The Mayes Motor Free Compilation (MMFC) assesses mental ability in young (under age 2) children with motor disabilities. This study evaluated the concurrent validity of the MMFC by administering it and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to normal children. Findings suggest that the MMFC provides a valid estimate of mental age, even without…

Examined relations between nonmaternal child care and maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement ratings during mother-child interaction; infants were between 6 and 36 months old. Found that more child care hours predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child engagement. Child care effect sizes were similar to those for…

Examined opinions of diverse parents, teachers, and academics regarding Japanese society, its infant/toddler care system, labor force, and family. Found evidence of a difficult transition in the culture of child rearing, including increased caregiver responsibility for child rearing and increased anxiety about parenting among young mothers.…

Forty-eight portfolio projects were completed by 65 urban, infant-toddler childcare workers who participated in a professional development program designed to increase the quality of childcare for children with and without disabilities. Results indicated a significantly higher number of strengths-based themes in child stories written after…

Published articles about assistive technology (AT) from 1980 through 2004 were reviewed to identify those that focused on infants and young children. A total of 104 articles about AT with infants and toddlers were identified, and of these, 23 reported practices for teaching switch activation (12), computer use (6), power mobility skills (4), or…

Patterns of development in language and play for full term and preterm children from 6 to 54 months and the effects of maternal parenting strategies (i.e., maintaining attentional focus, use of directiveness) were examined. Significant risk differences in the growth of both language and play were found. The high risk children were more likely to…

This observational study examined practices through which child care teachers socialize children's emotion. A specific aim was to describe strategies of teacher intervention in response to emotion displayed by children in child care centers, and to answer the question of differential interactions based on children's age and gender. The results of…

Early interventionists are accountable for the progress of children receiving their services. Technically adequate measures of the progress of individual children are needed. While the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for infants and toddlers is one such measure, data to support its use are limited to a single research report. In this…

Recently, there has been a great deal of research on the socialization of children's emotions and self-regulation. In the present study, the specific strategies that mothers use to help their young children regulate their emotional responses were examined using a longitudinal design. Forty-three mother-toddler pairs were observed when toddlers…

In 2001, the authors assessed the quality of care provided to children in 51 care groups from 39 child-care centers in The Netherlands using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (T. Harms, D. Cryer, & R. M. Clifford, 1990) and compared the results with the quality of child care assessed in 1995 (M. H. van IJzendoorn, L. W. C. Tavecchio,…

Aims: To characterise the cognitive, motor, and language skills of toddlers and preschoolers who had been physically abused and to obtain concurrent MRIs of the brain. Methods: A between groups design was used to compare of sample of 19 children, aged 14-77 months, who had been hospitalised for physical abuse with no evidence of neurological…

Gender schema theory proposes that children's acquisition of gender labels and gender stereotypes informs gender-congruent behaviour. Most previous studies have been cross-sectional and do not address the temporal relationship between knowledge and behaviour. We report the results of a longitudinal study of gender knowledge and sex-typed behaviour…

Community-based parenting education programs have a unique role to play in the promotion of infant mental health. In contrast to classes that seek to accelerate child development, the author describes enrichment programs that promote parent-child bonding and healthy social and emotional development. The ParentSource program was developed on the…

The current review provides a summary and evaluation of the technical characteristics of five preschool screening batteries, including the Brigance Screens, DIAL-3, ESI-R, ESP, and FirstSTEP. These norm-referenced instruments were selected on the basis of their commercial availability, description as a screening instrument, and ability to assess…

Background: Though the Down syndrome behavioural phenotype has been described as involving relative strengths in visuo-spatial processing and sociability, and relative weaknesses in verbal skills and motor planning, the early emergence of this phenotypic pattern of strengths and weaknesses has not yet been fully explored. Method: In this study, we…