Phonological representation for adult speakers is generally assumed to include sub-lexical information at the level of the phoneme. Some have suggested, however, that young children operate with more holistic lexical representations. If young children use whole-word representation and adults employ phonemic representation, then a component of…

The author describes the practices of primary caregiving and continuity of care as necessary components of a high quality child care setting. Yet recent evidence suggests that continuity of care is rare for infants and toddlers because young children are often moved from room to room as they grow. The author describes the benefits of primary…

Classically, infants are thought to point for 2 main reasons: (a) They point imperatively when they want an adult to do something for them (e.g., give them something; "Juice!"), and (b) they point declaratively when they want an adult to share attention with them to some interesting event or object ("Look!"). Here we demonstrate the existence of…

This study investigated the role of word knowledge and spontaneous labeling of familiar objects in free sorting object categorization by 16-23-month-old children. General vocabulary was related to categorization on particular tasks involving both familiar and unfamiliar objects. Object labeling was associated with categorization when familiar…

What do toddlers learn from everyday picture-book reading interactions? To date, there has been scant research exploring this question. In this study, the authors adapted a standard imitation procedure to examine 18- to 30-month-olds' ability to learn how to reenact a novel action sequence from a picture book. The results provide evidence that…

Electronic media, particularly television, have long been criticized for their potential impact on children. One area for concern is how early media exposure influences cognitive development and academic achievement. Heather Kirkorian, Ellen Wartella, and Daniel Anderson summarize the relevant research and provide suggestions for maximizing the…

The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological responses of long-term hospitalized children when exposed to live music. Twenty-one paediatric patients at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London, between 3 months and 14 years of age, took part in the study. They were all long-term patients with cardiac and/or respiratory…

The present study examined relations among maternal psychological resources, rejecting parenting, and early adolescent antisocial behavior in a sample of 231 low-income mothers and their sons with longitudinal assessments from age 18 months to 12 years. The maternal resources examined were age at first birth, aggressive personality, and empathy.…

Background: Children with delayed speech and language development are at considerable risk for later language impairment, social and behavioural problems, and illiteracy. Early diagnosis is needed for intervention planning and prevention. However, a speech and language test for Thai children has not been available. Aims: To establish a Thai Speech…

Consonant mastery is one of the most widely used metrics of typical phonological acquisition and of phonological disorder. Two fundamental methodological questions concerning research on consonant acquisition are (1) how to elicit a representative sample of productions and (2) how to analyse this sample once it has been collected. This paper…

Parenting practices contribute significantly to the social-emotional development of young children. There is limited literature that addresses the role of culture in parenting, particularly among Latino families who have very young children with significant behavior problems. The current study compared the parenting practices of 30 low-income…

Jedediah Purdy's (2000) "For common things" laments the ironic mode of thought that characterizes our culture's mindset. He calls for a return to devotion, homage, and allegiance rather than what he sees as a jaundiced detachment that has overcome us. Purdy may be on to something, but Alexandra Day (1985) does not seem to adopt his call to a…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

The positive effects of joint book reading (JBR) between parents and children have been widely presumed. However, the impact of JBR has not been widely investigated in toddlers, nor has the extant literature considered the context of JBR reading sessions (e.g., reader, prompt, occasion, who chose the book, etc.). The present study examined the…

We compared responding to joint attention (RJA) in younger siblings of children with ASD (SIBS-ASD; n = 46) and younger siblings of children developing typically (SIBS-TD; n = 35). Children were tested between 12 and 23 months of age in a situation in which an experimenter directed the child's attention to one of 8 targets. Each child responded to…