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This study aimed to determine if a joint attention intervention would result in greater joint engagement between caregivers and toddlers with autism. The intervention consisted of 24 caregiver-mediated sessions with follow-up 1 year later. Compared to caregivers and toddlers randomized to the waitlist control group the immediate treatment (IT) group made significant improvements in targeted areas of joint engagement. The IT group demonstrated significant improvements with medium to large effect sizes in their responsiveness to joint attention and their diversity of functional play acts after the intervention with maintenance of these skills 1 year post-intervention. These are among the first randomized controlled data to suggest that short-term parent-mediated interventions can have important effects on core impairments in toddlers with autism. Clinical Trials #: NCT00065910.

This innovative book goes beyond traditional play therapy to present a range of evidence-based assessment and intervention approaches that incorporate play as a key element. It is grounded in the latest knowledge about the importance of play in child development. Leading experts describe effective strategies for addressing a wide variety of clinical concerns, including behavioral difficulties, anxiety, parent-child relationship issues, trauma, and autism. The empirical support for each approach is summarized and clinical techniques are illustrated. The book also discusses school-based prevention programs that utilize play to support children's learning and socioemotional functioning. Subject Areas/Key Words: Assessments, behavioral, children, developmental psychology, early childhood, emotional, interventions, play therapy, prevention, problems, psychological disorders, psychotherapy, treatments Audience: Child psychologists, play and art therapists, social workers, counselors, family therapists, psychiatrists, and school psychologists; early childhood professionals; developmental psychologists\"-- Provided by publisher.

Objective To assess the effectiveness of an integrated early child development intervention, combining stimulation and micronutrient supplementation and delivered on a large scale in Colombia, for children’s development, growth, and hemoglobin levels.Design Cluster randomized controlled trial, using a 2×2 factorial design, with municipalities assigned to one of four groups: psychosocial stimulation, micronutrient supplementation, combined intervention, or control.Setting 96 municipalities in Colombia, located across eight of its 32 departments.Participants 1420 children aged 12-24 months and their primary carers.Intervention Psychosocial stimulation (weekly home visits with play demonstrations), micronutrient sprinkles given daily, and both combined. All delivered by female community leaders for 18 months.Main outcome measures Cognitive, receptive and expressive language, and fine and gross motor scores on the Bayley scales of infant development-III; height, weight, and hemoglobin levels measured at the baseline and end of intervention.Results Stimulation improved cognitive scores (adjusted for age, sex, testers, and baseline levels of outcomes) by 0.26 of a standard deviation (P=0.002). Stimulation also increased receptive language by 0.22 of a standard deviation (P=0.032). Micronutrient supplementation had no significant effect on any outcome and there was no interaction between the interventions. No intervention affected height, weight, or hemoglobin levels.Conclusions Using the infrastructure of a national welfare program we implemented the integrated early child development intervention on a large scale and showed its potential for improving children’s cognitive development. We found no effect of supplementation on developmental or health outcomes. Moreover, supplementation did not interact with stimulation. The implementation model for delivering stimulation suggests that it may serve as a promising blueprint for future policy on early childhood development.Trial registration Current Controlled trials ISRCTN18991160.

Few research-developed early intervention models have been deployed to and tested in real world preschool programs. In this study, teaching staff implemented a social communication modularized intervention, JASPER, in their daily program. Sixty-six preschool children with autism in twelve classrooms (12 teachers) were randomized to receive immediate JASPER training (IT) or were waitlisted (WL) for 3 months with a 1-month follow up. Measures of core deficits (initiations of joint engagement, joint attention gestures and language, play skills) and standardized cognitive measures were improved for IT over WL children. IT teachers achieved and maintained high fidelity. Teachers can implement evidence-based interventions with significant improvements in core deficits of their children with ASD.

The advancing social-communication and play (ASAP) intervention was designed as a classroom-based intervention, in which the educational teams serving preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder are trained to implement the intervention in order to improve these children’s social-communication and play skills. In this 4-year, multi-site efficacy trial, classrooms were randomly assigned to ASAP or a business-as-usual control condition. A total of 78 classrooms, including 161 children, enrolled in this study. No significant group differences were found for the primary outcomes of children’s social-communication and play. However, children in the ASAP group showed increased classroom engagement. Additionally, participation in ASAP seemed to have a protective effect for one indicator of teacher burnout. Implications for future research are discussed.

