Used both a noncontextual mode and a natural history mode of analyzing the emotionally charged dramas that form an important part of the socialization of Inuit children. Focused on a three year old's participation in such a drama. Analyzed themes and plots of the incident. (MM)

An 18-month study of 18 children with disabilities attending inclusionary programs and 19 children (ages 24 months) attending classrooms in rehabilitation programs serving only children with disabilities, found that after one year of intervention there was no difference in developmental progress between the two groups of children. (Author/CR)

Draws on child-care-quality research to inform our understanding of quality in early-intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. Presents conceptual issues in defining quality and methodological challenges for assessing quality of early-intervention services. Discusses efforts to design a measure of quality…

Examined patterns of differential parental treatment, child outcomes, and family functioning with 60 families with toddler and preschool siblings. Found that congruence in mothers' and fathers' reports of differential treatment was most frequent. Reports of differential enjoyment were related to differential favoritism, whereas reports of…

Discusses the "communication hypothesis" of problem behavior and describes methods for determining the communicative functions served by problem behavior. Reports on application of functional assessment and functional communication training with toddlers. (DB)

This study reports effects of a neurobehavioral intervention approach on motor skills of four children (ages 1 to 3) with cerebral palsy. Children demonstrated generalization of the movement component by using it to perform both a treated exemplar skill and an untreated exemplar skill, indicating that motor skills can be treated concurrently.…

To test hypothesis that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs, 12 children in each of three age groups (2-year olds, 3-year olds, and 4-year olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial, final, and initial. Results suggest English-speaking children's acquisition of a…

Examines the relationship between third-person-singular subject pronoun case and agreement, focusing on the hypothesis that these two grammatical subsystems develop together. Twenty-nine children between ages 2 and 4 years of age were each audiotaped for approximately two hours playing and interacting with their primary caregivers. (Author/VWL)

Examined the nature of conflicts among young preschoolers. Observed 184 three-year-olds in a dyadic play situation. Found that children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief. Concluded that by age 36 months, most children have acquired the skills to play positively with a peer. (JS)

Investigated the endings of sibling conflicts in 40 families at two time periods. Observed four types of conflict endings: compromise, reconciliation, submission and no resolution. Found that conflict typically ended with no resolution, followed by submission, compromise and finally reconciliation. Discovered that parents influence conflict…

Examined cultural variation in management of attention by 14- to 20-month olds and caregivers from Guatemalan Mayan community and middle-class community of U.S. European-descent families. Found that Mayan caregivers and toddlers were more likely to attend simultaneously to spontaneously occurring competing events than were U.S. caregivers and…

A longitudinal study examined the role of a mapping system in 2-year olds' learning of color and size words. Results indicated that the children acquired color maps in a characteristic order and showed a different acquisition pattern for size words. Results suggest that learning word associations may promote color-word acquisition; learning color…

Three experiments used a visual fixation technique to examine whether toddlers interpret speech continuously. Found that 24-month-olds had delayed responses when a competing distractor picture's label overlapped phonetically with the target at onset, but not when the pictures' labels rhymed, showing that children monitored speech stream…

A study involving 21 toddlers who were late talkers investigated the effects of early language intervention on various linguistic and social skills. Results indicated those who received early intervention demonstrated increased complexity, increased verbal output, higher lexical diversity, and improved intelligibility of spontaneous speech and…

This article describes the successful Ohio Early Start program, which is designed to prevent later developmental problems in infants and toddlers. The program was coordinated with the existing early intervention program and other efforts to ensure a comprehensive, community-based and family friendly network of child development health and…