This third annual report uses nine benchmarks of child and adolescent health, education, and socioeconomic well-being to measure the condition of American children across the nation and state by state. The benchmarks are as follows: (1) percent low birth weight babies; (2) infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births); (3) child death rate (ages…

In view of the many factors threatening the survival, health, and cognitive development of the world's disadvantaged children, both in the United States and in developing countries, the Ford Foundation has begun a new program, called Child Survival/Fair Start, to improve these children's chances. In this working paper, Fair Start's overall…

This workbook was designed to help parents of preschool children take an active role in the education and guidance of their children, particularly in the area of language and vocabulary, social development, and movement. Included are all the sections from the book "Discovering How Children Learn" in addition to parent and child…

This book, the first in a series on development and behavior of human infants and animals, contains a collection of articles dealing with the significance of the interaction between mother and infant and the subtle contributions that each makes to the other in shaping their ongoing dyadic behavior. It emphasizes that the infant is no mere passive…

Noting that other parents can be an excellent source of practical parenting advice, this book compiles over a thousand practical tips--those not generally found in baby care books or pediatrician's offices--with over 400 new tips compiled since the book's 1982 version. Major topics include: (1) new baby care, including cesarean deliveries,…

This KIDS COUNT report presents statistics highlighting challenges faced by newborns and their parents in major urban areas. Data came from birth certificates. Overall, children living in central cities are far more likely to experience six risks associated with negative child outcomes, and when those six factors are used collectively to determine…

Noting recent neuroscience research findings suggesting that caregivers play a vital role in brain development, this videotape explores the process of brain development during the first 15 months of life and presents implications for infant care. Part 1 of the 28-minute video discusses basic infant development and brain research, focusing on how…

Notes that reading aloud to children is the single most important activity for assuring success in reading. Describes types of children's books and offers guidelines for book selection. Discusses several guidelines that help early childhood professionals experience successful infant and toddler book reading sessions, and includes bibliography of…

Teachers of very young children have the awesome task of providing rich information and experiences that build skills and understanding in the context of every day routines and within intentionally-designed play opportunities that capture children's interests, wonder and curiosity so they want to know more. Pennsylvania's learning standards join…

The awareness and knowledge of developmental milestones among health practitioners need to be enhanced to better enable early identification and intervention with children who have delays in development, intellectual deficit, and developmental disabilities and are residents in low-and middle-income countries. To meet this end, a simple one-page…

This study documents the home literacy experiences of children born with very low birth weight (VLBW). The study's design was modelled after Purcell-Gates' study of social domains mediated by print as home literacy experiences. A design combining purposeful sampling, semi-structured data collection and descriptive case study analysis was employed…

The current study examined whether 11-month-old and 12-month-old French infants were able to recognize familiar words in a situation yielding no extra-linguistic cues, before they made identified attempts at producing such words. A head-turn preference paradigm was used to compare infants' interest for familiar words against rare words. Lists of…

This study examined the impact of various temporal patterns of maternal interactive behavior with their infant on the infant's quality of attachment. The sample consisted of 52 dyads from the Berlin Longitudinal Study of Early Adaptation. Quality of attachment was assessed at 21 months with the Strange Situation Procedure. Nine infants were…

This booklet summarizes recent information on the current health status and service needs of America's children. The booklet is intended to present sentinel health measures in a readily accessible and readable format to illustrate what has been accomplished for children and to identify what challenges remain. The booklet's four sections cover:…

A new series of studies on adults' and infants' perception of phonetic "prototypes," exceptionally good instances of phonetic categories, show that prototypes play a unique role in speech perception. Phonetic category prototypes function like "perceptual magnets" for other stimuli in the category. They attract nearby members of…