Linguistic and cognitive development of 26 premature and 27 full-term infants was studied longitudinally over the first 3 years of life. Patterns of lexical and cognitive development did not differ substantially between groups, nor did standard language test measures indicate differences at the study's end except with very low birthweight…

Notes that infant curriculums involve every aspect of child development and should be appropriate for the individual child. Highlights characteristics of ideal curriculums, and provides guidelines for assessment of child and curriculum, and of communication regarding curriculum. (LBT)

This annual snapshot of child well-being is intended to inform policymakers and the public of the progress of and challenges to ensuring the health, welfare, and safety of all children. Following a special section on the racial disparities that exist among New Jersey children based on the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Race for Results"…

The physical, social, and economic health and wellbeing of adults and society are strongly influenced by both positive and negative experiences in early childhood. The most cost-efficient time to build foundational skills, to assure the healthy development of all young children, to break the cycle of disadvantage for vulnerable children, and to…

Developmental studies of face processing have revealed age-related changes in how infants allocate neurophysiological resources to the face of a caregiver and an unfamiliar adult. We hypothesize that developmental changes in how infants interact with their caregiver are related to the changes in brain response. We studied 6-month-olds because this…

The infant's participation in sequences of joint activity that require visual attention is usually seen as an outcome of and evidence for the existence of particular infant psychological competencies. In a review of the relevant literature, we suggest that what is presupposed in most theories of joint attention is the role that shared social…

Two experiments examined whether 4-, 6-, and 10-month-old infants process natural looking faces by feature, i.e. processing internal facial features independently of the facial context or holistically by processing the features in conjunction with the facial context. Infants were habituated to two faces and looking time was measured. After…

The effects of prenatal stress on cognition and behavioral fearfulness in infants are studied. The findings suggest that mechanisms by which mental development and fearfulness are affected by prenatal stress are different and do not present a consistent relation.

This report examines whether knowledge about function influences the formation of artifact categories in 11-12- month old infants. Using an object-examination task, a set of artificial stimuli was presented that could either be grouped according to overall similarity or according to similarity in one functionally relevant part. Experiment 1…

We investigated how exposure to pairs of different items (as compared with pairs of identical items) influences 10-month-olds' (n=79) categorization of horses versus dogs in an object-examining task. Infants responded to an exclusive category when familiarized with pairs of different items but not when familiarized with pairs of identical items…

The present research examined whether 12.5-month-old infants take into account what objects an agent knows to be present in a scene when interpreting the agent's actions. In two experiments, the infants watched a female human agent repeatedly reach for and grasp object-A as opposed to object-B on an apparatus floor. Object-B was either (1) visible…

Maintaining balance is a central problem for new walkers. To examine how infants cope with the additional balance control problems induced by load carriage, 14-month-olds were loaded with 15% of their body weight in shoulder-packs. Both symmetrical and asymmetrical loads disrupted alternating gait patterns and caused less mature footfall patterns.…

This longitudinal study explored how gestures changed with with respect to speech as two children progressed from producing single words to producing two-word combinations. Two girls were followed from the production of only single words to their first production of two-word combinations. One child was followed from 14.5 to 18 months; the second…

This study compared the reinforcement effects of imitation to the elicitation effects of noncontingent maternal vocal stimulation. Subjects were 17 three- to six-month-old infants and their mothers. Infants received three successive experimental conditions: contingent imitation B1, noncontingent elicitations, and contingent imitation B2. Under the…

This booklet is a report of the health status and service needs of America's children. It presents a summary of sentinel health measures reflecting both what has been accomplished and what challenges remain. The first section describes the general population to provide a context for health measures. In the second section, selected health status…