Six-month-old African-American infants' expectation of a visual stimulus was related to developmental measures. Reaction time was related to eye fixation in tests that measured visual recognition memory (VRM) and presented objects of different shapes to the infant. Reaction time and infants' stimulus expectation predicted VRM novelty preference.…

The acquisition of the formational aspects of American Sign Language signs was examined in nine young children of deaf parents. Videotape records of early sign language development were made during monthly home visits. The study focused on the acquisition of three principal formational components of any American Sign Language sign: location,…

Examined maternal employment decisions after birth of first child. Findings from 164 new mothers revealed that occupational status, family income, role commitment, division of labor, and job stress distinguished mothers who returned to employment and those who stayed home throughout first year. Financial need was most important reason for…

This case study of a toddler with autism whose parents had videotaped her development from birth showed that the child's behavior and development were essentially normal for the first year but that she then became withdrawn in only a few months. It is suggested that early communicative screening tests might have identified the child's earliest…

The relationship between early otitis media with effusion (OME) and later language development was examined in a prospective cohort of 30 children from middle class families and 33 children from low income families. Findings suggested no reliable relationship between early OME experience and later language development. (Author/DB)

Of 30 children with low birth weight, only 4 demonstrated clinically significant language problems at age 3. Language problems were characterized by circumscribed expressive syntax difficulties but were not related systematically to birth weight, gestational age, length of neonatal hospitalization, severity of respiratory illness, socioeconomic…

The media have sensationalized the problem presented by children exposed prenatally to cocaine. Many people erroneously assume that all cocaine-exposed children are severely affected; little can be done for them; and all their medical, behavioral, and learning problems are caused by cocaine exposure. Each child must be individually evaluated. Not…

Professionals and 16 mothers of disabled infants/toddlers completed the Evaluation and Programing System-I and the Parent Form Level I, respectively. Results indicated moderate to high correlations between professionals' assessments and mothers' assessments, though mothers tended to rate children higher. (Author/JDD)

This paper examines conceptualizations of risk, methods for identifying and tracking infants and children at risk, models developed for identifying and tracking these children, the concepts of vulnerability and resiliency as they relate to risk, and implications of the ways in which risk is defined and tracking programs are developed. (Author/JDD)

Examines whether systematic differences exist in babbling and first words of infants from different language backgrounds (English, French, Japanese and Swedish) and asks whether differences result from the phonetic structure of the languages. Statistically significant differences discerned in the babbling phonetic selection indicates that phonetic…

Interviews were conducted with 30 parents of children with developmental disabilities and 30 parents of children without disabilities, all graduates of intensive care hospital nurseries. The experience gave both groups of parents a stronger appreciation for children and life itself. Differences between the two groups included amount of caregiving…

This article describes a model project for promoting interagency collaboration at state and local levels to facilitate transitions of young special needs children and their families from infant/toddler programs to preschool programs. Project Sequenced Transition to Education in the Public Schools (STEPS) has four major components: interagency…

This article describes the need for early intervention for behavioral/emotional problems in special needs children. The model of the Behavioral Consultation Service of the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) Infants and Toddlers Program is applied to an infant with multiple disabilities, demonstrating relevant issues, intervention strategies to address…

Provides evidence for developmental changes in the composition of the lexicon, reflecting a shift in emphasis from reference, to predication, to grammar. Findings show that the study of qualitative variation in lexical style is confounded by quantitative variation in rate of lexical development. Tables are appended. (Contains 42 references.) (JP)

Despite replicating previous findings of a relationship between maternal descriptiveness and the proportion of nouns and maternal directiveness and the proportion of verbs in children's early vocabulary, this study of eight mother-infant dyads revealed no relationship between differences in mothers' interactional behavior and differences in the…