Goh et al. (2026) – Reliability and Associations of English and Mandarin Vocabulary Measures in Infants and Toddlers Growing Up in a Multilingual Society

This paper was authored by Dr Shaun Goh and his URECA FYP student Ms Vernessa Liew. Dr Goh can be contacted here should you have any questions about the article. SummaryThis study evaluated the Developmental Vocabulary Checklist (DVC) using data from Singapore’s “BE POSITIVE” project to measure English and Mandarin development in 137 infants and … Read more

Soh et al. (2026) – Maternal sensitivity in Singapore: early educators’ beliefs and mothers’ reported versus observed behavior

This paper was authored by our then-Masters student, Ms Tasha Soh. The student was supervised by Associate Professor Anne Rifkin-Graboi, who can be contacted here should you have any questions about the article. SummaryThis study examined beliefs and behaviors regarding maternal sensitivity in Singapore by comparing observed and self-reported maternal behaviors alongside local early educators’ … Read more

Rifkin-Graboi (2022) – The Importance of Positive Environments on Infant and Early Childhood Neurodevelopment: A Review and Preview of Upcoming “BE POSITIVE” Research

This paper was authored Associate Professor Anne Rifkin-Graboi, who can be contacted here should you have any questions about the article. SummaryThis article explores how early life environments and caregiving shape human neurodevelopment from an evolutionary perspective. Human brains feature prolonged plasticity to adapt to complex, changing circumstances. Under the “Predictive Adaptive Response” model, infants … Read more

Rifkin-Graboi et al. (2019) – Will the future BE POSITIVE? Early life experience as a signal to the developing brain pre school entry

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This paper was authored by Associate Professor Anne Rifkin-Graboi, who can be contacted here should you have any questions about the article. SummaryPrior to school entry, a child’s home environment provides critical signals that prompt the developing brain to conditionally adapt to anticipated future demands. This article explores how two primary experience-dependent factors shape domain-general … Read more

28th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)

This conference took place during June 21 – 25, 2026 in Incheon, South Korea. Drs. Khng Kiat Hui, Yue Yu, Yang Yang, Anne Rifkin-Graboi, and Gwendolyn Ngoh presented preliminary BE POSITIVE data on parenting, mindfulness, mastery motivation, parental mental state talk, maternal sensitivity and memory, and caregiving arrangements!