Analyzes early lexical and phonological development in three children from late babbling through the acquisition of 50 conventional words. Focuses on (1) the relationship between prelinguistic and linguistic vocalizations, (2) phonological development after the onset of speech, (3) patterns of lexical selection, (4) rate of lexical acquisition,…

Among girls observed interacting with infants, older girls ignored more, made fewer social bids, and responded less than younger girls. However, chronological age was highly correlated with measures of social and biological maturity. Social maturity was the best predictor of trends on two interaction measures, biological maturity on the third.…

A comparative view of early intervention for handicapped infants and preschoolers in Germany and the U.S. notes similarities in diversity of service provision across the states and in the emergence of early childhood special education as a legitimate discipline. Differences are noted in child-find procedures and in educational strategies. (CL)

The article reviews the historical and sociocultural background of current services for handicapped young children in Switzerland; considers the contributions of J. Piaget, E. Clapared, and A. Ferriere; and surveys current early childhood services along with qualifications for teacher training. Principles of education of the handicapped in…

The author responds to a review of special education for young children in Switzerland and notes similarities and differences with U.S. practices. Swiss emphasis on personality and social development is pointed out. (CL)

Early intervention in France begins with compulsory screening of all infants at birth, nine months, and at two years. Problems remain, especially in the availability of adequate support and of services for the handicapped child. Interdisciplinary teams operate from "early medico-social activity centers" to provide a variety of…

A behavior education program for teaching mothers to develop toy play in their developmentally delayed children was evaluated. After training, mothers displayed target skills and children showed increased rates of appropriate play. Mothers and infants were generally more responsive to each other's behavior and children self-initiated more…

Describes acoustic analysis of the speech of a child from 46 to 149 weeks in which overall word duration, pitch perturbation, and within-word phonetic segments were measured. The subject's overall word duration decreased considerably at a relatively late stage, supporting the claim that a child's neuromuscular control improves with maturation.…

Two groups of professionals, one serving specific regions and the other administering statewide programs, agreed that public sources of funds are the most available for early intervention programs, that the most effective services are performed as early as possible and that rural and poor populations are underserved. (Author/CL)

Phonetic transcriptions of babbling samples from 11 normally hearing subjects, age 4-18 months, were compared with samples for 11 hearing-impaired students, age 4-28 months. Findings suggested both qualitative and quantitative differences in the babbling of the two groups. (Author/CL)

Investigates the differences between Japanese and American mothers' perceptions of support from their husbands, and the relationship between these perceptions and the mothers' involvement with their infants. Findings highlight differences in the cultural context of family life in the two societies. (Author/ABL)

A total population screening of children born from 1962 to 1976 who lived in the Gothenberg region at the end of 1980 was carried out to obtain prevalence figures for infantile autism and other childhood psychoses. Prevalence was found to be approximately two per 10,000; boys were more affected by infantile autism than were girls. (RH)

Investigates the evolution of specific lexical and syntactical clues and the recurrence of various semantic fields in mothers' spontaneous speech to their infants. Content of mothers' speech was related to age in newborn to 10-month-old children. (Author/RH)

Failure-to-thrive infants were more often found in homes that were disorganized and where mothers were less responsive and less accepting of their child's behavior than were normally developing infants. Results suggest that infants need a socially and physically responsive environment which they can control to some extent. (RH)

The authors question the assumption that parent participation is critical to the success of early intervention programs and cite the lack of research support for this notion in programs for young children with cerebral palsy. They note that financial considerations may still dictate the need for parent participation. (CL)