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Society for Research in Child Development

·May 29, 2025·7 min read

Singing to Infants Boosts Mood and Bonding

A new randomized study found that when parents sing more frequently to their infants, both babies and caregivers experience measurable improvements in mood and wellbeing. The study involved 110 caregiver-infant pairs who participated in a four-week music enrichment intervention via smartphone.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 18, 2024·6 min read

Infants Use Mom’s Scent to Recognize Faces

A new study reveals that infants use their mother's scent to enhance facial recognition. This ability to integrate sensory cues improves significantly between four and twelve months of age. Researchers found that younger infants rely heavily on their mother's scent, while older infants depend more on visual information alone. The findings highlight the importance of multisensory exposure for early cognitive development.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 25, 2023·6 min read

Child’s Play: Kids as Young as Six Consider Choices in Moral Judgments

Children as young as six factor in past choices when making moral judgments. Involving children aged four to nine, the study revealed that younger children's judgments were mainly influenced by the actual outcome, whereas older children factored in what could have been done differently.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 25, 2023·6 min read

Shining a Light on Shyness: New Study Explores How It Manifests in Children

A new study has found that shyness is characterized by fear and nervousness in response to social novelty and/or social evaluation. Researchers identified that temperamental shyness may exist in a distinct group of children over time, while a larger subset of children may experience shyness as an emotional state in some situations.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 28, 2023·5 min read

How Children Learn Emotion Labels Through Parents’ Speech

Young children are more likely to know an emotional label when they also know related valenced words. Parents who surround emotional labels with related words provide support for their child's learning and language development skills.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 12, 2022·5 min read

Children Don’t Believe Everything They Are Told

As children age, they become more skeptical of what adults tell them. Older children, therefore, are more likely to effectively test surprising claims made by adults.

This shows a little girl sharing some flowers with her younger brother

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 27, 2022·4 min read

Sharing Behavior Among Young Children May Be Related to Their Counting Skills

A young child's counting skills are the single biggest predictor of their ability to participate in fair sharing behaviors. Prompting children to count improves their pro-social sharing behaviors, researchers say.

This shows a brother and sister walking down a path

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 23, 2022·3 min read

Siblings of Children With Disabilities May Have Greater Cognitive Empathy

Children who had a sibling with a developmental disorder scored higher in cognitive empathy than those who had typically developing siblings. However, there were no differences in emotional empathy or prosocial behaviors between those who had neurotypical or neurodivergent siblings.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 31, 2022·4 min read

“Do You See What I See?” Study Shows Cross-Cultural Variation in Maternal Focus During Parent-Child Interactions

Study sheds new light on the roles of social interactions and cultural diversity in the development of attention.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 29, 2021·4 min read

Let Babies Play! Free Play May Help Infants Learn and Develop

Researchers say letting infants play with everyday items within their environment can help them learn and develop.

This shows a young girl and boy playing a video game

Featured Psychology

·April 23, 2019·4 min read

Playing video games generally not harmful to boys’ social development

Contrary to popular belief, playing video games does not have an overall negative impact on the social development of boys. However, girls who spend more time playing video games at age 10 have weaker social skills than girls who spend less time gaming.