Although Baby Sign is gaining in popularity, there is a scarcity of research supporting its use. The research that has been conducted is conflicting. In the current study, nine families with children ranging in age from six months to two years and five months participated in a baby sign workshop. A pre--post-test design was used to assess the…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

Approximately 20,000 children are adopted from foreign countries each year. Of these children, approximately 46% are adopted before they are 12 months old and 43% are adopted between 1 and 4 years of age. The development of children adopted from abroad before or by 2 years of age is the focus of this article. Given the impoverished language input…

This volume brings together leading authorities from multiple disciplines to examine the relationship between brain development and behavior in typically developing children. Presented are innovative cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that shed light on brain-behavior connections in infancy and toddlerhood through adolescence. Chapters…

The effects of the familiarity of setting and partner on the social behavior of infants was studied. Subjects were 22 infants 6-18 months old. Eleven of the infants were in a day care center; the remainder were cared for at home. In the first portion of the study, the day care infants were observed interacting with each other in the nursery…

A total of 51 mothers and their newborn infants were studied in order to evaluate the relationship between neonatal style and the early mother-infant relationship. The procedure included an infant assessment with the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, a mother-infant interaction observation during feeding, and an interview concerning maternal…

Observes parents' socialization practices in 24 homes of families with first-born infants at 11, 14, and 17 months of age. Four kinds of socializing practices were observed and compared by parents' sex, infants' age, and infants' sex. (HOD)

This paper presents a study designed to determine if providing information to primiparous mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants would affect reciprocity in mother-infant interaction. Thirty married, Caucasian, middle class mothers of healthy, normally carried and delivered 48-hour-old first-born infants served as subjects.…

Using a longitudinal design, investigates the interactive behaviors of mothers of normal infants and mothers of infants who are known to differ on a host of cognitive, behavioral, and biological parameters. Examines the developmental course of emotional expressivity in these infants. (HOD)

Reviews recent product-oriented outcome studies from the perspective of whether VLBW (very low birthweight) infants born since 1975 (when intensive care methods became relatively stabilized in effectiveness) show behavioral problems, intellectual impairment, linguistic or social deficits. (RWB)

Fixation time, smiling, vocalization, and fret/cry were recorded to obtain a complete picture of infants' responses to facial stimuli over the first year of life. Four stimuli were presented to 120 infants. Results of fixation data indicate that (1) there is a marked decrease in fixation toward facial stimuli within the first year, (2) at all ages…

Recent research about children's early personal-social learning and development is reviewed in relation to three basic psychological questions. The first concerns extent of stability or consistency in stylistic patterns of personal-social behavior across infancy, the preschool years, and the early school years. The second concerns current…

Research programs of the human learning and behavior branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD) are described in five sections of this document. The specific programs conducted in the areas of learning and cognitive development, development of communicative abilities, biological bases of behavioral development,…

Recent developments in infant mental health are outlined, with implications for work with at-risk populations. Discussed are: the biobehavioral-developmental perspective, the infant as a social being, the infant-caregiver relationship, the transactional model of the infant-parent relationship, assessing developmental disabilities, conceptualizing…

This text assists parents and other caregivers in stimulating the young child with a severe visual impairment, in order to encourage development of normal behaviors which blindness delays and to prevent the appearance of psychological disturbances. Simple language and illustrations describe the stages of child development from newborn to 3 years…