Offers 20 tips for parents and child caregivers to help them reframe ideas about children's toilet-learning timetables and to understand this developmental step toward maturity from a toddler's point of view. (HTH)

Motivationally distinct forms of child compliance, mutually positive affect, and maternal control were observed as correlates of internalization in 103 mother-toddler dyads. Found that children who shared positive affect with their mothers showed a high level of committed compliance and were also more internalized. Maternal "Do's" appeared more…

Discusses how infants and toddlers are affected by violence, and problems they may experience as a result of living in a violent environment. Also discusses the role of child caregivers in providing a safe haven, a stable environment, and consistency, and being effective primary caregivers. (DR)

Argues that root infinitives produced by Italian toddlers learning a second language are truncated structures, arising from the option of "stripping off" external clausal layers. The basic properties of the construction are shown to be amenable to the Truncation Hypothesis, in that root infinitives are incompatible with /wh/ elements,…

Explored the interplay between gestures and words in the early vocabulary of 12 normally developing Italian children at 16 and 20 months of age. Focused on spontaneous production of verbal and gestural types and tokens to assess the diversity and semantic content of the verbal and gestural vocabularies. Results indicated that gestures were used…

A naturalistic study of toddler playgroups examined factors that might encourage gender segregation. Results revealed that play in same-sex contexts facilitates social interaction, whereas in mixed-sex contexts, play leads to passive social relations. Toddlers who segregated were more behaviorally sex-typed. Preferences for sex-typed toys did not…

This article suggests the use of marketing techniques to disseminate information products to parents of young children with disabilities. A marketing plan might include the following steps: determination of market needs, market segmentation and target marketing, marketing goals and objectives, marketing strategy, marketing mix tactics, and control…

Examined the stress vulnerability of infants with disorganized/disoriented attachment patterns by measuring salivatory cortisol levels in 19-month olds following the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure. Indicates that infants' disorganized attachment behavior reflects a vulnerability to stressful stimulation, suggesting a model of stress…

Examined 30 Indonesian toddlers' play with their mothers and siblings. Found that the level of object play and mutual involvement in cooperative social pretend play increased with age. Findings suggest that older siblings can be effective facilitators of pretend play with younger children. (MDM)

This study, involving three toddlers with language impairments, evaluated effectiveness of a lexical facilitation strategy designed to increase the salience or informativeness of target objects relative to other objects and actions in the context. Complications in employing the experimental task in intervention settings are discussed, along with…

The acquisition of the formational aspects of American Sign Language signs was examined in nine young children of deaf parents. Videotape records of early sign language development were made during monthly home visits. The study focused on the acquisition of three principal formational components of any American Sign Language sign: location,…

This case study of a toddler with autism whose parents had videotaped her development from birth showed that the child's behavior and development were essentially normal for the first year but that she then became withdrawn in only a few months. It is suggested that early communicative screening tests might have identified the child's earliest…

Of 30 children with low birth weight, only 4 demonstrated clinically significant language problems at age 3. Language problems were characterized by circumscribed expressive syntax difficulties but were not related systematically to birth weight, gestational age, length of neonatal hospitalization, severity of respiratory illness, socioeconomic…

Examined gender labeling and gender stereotyping in toddlers and their relationship to mothers' sex-role attitudes and responses to their children's sex-typed behavior in a free-play situation. Toddlers who understood gender labels displayed more knowledge of gender stereotypes than those who did not. (GLR)

This study investigated developmental patterns of acquisition of the unrounded U.S. English vowels, by following 6 normally developing children from 22 to 30 months of age. Three classes of production errors were identified: intertrial production variability, context-sensitive substitutions, and context-free systematic substitution patterns.…