaching will enhance the parent interaction skills to promote social-emotional, cognitive and language skills in children with autism spectrum disorder aged 2-4 years. We evaluated how parents acquire interaction skills to engage with children using a caregiver skills assessment checklist adapted from freely accessible resources. Before and after training, all parent-child dyads participated in a 10-min video-recorded play session with a set of toys of their choice. Over the course of 2 weeks, all parents spent 2 h/day playing and interacting with the child to harness the desired skills. The results showed that the parental training had a positive effect on all 30 caregivers in gaining skills, with a significant improvement in all three domains with the highest impact on skills for social-emotional development. Overall, parents reported high levels of satisfaction on the training. The significant improvement in parent interaction skills was promising. However, further studies to look at the sustainability of the skills and the impact on children's overall development need to be looked into using larger and more generalised studies.

Controlling the input: How one-year-old infants sustain visual attention.

Traditionally, the exogenous control of gaze by external saliencies and the endogenous control of gaze by knowledge and context have been viewed as competing systems, with late infancy seen as a period of strengthening top-down control over the vagaries of the input. Here we found that one-year-old infants control sustained attention through head movements that increase the visibility of the attended object. Freely moving one-year-old infants (n=45) wore head-mounted eye trackers and head motion sensors while exploring sets of toys of the same physical size. The visual size of the objects, a well-documented salience, varied naturally with the infant's moment-to-moment posture and head movements. Sustained attention to an object was characterized by the tight control of head movements that created and then stabilized a visual size advantage for the attended object for sustained attention. The findings show collaboration between exogenous and endogenous attentional systems and suggest new hypotheses about the development of sustained visual attention.

“My Little Influencer”

“My Little Influencer”

The Design and Development of Instrumented Toys for the Assessment of Infant Cognitive Flexibility

The first years of an infant's life represent a sensitive period for neurodevelopment where one can see the emergence of nascent forms of executive function (EF), which are required to support complex cognition. Few tests exist for measuring EF during infancy, and the available tests require painstaking manual coding of infant behaviour. In modern clinical and research practice, human coders collect data on EF performance by manually labelling video recordings of infant behaviour during toy or social interaction. Besides being extremely time-consuming, video annotation is known to be rater-dependent and subjective. To address these issues, starting from existing cognitive flexibility research protocols, we developed a set of instrumented toys to serve as a new type of task instrumentation and data collection tool suitable for infant use. A commercially available device comprising a barometer and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) embedded in a 3D-printed lattice structure was used to detect when and how the infant interacts with the toy. The data collected using the instrumented toys provided a rich dataset that described the sequence of toy interaction and individual toy interaction patterns, from which EF-relevant aspects of infant cognition can be inferred. Such a tool could provide an objective, reliable, and scalable method of collecting early developmental data in socially interactive contexts.

Design for Difference: Cognitive Enhancement Toys For Children with Developmental Delays

Childhood is a phase where children explore, learn and enjoy. For some children, this phase is full of difficulties. These children suffer from either developmental delays or learning difficulties. According to sources, there is a iniquitousness of 1.5-2.5% of advancing delay in kids below 2 years of age in India. Development is described into five different domains - gross motor, fine motor, speech, and language, cognitive and socio-emotional. These children need help at an early age to overcome developmental delays and for cognitive enhancement. Both parents and teachers are involved with children right from an early age, and they can devise ways to help these children. Many schools adopt ‘Play’ as an important activity to help these children overcome developmental delays and “toys” are mostly central to the design of such activities. The paper describes the design research for designing toys for cognitive enhancement of children with developmental delays between 2 and 5 years. In the first phase of research, the interview method was used to understand what kind of learning difficulties children face and what kind of methods are employed to teach them and understand what types of toys they are using. The sample size of 20 comprising of teachers, therapists, and pediatricians from Special schools and departments for special need children in mainstream schools was used for the interview purpose. Observational studies with children (5 different classrooms with children between 3-5 years age) were carried out to understand how children learn and use the toys. At the end of the first phase, the qualitative analysis led to the shift from learning difficulties to developmental delays. In the second phase, a survey of available products in the market was conducted to understand what types of toys are used to address these children’s developmental activity. Mapping the play methods employed by the teachers and therapists to the toys’ activities led to finding the Design gap. The design process incorporated the research findings. The product is designed in the form of a Toy Box with a multi-utility set of toys for cognitive enhancement in children with developmental delays. The design (three sets of toys) addresses children’s communication, spatial, cognitive, gross motor & fine motor skills with developmental delays. The designed product was put through user testing twice to incorporate the findings from the testing to make the design more user-friendly for the children and the teachers, therapists, and parents.

