In this study we investigated the contributions of the content and the coherence of initial event reports to the survival of autobiographical memories during part of the lifespan eventually obscured by childhood amnesia. Over 100 children reported personal experiences when they were 4, 6 or 8 years old, enabling a determination of age-related differences in two aspects of narrative coherence: Theme and chronology. Content was assessed separately through the presentation of directed memory probes. After a 1-year delay, younger children more frequently failed to report target experiences. Multilevel modelling indicated that the survivability of a memory was predicted over and above the child's age by high thematic coherence of the initial memory narrative, but not by the memory content. It is possible that memories described in a highly thematically coherent narrative are indicative of well-integrated event memories, and thus likely to be cued more often, resulting in their long-term survival.

In light of emerging technologies prompting new avenues for teaching and learning, students are positioned to “create” to learn, with video production being an important process for literacy development. There is a growing need for innovative instructional practices in reading and writing that are aligned with student interests and the activities they engage in outside of the classroom. Connecting video production to school reading and writing experiences taps into a student's natural predisposition for media consumption and production. This article presents a project‐based inquiry process that merges students’ growing interest in grassroots video with educational goals that are aligned with state and national curricular standards. Through a five‐phase process—ask a compelling question; gather and analyze information; creatively synthesize information; critically evaluate and revise; and publish, share, and act—students are engaged in reading, writing, and creating a video product that captures their multimodal learning of academic content.

This investigation identified memory-level predictors of the survivability of 4- to 13-year-old children's earliest recollections over a 2-year period. Data previously reported by Peterson, Warren, and Short (2011) were coded for inclusion of emotion terms and thematic, chronological, and contextual narrative coherence. In addition, the uniqueness and content of the reported events were classified, and the presence or absence of event reminders was recorded. The use of logistic multilevel modeling indicated that emotion and each dimension of coherence added to the prediction of a memory's survivability over and above age-related variance. In contrast, event uniqueness, content category, reminders, and word count were not associated with retention. The findings help explain why particular early memories endure over time.

There is ongoing debate about children's ability to use subsequently acquired language to describe preverbal experiences. This issue was addressed experimentally in this investigation using a novel paradigm. Two-year-old children who lacked color words were individually taught to activate a bubble machine by selecting a particular color of bubble solution. The children then participated in weekly, experimenter-provided activities that fostered their acquisition of the color labels. After 2 months, their ability to apply the newly acquired words in reporting the original event was assessed. A significant proportion of the children demonstrated verbal recall when prompted in the presence of physical reminders of the event. These findings indicate that some early, preverbal memories are translated into words at a later time.

The development of the personal past is complex, requiring the operation of multiple components of cognitive and social functioning. Because many of these components are affected by autism spectrum disorders, it is likely that autobiographical memory in children with Asperger's Disorder (AD) will be impaired. We predicted that the memory narratives of children with AD, in comparison to typically-developing peers, would reflect less personal interpretation as evidenced by internal states language. Thirty children with AD and 20 typically-developing children aged 6-14 reported their earliest memories and two emotional experiences (one positive and one negative). Consistent with our predictions, children with AD included fewer emotional, cognitive, and perceptual terms than the comparison sample.