The final report examines the 1977-78 accomplishments of the outreach program at the Dubnoff Center, which served 44 handicapped infants and preschool children. The program is explained to remediate children's developmental delays while preventing additional problems and to train parents to be effective advocates for their children. Goals and…

This report compares two parent education groups with a control group on three measures of maternal knowledge and attitudes. The subjects were low income Black mothers with 18- to 24-month-old toddlers as of the beginning of the 2-year programs in 1974. The two programs were Levenstein's Toy Demonstration Program, in which mothers (N=26) observed…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among maternal and neonatal characteristics in two groups of women, those who had participated in childbirth education class (CE) and those who had not, and their newborn children. Two groups of eight mothers and their first born infants, matched on several demographic and medical…

This study investigates the effects of age and prior experience with age-mates on attachment behavior and exploratory play with another child. Twenty home-reared children, half between 18 and 24 months and half between 24 and 30 months, and 20 day care children, also equally divided into the two age groups, were observed in the Ainsworth strange…

DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN CAN BE HELPED BY WARM, UNDERSTANDING TEACHERS WHO PROVIDE A STRUCTURED ENVIRONMENT OF CONCRETE EXPERIENCES WHICH INVITE EXPLORATION, LANGUAGE, AND THOUGHT. THIS IS THE HYPOTHESIS ADVANCED BY THE EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (EIP) DURING ITS SECOND YEAR OF OPERATION. EIP HAD DEVELOPED EDUCATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS…

In a study to determine whether or not culturally deprived children develop at progressively greater deficits in intellectual functioning during the ages of 15 months to 3 years, tutors provided 15-month-old infants with intellectual and verbal stimulation one hour daily, five times a week until they were 36 months old. The subjects consisted of…

The purpose of this study was to see if a change in environment affected the rate of sensorimotor development in infants. First a control group of institutionally-reared infants aged 1 to 6 months was observed to determine average age of visually directed reaching, visual exploration, visual accommodation, and the blink response. Then the…

Papers and discussants' comments from a symposium on issues concerning infants' reactions to strangers are presented. Researchers agreed that there is a developmental shift in infant behavior at 7 to 9 months of age when the infant becomes more cautious in approaching strangers. However, investigators hypothesize that the presence of the mother,…

This study investigated the effectiveness of techniques of discipline employed by middle-class mothers to teach their children to resist a tempting forbidden object. Mothers' accuracy in describing their own behavior was also examined. Forty-three mothers and their 18-30-month-old children were brought in pairs into a playroom which contained an…

Presented is a report on the California Governor's Conference of December, 1973, called to assess knowledge of preventive techniques in the field of developmental disabilities and to develop a more extensive design for future action. Keynote addresses by F. Lanterman and E. Brian are quoted. Summaries of the following talks are included:…

This study investigated infant crying as a form of communication, with fear considered only one of many possible motivating emotions. Crying, along with fretting and withdrawal, are the major ways infants have to indicate that they desire to change the present situation. Subjects were 91 white, middle class infants whose mothers wete their primary…

For some time now, classroom teachers have encouraged quiet manners and docile servitude of children who attend school. There is evidence to support the notion that this type of environment is not necessarily the best for maximizing the learning potential of all children. A variety of research efforts indicate that American black children and…

This paper presents some background information and a brief report on the progress of the first two and one-half months of the Synanon study of the social behavior of communally-reared children in which an attempt is being made to apply ethological methods of observation and analysis to human infant behavior. The children range in age from 6 to 40…

This paper offers some ideas on the types of behavior that can be considered precursors to language and that also lay the foundations for logic, mathematics, physics, etc. The paper posits the problem of whether a theory of language must be formulated before one can formulate a theory of language acquisition, or whether the reverse is true. The…

British Infant School programs to aid language development for disadvantaged children 3 to 8 years old are discussed, with reference to ideas and practices in the United States. In general, English Infant School teachers believe that language development must be nourished by the teacher in the context of the child's interaction with his…