Dynamics of the dyad: How mothers and infants co-construct interaction spaces during object play.

Studies of dyadic interaction often examine infants' social exchanges with their caregivers in settings that constrain their physical properties (e.g., infant posture, fixed seating location for infants and adults). Methodological decisions about the physical arrangements of interaction, however, may limit our ability to understand how posture and position shape them. Here we focused on these embodied properties of dyadic interaction in the context of object play. We followed 30 mother-infant dyads across the first year of life (at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months) and observed them during 5 min of play with a standard set of toys. Using an interval-based coding system, we measured developmental change in infant posture, how mothers and infants positioned themselves relative to one another, and how they populated interaction spaces with objects. Results showed that mother-infant dyads co-constructed interaction spaces and that the contributions of each partner changed across development. Dyads progressively adopted a broader spatial co-orientation during play (e.g., positioned at right angles) across the first year. Moreover, advances in infants' postural skills, particularly increases in the use of independent sitting in real time, uniquely predicted change in dyadic co-orientation and infants' actions with objects, independent of age. Taken together, we show that the embodied properties of dyadic object play help determine how interactions are physically organized and unfold, both in real time and across the first year of life.

Типология взаимодействия матери и ребенка раннего возраста с отклонениями в развитии вследствие неврологической патологии

Background. We analysis of interaction between an adult and a child as well as the deXnition of criteria and conditions of a child’s development, constitute theoretical basis for sustaining family resources, which is especially important for the early stage of ontogenesis. Objective. We aim of the study is to describe the characteristics of interaction within the dyad “mother — early age child with developmental disabilities (resulting from neurological pathology)”, as well as to construct a typology of interaction and to determine the conditions of developing interaction for young children. Sample. We study involved dyads “mother-child of early age.” Comparison sample (n = 51) consisted of dyads with children of normotypic development (NT), the average age 24.8 months. We main sample (n = 54) included dyads with children with neurological pathology (NP), the average age 25.2 months. Methods. Video observation of mother and child interaction in the process of joint activity with a set of toys was used as the research method. We data of primary analysis of video materials in accordance with the author’s scheme were subjected to secondary analysis (assessment of diYerences between groups, correlation and factor analysis). Results. 4 types of interaction in the dyad “mother — early age child” are singled out. We types diYer in the parameters such as: position of the mother in the interaction, level of dialogic interaction, content of the actions of mother and child with their inZuence on each other, creation of the zone of proximal development. We optimal type of interaction that is favourable for the development of the child is characterized by the activity of both the mother and the child, the involvement and productivity of the child. We type that could be regarded as favourable with certain restrictions is the type called “child dominance”, in which the activity of the child prevails, but the activity of the mother is insu[cient. We unfavourable types are “mother dominance”, characterised by the predominance of mother’s activity, the obsessive-violent maternal position and the subordinate position of the child, and the parallel type, in which there is no joint activity of mother and child. Conclusion. We study established the relationship between the mother’s actions in relation to the child and his/her productivity and activity, characterised the optimal type of interaction, which creates conditions for the development of the child and the correction of its deXciency. We task for future research is to develop programmes that could be used to optimise mother-child interaction in those cases when the implementation of developing interaction is not entirely successful; such programs need to take into account the particular type of interaction within the dyad.

