Commentary by Dr. Beate Sodian. It has long been recognized that theory of mind (ToM) is not an all-or-none achievement. Around the age of four years, when children begin to master…
Fake or Fortune? Appraising the Value of the Perceptual Access Reasoning (PAR) Account | Commentary 86.3
Commentary by Charlie Lewis. To get ourselves limbered up, let’s perform a quick spelling test given to me by my brother, Tony, when I was nine. I’ll help you start…
Perceptual Access Reasoning: Expanding Perspectives on Belief Concept Development | Commentary 86.3
Commentary by Karen Bartsch. After decades of research on the development of theory of mind (ToM), it is remarkable that we are still debating about when children acquire the key concept…
Theoretical Implications of a Joint Look at Early Prosocial and Aggressive Tendencies | Commentary 86.2
Commentary by Dr. Audun Dahl and Marie Grace S. Martinez. If we wanted to determine whether human nature is good or evil, it would have been…
Charting and changing developmental pathways | Commentary 86.2
Commentary by Dr. Debra J. Pepler. With their longitudinal research on the development of prosocial and aggressive behavior, Hay and colleagues (2021) provide a developmental framework for understanding prosocial and aggressive…
Contributions of Early Parenting in the Development of Self-Regulation, Prosocial, and Aggressive Behavior | Commentary 86.2
Commentary by Dr. Daniel S. Shaw. In many ways the monograph written by Hay and colleagues (2021) represents a landmark contribution to our understanding of children’s early social development. Whereas…
50 Years of Research to Improve Preschool Curricula: Is there Progress? | Commentary 86.1
Commentary by Dr. Karen L. Bierman. This thoughtful and comprehensive monograph by Kimberly Nesbitt and Dale Farran (2021) comes at an opportune time for the study of curricula in early childhood education (ECE). Addressing…
Drawing General Conclusions from Null Effects of a Prekindergarten Curriculum: Challenges and Solutions | Commentary 86.1
Commentary by Drs. Tutrang Nguyen and Drew H. Bailey. In their monograph, Nesbitt and Farran (2021) use the Tools of the Mind curriculum as a case study for evaluating the effects of intentional, scripted prekindergarten curricula. Despite expectations…
Contemplating Goals and Strategies of Prekindergarten Programs across Nations and Programs | Commentary 86.1
Commentary by Dr. Tom Lowrie. Nesbitt and Farran (2021) undertook an ambitious task to develop and assess preschool learning and engagement in their monograph. The academic field of early childhood education walks a delicate line between…
Lessons from Youth in Northern Ireland: Building Measures, Methods, and Interventions | Commentary 85.4
Commentary by Dr. J. Lawrence Aber. I remember being a doctoral student of Edward Zigler’s at Yale in the 1970s and learning for the first time about the emerging work of Urie Bronfenbrenner at Cornell…