In this article particular attention is paid to research directly or indirectly relevant to child development programs and supplemental child care. Emphasis is given to the integration of findings, the identification of unaddressed questions, and methodological problems. (MS)

Examined data on 900 European American children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care to explore links between maternal employment during the child's first year and child cognitive outcomes. Found that maternal employment by the child's ninth month related to lower school readiness scores at 36 months, with more pronounced effects for certain…

Examined claim that associations between emotional responses to maternal separation and cognitive performance would change with cognitive development over the first year. Emphasized the measurement of separation and reunion distress. Found that emotional responses and cognitive performance may be linked by individual differences in self-regulation…

A study examined rates of labor induction using pitocin in 41 boys with autism and 25 matched controls with either typical development or mental retardation. There were no differences in pitocin induction rates as a function of either diagnostic group (autism vs. control) or IQ level (average vs. subaverage range). (Contains references.)…

Studied schizophrenic, depressed, and well women to determine the quality of their parenting and its affect on their three-month to five-year-old's social and intellectual development. Mothers' parenting practices, not their diagnostic status, accounted for much of the children's intellectual and social competence. (RH)

Relevant orientation and mobility (OM) skills for visually impaired infants foster sensory, motor, and conceptual development. OM personnel need to consider alternative teaching models, personnel preparation needs, sensory aids issues, and research issues. (DB)

Comparison of 72 middle and 72 low socioeconomic status (SES) families of infants with developmental disabilities, on measures of maternal stress and infant development, found that regression analyses predicted 81% of the variance in later developmental level from initial Bayley Mental Age, initial Mental Development Index, SES, initial maternal…

In order to evaluate possibilities of fitting myoelectrically controlled prosthetic arms on infants, this study examined whether 32 infants (1-6 months) could learn to control environmental contingencies by means of contracting the forearm flexor muscle group. Results indicated that older subjects (age greater than 104 days) demonstrated learning,…

Examines the potential contribution of different neural systems to developmental change in the duration of visual fixation, and the individual differences in that variable that are predictive of subsequent cognitive function. Presents hypotheses concerning two specific and independent neural systems and how they might contribute to individual and…

Examined 1 hour of conversation between 12 mothers and their 23-month-old children. Children were more likely to imitate correct grammatical morphemes after mothers' corrective recasting of children's errors than after three types of maternal responses that did not correct an error but did model a morpheme. (BC)

Development of 315 children and quality of their parents' marital relationship were evaluated when children were 3 and 24 months of age. Found marital discord at 3 months did not affect children's emotional well-being at 3 months or 24 months. Behavior problems increased and cognitive performance decreased for children whose parents' marital…

Notes that the majority of brain development occurs in the first three years of life. States that infant and toddler interactions are beneficial to both ages, provided contact occurs in a safe environment. Discusses how infants and toddlers learn from each other through play, even if they are nonverbal, and further benefit from insights and…

Examined how quality of center-based child care related to early cognitive and language development from 6 to 36 months among 89 African American children. Found that higher quality care was related to higher measures of cognitive, language, and communication development, even after adjusting for selected child and family characteristics.…

The development of the "inversion" effect in face processing was examined in infants 3 to 6 months of age by testing their integration of the internal and external features of upright and inverted faces using a variation of the "switch" visual habituation paradigm. When combined with previous findings showing that 7-month-olds use integrative…

This brief report attempts to resolve the claim that infants preferentially attend to continuous variables over number [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 10 (1999) 408; Cognit. Psychol.44 (2002) 33] with the finding that when continuous variables are controlled, infants as young as 6-months of age discriminate large numerical values [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 14 (2003)…