This article discusses the difficulties of early identification of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), provides an overview and analysis of existing screening checklists, and recommends a set of characteristics to enhance the identification process of infants and toddlers with FXS. Indicators address family history, behavior, social/communication,…

This article presents a focused and detailed method for providing meaningful supervision to program administrators of early intervention programs. The Monthly Report and Quality Program Indicators provide anecdotal and statistical information about employee concerns, facility management, curriculum implementation, inservice development, community…

This article discusses issues in developing effective professional development programs for pediatric occupational therapists who work with very young children and their families, focusing on: clinical and contextual trends affecting practice, professional preparation at the university level, continuing competency, and recommendations for ensuring…

Mothers of 6 cohorts of infants at ages 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months were interviewed to determine their children's responses to potentially stressful daily events. Found older infants and temperamentally more difficult infants experienced more events and reacted with distress to a greater proportion of the events than did younger infants and…

This study used three experiments to study whether infant-directed (ID) or adult-directed (AD) speech facilitated the learning of Chinese vocabulary by adults whose native language was English and who had had no prior knowledge of Chinese. Results indicate that ID speech may play a pivotal role in early lexical acquisition. (51 references)…

Examines issues relating to similarity neighborhoods of words in children's lexicons. Young children's receptive vocabularies were analyzed for three-phoneme, four-phoneme and five-phoneme words. The pattern of the original results from Charles-Luce & Luce (1990) was replicated. (18 references) (Author/CK)

Presents two charts designed by Maria Montessori to illustrate the four planes of development. Claims that Montessori's meticulously researched commentary signals an emerging organic vision of the developmental continuum from birth to adulthood that is relevant to the educational needs of our time. (MOK)

Describes the educational and artistic enrichment of primary school children who participated in the Carnival Arts Project. The project's objectives, development, and impact on the curriculum are examined. Additionally, two teachers and a Carnival Arts coordinator provide their own accounts of the project's impact at their school. (GR)

Seventy adolescent mother-child dyads were assessed longitudinally to determine relationships among prenatal maternal knowledge and attitudes about parenting before and after the birth of the child. Found that mothers who were more cognitively prepared for parenting had children who displayed better intellectual development and fewer behavior…

Examined longitudinally the effects of infants' age, body dimensions, and experience on the development of crawling. Although most infants displayed multiple crawling postures en route to walking, development did not adhere to a strict progression of obligatory, discrete stages. Duration of experience with earlier forms of crawling predicted the…

Assessed, at 8-10 months, children's restraint and attention, and at 13-15 months, compliance to mother, internalization of her prohibition, and quality of motivation of the mother-child teaching context. Found support for view of compliance and noncompliance as heterogenous: committed compliance was higher to maternal "don'ts" than…

Examined the ways Canadian provincial and territorial policies address the inclusion of infants in multi-age early childhood education settings and the ways practitioners and licensing personnel interpret these policies. Noted policy patterns that affect the inclusion of infants and older children. Derived recommendations for policymakers and…

This article provides an overview of the evaluation process in early intervention and describes the integration of concepts based on neurobehavior into the eligibility evaluation of the very young child. Neurobehavioral models are described and an example illustrates how the integration of neurobehavioral concepts can result in a better…

Thirty-three mother-child dyads participating in an early intervention program were observed through three 8-minute sessions that were videotaped for each dyad at the 5th, 10th, and 15th months. By 15 months, about half the dyads experienced an event that was defined as establishing successful interactions. Mothers' marital status predicted…

Examined the effectiveness of pre-bedtime massages for infants and toddlers with sleep onset problems. Found that, compared to bedtime stories, massages produced fewer sleep delays and a shortened latency to sleep onset. (Author/DLH)