This paper traces the development of interpersonal skills and characterizes the essential features of social interaction as they change from infancy to adolescence. It is demonstrated that, at each life stage, the quality of social relationships is dependent on the person's capacity for interpersonal closeness, his ability to use language, and his…

This investigation evaluated a group of 20 8-month to 2-year-old culturally disadvantaged children who were given a 1-year structured educational program as a means of environmental intervention. The program involved language training, conceptual training, and sensory-motor training. The study is the first phase of a longitudinal study to…

An investigation of the continuing development of infants involved in a program of enriched group care is presented. The 30 advantaged infants had working mothers, and the 9 disadvantaged infants had nonworking mothers. In the original study, they were enrolled in private day care and involved in a program of total environmental care and parent…

This study showed the effectiveness of two parent education programs designed to increase young children's sustained attention to verbal stimuli. Forty 18- to 24-month-old children and their mothers served as subjects under three different conditions: Full Treatment Program of home training, home visits, group meetings for mothers, and curriculum…

Arguments for the use of sequential ordinal scales in the observation of infants and young children are based on the tendency of traditional psychometric assessment to distract investigators from discerning structural and hierarchical aspects of development. Norm-referenced testing focuses on interindividual comparisons rather than developmental…

This script was written to accompany a series of 118 color slides and presents the view that the important elements in caring for and teaching very young children cannot be packaged as a curriculum. Everything that goes into affectionate and satisfying child care, day after day, offers many opportunities for learning by babies, toddlers, and their…

Movement is one of the primary ways in which the young child finds out about his world. Experiences in movement help the young child to develop a healthy sense of identity. Through movement, children: (1) learn, as infants, to distinguish themselves from the outside world; (2) find out what they can do and how they can affect their environment;…

The longitudinal child development study involved a cohort of 1008 infants, born in 1966 and constituted as a non-random sample in order to include a substantial number of biological risk cases. Simultaneously considered were perinatal biological and social adversity and measures of attainment in three domains (physical, motoric, and cognitive) at…

Paralinguistic and kinesic expression begin at birth and are essential to the development of language. Rhythm, for example, a suprasegmental event, appears to be present at birth or prior to birth. The relationship of physiology to communication is evident in the observations of extra-linguistic aspects of communication, such as movement, the use…

Analyzes and compares the exploration, play, and problem-solving activities of typically developing (average) and at-risk infants when they manipulate novel objects. (BB)

This paper will present evidence to support ontogenetic and phylogenetic parallels and draw from these comparisons to further illuminate our understanding of micro and macro human development. Individual and collective stages of physical, psychological and spiritual development will be compared and their homologous structures examined.…

The Early Learning Accomplishment Profile (Early LAP) provides a systematic method for observing children's functioning in the birth to 36-month age range in order to assist teachers, clinicians, and parents in assessing individual skills development in six developmental domains: gross motor, fine motor, cognition, language, self-help, and social…

This book provides 250 games and activities designed to help infants to 8-year-olds with all types of disabilities grow through play. Many activities come with special adaptations for children with physical, visual, hearing, emotional, and cognitive impairments. Each chapter focuses on a particular "world" or activity theme. Topics of individual…

While the notion of starting education early with children has gained momentum in the public's mind, our public policies and investments still do not reflect society's increasing knowledge of how the human brain grows and how very early experiences beginning at birth affect a child's future. Arguing that if policymakers fail to include the needs…

The infant's impressions of his environment are viewed by several philosophers, including Jean Piaget. There has been some past tendency to suppose that, prior to the acquisition of language, the infant has no real impressions about his environment. More recent understandings consider that the infant is capable of conceptualization and can express…