Extra post-partum mother-infant contact in the first hour of life does not appear to enhance maternal perceptions of infant temperament at 8 months. Subjects of a study of the effects of mother-infant contact on infant temperament were healthy, white, first-born infants and their mothers. Mothers were randomly assigned to an experimental group in…

The booklet discusses the concepts of sharing centers and sharing center kits in the Macomb (Illinois) 0-3 Regional Project, a rural home based program to serve rural handicapped and high risk infants and toddlers. It is explained that sharing centers provide opportunities for parents to share experiences and learn new approaches to working with…

Children are naturally musical and should be musically educated. Music provides a unique way for children to grow intellectually, emotionally and socially. Music fulfills an inner drive to express feelings and experiences in a symbolic, abstract, creative, and acceptable manner which is positive and valued. Musical nurture should begin within the…

Two infant stimulation programs - for Down's Syndrome and hearing impaired children - in Montgomery County, Maryland, are described. Referral, initial assessment, development of individualized education program, and use of learning activities with the Down's infants are discussed along with intervention rationale, parent role, and child…

This study followed the development of visual preferences in a single infant from birth to 10 weeks of age. The stimuli used were 5 x 10 item arrays of squares of lines in which a 3 x 3 target matrix of the other figure type (line or square) was embedded. The direction of first fixation and the total time spent looking at each side were determined…

Summaries of papers presented in a symposium deal with a related series of four issues concerning the development of maternal attachment: Is maternal attachment best conceptualized and measured as an emotional tie or as observable behavior? Is there continuity in the development of maternal attachment from the prenatal to postpartum period? Can…

Although it is widely accepted that early childhood is the optimal, time to begin educational intervention, there does not seem to be an agreement on the specific kinds of interventions. For the disadvantaged child, however, it seems that intervention in infancy and very early childhood is especially indicated. This summary and literature review…

Examined was the feasibility of predicting the potential for abnormal child rearing practices, including child abuse and neglect among 350 mothers. Through interviews, questionnaires, and observations during labor, delivery and the postpartum period, 100 mothers were identified as at high risk for abnormal parenting procedures. Ss were then…

This paper presents an integrative perspective on infant development (based on a consideration of developmental data) which focuses on the function of the smile. From the earliest spontaneous smiles of the newborn period to mature smiling and laughter, a central role was revealed for an excitation (tension)-relaxation process in producing smiles.…

This study examined the differential effects of sex of parent, sex of child, and sex of stranger on infant behavior in a stranger-separation situation. Year-old infants (16 males and 19 females) from middle-class families were observed and videotaped twice, at one-week intervals, in a modification of Ainsworth's laboratory stranger and separation…

This study examined father-infant and mother-infant relationships by observing infants and parents in their homes. The subjects were 20 infants, 10 boys and 10 girls, 7 and 8 months of age. Each infant was visited twice when both parents were at home. All visits were made by the same two persons: a male observer, who maintained a narrative account…

This study recorded the pretend play behavior of a total of 22 boys and girls aged 20 and 26 months to determine the effects of age, sex, toy type, and order of toy presentation on the amount of pretending observed during two home visits. Each visit consisted of three segments: two play episodes of 10 minutes each and an intervening segment of…

Semantic-cognitive language sampling procedures to assess language development are used at the Kennedy Center Experimental School which serves handicapped children from 3 months to 6 years of age. A half hour of natural language is transcribed with a written description of the context. Fifty consecutive sentences or 100 utterances are selected and…

Presented is the script for a slide tape description of the Margaret Harris Center in DeKalb County, Georgia, a noncategorical program for moderately and severely handicapped infants and children. (CL)

The purposes of this study are (1) to analyze learning ability in newborns using heart rate responses to auditory temporal conditioning and (2) to correlate these with measures on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Twenty normal neonates were tested using the Brazelton Scale on the third day of life. They were also given a…