In comparison to infants of mothers who had no symptoms of depression, infants of mothers with symptoms exhibited reduced left frontal lobe activity during play and failed to exhibit increased right frontal lobe activity during distress. Infants of symptomatic mothers showed less distress during maternal separation than infants of nonsymptomatic…

Discusses three major characteristics that are important for child care professionals: experience, knowledge, and special personal qualities. Among the special personal qualities discussed are those of anticipating and planning, protecting, listening, comforting, and caring for the whole family. (BB)

Assessed parent-child interaction in 2-parent families with 12- and 18-month-old infants through questionnaires, interviews, family observations, and the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Found no effect of family stress and marital adjustment on infants' attachment classification. Parents of 12 month olds reported greater marital adjustment…

The development of early vocalizations was investigated with 13 infants who had Down's syndrome and 27 infants developing normally, at bimonthly intervals from 4 to 18 months of age. Both groups demonstrated increased production of mature syllables over time as well as large variations in vocal development, both within and across groups and across…

Studied the organization of arousal and attention processes in 138 neurologically at-risk neonates by examining visual preferences when infants were in 3 arousal conditions that involved light panel stimuli. There were no differences in preferences in the two conditions that caused the most arousal. (LB)

This article presents a series of decision trees to help in planning assessment and intervention with handicapped children between three months and five years of age. A series of assessment questions lead to suggestions for intervention. Steps in using the decision trees are given and a case example presented. (Author/DB)

Three studies examined infant preferences for attractive faces of White males, White females, Black females, and infants. Infants viewed pairs of faces rated for attractiveness by adults. Preferences for attractive faces were found for all facial types. (BC)

Considers contributions of Sigmund Freud and Rene Spitz to developmental psychology. Freud's contributions include his observations about play, perspectives on developmental processes, and ideas about unconscious mental activity. Spitz's contributions include his assessments of infants, perspectives on developmental processes, and his concept of…

Word comprehension tests were given to 24 infants at 2-month intervals. Parents of 18 of the infants kept a diary of the children's verbal production. Comprehension scores revealed a vocabulary spurt for some children. The presence of a comprehension spurt was associated with a word production spurt. (BC)

Compares frequencies of cooccurrences in infant babbling between phonetic and contextual categories to expected frequencies, and considers deviations to be patterns in babbling. Results are provided of an examination of utterances of three Canadian-English and three Parisian-French infants whose babblings were transcribed and categorized according…

Explores the recorded remarks of one infant female child related to children's books. Contrasts the "fantastic" statements spontaneously generated by the child with the ways in which she responded to animism and other "fantastic" conventions in picture books heard by her at the same ages. (HB)

This article applies four theoretical perspectives to the development of Group Action Planning, which supports infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families in inclusive environments. Practical suggestions for implementing Group Action Planning are offered, as is a longitudinal vignette of its application with one individual with…

This article presents a rationale for the importance of relationships as a focus for training infant/family professionals and paraprofessionals. It describes six innovative training strategies that have been used as part of the ZERO TO THREE/National Center for Clinical Infant Programs' City TOTS (training of trainers) project. (Author/DB)

This paper reviews evaluations of family-centered intervention programs conducted in neonatal intensive care units. Of 10 studies identified, 3 focused on intervention to benefit the family system; 6 involved parents, but the primary focus was the infant; and 1 study combined the 2 approaches. All the studies had substantial limitations.…

This study investigated the physiological responses of 13 mothers with and 17 mothers without a childhood history of physical abuse to videotape presentations of an infant smiling or crying. Mothers who had been abused showed increased skin conductance while viewing the smiling infant, whereas mothers without a history of abuse showed increased…