Walkers fall frequently, especially during infancy. Children (15, 21, 27, 33, and 39 month-olds) and adults were tested in a novel foam pit paradigm to examine age-related changes in the relationship between falling and prospective control of locomotion. In trial 1, participants walked and fell into a deformable foam pit marked with distinct…

Infants and toddlers are more likely to be victims of neglect than any other form of maltreatment. Infants and toddlers are at highest risk of fatality because of maltreatment and experience behavioral, social, academic, medical, and cognitive consequences of neglect during their most formative years. Within an ecological framework, this study…

This study explored infants' ability to infer communicative intent as expressed in non-linguistic gestures. Sixty children aged 14, 18 and 24 months participated. In the context of a hiding game, an adult indicated for the child the location of a hidden toy by giving a communicative cue: either pointing or ostensive gazing toward the container…

By the age of 1 year toddlers demonstrate distinct coping habits for dealing with frustration. However, these habits may be open to change and reorganization at subsequent developmental junctures. We investigated change in coping habits at 18-20 months, a normative age for major advances in social cognition, focusing on the dynamic systems…

Through play children develop the basic skills needed to make choices in life and to tolerate ambiguity and the unexpected in a fast-changing world. To teach young children effective play skills, teachers must be skillful co-players and observers, not mere implementers of standardized curricula. Vignettes illustrate children's learning through…

Twelve children (CA, 12 to 32 months) with developmental delay were observed in their homes during monthly analogue functional analysis probes to document patterns of emerging self-injurious behavior. Two patterns of emerging self-injury were observed for 5 participants: (a) The topography and functional analysis pattern remained the same, but the…

While toddlers have a lot to learn, the author of this article believes that they also have a lot to teach if only one pays attention to them. Watching how they exercise leadership through persuasive communication, exceptional listening skills, reliance on teamwork, openness to change, appropriate social skills, maintaining trust, and a commitment…

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 10 children aged from 1 to 4 years were given common vocal tact training with a set of three pairs of arbitrary stimuli of differing shapes; Set 1. Nine children learned to tact one stimulus as "zog" and the other as "vek" in each pair, and all passed subsequent pairwise tests for…

This study investigated associations between maternal prenatal smoking and physical aggression (PA), hyperactivity-impulsivity (HI) and co-occurring PA and HI between ages 17 and 42 months in a population sample of children born in Quebec (Canada) in 1997/1998 (N=1745). Trajectory model estimation showed three distinct developmental patterns for…

Screening for maternal depression was a core component of the P.E.A.C.E., Inc., Early Head Start program's comprehensive approach to supporting the mental health needs of low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers. The addition of a mental health coordinator as a full-time staff member created an opportunity to develop a…

This fact sheet provides data on infants, toddlers and young children who are experiencing high stress as a result of a number of risk factors specifically identified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004), including substantiated abuse or neglect, foster care placement, homelessness, exposure to family…

The influence of child and family sociodemographic variables on service utilization was investigated with infants with disabilities and their families from three states. Of the 157 infants and toddlers studied, 149 had some form of scheduled service for the 4 specific weeks examined. Of the scheduled service encounters, about 72 percent were…

Resilience is the ability to thrive, mature, and increase competence in the face of adverse circumstances. Recent research has uncovered personal and environmental characteristics that contribute to resilience during infancy and toddlerhood, as well as characteristics that predict resilience in later years. Resilient infants and toddlers are…

This qualitative research study evaluated the impact of the Family Child Care Connection, a model designed to improve the quality of family child care for infants and toddlers. This 5-year project was administered by the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago and implemented in four satellite networks of family child care providers located in low income…

This report outlines the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 40-member Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers in regard to the Early Head Start Program. This program, introduced in 1995, is designed to provide services to children from birth to age 3 (and their families) who were not previously…