This report briefly describes the procedures for assessing children's psychological development and the data analytic framework used in the New York City Infant Day Care Study. This study is a 5-year, longitudinal investigation in which infants in group and family day care programs and infants reared at home are compared. Children in the study are…

This report provides an account of the nature and purposes of data collected concerning the health, nutrition, and physical development of infants during the first three years of life, in order to compare the physical health of children in family or group day care and children with no previous day care experience. The data collected include the…

The research methodology of this study is at least as important as the actual findings. For certain types of information seeking, directed conversations, or interviews, seem most desirable. Yet, although such conversations are easy to carry on with teachers, they are difficult to manage with 6-year-old children, especially when the interviewer is…

The early development of visually handicapped children, from birth to age 3, is discussed. The mother's role following diagnosis is stressed, with attention to providing love, and an environment for learning, manipulative and motor activities, and nutrition. (JD)

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Canadian Mothercraft Society are running a day care program for infants (from 3 to 30 months of age) designed to facilitate their cognitive, personality, and social development through personalized adult-child interaction, guided learning situations, free play, and specialized care.…

An alternate compensatory strategy for assisting persons from disadvantaged milieus is presented. A compilation of data from different areas to support consideration of the proposal is given. The proposal is such that it provides an opportunity to control and account for many of the factors that have previously confused and confounded compensatory…

An exploration of the clinical usefulness of the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Scale was made. A specific pediatric problem was studied, i.e., a baby born to a heroin-addicted mother taking methadone. The control sample was a population of 41 babies who were part of a larger study. Both methadone and control infants were tested between 48 and 72…

The report of the Health Examination Survey program contained national estimates of infant health needs and the extent of prenatal and postnatal medical care received by 7,119 normal and handicapped children who were 6 to 11 years of age in 1963 through 1965. Children were chosen to be representative of American noninstitutionalized children with…

The Infant-Infant Contact Code, developed to observe the social behavior in infants, is described. Results from using this scale with nine infants under nine months indicated that contacts between infants are complex in nature, that there are developmental changes in models of encounter, and that babies take different roles in relation to the…

Primarily a feasibility study, the research reported is based on Eysenck's hypothesis that conditionability is a unitary factor related to introversion-extroversion and attention span. Thirty infants, representing a random sampling of race, sex, and socioeconomic background, were tested on three consecutive days at ages 3 months, 5 months, 9…

The smiles and laughter of an infant form the beginning of the developmental process of interpersonal interaction and socialization. The earliest smiles are automatic expressions of internal states, but soon infants' smiles are communications of pleasure. The developmental changes in smiling and laughing in early infancy reflect the rapidity with…

Piaget explains the stage IV error as a failure to assimilate the new place of hiding rather than a forgetting of it. His hypothesis predicts that the likelihood of error should not vary with the length of the delay interval. Nine-month-old infants delayed 0, 1, 3, or 7 seconds before having the opportunity to search. Infants in all conditions,…

The early development of wariness toward unfamiliar persons and novel objects is examined. Data are based upon the reactions of 32 infants who were repeatedly observed, over the age period 3 to 9 months, as they responded to the near approach of a stranger, and to a variety of new objects. Signs of wariness toward unfamiliar persons began to…

The differential visual responses of 20 Down's Syndrome and 20 normal infants (CA 8 months) to 13 pairs of visual targets were compared. Although DS subjects generally looked longer at the stimuli than normal subjects, they showed a response differential in only 3 stimulus pairs compared to 11 for the normals. Six of the stimulus pairs elicited…

The rationale for and negative results of structured preschool programs are examined, and an alternative model based on research is suggested for use with multiply handicapped infants. Major aspects of the model are seen to include a combination of modeling and reinforcement, increased focus on nonverbal communication, and emphasis on a…