A comparison of development-matched and age-matched targets on play skills of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Although neurotypical children often spend the majority of their time engaged in play activities, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can present with substantial delays in the development of play skills, requiring intensive intervention. Although targets for language and basic learning skills are often selected based on the development of neurotypical children (e.g., Sundberg, 2008), little research has been conducted on methods for selecting play skill targets. The current study compared acquisition of play skills that were development-matched (DM) and age-matched (AM) with 4 children diagnosed with ASD. Targets were selected based on the results of the Developmental Play Assessment (DPA; Lifter, 2008). No contrived prompts or consequences were used to teach play skills in either condition. Generalization was programmed for by teaching with 3 sets of toys in both conditions. All participants demonstrated acquisition of DM play targets and generalization to novel toys; none of the participants acquired AM play targets.

Design for Difference: Cognitive Enhancement Toys for Children with Developmental Delays

Childhood is a phase where children explore, learn and enjoy. For some children, this phase is full of difficulties. These children suffer from either developmental delays or learning difficulties. According to sources, there is a iniquitousness of 1.5-2.5% of advancing delay in kids below 2 years of age in India. Development is described into five different domains - gross motor, fine motor, speech, and language, cognitive and socio-emotional. These children need help at an early age to overcome developmental delays and for cognitive enhancement. Both parents and teachers are involved with children right from an early age, and they can devise ways to help these children. Many schools adopt 'Play' as an important activity to help these children overcome developmental delays and "toys" are mostly central to the design of such activities. The paper describes the design research for designing toys for cognitive enhancement of children with developmental delays between 2 and 5 years. In the first phase of research, the interview method was used to understand what kind of learning difficulties children face and what kind of methods are employed to teach them and understand what types of toys they are using. The sample size of 20 comprising of teachers, therapists, and pediatricians from Special schools and departments for special need children in mainstream schools was used for the interview purpose. Observational studies with children (5 different classrooms with children between 3-5 years age) were carried out to understand how children learn and use the toys. At the end of the first phase, the qualitative analysis led to the shift from learning difficulties to developmental delays. In the second phase, a survey of available products in the market was conducted to understand what types of toys are used to address these children's developmental activity. Mapping the play methods employed by the teachers and therapists to the toys' activities led to finding the Design gap. The design process incorporated the research findings. The product is designed in the form of a Toy Box with a multi-utility set of toys for cognitive enhancement in children with developmental delays. The design (three sets of toys) addresses children's communication, spatial, cognitive, gross motor & fine motor skills with developmental delays. The designed product was put through user testing twice to incorporate the findings from the testing to make the design more user-friendly for the children and the teachers, therapists, and parents.

Symbolic play provides a fertile context for language development.

In this study, we test the hypothesis that symbolic play represents a fertile context for language acquisition because its inherent ambiguity elicits communicative behaviors that positively influence development. Infant-caregiver dyads (N=54) participated in two 20-minute play sessions six months apart (Time 1 = 18months, Time 2 = 24months). During each session, the dyads played with two sets of toys that elicited either symbolic or functional play. The sessions were transcribed and coded for several features of dyadic interaction and language; infants' linguistic proficiency was measured via parental report. The two contexts elicited different communicative and linguistic behaviors. Notably, the symbolic play condition resulted in significantly greater conversational turn-taking than functional play, and also resulted in the greater use of questions and mimetics in infant-directed speech (IDS). In contrast, caregivers used more imperative clauses in functional play. Correlational and regression analyses showed that frequent properties of symbolic play (i.e., turn-taking, yes-no questions, mimetics) were positively related to infants' language proficiency, whereas frequent features of functional play (i.e., imperatives in IDS) were negatively related. The results provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that symbolic play is a fertile context for language development, driven by the need to negotiate meaning.

