Aim: To explore whether active head lifting from supine (AHLS) in early infancy is associated with cognitive outcome in the second year of life. Method: The presence of AHLS was always recorded in the notes of infants admitted to our tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. Random sampling was used to pair infants with AHLS with two comparison…

Recent research indicates that toddlers and infants succeed at various "non-verbal" spontaneous-response false-belief tasks; here we asked whether toddlers would also succeed at verbal spontaneous-response false-belief tasks that imposed significant linguistic demands. We tested 2.5-year-olds using two novel tasks: a "preferential-looking" task in…

Using online measures of familiar word recognition in the looking-while-listening procedure, this prospective longitudinal study revealed robust links between processing efficiency and vocabulary growth from 18 to 30 months in children classified as typically developing (n = 46) and as "late talkers" (n = 36) at 18 months. Those late talkers who…

Little research has been conducted to date on the relationship between psychotropic medication use and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Participants in the current study were placed into one of four groups: ASD on psychotropic medications (N = 33), ASD off psychotropic medications (N = 45), atypically developing on psychotropic medications (N =…

Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (Rutter et al. in "Autism diagnostic interview-revised." Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, 2003) diagnostic algorithms specific to toddlers and young preschoolers were created using 829 assessments of children aged from 12 to 47 months with ASD, nonspectrum disorders, and typical development. The…

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are well-known for engagement in challenging behaviors. Unfortunately, due to its absence as a criterion for diagnosis in the "DSM-IV-TR", little attention has been paid to the endorsement rates of such behaviors. However, a recently developed measure to assist in the diagnosis of infants and toddlers…

The most common setting for early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families is the home. This article discusses home- and community-based early intervention and how the routines-based interview (RBI) can set the stage for successful home visits. It also addresses what has been learned about home visiting,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a parent-implemented language intervention improves language skills in toddlers at risk for persistent language impairment (LI) as compared with a group of typically developing toddlers. Method: Thirty-four children with LI between 24 and 42 months of age were randomly…

Perception of affordances research in children with developmental disabilities has only examined well practiced skills. Ten toddlers with Down syndrome and 10 with typical development walked across a GAITRite mat, with and without an obstacle. We coded the toddlers' behaviors after 1 and 3 months of walking experience when they encountered the…

Early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families has strayed from its conceptual roots and the intent of the original legislation. The author describes the top 10 mistakes commonly made in early intervention, including what happens at intake, assessment, plan development, and delivery of services. He proposes five…

Purpose: The authors investigated continuity and discontinuity of vocabulary skills in a population-based cohort in the Netherlands. Method: Mothers of 3,759 children completed the Dutch version of the MacArthur Short Form Vocabulary Checklist (Zink & Lejaegere, 2003) at 18 months and a Dutch translation of the Language Development Survey…

Nonmaternal care of infant children is increasingly common, but there is disagreement as to whether it is harmful for children. Using data from 9,185 children (5 years and older) who participated in the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the current study compared 2 groups: those for whom nonmaternal care was initiated in the…

Adult word recognition is influenced by prior exposure to phonologically or semantically related words ("cup" primes "cat" or "plate") compared to unrelated words ("door"), suggesting that words are organised in the adult lexicon based on their phonological and semantic properties and that word recognition implicates not just the heard word, but…

The ability to recognize common objects from sparse information about geometric shape emerges during the same period in which children learn object names and object categories. Hummel and Biederman's (1992) theory of object recognition proposes that the geometric shapes of objects have two components--geometric volumes representing major object…

Word recognition is a balancing act: listeners must be sensitive to phonetic detail to avoid confusing similar words, yet, at the same time, be flexible enough to adapt to phonetically variable pronunciations, such as those produced by speakers of different dialects or by non-native speakers. Recent work has demonstrated that young toddlers are…