The booklet describes procedures for developing and using biyearly goals in the Macomb (Illinois) 0-3 Regional Project for rural handicapped and high risk infants and toddlers. The goals are developed for each child 6 weeks after he/she enters the project, and serve as program guidelines for the child development specialist and the parents. Goals…

This speech sketches a picture of post-natal health care in the United States, circa 1979. Between 1970 and 1976, post-natal infant deaths in the first week after birth dropped 32%. During the same period, the post-neonatal decline was just 12%. Statistics are presented which highlight areas of concern. Variation across states, high incidence in…

This paper reports a study which examined the relationships of various facets of sensorimotor performance to abilities measured by a developmental examination of a sample of full-term and pre-term infants nine months after expected term date. This study addressed three questions: (1) Are there differences in the sensorimotor development of term…

Two observers who were using an electronic digital data acquisition system were spot checked for reliability at random times over a four month period. Between-and within-observer reliability was assessed for frequency, duration, and duration-per-event measures of four infant behaviors. The results confirmed the problem of observer drift--the…

This is a bilingual book about language development of the young child. It is written for parents, with the objective of providing them with skills to help their children learn to talk. Emphasis is on maintaining communication between parent and child from infancy in a non-pressured, accepting, and positive environment. Developmental (normative)…

The Maimonides Early Childhood Health-Mental Health Prevention and Treatment Program is described. The program provides a broad range of preventive services to children who are five years of age and younger. Services are organized into Post-Natal and Pre-School Programs. The Post-Natal Program offers group education and counseling, individual…

An unfamiliar or strange situation was used as a setting to highlight individual differences in an infant's responses to brief separations from his mother and his reactions to a stranger. Two groups were observed, one composed of 23 white, middle class mother-infant pairs, the other of 33 pairs. Eight episodes, presented in fixed order for all…

Sixteen white home-reared babies (eight boys - eight girls) ranging in age from six months to two years were studied during home visits. Piaget's sensory-motor development theory of imitation was employed, and his special thesis of the hierarchical sequence was tested. The examiner proposed four critieria for assessing the development of imitation…

Individual differences in four separation-related behaviors, protest, following, and positive greetings or crying on reunion, were examined for 26 infants observed intensively at home during the fourth quarter-year, and considered in relation to one another, to other infant behaviors, and to maternal behavior. Contrary to Freudian and other…

This study attempted to determine: (1) whether lower-order units (agent or agent-action) within the agent-action-recipient relationship exist in any functional way in the 1-word infant's comprehension of speech; and (2) whether the use of repetition and/or reduced length (common modifications in adult-to-infant speech) used to focus on these…

The main objective of the present investigations was to determine whether or not young human infants see the physical spectrum in a categorical fashion as human adults and animals who possess color vision regularly do. (Author)

Examined the extent to which mothers synchronize their verbal references to objects with other, nonverbal events when addressing children in the first two years of life. Forty-two mothers and their infants (age 11, 14, and 24 months) were observed in a joint play situation involving a number of toys. (Author/JMB)

The consistency of eight attachment behaviors across a four-month period was investigated in two samples of infants. Multiple correlations revealed significant amounts of consistency in attachment behavior for vocalizing, visual regard, proximity to the mother from 10 to 14 months, and for touching and proximity to her from 14 to 18 months. (SE)

Reports a study examining the relation between the toddler's social initiative in relation to his mother and his initiative in exploring the physical environment, and the effect of different maternal behaviors on these two realms. (BD/BR)

Based on a paper given at a meeting of the Mental Deficiency Section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in June, 1977, the article discusses the effects of lead exposure on the behavior and intellectual development of young children. (Author)