Background Preoperative anxiety is a significant concern for pediatric patients undergoing surgery, often leading to adverse physiological, emotional, and postoperative outcomes. Traditional pharmacological approaches, while effective, are associated with side effects, underscoring the need for age-appropriate non-pharmacological interventions. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of play dough (PD) activities and balloon blowing (BB) in reducing preoperative anxiety in children. Methods This randomized controlled trial included 90 children aged 4–8 years, a developmental stage characterized by responsiveness to play-based interventions, scheduled for elective surgeries at Besat Hospital, Hamedan, Iran, between November 2023 and January 2025. Participants were randomized into three groups: PD, BB, and Control (standard care with midazolam). Anxiety levels were assessed at baseline (T0), immediately before entering the operating room (T1), and during anesthesia induction (T2) using the Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS) and the Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A). Each intervention was administered for 15 min under direct supervision by a trained researcher. Statistical analysis included ANOVA for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables. Post hoc comparisons were performed using Tukey’s method. Results At T1 and T2, children in the PD and BB groups exhibited significantly lower anxiety levels compared to the Control group ( P  < 0.001). For m-YPAS scores at T1, the PD group mean 36.05 ± 4.28, and the BB group 35.15 ± 2.94, compared to 54.55 ± 4.05 in the Control group. Similar trends were noted at T2. VAS-A analysis further supported these findings, with the PD and BB groups showing higher proportions of mild anxiety compared to the Control group. No significant differences were detected between the PD and BB groups, indicating that both interventions were comparably effective. Conclusions PD and BB are effective non-pharmacological interventions for reducing preoperative anxiety in children. These cost-effective, engaging techniques offer safe alternatives to pharmacological treatments and promote emotional well-being. The findings support integrating age-appropriate, creative, play-based strategies into pediatric surgical care, emphasizing their potential to enhance the preoperative experience and improve outcomes. Future research should investigate long-term impacts, applicability across diverse populations, and comparative efficacy in various clinical settings. Trial registration Registered in the Iranian registry of clinical trials ( https://irct.behdasht.gov.ir ) in 19/11/2023 with the following code: IRCT20230514058183N1.

There are tentative indications that physical activity (PA) during school time can be beneficial for children’s academic performance. So far, most studies have focused on the effects of moderate-to-vigorous PA, for example, in the form of energizers or extra physical education lessons. Little is known about the effects of physically active learning, in which PA is integrated with the academic content of the lessons, especially in preadolescent children. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the enjoyment of physically active learning in this age group. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to assess the effects of integrating juggling with math practice in primary school children, on (1) multiplication memorization performance and (2) enjoyment during the math lessons. We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial, in which 312 children (mean age 10.4 years) from nine Dutch primary schools participated. Fourteen classes were randomly assigned to either a group that learned juggling whilst practicing multiplication tables (intervention group), or to a group that practiced the same multiplication tables while sedentary (control group). Both interventions had a duration of 5 weeks and consisted of 20 short lessons (4 lessons per week, 5 to 8 min). We used mixed-model analyses to examine the effect of the intervention on multiplication memorization performance. Group (control or intervention) was used as the fixed factor, and class and school as random intercepts. Analyses were adjusted for pretest multiplication performance, age, gender, general motor skill level, physical activity behavior (PAQ-C), and academic math performance. No significant intervention effect on multiplication performance were observed. However, the math-juggling program significantly increased enjoyment of children during the math lessons. We can conclude that the intervention did not improve, but neither deteriorated children’s math performance. The increased enjoyment in the math-juggling group can serve as an important starting point for structurally incorporating physical activities in the classroom setting.

Fathers’ child-directed speech across two contexts was examined. Father–child dyads from sixty-nine low-income families were videotaped interacting during book reading and toy play when children were 2;0. Fathers used more diverse vocabulary and asked more questions during book reading while their mean length of utterance was longer during toy play. Variation in these specific characteristics of fathers’ speech that differed across contexts was also positively associated with child vocabulary skill measured on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory. Results are discussed in terms of how different contexts elicit specific qualities of child-directed speech that may promote language use and development.

To examine whether leisure activities can alleviate depressive symptoms among nursing home residents with very mild to mild dementia. A cluster-randomized open-label controlled design. Thirty-six residents with at least moderate depressive symptoms were randomized by home into three conditions—mahjong (a.k.a. mah-jongg), tai chi, and handicrafts (placebo). Activities were conducted three times weekly for 12 weeks. Outcome measure was Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) administered at baseline, posttreatment, and at 6 months. Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a group by time interaction on the GDS. Unlike control and tai chi participants whose scores remained relatively unchanged, the mahjong group reported a drop of 3.25 points (95% confidence interval: 1.00–5.50) on the GDS at posttreatment but gained back 2.83 points (95% confidence interval: 1.95–5.47) at 6 months. Activity discontinuation might be the reason for depression to return to baseline. Mahjong can lower depressive symptoms in those with mild dementia, but activity maintenance may be essential for long-term effects.