UBC Early Development Research Group

UBC Early Development Research Group The Early Development Research Group (EDRG) is made of seven research centres in UBC’s Department of Psychology studying development in children and infants.

💭 Research suggests that young children build executive function through language development! Executive function is the...
10/07/2026

💭 Research suggests that young children build executive function through language development! Executive function is the cognitive processes that are used to regulate behaviour and solve problems. Learning language labels is important for self-regulation, flexible thinking, and long-term academic success!

🔎 Key Insights

🏷️ Using labels for different categories, like color or shape, helps children's brain organize objects in their minds, adapt to change, and solve problems more easily.

🧠 Children who showed greater brain activity during sime word and matching games at age 2.5 were better at complex sorting tasks at age 4.5

🌱 Developing good executive function in childhood can provide lasting benefits into adolescence and adulthood, leading to higher academic achievements, better mental and physical health, and lower risk of criminal behaviour.

🗣️ Using category-focused language (ex. saying ""The color of that ball is red"") helps children focus on key properties and switch between rules more easily.

✨ Takeway

Talk while you play! Language and labels are important however you do not need to constantly direct while playing, using descriptive category words while allowing your children to explore, experiement and mistakes is more than enough. Allowing children to figure how things work builds strong, flexible minds for life! 🤔🧩

Text adapted from BOLD Science

💭 Did you know that babies’ exuberant behaviours are actually an important part of how they learn?📖 A recent article h...
10/02/2026

💭 Did you know that babies’ exuberant behaviours are actually an important part of how they learn?

📖 A recent article highlights how babies learn through their own movements, interactions with others, and exploration of their environment.

🍼 Every coo, crawl, babble, grab, and wobble is part of a natural learning process that helps babies understand objects, practice motor skills, and build the foundations of communication. These busy behaviours teach babies how objects work, how their bodies move, and how to make sounds.

🪀 Talking about what babies are doing, responding to their babbles, and exploring objects together strengthens learning, supports communication, and helps babies stay engaged in more complex play. Even simple interactions, like responding to a “ba ba ba” or saying “jump” while a baby jumps, can create important learning opportunities.

Text adapted from Child and Family Blog

The UBC Baby Learning Lab, directed by Dr. Lauren L. Emberson, conducted a study led by graduate student Zahra Abolghase...
09/27/2026

The UBC Baby Learning Lab, directed by Dr. Lauren L. Emberson, conducted a study led by graduate student Zahra Abolghasem to explore how experiences influence babies’ visual perception. 🔎

In the Sprinkles study, babies watched colourful moving dots that looked similar to sprinkles on a cupcake. The researchers wanted to understand whether babies could learn to expect which direction the dots would move, and whether this learning would change how they perceived the dots’ movement. 🧁

They found that babies’ perception of the dots changed after they learned to expect their direction of movement. This suggests that babies’ visual systems are flexible and can adapt relatively quickly based on their experiences and what they learn. 📚

Text adapted from EDRG 2025 Newsletter

🌿 Did you know that playing freely in nature may support children’s development in more ways than we realize?🧠 A systema...
09/25/2026

🌿 Did you know that playing freely in nature may support children’s development in more ways than we realize?

🧠 A systematic review of 16 studies found that unstructured play in natural environments was associated with positive outcomes across several areas of childhood development, including cognitive development, physical activity, motor skills, social skills, emotional well-being, and creativity.

🌱 Nature play can be as simple as building a stick fort, making mud pies, exploring outdoors, or playing freely with natural materials. These experiences give children opportunities to move, create, problem-solve, and interact with others.

✨ So the next time your little one wants to go outside, remember — unstructured nature play may be more than just fun. It can be an opportunity for children to learn, explore, and grow!

Text adapted from Psychology Today

📚 Research suggests that pre-school age children are already using advanced spatial skills, like mental rotation, to mak...
09/23/2026

📚 Research suggests that pre-school age children are already using advanced spatial skills, like mental rotation, to make sense of the world around them! Mental rotation is important for early reading, math and future STEM learning.

🔎 Key Insights

📖 Mental rotation supports reading by helping children tell the difference between similar letters that are easily confused, like b and d, or p and q.

💭 Researchers found that children solve mental rotation tasks using either a holistic strategy (visualizing the whole image at once) or a piecemeal strategy (focusing on individual details).

