The age of onset for tactual exploration of the fingers, body (torso), knee, foot, and penis by the fingers was determined in 100 normal infants. Journal availability: see EC 113 765. (Author)

The study assessed development of 17 malnourished and 15 adequately nourished hospitalized children (ages 6 to 24 months) and found that mean developmental quotients of each group rose to a similar extent during recovery from illness. Journal availability: see EC 113 765. (Author/PHR)

Discusses the development and philosophy of parent-infant education programs provided by Washington State community colleges and vocational technical schools consisting of parent-participation classes and cooperative preschools for 10,000 families. Describes program at Seattle Community College. (BF/JH)

Describes Israel's maternal and child health program which consists of state-wide neighborhood-based centers providing prenatal care and advice; assessments of a child's growth and development; immunizations; extensive counseling about child development, childrearing, and nutrition; and referrals for care of sick children. (BF/JH)

Describes development of the Early Head Start program for low-income pregnant women and families with children from birth to age 3. Discusses the program's goals and the creation of Early Head Start when Head Start was reauthorized in 1994. Describes the Early Head Start model programs, addressing the confusion about the relationship between Head…

Focuses on the impact of severe visual impairment on the development of play skills that facilitate concept development and discusses interventions that can enhance play experiences for infants and young children with severe visual impairments. Strategies encourage intrinsic motivation, spontaneity, active engagement, positive effect,…

Examined parenting styles of families of 105 preschoolers who experienced varying amounts of full-time infancy care. Found that mothers did not differ on nurturance, responsiveness, consistency, parental control, or use of physical punishment. Mothers of early care group were more likely to use reasoning and remind children about rules than…

Pointing and gestures in 47 infants was investigated in 2 experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication, and another study of 7 infants examined prepointing transitional phenomena. Results show gestures are produced differently in experimental conditions: reaching is only produced in…

Determined whether young children's inconsistent production of sentence subjects was due to limitations in their knowledge of English or in their ability to access and use that knowledge. Subjects were 19 young children from 1 to 2 years old. Found that processing limitations, rather than defective grammar, explain the missing subjects in very…

Two experiments examined the effects of common motion, background texture, and orientation on four-month olds' perception of unity of a partially occluded rod. Results indicated that infants' perception of object unity is not dependent on a single visual cue but on a variety of cues including motion, interposition, depth cues, background texture,…

This review of medical concerns in dealing with spina bifida examines neurologic and neurosurgical issues, learning issues, urological dysfunction, orthopedic issues, bowel control, latex allergy, and prenatal diagnosis and prevention. (JDD)

Examined the stability of infant-parent attachment security in samples of 90 infant-mother and 120 infant-father dyads who completed the Ainsworth and Wittig Strange Situation procedure at 6- to 7-month intervals. Significant stability was not discerned in attachment security, with rates of stability ranging from 46% to 55%. (MDM)

Examined how infants' memories of the context in which an event occurred are distorted through exposure to the event in a different context after one or six days. Found that when event components are encountered later in new context, the new context may be remembered as being where the event had occurred, and the original context forgotten. (KDFB)

Examines the simultaneous development of two linguistic competences in the bilingual child. Special attention is devoted to the role of functional categories in the development patterns attested, and a position is taken that is intermediate between two hypotheses: the strong hypothesis and the weak hypothesis. Childhood bilingualism is viewed as a…