This collection of learning units introduces parents to the role of nutrition in their young child's cognitive development. Designed to be easy to read and useful for families with limited resources, the materials help parents teach their young children good eating habits by offering information, feeding tips, creative activities for parents and…

Reviews six books on child cognitive and emotional development. The books address the following topics: the assessment of cognitive competence; children's theories of mind; early grammatical development; the psychological consequences of parental belief systems for children; the role of culture in human development; and perspectives from…

Discussion of components of preverbal communicative competence in typically developing infants is related to development of children with severe physical impairment (SPI). Specifically, eye gaze, attention, and gesture are described as they relate to reciprocity, consistency, and predictability of infant-caregiver interactions. Intervention…

Discusses the role of language development in educational achievement and the implications of this role for curriculum development. Children's preschool knowledge of language and its development in early school years is discussed. How their language experiences in school might enhance their language development also is outlined. Highlighted are…

In this interview, psychologist Andrew Meltzoff dispels some popular myths and discusses insights from cognitive developmental psychology to enlighten educators. Studying infants and listening to young children has led experts to revise their ideas about the thought/language relationship. Play activities are profound learning experiences. (MLH)

Suggests that children construe the world as they develop relationships with other individuals. Offers considerations regarding developmental changes marking the first year of life and argues that cognition is framed in public social exchanges and private dialogical thinking. (DLH)

This study examined mother-child interaction as a predictor of mastery motivation (i.e., persistence on a problem-posing task) in 3-year-old children who were born premature and had either motor impairment or developmental delay (n = 34). Two aspects of mother-child interaction were hypothesized to predict for mastery motivation: response to…

It has been 20 years since Bever's (1982) and Strauss and Stavy's (1982) books on U-shaped functions in human development were published. The three target articles in this issue describe several old and new U-shaped functions and new theoretical explanations for their existence. In this article, the authors will comment on two aspects of U-shaped…

Background: WILSTAAR comprises a programme for identifying and treating 8-10-month-old infants who are at risk of language and cognitive difficulties. It has been adopted by health trusts, and included in Sure Start intervention schemes, throughout the UK. This study addresses one of the main queries raised by critics of the programme, by…

Background: Debates about the developmental origins of adult face processing could be directly addressed if a clear infant neural marker could be identified. Previous research with infants remains open to criticism regarding the control stimuli employed. Methods: We recorded ERPs from adults and 3-month-old infants while they watched faces and…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is designed to provide detailed information on children's development, health, and early learning experiences in the years leading up to entry into school. The ECLS-B is the first nationally representative study within the United States to directly assess children's early mental and…

This study examined the prelinguistic communicative behaviors of 48 young Israeli children with hearing impairments (ages 8 months to 49 months). Most subjects were severely hearing impaired. Ninety percent were born to hearing parents. A parent questionnaire utilizing a direct observation methodology in six situational contexts was selected,…

This manual presents guidelines for users of the Child Development Assessment Form (CDAF) -- a 90 item checklist of behaviors characteristic of children from birth to 3 years of age. The CDAF is designed to help parents and teachers identify skills and behaviors that the child has developed and plan learning experiences that facilitate growth. The…

Five studies investigated the development of imitation in children 1-3 years old. Results indicated that children as young as 12 months possess the cognitive capability of translating a perception of an action into their own behavior, but imitation varies as actions requiring direct social commerce with the examiner are imitated less frequently…

This paper describes three interrelated studies which investigated the cognitions, feelings, and motives involved in the emergence and progression of prosocial behaviors. The first study examined the child's emerging sensitivities to the affective events in his environment through data collected over a 9-month period from groups of 10-, 15-, and…