Types of interaction between mother and early age child with developmental disorders caused by neurological pathology

Background. It is relevant to consider the possibilities and resources of the family in ensuring the proper development and correcting deficiency of a child with developmental disabilities. The analysis of interaction between an adult and a child as well as the definition of criteria and conditions of a child’s development, constitute theoretical basis for sustaining family resources, which is especially important for the early period of child development. Objective: to describe the characteristics of interaction within the dyad “mother–early age child with developmental disabilities (resulting from neurological pathology)”, to construct a typology of interaction and to determine the conditions of developing interaction for young children. Design. Sample: the dyad “mother-child of early age.” Comparison sample (n = 51): children with normotypic development (NT), the average age 24.8 months. The main sample (n = 54): children with neurological pathology (NP); neurological diagnoses: the consequences of early organic damage of the central nervous system and cerebral palsy, the average age 25.2 months. Research method: video observation of mother and child interaction in the process of joint activity with a set of toys. The data of the primary analysis of video materials in accordance with the author’s scheme were subjected to secondary analysis (assessment of differences between groups, correlation and factor analysis). Results. 4 types of interaction in the dyad “mother — early age child” are singled out. The types differ in the parameters such as: position of the mother in the interaction, level of dialogic interaction, content of the actions of mother and child and their influence on each other, creation of the zone of proximal development. The optimal type of interaction that is favourable for the development of the child is characterized by activity of both the mother and the child, the involvement and productivity of the child. The type that could be regarded as favourable with certain restrictions is the type called “child dominance”, in which the activity of the child prevails, but the activity of the mother is insufficient. The unfavourable types are “mother dominance”, characterised by the predominance of mother’s activity, the obsessive-violent maternal position and the subordinate position of the child, and the parallel type, in which there is no joint activity of mother and child. Conclusion. The study established the relationship between the mother’s actions in relation to the child and his/her productivity and activity, characterised the optimal type of interaction, which creates conditions for the development of the child and the correction of its deficiency. The task for future research is to develop programs that could be used to optimise mother–child interaction in those cases when the implementation of developing interaction is not entirely successful; such programs need to take into account the particular type of interaction within the dyad.

Self-directed learning by preschoolers in a naturalistic overhearing context

Three studies investigated preschoolers' self-directed learning ability in a naturalistic context: learning from overheard speech. In Experiment 1, 4.5- to 6-year-olds were exposed to 4 novel words and 6 arbitrary facts corresponding to a set of co-present toys; in Experiment 2, 3- to 4.5-year-olds heard 5 nouns and 3 facts. In the Pedagogical conditions, children were taught the information with the aid of multiple pedagogical cues, but in the Overhearing conditions, children had to ‘listen in’ to one side of a phone call to learn the information. Older preschoolers (Experiment 1) learned all items above chance in both conditions. Younger preschoolers (Experiment 2) learned words and facts above chance in the Pedagogical condition, but were at chance at learning words in the Overhearing condition, despite reliably learning facts from overhearing. Experiment 3 demonstrated that younger children's difficulty at learning new words from overhearing could not be explained by only being able to hear one side of the phone conversation, as they similarly struggled when the phone call took place over speakerphone. Measures of children's touch behavior suggest that older children were better able to coordinate their attention between the overheard speech and objects, though even younger children showed evidence of attention to the overheard speech. Together, our results demonstrate that by age 5, children can learn multiple new words and facts via overhearing. This self-directed learning ability depends on being able to coordinate attention between speech and the surrounding environment, a capacity that develops throughout preschool.

Recognizing Decision-Making Using Eye Movement: A Case Study With Children.

