The locomotor skills of walking and running were compared in newly running infants at 5.5, 7.5, and 9.5 months of independent walking, and then again at 3 years of age. Collective variables showed transitional forms over the first few months of running, indicating a relatively continuous change across the two gait forms. (MDM)

Types of utterances (with locative action utterances specifically differentiated) were evaluated in a language-impaired child tracked between one year, six months and three years of age. Comparison with utterances in other children suggests the importance of such a fine-grained analysis in detecting semantic properties of child language…

The focus of this paper is the acquisition of the verb "eat." The transcripts of 40 children who were audiotaped monthly from 1;0 to 3;0, showed that "eat" was the first member of this verb class to be acquired. (16 references) (JL)

Discusses a method by which young children learn about life and death by studying plants. Plants are used because their life cycle has minimal emotional significance to the children. Parent involvement, teacher attitudes, and experiences with the method are discussed. (DG)

Naturally occurring interactions between a normally hearing mother and her 2-year-old hearing-impaired child were analyzed. Two distinct maternal interaction styles were identified: "labeling" which was very didactic, and "dialoguing" which was very interactive, less controlling, and more similar to interactions between mothers and normally…

This paper reviews research describing developmentally typical and atypical repetitive motor movements of children with and without disabilities. It then reports findings of a study of nine preschool-aged children with developmental delay and atypical stereotypies. Predictors of repetitive movements included level of functioning, age, ambulation,…

Seven experiments tested 18- to 36-month-old children's understanding of adult pretense. Results indicated that children understood when adults referred to make-believe substances or made make-believe substitutions; appropriately directed their pretend actions; understood the causal consequences of imaginary actions; produced suitable remedial…

The relation of compliance to comprehension in toddlers of 12-18 months was studied. Requests were made to children in naturalistic play situations, and children's responses were coded. Significant shifts in the categories of compliance-comprehension and noncompliance-noncomprehension were found. (BC)

Examined object concept development in 2- to 4-year olds with a partial replication of a study by Spelke and Kestenbaum (1986). Found that children judged identical entering and exiting figures as involving one object and different figures as involving two objects. Continuity of movement failed to affect judgments of numerical identity. Findings…

Service-utilization data for 133 infants and toddlers with developmental delays were gathered over four months. For each service encounter, the duration, location, and type of service, was recorded. Findings revealed that families received an average of 1.7 hours per week of services. Thirty-four percent of services occurred in community-based…

This study examined utilization rates of scheduled early-intervention services for 146 infants and toddlers with disabilities. Among findings were: (1) 69% of families used most of their services; (2) child and maternal characteristics were not significantly related to service utilization; and (3) providers who were younger and closer in age to…

Studied 125 mothers and firstborn sons over 11-month period to examine relations between mothers' representations of their relationships with their children, adult representations of attachment, and observed mothering. Findings revealed significant relationship between mothers' representations of relationships with their children and adult…

Aims to give a thorough analysis of the morphosyntax produced at the outset of multi-word speech, with a classification of free language produced at 2 years by 27 French-speaking children. A classification performed with word sequences reveals surprisingly adult-like sequences of syntactic categories of words. (Author/VWL)

Discusses measures of infants and toddlers developing vocabularies. Suggests that what is needed are norms derived from observations of typically-developing bilingual children, followed up by measures of concurrent and predictive validity. (Author/VWL)

The forms, functions, and complexity of nonverbal communication used by 14 young (ages 2-3) children with autism were investigated. Comparison with children with developmental delays and/or language impairments on a structured assessment found that autistic children directly manipulated the examiner's hand and requested more often but were less…