The examination of children’s knowledge of, and memory for, temporal information is an under-researched area. In particular, very few studies have directly examined the relationship between different aspects of temporal memory. The current thesis therefore aimed to explore whether there was a relationship between short-term, episodic and semantic temporal memory for sequencing, duration and dating performance across the primary school years. Experiment 1 revealed that children’s knowledge about time was independent of their ability to order elements within an experienced event, according to both the sequence in which the elements occurred and the duration of each element. Experiment 2 expanded upon this research; children’s short-term temporal memory for sequencing and duration was found to develop independently of their knowledge about time and their episodic memory for sequencing and duration. Finally, Experiment 4 aimed to see whether there was a relationship between children’s ability to date novel events, and their knowledge about dating concepts. This study found that these two abilities were not related during development. A further aim of this thesis was to explore whether novel methods could be employed to improve children’s temporal performance. Experiment 3 found that a counting strategy could increase the accuracy of children’s short-term duration reproductions, whilst a cumulative rehearsal technique aided children’s short-term sequencing recall. Other methods to aid temporal performance were also explored in Experiment 5; while a timeline tool was not found to increase children’s ability to sequence elements within an event, using a duration timeline was an effective way for children to represent the durations between daily activities. The implications of the current findings are highlighted, whilst further avenues of research are considered.

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The study of action-cognition is driven by the assumption that what one can do motorically depends on what one can conceive of mentally, given a set of external opportunities (Rosenbaum, Cohen, & Jax, 2007). Therefore, a comprehensive theory of action development ought to integrate perceptual aspects of action processing with conceptual changes that give rise to increasingly abstract behaviours. How and why children progress to higher levels of organization in the processing and coordination of purposeful behaviour is a question that has been at the core of developmental research for decades. Various competences underlying early action processing and decision-making have been identified and linked to sophisticated mental operations later in life. However, considerably less is known about the relationships between perceptual and conceptual abilities and how they interact to shape action development. Goal-pursuit is achieved with increasing efficiency during the preschool period. In fact, by the age of first grade children show substantial abilities to regulate actions into hierarchically structured sequences of events that can be transferred across contexts (e.g., Levy, 1980; Bell & Livesey, 1985; Livesey & Morgan, 1991). The aim of this project was to investigate the perceptual and conceptual processes that drive these remarkable advances as they emerge during the preschool years. The studies in this thesis investigate top-down and bottom-up interactions in the processing of actions at various levels of abstraction. Employing a range of novel paradigms, the results of four studies highlight considerable advances in preschoolers’ abilities to organise actions in terms of goal hierarchies. Findings further highlight that the ability to extract structure at a basic level is readily achieved early in life, while higher-level action comprehension and planning abilities continue to develop throughout the childhood years.

This thesis investigated the development, consistency and facilitators of children’s innovation in the physical, tool-use domain. Despite gaining increasing interest in developmental psychology, understanding of the ontogeny of innovation remains in its infancy. Following the formulation of an operational definition of innovation and associated criteria in Chapter 2, the innovatory ability of 4- to 9-year-old children was examined using the Multiple-Methods Box (MMB): a novel puzzle box from which a reward can be extracted using different tools, access points and exits. Findings reported in Chapter 3 demonstrated that few children innovated in the aftermath of social demonstrations of tool use (akin to innovation by modification); rather, they largely relied on the observed task solution. However, instances and rates of children’s innovation were seen to increase in response to inefficacious social information (Chapter 3) and when provided with additional time and explicit instructions/prompts to explore the MMB (Chapter 6). Individual differences in children’s innovative or imitative behaviour appeared largely independent of their performance on a battery of tasks assessing constructs related to innovation, as explored in Chapter 4. However, this study revealed some behavioural consistency in puzzle-box contexts, suggestive of consistent individual differences in children’s propensity, or preference, to engage in asocial/individual learning. Finally, in the intervention study of Chapter 5, individual achievement goals appeared of greater salience than cues to conventionality of innovative behaviour, which did not differentially enhance 8- to 9-year-olds’ innovation when presented with the MMB task in the absence of social demonstrations. Together, the thesis findings highlight the value of the dual study of imitation and innovation, in discovering adaptive trade-offs between the two, and the need to consider innovation in its various forms, owing to likely disparities in developmental trajectories, cognitive requirements, and primary difficulties. The educational applications and cultural implications are discussed.

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This study employed a convergent mixed-methods design to examine the potential of Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) as a preschool language intervention.