The use of visual attention for evaluating consumer behavior has become a relevant field in recent years, allowing researchers to understand the decision-making processes beyond classical self-reports. In our research, we focused on using eye-tracking as a method to understand consumer preferences in children. Twenty-eight subjects with ages between 7 and 12 years participated in the experiment. Participants were involved in two consecutive phases. The initial phase consisted of the visualization of a set of stimuli for decision-making in an eight-position layout called Alternative Forced-choice. Then the subjects were asked to freely analyze the set of stimuli, they needed to choose the best in terms of preference. The sample was randomly divided into two groups balanced by gender. One group visualized a set of icons and the other a set of toys. The final phase was an independent assessment of each stimulus viewed in the initial phase in terms of liking/disliking using a 7-point Likert scale. Sixty-four stimuli were designed for each of the groups. The visual attention was measured using a non-obstructive eye-tracking device. The results revealed two novel insights. Firstly, the time of fixation during the last four visits to each stimulus before the decision-making instant allows us to recognize the icon or toy chosen from the eight alternatives with a 71.2 and 67.2% of accuracy, respectively. The result supports the use of visual attention measurements as an implicit tool to analyze decision-making and preferences in children. Secondly, eye movement and the choice of liking/disliking choice are influenced by stimuli design dimensions. The icon observation results revealed how gender samples have different fixation and different visit times which depend on stimuli design dimension. The toy observations results revealed how the materials determinate the largest amount fixations, also, the visit times were differentiated by gender. This research presents a relevant empirical data to understand the decision-making phenomenon by analyzing eye movement behavior. The presented method can be applied to recognize the choice likelihood between several alternatives. Finally, children’s opinions represent an extra difficulty judgment to be determined, and the eye-tracking technique seen as an implicit measure to tackle it.

Mother-infant interactions with infants with congenital visual impairment and associations with longitudinal outcomes in cognition and language.

This study investigated mother-infant interactions, including maternal maintaining of infant attentional focus and sensitivity, with infants with congenital severe and profound visual impairment (VI) and the association with developmental trajectories from one to three years. Fifty-five infants and mothers were video-recorded playing together with a standard set of toys at Time 1 (T1) mean age 12.95months (8.13-17.05months). Maintain was categorized as the mother following and maintaining the child's focus, and Sensitivity, the mother's responsiveness and contingency to infant behaviour. Vision level was measured using the Near Detection Scale. Cognition and language were measured at T1, 12months later (T2) and 24months later (T3) using the Reynell-Zinkin Scales. Cross-sectional analyses showed that mothers of infants with severe VI (basic form vision) produced higher rates of Maintain compared to those with children with profound VI (light perception at best). Linear mixed-effects models examining developmental progression from T1 to T3 (controlling for vision level) showed an average increase of 5 DQ points (CI 95%: 1.03-9.08) in verbal comprehension for higher Sensitivity. No significant findings were found for Maintain. The findings suggest that mother-infant interactions (maternal Maintain) are associated with level of vision at infancy, but only maternal Sensitivity has a long-term positive association with advances in verbal comprehension from infancy to about three years. They highlight the need for incorporating strategies related to parent-infant interactions, including increased sensitivity, into early intervention for children with visual impairment.

Development of Communicative Functions in Normal Persian-speaking Children from 12 to 18 Months of Age: A Longitudinal Study

Objective: Communication can affect the personal and social life of people. According to International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), communication is one of the most important components of social participation and can have different functions such as behavior regulation (regulating the behavior of others to achieve a particular goal), social interaction (drawing attention of others to the self) and joint attention (attracting the attention of others to an event or particular object). Having knowledge of the development of communicative functions is so important in assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and early intervention. Despite the importance and effect of communicative functions in language and communication development, no study has been conducted yet that examines the communicative function development of normal Persian-speaking toddlers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of communicative functions in normal Persian-speaking children from 12 to 18 months of age, regardless of communicative expressions (such as gestures, vocalization, and words). Materials & Methods: This is a longitudinal observational study. The communicative function of 11 monolingual Persian-speaking 12-month-old children (7 boys and 4 girls) living in Tehran, Iran was investigated for 7 months. Sampling was done by using purposive and snowball non-probability sampling methods. All children had healthy medical history and normal growth, were from a family with a moderate socioeconomic status, and their parents had at least a high school diploma. The participants’ developmental status was assessed by Ages and Stages Questionnaire. A demographic form with acceptable content validity was also used to determine their demographic characteristics. For 7 months (once a month, each session for one hour), the examiner filmed the child-mother interaction during a semi-structured play with a set of toys at the child’s home. Afterwards, the recorded videos were coded according by the researcher and then entered into the SPSS V. 22 software. Descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normality of data distribution, and repeated measures ANOVA (within-subject comparison) was used to analyze the data. Two raters were taught about the coding and rating of the communicative functions. To verify the validity of the data coding, 20% of the recorded samples were given to them to code communicative functions. The coding validity was determined by calculating the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Results: The mean frequency of behavior regulation and social interaction was constant from 12 to 18 months of age (P<0.05), while the mean frequency of joint attention was constant from 12 to 15 months of age (P<0.05) and then significantly increased at months 16 (P= 0.019), 17 (P= 0.023) and 18 (P= 0.003) compared to the 12th month. The ICC value as the criterion for coding validity was reported 90%. Conclusion: The mean frequency of joint attention increased significantly from 12 to 18 months of age, while it was constant for behavior regulation and social interaction. Our findings are consistent with the ICF’s social participation, stating that a child uses a particular type of communicative function to increase its participation in the society.

