The present study examined teacher sensitivity as a potential moderator of the relationship between children's temperament in infancy and their social development in first grade. Using data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD), we found that first grade teachers who were sensitive and responsive to students'…

An extensive literature links language problems with behavioral difficulties and academic underachievement. Although less extensive, emerging literature suggests that temperament, Positive Affectivity (PA) in particular, contributes to language development. Thus, the present study was focused on PA related temperament dimensions in infancy as…

This study assessed the links between infant negative affect, parental reflective functioning (RF), and toddler behavior problems in a sample of 84 women and their infants. Mothers provided self-report demographic data and completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised during a home visit when the infant was 7 months old. They also completed…

Postnatal maternal depression is associated with poorer child emotional and behavioral functioning, but it is unclear whether this occurs following brief episodes or only with persistent depression. Little research has examined the relation between postnatal anxiety and child outcomes. The present study examined the role of postnatal major…

We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the…

The present study was designed to examine cross-cultural differences in longitudinal links between infant temperament toddler behavior problems in the U.S. (N= 250) and Russia (N= 129). Profiles of risk/protective temperament factors varied across the two countries, with fewer significant temperament effects observed for the Russian, relative to…

A 36-item observation instrument was developed for measuring appropriate social development in infants and toddlers. Checklist items indicated such behaviors as asking, protecting, comforting, lending, sharing, hugging, playing with, joining, laughing, smiling, looking at, performing request, leading, following, and conversing. Use of the…

This set of checklists in separate English- and Spanish-language versions, is designed to help parents and childcare providers determine through observations a child's developmental progress from birth to age 5. The checklists are excerpted from the "Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready" guidebook, written by a retired kindergarten teacher with 25 years…

This paper reports on the development and use of several tools designed to sensitize caregivers to the fact that infants are very different from one another and that caregiving needs to be tailored to the styles and needs of each child. Four approaches were used: (1) having caregivers rate the infants regularly on a small number of rating scales…