The aim of this research has been to develop and validate a new method, called the 'Meaning of the Child', to assess the psychological meaning all children have for their parents, but which in cases of risk, submerge or distort the child's identity (Reder & Duncan 1995). The method analyses parental discourse in semi-­‐structured interviews using attachment theory, understood dyadically, from the perspective of both parent and child. In its analysis of parental representations of Caregiving, the Meaning of the Child integrates an understanding of adult self-­‐protective defensive processes drawn from attachment theory, in particular Crittenden’s theory of adult information processing in conditions of threat (Crittenden & Landini 2011) with the concept of 'inter-­‐subjective dialogues', where parent and child co-­‐construct the meaning of the other (Beebe et al., 2012a & 2012b). The coding method was developed from interviews drawn from the researcher’s work with children and families in the family court system, and then tested with a sample of 85 mothers and fathers, 62 of whom were parents drawn from this ‘at risk’ context. The remaining 23 were drawn from a US sample of normative mothers. The Parent Development Interview (PDI: Aber et al. 1985-­‐2003) was used to assess parenting representations and coded for Parental Reflective Functioning (RF: Slade et al. 2005) and the new Meaning of the Child (MotC) system. The parents were also videoed in a short free-­‐play interaction, using the CARE-­‐Index (Crittenden 2007), a dyadically constructed assessment of parental sensitivity. | P a g e 3 of 461 A strong relationship was found between the Meaning of the Child level of Sensitivity/Risk, assessed from how parents spoke about their child, and the nature of their contingent responsiveness, assessed using the CARE-­‐Index. Statistically significant correlations were also found between the level of Unresponsiveness and Control in both the MotC and the CARE-­‐Index. The level of Sensitivity/Risk in the Meaning of the Child was also related to parental RF. The contribution of the Meaning of the Child to understanding the shaping of infant attachment relationships (the problem of the ‘transmission of attachment’, [Van IJzendoorn, 1995]), and as an assessment tool to assist intervention with ‘at risk’ relationships, is discussed and illustrated with case example material. The results of the statistical study together with this analysis, provides good evidence for the Meaning of the Child as a construct, and as an assessment tool to identify and assess the nature of 'at risk' parent-­‐child relationships.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a six-week cognitive behavioural intervention in reducing anger and enhancing peer acceptance for a group of children, whilst also exploring the relationship between their behavioural characteristics and social status. The research was part of a larger project involving the researcher and two other Trainee Educational Psychologists (TEPs). A total of sixty-nine participants aged between 7 to 11 years were selected for this study using teacher nominations. These children were recruited from twelve primary schools across a large county within the south of England. Thirty-five of these participants were assigned to the experimental group and thirty-four of these participants were assigned to the wait-list control group. Teacher ratings showed that the intervention was effective in reducing anger for the wait-list control group but not for the experimental group. Participant ratings from both the experimental and wait-list control groups showed that the intervention was effective in enhancing participants' awareness of the number of physiological symptoms associated with their anger and the range of strategiest hat they could use to diffuse their anger.T he interventionw as not effective in enhancingp eer acceptances coresf or either the experimentalo r wait-list control groups. Finally, the analysis determined that the participants who were perceived by their peers as being highly cooperative and/or having good leadership qualities were accepted by their peers. In contrast, participants who were perceived by their peers as being highly disruptive, unhappy and/or a bully were rejected by their peers. This indicated that peer valued behavioural characteristicsc ould moderatet he relationshipb etweena ngera nd peerr ejection. The theoretical underpinnings, relevant literature and findings from this research will be discussed in relation to implications for professional practice and future recommendations

Attachment theory proposes that the early parent-child relationship forms the foundation for the way in which a child learns about people and the world around them (Bowlby, 1969a). Poor attachment experiences are shown to have significant implications for children's development and society as a whole. One solution posed is that professionals support parents early on to promote a positive parent-child interaction. The current qualitative study was carried out to understand the experiences of seven parents who had taken part in the UK based Time Together home visiting intervention. All parents had been referred to the intervention due to concerns about the parent being socially isolated and/or having difficulties in their relationship with their child. All parents were interviewed after they had taken part, and key themes were identified based upon an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) using a social constructionist epistemology. The key findings were that, through the intervention, parents experienced a change within their notion of self, seeing their child as a separate self and seeing the world through their child's eyes. Play activities promoted greater levels of attunement and fun within the parent-child relationship. Fundamental to the success of the intervention was the parent's relationship with their home visitor, which often empowered parents. Social isolation was seen as a self devised strategy used to limit social interactions that evoked feelings of fear. The creation of a conceptual model represented the process of how more socially isolated parents experiencing difficulties within the parent-child relationship can be supported to become more involved with their community. The implications for Educational Psychologists were discussed.