The Computer-Assisted Program (CAP) serves 42 developmentally delayed or otherwise educationally underserved children (ages 0-3) who live in remote areas of the United States or overseas and lack access to early intervention programs. The program develops individualized computer generated Home Activity Packages and monitors child progress.…

Research on characteristics of Down Syndrome infants affecting the interaction between mother and child is reviewed. Differences in the development of the social communication behaviors of state control (sleep and awake); gaze patterns; coordination of gesture, gaze, and vocalization; and frequency of vocalization have implications for parental…

Examines 24 mother/impaired infant dyads to study the quality of interaction using the Ainsworth-Wittig attachment paradigm. Measures of general development and degree of child impairment significantly differentiated "classifiability" of attachment in the Ainsworth scheme. Infants rated higher on a social responsiveness measure were more…

Interviews, HOME inventories, and videotapes of home observations were used to obtain information from adolescent and nonadolescent mothers with four-month-old infants on (1) the mothers' childcare network, (2) stressful life events since the infant's birth, and (3) parenting behaviors. (PCB)

Mothers' roles in structuring interactions with their infants during free play was examined when infants were 6- and 9-months-old. Maternal scaffolding of turn-taking exchanges was then contrasted to the forms of turn-taking apparent in sibling-infant and peer-infant observations. Subjects were 26 second-born infants who had a 3- to 6-year-old…

This research identified easy-to-use maternal postpartum screening dimensions to predict two-month adjustment among 28 primipara adolescents. The results suggested several predictors: initial parenting attitudes, preparation for parenting, infant holding style, and aspects of social functioning. Postpartum risk screening may be a feasable way to…

Four young mothers with one-year-old infants were successfully taught to reduce their children's potential for injury in the home through interventions which included increasing positive interactions with the infant, child-proofing the home, using playpen time-out for potentially dangerous behaviors, and giving positive attention for safe…

Binaural masked thresholds for a speech sound (/ba/) were estimated under two interaural phase conditions in three age groups (infants, preschoolers, adults). Differences as a function of both age and condition and effects of reducing intensity for adults were significant in indicating possible developmental binaural hearing changes, especially…

Illustrates how family systems theory has influenced the adoption services for infants at a family services agency, Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County (Michigan), and describes the evolving practice of open communication between biological families and adoptive families. (BB)

Results showed that infants can differentiate dynamic, multimodal expressions as early as five months of age; can distinguish dynamically distinct expressions before similarly animated expressions; and seem to rely more on the voice than the face in making these discriminations. (RH)

Considers it inappropriate to focus on discrete symptomatology to infer presence of nascent or incipient infant psychopathology. Asserts that disorders in infancy are best conceptualized as relational psychopathologies, that is, as consequences of dysfunction in parent-child-environment system. Uses research in child maltreatment to illustrate the…

Motor skills were compared in two samples of children born biologically at risk: 19 children who had transient neurologic signs in infancy but were considered "normal" at two years, and 42 children who appeared neurologically normal throughout early childhood. At 4:6 years, the groups differed only on the measure of pencil prehension.…

Videotapes of four mother-child dyads and diaries kept by the mothers, showed that there was a strong relationship between the children's initial use of words and the most frequently occurring use of these words by the mothers. It was also found that, although the majority of children's first words were context-bound, a significant number were…

A modeling experiment, conducted to determine if children benefit from observing speech not addressed to them in discovering the use of first and second pronouns, suggested that children even less than two years of age can attend to and learn from speech not addressed to them. (Author/CB)

Applies a systems approach to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. Hypothesizes that the systems approach (which integrates expressive and communicative actions with other elements of the infant's physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment) will explain previously unexplained…