Responds to a critique by Mudford, Hogg, and Roberts (1997) that raised concerns about the observation code used in a longitudinal research project to assess emerging behavior state patterns in young children with disabilities. Concerns about the thoroughness of the reliability data collected by Mudford are discussed. (Author/CR)

Notes that children are "wired" to learn, and cites research indicating the importance of talking to an infant for his or her neuron and subsequent cognitive development. Suggests reading aloud, providing positive feedback, responding verbally to the child's actions, and increasing vocabulary. (HTH)

A mother describes her experience and interactions with professionals concerning the birth, surgeries, and early development of her daughter who was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a condition in which the failure of the diaphragm to form completely compromises the position and functioning of many major organs. (DB)

This national survey sought to determine which service providers work with young children with visual impairments, characteristics of the children served, provider roles and responsibilities, and the professional competencies they consider important. Findings emphasized the need for knowledge about and competence in cultural and linguistic…

This article discusses the difficulties of early identification of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), provides an overview and analysis of existing screening checklists, and recommends a set of characteristics to enhance the identification process of infants and toddlers with FXS. Indicators address family history, behavior, social/communication,…

This article presents a focused and detailed method for providing meaningful supervision to program administrators of early intervention programs. The Monthly Report and Quality Program Indicators provide anecdotal and statistical information about employee concerns, facility management, curriculum implementation, inservice development, community…

This article discusses issues in developing effective professional development programs for pediatric occupational therapists who work with very young children and their families, focusing on: clinical and contextual trends affecting practice, professional preparation at the university level, continuing competency, and recommendations for ensuring…

Mothers of 6 cohorts of infants at ages 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months were interviewed to determine their children's responses to potentially stressful daily events. Found older infants and temperamentally more difficult infants experienced more events and reacted with distress to a greater proportion of the events than did younger infants and…

This study used three experiments to study whether infant-directed (ID) or adult-directed (AD) speech facilitated the learning of Chinese vocabulary by adults whose native language was English and who had had no prior knowledge of Chinese. Results indicate that ID speech may play a pivotal role in early lexical acquisition. (51 references)…

Examines issues relating to similarity neighborhoods of words in children's lexicons. Young children's receptive vocabularies were analyzed for three-phoneme, four-phoneme and five-phoneme words. The pattern of the original results from Charles-Luce & Luce (1990) was replicated. (18 references) (Author/CK)

Presents two charts designed by Maria Montessori to illustrate the four planes of development. Claims that Montessori's meticulously researched commentary signals an emerging organic vision of the developmental continuum from birth to adulthood that is relevant to the educational needs of our time. (MOK)

Describes the educational and artistic enrichment of primary school children who participated in the Carnival Arts Project. The project's objectives, development, and impact on the curriculum are examined. Additionally, two teachers and a Carnival Arts coordinator provide their own accounts of the project's impact at their school. (GR)

Seventy adolescent mother-child dyads were assessed longitudinally to determine relationships among prenatal maternal knowledge and attitudes about parenting before and after the birth of the child. Found that mothers who were more cognitively prepared for parenting had children who displayed better intellectual development and fewer behavior…

Examined longitudinally the effects of infants' age, body dimensions, and experience on the development of crawling. Although most infants displayed multiple crawling postures en route to walking, development did not adhere to a strict progression of obligatory, discrete stages. Duration of experience with earlier forms of crawling predicted the…

Assessed, at 8-10 months, children's restraint and attention, and at 13-15 months, compliance to mother, internalization of her prohibition, and quality of motivation of the mother-child teaching context. Found support for view of compliance and noncompliance as heterogenous: committed compliance was higher to maternal "don'ts" than…