Two longitudinal studies focused on naturally occurring conversations at home among (1) 18- and 24-month-old second-born children, mothers, and older siblings, and (2) first-born children 25 and 32 months old, mothers, and younger siblings. By two years of age most children referred to a range of feeling states in self and other, and discussed the…

Project ACTT (Activating Children Through Technology) has adapted hardware (switches, battery operated toys, and microcomputers) and developed software for use with handicapped children (birth to 3). Individual child assessment of abilities, switch determination and placement, positioning, environmental design, choice of equipment, parent…

Analyzes relationships between directly observed infant and mother behavior and infant temperament characteristics, as described in maternal ratings; separates the effects of different variance components in prediction of the observed behaviors; and explores possible interactions between infant sex and infant temperament in determining both infant…

A practitioner reflects on 30 years of work with parents of hearing-impaired children. She describes her own personal experiences, education, and professional development working directly with parents and babies, as a university professor, and as a school principal. She stresses the importance of parental participation for effective oral…

The effects of maternal age and social context on the home environment, and maternal behaviors of adolescent and older mothers, as well as the stability of care-giving, were studied. Low-middle socioeconomic status, primiparous, Caucasian mothers and their infants were studied at four months and at two years. (Author/LMO)

Longitudinal observation of 12 infants, including measures of child behavior and maternal language and child language, revealed that most subjects acquired a balanced distribution of object labels and social-centered words and phrases. (Author/CB)

Communication in mother-infant dyads and mother-infant-sibling triads was examined to determine how variation in the number of people and type of activity affect the ways language is used by all participants. Homebased observations were made of 16 first- and 16 later-born children when they were between 18 and 23 months old. (Author/BN)

The article describes a high-risk infant program which is designed to facilitate mothers' use of positive communicative interaction strategies. The various components of the Mother-Infant Communication Project model are described, as are the specific communicative strategies targeted by the program, and the intervention techniques utilized.…

Observations from a 1977-78 study of children's cognitive development in Kadavu, Fiji, are discussed in terms of setting, adult work and education, medical care, marriage and residence patterns, infant birth and mortality, and, extensively, cultural values and infant care. It is argued that the observed pattern of infant care fulfills important…

Although the Yucatec pattern of child care conforms on the whole to the pattern seen in other agrarian societies, it is currently becoming destabilized as the society becomes more modern. Some of the developing customs, such as bottle-feeding, are maladaptive, at least in the short run. (RH)

Describes a community and cultural approach for provision of a coordinated support system for Hawaiian families with young children. Educational components of the program include home visits, family-made quilts, t-shirts which depict stages of child development, and a system of evaluation. (RJC)

Summarizes the debate over the work of Jay Belsky, who claims that nonparental day care increases the likelihood of socioemotional difficulties for infants less than one year old. Previews a special journal issue that contains an article by Belsky and four responses. Focuses on attachment theory, intervention programs, and research methodology.…

Experimental group mothers reported significantly greater self-confidence and satisfaction with mothering and more favorable perception of infant temperament than did control group mothers. Differences between children on cognitive scores became significant at 36 and 48 months of age, when the experimental group caught up with normal children. (RH)

In comparison with full-term infants, seven-month-old high-risk preterm infants exhibited deficits in visual recognition memory and in the ability to recruit, sustain, and shift attention. (RH)

Wary infants were more likely than bold infants to reference their mothers when the stimulus, a caged rabbit, was first presented; however, as the exploration period progressed, bold and wary infants referenced equally often. Referencing occurred less often than affective sharing. (RH)