Advocates renewed efforts toward assessing attachment on a single continuum of emotional security. Contends that theory is essential to guide attachment assessment and that the constructs of secure base and emotional security provide the needed conceptual foundation. Addresses challenges to the scoring of attachment on a security continuum.…

Highlights usefulness of the categorical approach to measuring infant attachment by reviewing some major advances in the field that have been fostered by that approach. Advances include identification of the disorganized attachment group, development of the concept of conditional behavior strategies, creation of systems for coding attachment…

Ainsworth's system of classifying attachment patterns will not be easily displaced primarily because of difficulties involved in a dimensional approach. Problems include the number of dimensions involved, need to develop reliable scales, and need to describe how behavior changes across age and in the Strange Situation. Only when an alternative…

Focuses on three questions related to attachment theory: whether it requires distinct patterns of attachment, how taxonomic analysis contributes to understanding individual differences in attachment security, and whether attachment theorists are asking the right questions. Asserts that attachment theory is indifferent to the structure of…

Discusses four questions concerning commentaries on the taxometric analysis of Strange Situation behavior related to: (1) whether the categorical model of attachment facilitates theoretical and empirical innovations; (2) whether and how a continuum of security fits into the two-dimensional model; (3) the role of types and dimensions in…

This paper briefly outlines current problems associated with chronic diseases in children and youth and provides indications for the types of future research and analysis needed to facilitate the development of solutions. In general, these problems are associated with the following: malignancies, hereditary anemias, cystic fibrosis, other chronic…

This response to a paper (EC 624 771) on the early development of stereotyped and self-injurious behavior in infants and young children examines possible reasons why so little is known about these behaviors. These include questions about what behaviors would indicate the need for intervention, how to determine if a repetitive behavior is aberrant,…

This response to a paper (EC 624 771) on the early development of stereotyped and self-injurious behavior in infants and young children considers reasons why such behaviors are maintained in some individuals. The use of functional behavioral assessment suggests these behaviors are influenced by environmental factors including attention, escape, or…

Responds to a critique by Mudford, Hogg, and Roberts (1997) that raised concerns about the observation code used in a longitudinal research project to assess emerging behavior state patterns in young children with disabilities. Concerns about the thoroughness of the reliability data collected by Mudford are discussed. (Author/CR)

This article provides an overview of the evaluation process in early intervention and describes the integration of concepts based on neurobehavior into the eligibility evaluation of the very young child. Neurobehavioral models are described and an example illustrates how the integration of neurobehavioral concepts can result in a better…

It is argued in this paper that, while newborn infants are ignorant of the the life-ways of the society into which they are born, by age 3 children have become socialized participants of their culture. It is the thesis of the discussion that the rapid development of babies into participants of society is accomplished through a finely tuned…

The Mutual Regulatory Model is used to describe the infants' dual task of regulating simultaneously his internal emotional state and his engagement with the external environment. (Author/BB)

Reviews and critiques research that has assessed the effect of infant temperament on caregiver behaviors and concludes that the relationship between temperament and caregiving behavior has not been adequately tested. Offers conceptual and methodological guidelines for future research. (HOD)

Over a 14-month period, infants who were initially 10 months old were intermittently allowed to play with three sets of graduated objects presented in disarray. All of the infants acquired the ability to completely organize the materials. The infants exhibited patterned behavior in their organizing practices when they individualized objects by…

Presents an integrated clinical approach, based on a developmental, structuralist framework, to classify adaptive and pathological personality organizations and behaviors in infants and preschool children. (Author/DB)