In 2 experiments, 9- and 12-month-old infants were shown pictures of males and females with a female or male voice presented simultaneously. Found that infants spent more time looking at pictures of females presented with a female voice than at other stimuli pictures. (BC)

Scales were developed to measure parental and professional attitudes toward the Individualized Family Service Plan, mandated for infants/toddlers with special needs. Analysis showed that parents and professionals were considered equals in the forms of the instrument and that it may allow long-range, repeated measures of attitude change over time.…

Assessed the relative contribution of dynamic and summary features of vocal frequency to the discrimination of pragmatic categories in infant-directed speech. Forty-nine mothers were instructed to use their voice to get their infant's attention, show approval, and provide comfort. Findings suggest that both dynamic and summary features are…

Details BootLex, a model using distributional cues to build a lexicon and achieving significant segmentation results with English, Japanese, and Spanish; child- and adult-directed speech, and written text; and variations in coding structure. Compares BootLex with three groups of computational models of the infant segmentation process. Discusses…

Demonstrates how innate representational capabilities for serial and temporal structure of language could arise from a common neural architecture, distinct from that required for the representation of abstract structure, and provides a predictive testable model of the initial computational state of the language learner. (Author/VWL)

It has been suggested that the child's capacity to represent and influence another person's attentional state about an object or event in triadic interactions (declarative communication) is an early manifestation of social understanding in the second year of life. This study tested the following predictions: First, in typically developing children…

This study explored 14-month-old infants' ability to form novel word-spatial relation associations. During habituation, infants heard 1 novel word (e.g., "teek") while viewing dynamic containment events (i.e., Big Bird placed in a box) and, on other habituation trials, a second novel word (e.g., "blick") while viewing dynamic support events (i.e.,…

Imitation is an important means by which infants learn new behaviours. When infants do not have the opportunity to immediately reproduce observed actions, they may form a memory representation of the event which can guide their behaviour when a similar situation is encountered again. Imitation procedures can, therefore, provide insight into infant…

Objective: To present data from a general infant psychiatry clinic, including range and frequency of presenting symptoms, relationship between symptoms and diagnoses, and comparison of two diagnostic systems, DSM-IV and Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC: 0-3). Method: A…

This study examined the influence of shape similarity and labels on 13-month-olds' inductive inferences. In 3 experiments, 123 infants were presented with novel target objects with or without a nonvisible property, followed by test objects that varied in shape similarity. When objects were not labeled, infants generalized the nonvisible property…

Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8…

The effects of 2 weeks of no, general, and task-related enhanced movement experiences on 8- to 12-week-old infants' (N=30) hand and foot interactions with objects were assessed using standard video and motion analysis. For hand object interaction ability, general and task experience led to greater success than did no experience, and task…

Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure and parental versus nonparental care on outcome at 2 years of age were examined. The sample included 83 cocaine-exposed and 63 nonexposed children and their caregivers; 49 and 34 of the cocaine-exposed children experienced parental and nonparental care, respectively. Prenatal drug exposure was not related…

Function has been considered important in numerous literatures in the study of cognitive development, yet little is known about what and how infants learn about function. Five experiments examined what 10-month-old infants (N=80) learn about functions that involve a sound produced when an object is acted on. Infants habituated to a single object…

In this article, the author describes three major temperament categories of infants and toddlers, and why each calls for particular insights and attention. For infants, the temperaments are cautious, fussy, and easygoing. For toddlers, the three most prevalent temperaments are fearful/shy, irritable/active/fussy, and easy. This paper also contains…