Approximately 228,000 children from birth to age 3 are affected by a disability. Developmental challenges may include severe, chronic disabilities that can begin at birth and last a lifetime. Delayed speech and language are the most common types of developmental delays among infants and toddlers. Many of these children are at risk for later…

Hearing loss can too easily be misdiagnosed or overlooked by providers serving young children. Parents and professionals may observe a language delay--an "invisible" condition--while failing to identify the underlying cause. Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) hearing screening technology, used extensively with newborns, is becoming an essential tool,…

The 15-month study followed the vocal development of five handicapped (Down Syndrome, hydrocephalus, and spina bifida) hospital reared infants. Results suggested that only the two less handicapped infants demonstrated use of sounds for social interaction and that the other infants used vocalization primarily as protest or self-stimulation.…

Language development is the topic of three papers from the Macomb (Illinois) 0-3 Regional Project, a home based program for rural handicapped and high risk infants and toddlers. Cooperative efforts between the project and university speech and hearing services are described in the first paper. The second paper, addressed to parents, covers ways to…

This newsletter issue contains four articles all addressing aspects of intervention with infants and toddlers having communication disorders. The first, "Assessing the Communication of Infants and Toddlers: Integrating a Socioemotional Perspective" (Barry M. Prizant and Amy M. Wetherby) describes a new instrument, the Communication and Symbolic…