🧠 Children as young as 3 solve visual problems using the same mental rotation strategies as adults, most often rotating an entire image in their mind at once!

🧩 Children who break images down into pieces instead of visualizing them as a whole may also be the same children who struggle with discriminating letters.

Takeaway

✨ Encouraging hands-on play with puzzles, blocks and shape games is a great way to help support literacy! Giving children opportunities to practice rotating real objects helps them build strong spatial skills, boosts school perforamcen and inspires future STEM learning. 📕🧪➗

Text adapted from The Conversation

🧐 Research suggests that participating in sports during childhood can help support emotional well-being and protect them...
09/16/2026

🧐 Research suggests that participating in sports during childhood can help support emotional well-being and protect them from sadness and anxiety as teens. Beyond physical activity, sports gives opportunities for children to build lasting mental resilience and confidence!

🔎 Key Insights

⚽️ Children who played sports reported having fewer emotional problems in early adolescence, unlike other physical activities like playing outside or riding a bike.

😊 Building self-esteem was found to be the primary way sports protect mental health, as mastering new skills helps kids feel better about themselves and better handle negative emotions.

🤝 Sports teams also help fufuill childrens other social needs by giving opportunities for children to make friends and feel connected to others!

Takeaway

✨️ Playing sports is a powerful way for children to build their self-confidence and protect their emotional well-being. Parents and educators can support kids' mental health by encouraging them to try different sports until they find one that they enjoy and feel good doing! ⛹🏐🏸

Text adapted from Frontiers for Young Minds

We’ve been searching for these emojis for a while…should we make it official?
08/12/2026

We’ve been searching for these emojis for a while…should we make it official?

📚 Research suggests that preschool is not too early to begin talking about artificial intelligence (AI). As children int...
08/10/2026

📚 Research suggests that preschool is not too early to begin talking about artificial intelligence (AI). As children interact with AI-powered devices and apps, caregivers can help them build a healthy understanding of what AI is and isn't.

Key Insights
🤖 Preschoolers can begin to understand that AI is a tool created by people and that it is different from a real person.

❤️ Simple, age-appropriate conversations can help children learn that AI does not have real thoughts, feelings, or relationships.

🧠 However, young children may not yet grasp that AI can sound confident even when wrong.

🛡️ Children may need help understanding that AI can collect personal information, such as recordings of their voices, and why it's important to protect their privacy.

Takeaway
✨ As AI becomes more common, caregivers can support early AI literacy by having open conversations with their children about how AI works, its limitations, and why human relationships matter most.

Text adapted from Zero to Three



Link to the article: https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/preschoolers-and-ai-what-they-understand/

📚 Research suggests that playing board games may support children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. Beyond...
08/03/2026

📚 Research suggests that playing board games may support children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. Beyond providing entertainment, board games create opportunities for children to practice a wide range of life skills.

Key Insights
🧠 Board games can support the development of cognitive skills such as memory and problem-solving.

🤝 Playing with others helps children practice important social skills, including cooperation and communication.

😊 Children's creativity, self-confidence, and well-being may also be fostered through board games.

🔢 Math-based board games were linked to greater improvements in working memory and math skills than memory games, suggesting that different board games may support different skills.

Takeaway
✨ Playing board games is a fun way to learn while building important cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Parents and educators can support children's development by incorporating board games into learning and play.

Text adapted from BOLD Science



Link to the article: https://boldscience.org/the-hidden-benefits-of-board-games/

👶 Dr. Janet Werker and Dr. Andrew Baron, along with researchers at the University of British Columbia, examined whether...
07/29/2026

👶 Dr. Janet Werker and Dr. Andrew Baron, along with researchers at the University of British Columbia, examined whether infants develop expectations about the relationship between the languages people speak and their ethnicity during the first year of life.

🗣️ Eleven-month-old English-learning infants were shown Asian and Caucasian faces while listening to English, Cantonese, or Spanish.

👀 When hearing Cantonese, infants looked more toward Asian faces than Caucasian faces. However, this pattern was not observed when infants heard Spanish, suggesting that they did not simply associate any unfamiliar language with an unfamiliar face.

🤝 Interestingly, infants who regularly interacted with one or more significant non-Caucasian individuals showed stronger associations between language and ethnicity.

🌟 Overall, the findings suggest that infants may learn specific associations between language and ethnicity by observing the people and languages in their everyday environments.

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