Every year brings new research studies that aim to describe early childhood development. Despite this boom in research, there has been little useful translation of these studies into clear recommendations for educators and mental health practitioners. This book shows experienced educators and mental health practitioners who work with young…

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…

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation and one of the most frequently occurring neurodevelopmental genetic disorders in children. Children with Down syndrome typically experience a constellation of symptomology that includes developmental motor and language delay, specific deficits in verbal memory, and broad…

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between abilities to initiate and respond to joint attention and symptoms of autism that have, and have not, been theoretically linked to joint attention. Participants were 51 boys and five girls with autistic disorder, aged between 2 years and 6 years 5 months. Measures of joint attention…

An increasing number of families are enrolling their children in out-of-home early childcare services. In addition, a growing number of community childcare programs are including children with developmental disabilities. While some studies have explored the effects of inclusion for preschool children with disabilities, there is little knowledge…

A multifaceted model to promote peer play was implemented with play groups including 3 children (ages 6-8) with autism, resulting in decreased isolate play and collateral gains in social play, and decreased stereotyped object play and collateral gains in functional object play. Advances in play behaviors were generalized and were accompanied by…

This text is a series of readings designed to introduce the student to scientific research on children. Choice of material for inclusion was based on: (1) the provision of a wide selection of the developmental literature, its origins and growth; (2) the presentation of examples of empirical research, and (3) the selection of articles representing…

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,…

Four papers discuss the Harvard Preschool Project whose goal is to learn how to structure the experiences of the first six years of life to encourage maximal development of human competence. To determine what competence at age 6 is, a group of 13 highly competent 6-year-olds of mixed residence, class, and ethnicity were compared to a like group of…

Psychosocial development is the focus of this psychology textbook. In part 1, a view of human development and society, the following areas are covered: (1) basic concepts of psychosocial development; (2) ways of viewing human development; and (3) dilemmas in human development. Part 2, the development of symbolic behavior and special factors in…

Parents of 31 developmentally delayed children (ages 1-27 months) received training to assess their children's developmental status. No initial differences existed between parent and professional scores in the motor, social, or language domains. Differences in the self-help domain disappeared after 4 months and in the cognitive domain after 12…

The book offers advice to parents of retarded children in recognizing and facing inherent problems and provides insight into their own emotional needs and those of their child. Levels of retardation are described and assistance given to aid parents in determining how retarded their child is and whether to send the child to a residential school or…

Language acquisition and other developmental processes in children do not occur haphazardly, but rather follow a sequence that is well-established, and though subject to a moderate variation in detail from child to child, surprisingly uniform. This book provides information to parents concerning their children's development levels and attainments…

The work of four task forces on human deprivation is reported. Aspects of deprivation treated include psychosocial deprivation and personality development; influences of biological, psychological, and social deprivations upon learning and performance; socialization and social structure; and biological substrates of development and behavior. For…