Play in Mexican-American mothers and toddlers is frequent, multimodal, and rich in symbolic content.

Play offers rich opportunities for toddlers to develop motor, social, cognitive, and language skills, particularly during interactions with adult caregivers who may scaffold toddlers to higher levels of play than toddlers achieve on their own. However, research on play has narrowly focused on children from White, middle-income backgrounds, leaving a dearth of knowledge about dyadic play in diverse cultural communities. We videorecorded 222 Mexican-American mothers playing with their 2-year-old toddlers with a standard set of toys. Play behaviors were coded as nonsymbolic or symbolic (play type) and as expressed through manual, verbal, or multiple channels (play modality). Play between toddlers and mothers was frequent, high in symbolic content, and toddler play closely corresponded with mother play in type and modality: Toddlers' nonsymbolic play related to mothers' nonsymbolic play; toddlers' symbolic play related to mothers' symbolic play; toddlers' manual play related to mothers' manual play; and toddlers' multimodal play related to mothers' multimodal play. Play in Mexican-American mothers and toddlers is frequent, multimodal, and symbolically rich, offering new directions for future research and practice.

Social Stories™ with Self-Modeling to Teach Social Play Behaviors to Korean American Children with Autism

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Social Story™ with self-modeling on social skills of three Korean-American children with autism spectrum disorder. Each child and the mother read a story illustrating appropriate social initiations and responses in their preferred language and played with a designated set of toys for 10 min. Reading a Social Story™ with self-modeling that is responsive to families’ language and culture improved children’s initiations, responses, and affect. These changes were maintained during a short-term follow-up and generalized to a novel adult. Parents expressed high satisfaction with intervention procedures and outcomes. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

The development of mother-infant coordination across the first year of life.

Early mother-infant coordinated interactions play a critical role in infant development. The present study describes the development of the dyadic coordination of vocalization and gaze behavior between mothers and infants over the first year of life. In addition to describing developmental trajectories of behavior, the study contributes to our understanding of dyadic coordination by investigating how different measures of coordination relate to one another and how individual behaviors relate to dyadic coordination within the vocal and gaze domains. Thirty dyads were recorded playing together with a standard set of toys when infants were 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age, and mother and infant vocalization and gaze behaviors were coded from these videos on a moment-to-moment basis. Coordination was analyzed using both cross-recurrence quantitative analysis and event-based measures of analysis. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine developmental trajectories of vocalization and gaze coordination. Results indicated that dyadic coordination of the timing of vocalization and gaze behaviors is a very early emerging phenomenon that is supported by both mothers and infants. Vocal coordination did not show developmental change over time, whereas mothers and infants became increasingly coordinated in their gaze behaviors as infants got older. Taken together, findings from this study highlight the importance of considering bidirectional and developmental influences on parent and infant behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Physics for skills development in preschool in Mexico.

Physics has historically been a goal and as a media to reach out for other educational skills. Unfortunately, in Mexico preschool teachers lack tools to develop science in their little students. To help in this situation, we propose the use of “Einstein Box,” a set of toys where the kids can select and play with, then teachers explain the general physics concepts involved in the working of the toys. The results for the kids are amazing because they not only learn about basic physics, furthermore, mathematical thinking, social skills and verbal abilities, all around physics concepts.