There are many links between literacy and movement. Movement and language are both forms of communication and self-expression. Rhythm is an essential component of both language and movement. While people may think of rhythm primarily in musical terms, there is a rhythm to words and sentences as well. Individuals develop an internal rhythm when…

This study attempted to determine: (1) whether lower-order units (agent or agent-action) within the agent-action-recipient relationship exist in any functional way in the 1-word infant's comprehension of speech; and (2) whether the use of repetition and/or reduced length (common modifications in adult-to-infant speech) used to focus on these…

Reports on the results of a two-year longitudinal study of mother-infant dyads (N=23) observed during a free-play session when infants were six and eight months of age. Children were assessed for language and intellectual outcomes during the second and third years of life. This information may help school professionals design effective strategies…

This study was designed to determine whether infants could perceive action role reversals when the direction of action is ruled out as a cue; whether infants consider inanimate, nonpotent objects to be unlikely agents; and whether both these discriminations could be reliably reflected in the heart rate response. (Author/SB)

Normal, first-born children of two-parent, self-supporting families (N=60) were divided into three groups at birth: control, mothers receiving a specific language stimulation program, and both parents receiving the program simultaneously. Infants whose parents received simultaneous training exhibited the greatest gain over 4 1/2 months in Bayley…

A study of children's recognitory comprehension, the rudimentary ability to begin decoding the content of language, at the end of the first year had as subjects 36 infants aged 10.5, 11.5, and 12.5 months. In an examination of monthly developmental change in their ability to comprehend newly introduced referential terms, the children were exposed…

It is the contention here that the "prelinguistic" period is an important phase of the language acquisition process. Accordingly the research reported represents an attempt to begin mapping out the types of linguistically relevant information to which a young child attends. Specifically it is hypothesized that young children are…

Reports that mothers' responsiveness to young infants' distress predicts language capacity at two years. Mothers' responsiveness to older infants' nondistress vocalizations predicts cognitive performance, perceived self-esteem, social competence, and family relations in preadolescents. (PCB)

This pilot study trained parents in behavior modification techniques and attempted to evaluate the impact of this training on the rate of cognitive, linguistic and social development in infants. A second goal was to identify significant areas in infant development which might be influenced by the teaching strategies used. Subjects were four…

This paper, part of an evaluation of the early intervention project at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, deals primarily with results of the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI). The MDI was administered to experimental and control infants from lower socioeconomic background at 6, 12 and 18 months of age. Results (discussed in…

Based on research in infant sign language, this book teaches parents methods of communicating with their infants through the use of simple bodily movements that signify objects, events, and needs. Noting that communication between parent and child can flourish between 9 months and 30 months, when a baby's desire to communicate outstrips the…

This manual designed for caregivers describes the practices and activity plans of the infant-toddler group at the University of Iowa Early Childhood Education Center. Emphasis is placed on working with children between 12 and 36 months of age. The manual is divided into five main sections. Section 1 explains the composition of the infant-toddler…

The annotated bibliography on early childhood psychosis (infantile autism, childhood schizophrenia, and related disorders) contains 424 entries (books, journal articles, conference and research reports) dating from 1964 through the first 6 months of 1970, which pertain to theory, research, and treatment. Number of entries for each subject is noted…

This curriculum manual for teaching children aged one to three is a spin-off of the Infant Education Research Project, which studied the effect of intellectual stimulation on the growth of intelligence in a group of culturally deprived infants. The project involved the intensive instruction of a group of male, inner-city infants, who were visited…