Promoting family learning around science represents an important opportunity to reinforce science learning during out-of-school time. Evidence suggests that parent-child discourse around science can promote inferential thinking by children and help solidify their understanding of science concepts. While teacher professional development that…

Notably absent from the intervention literature are parent training programs targeting school-aged children with autism who have limited communication skills (Tager-Flusberg and Kasari in "Autism Res" 6:468-478, 2013). Sixty-one children with autism age 5-8 with minimal spontaneous communication received a 6-month social communication…

The study examined the efficacy of an intervention designed to promote parents' and preschoolers' references to storybooks' plot and socio-cognitive themes during shared reading within a sample of 58 families from low-SES background. All parents were given four books, one new book weekly, and were instructed to read each book four times per week…

Child obesity research has generally not examined multiple layers of parent-child relationships during weight-related activities such as feeding, eating and play. A literature review was conducted to locate empirical studies that measured parent-child interactions and child eating and child weight variables; five papers met the inclusion criteria…

The article reviews comparative studies of normal and developmentally disabled or at-risk infants in interaction with their mothers, relates these studies to the literature on optimal parent-child interaction, and draws implications for early intervention programs. (DB)

Families were compared at one, three, and nine months to examine the effects of active or passive exposure to the Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment. Either the mother or both parents were the target of the intervention. Assessments of interaction behavior between parents and infants revealed no effects of the experimental intervention.…

Studied the effects of the child's participation in longitudinal intervention on the structured mother-child teaching interaction. The significant between-group differences found in the children's behavior, task scores, and patterning of interaction were interpreted as evidence of feedback effects from the experimental group children to their…

Comparison of communication between hearing mothers and their deaf or hearing children (n=80) at child-ages 22 months and 3 years found most of the differences in communication by mothers of deaf and hearing children seemed attributable to the deaf children's linguistic delays. Results suggest that intervention efforts should focus on fostering…

This study examined the effects of increasing the amount and quality of father-son interaction at home on attachment and separation behavior in the laboratory situation. Twenty boys, 12 months of age, and their low interacting fathers participated in this study. Twelve father-son pairs received a list of games to be played each evening over a…

Research on characteristics of Down Syndrome infants affecting the interaction between mother and child is reviewed. Differences in the development of the social communication behaviors of state control (sleep and awake); gaze patterns; coordination of gesture, gaze, and vocalization; and frequency of vocalization have implications for parental…

This study explored interactions between six hearing mother-deaf child dyads in Zimbabwe before and after an intervention program based on the mediational interaction for sensitizing caregivers system. Pre- and post- intervention frequencies of mediational interactions showed increases for five categories of interaction. Qualitative analyses…

The relationship between aspects of mother-infant interactional behavior (vocalization, smiles, mutual eye contact, and facing position) and the infant's developmental level was investigated through both observation and intervention efforts. A sample of 33 primiparous mothers (mean CA of 22 years) from low income families and their infants (mean…

The study was conducted to determine the impact of day care intervention on the relationship between 60 mothers and their infants, 30 infants being at high risk for progressive, developmental retardation. Ss were divided into three groups: the high risk experimental group (HRE), the infants which were in the day care program; the high risk control…

This document on mother-infant interaction reports differences found between mothers in a parent education program and a control group. The parent education program provided two different informal methods of stimulating mothers' awareness of their influence on their children's learning and development. Both programs stressed maternal responsivity…

The article describes a high-risk infant program which is designed to facilitate mothers' use of positive communicative interaction strategies. The various components of the Mother-Infant Communication Project model are described, as are the specific communicative strategies targeted by the program, and the intervention techniques utilized.…