Red colobus monkeys are playful primates, making them an important species in which to study animal play. The author examines play behaviors and responses in the species for its play initiation events, age differences in initiating frequency and initiating behavior, and the types of social play that result from specific initiating behaviors. Out…

Adults' processing of own-race faces differs from that of other-race faces. The presence of an "other-race" feature (ORF) has been proposed as a mechanism underlying this specialization. We examined whether this mechanism, which was previously identified in adults and in 9-month-olds, is evident at 3.5 months. Caucasian 3.5-month-olds looked…

Does statistical learning (Saffran, Aslin, & Newport, 1996) offer a universal segmentation strategy for young language learners? Previous studies on large corpora of English and structurally similar languages have shown that statistical segmentation can be an effective strategy. However, many of the world's languages have richer morphological…

Various measures for identifying the onset of babbling have been proposed in the literature, but a formal definition of the exact procedure and a thorough validation of the sample size required for reliably establishing babbling onset is lacking. In this paper the reliability of five commonly used measures is assessed using a large longitudinal…

The vocalization of preterm infants with extremely low birth weight (ELBW) up to the expansion stage was systematically described and compared with those of healthy full-term infants. The sample consisted of 18 preterm ELBW infants and the control group of 11 full-term infants. The follow-up was performed intensively using video-recordings. The…

In response to concerns that the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III (BSIDIII) underestimate delay in clinical populations, this study explores developmental quotient scores as an alternative to composite scores for these children. One hundred and twenty-two children aged [less than or equal to] 42 months, referred for diagnosis of…

This commentary article is to be published alongside: Hernik, M., & Southgate, V. (2012). What do infants know about agents' goals? The authors see this issue consisting of two closely related questions. First, what is an agent to infants? Second, how do infants attribute goals to agents? Hernik and Southgage (H&S) focused on the second question.…

Studies on developed countries demonstrate that an increase in women legislators leads to a prioritization in health, an increase in social policy spending, and a decrease in poverty. Women representatives could therefore improve development trajectories in developing countries; yet, currently, no cross-national and longitudinal studies explore…

Previous research indicates that infants generalize syntactic-like structures to novel exemplars in a way that has been characterized as abstract and algebraic (Marcus et al., 1999). Infants appear to learn and generalize from speech more successfully than from nonspeech stimuli (Marcus, Fernandes, & Johnson, 2007). In this series of experiments,…

Despite a growing interest in the question of tool-use development in infants, no study so far has systematically investigated how learning to use a tool to retrieve an out-of-reach object progresses with age. This was the first aim of this study, in which 60 infants, aged 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22 months, were presented with an attractive toy and a…

"Bring Your Baby to the Danforth Museum of Art" is a program for mothers. Unlike other museum programs that focus on the needs of children, Bring Your Baby caters to the intellectual interests of the adult parent. Parents learn about artworks, play with babies in a beautiful environment, and socialize with other families. The program is…

A fundamental step in learning words is the development of an association between a sound pattern and an element in the environment. Here we explore the nature of this associative ability in 12-month-olds, examining whether it is constrained to privilege particular word forms over others. Forty-eight infants were presented with sets of novel…

In light of cross-cultural and experimental research highlighting effects of childrearing practices on infant motor skill, we asked whether wearing diapers, a seemingly innocuous childrearing practice, affects infant walking. Diapers introduce bulk between the legs, potentially exacerbating infants' poor balance and wide stance. We show that…

We studied the gestures used by children with classic Rett syndrome (RTT) to provide evidence as to how this essential aspect of communicative functions develops. Seven participants with RTT were longitudinally observed between 9 and 18 months of life. The gestures used by these participants were transcribed and coded from a retrospective analysis…

The first information parents receive after referral through Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) has significant consequences for later care-related decisions they take and thus for the future of the child with a hearing loss. In this study, 11 interviews were conducted with a representative sample of Flemish service providers to discover…