Describes how infants and toddlers learn to use action, object, picture, and word symbols, and offers suggestions for educators and caregivers to facilitate symbol use. Discusses how adults can introduce books to young children and enhance the symbolic aspect of the care and education program. (KB)

Speech-language pathologists working with infants or toddlers with feeding problems should obtain a feeding history, conduct an assessment of feeding practices, set appropriate preliminary and long-range goals, and investigate treatment options and appropriate feeding techniques. Feeding techniques for premature, neurologically impaired, Down…

Discusses the need for child care providers to be sure children in their care who are between the ages of 15 months and 5 years have had Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine. Urges child care center staff to avoid use of bean bag infant cushions and to inform parents about the hazards posed by the cushions. (DR)

When assessed for speech/language development, 31 children (age 1-12) fitted with endotracheal tubes for more than 3 months beginning by age 13 months showed overall language functioning within normal limits and commensurate with cognitive ability. However, a pattern of expressive language disability was noted in the oldest group. (Author/JDD)

Reports a study of two- and three-year-olds' acquisition of complex sentences with perception and epistemic verbs that took a second verb in their complements. Complement types, complementizer connectives, and the discourse contexts in which complementation occurred were specific to individual matrix verbs. (Author/CB)

Analysis of mothers' pragmatic language use and children's language levels during free play sessions suggested that a mother-driven, direct influence model may be inappropriate for many mother speech-child language development relationships and points to the feasibility of child- and mother-driven explanatory models for indirect relationships.…

Affective responses of two year olds to their day care teachers' affectionate and caregiving behaviors were observed during free play times. Teacher behaviors were affectionate and caregiving physical contact, affectionate words, smiling, and use of questions and instructions. Smiling was the behavior most likely to elicit positive responses from…

Planning and implementing successful community-based social integration experiences for infants and toddlers with multiple disabilities require consideration of such issues as the developmental needs unique to this age-group, family needs and concerns, health and safety considerations, and training needs of staff. (JDD)

The concurrent validity of the Battelle Developmental Inventory was explored by correlating Battelle results with scores from the Bayley Scales in 30 infants with known or suspected disabilities. Both the pattern and strength of the obtained correlations support use of the Battelle to measure development in infants with handicaps. (Author/JDD)

Special education teachers (N=123) rank ordered a list of functional skills associated with two-year-olds. The factor-analyzed results revealed a classification of four types of children in greatest need of early childhood special education placement: children environmentally at risk, lacking gross-motor skills, lacking readiness and fine-motor…

A longitudinal study of four 17- to 33-month-olds revealed that their linguistic selection at the one-word stage was governed by principles of informativeness, while the two-word stage was characterized by new, or a combination of new and old, information. (Author/CB)

The development of a new parent report instrument, Inventario del Desarollo de Habilidades Communicativas, is reported and 5 studies carried out with the instrument for 328 children aged 8 months to 2 years/7 months are presented. Among the findings are similar trajectories of development for Spanish- and English-speaking children and for children…

Evaluated the enduring effectiveness of a skill-based training program to enhance maternal sensitivity toward infants between six and nine months of age. Found that more of the toddlers whose mothers participated in the intervention were securely attached than toddlers from the control group dyads. In the third year, evidence of sustained effects…

Presents the Maternal Behavior Q-Set, a 90-item assessment that describes a wide range of maternal behavior including interactive style, her sensitivity to her infant's state, feeding interactions, and the extent to which the home reflects the infant's needs. (HTH)

The relations among specific aspects of language (comprehension, production, semantics, and utterance length), relations between language and symbolic play, and maternal influences were evaluated in mother-toddler dyads when the children were 13 and 20 months of age. Found toddler language ability did not generally predict toddler play and that…