A number of infantile nonverbal behaviors are listed that can be interpreted as signs of a child's fundamental psychosocial orientations to others during the first year. Ethological studies of child and adult nonverbal communication suggest a considerable degree of neoteny in the human sign system. (SW)

Investigates the learning abilities of infants, how handicapped children learn, and what types of programs can be used to help handicapped children to learn. (RK)

Tests the egocentric hypothesis, i.e., if it can be shown that, given spatial cues, an infant searches at a position bearing an invariant relation to these cues, but with a varying egocentric position, then there would be strong evidence that his organization of space is not necessarily egocentric. (Author/RK)

The identification of early health and educational indicators was studied with a sample of 285 infants under 6 months of age as part of the Brookline Early Education Project to provide teaching and diagnostic services to infants and young children. Available from: Arthur Retlaw and Associates, Inc., Suite 2080, 1603 Orrington Avenue, Evanston,…

A family-level, needs-based model of assessment and intervention with handicapped infants and young children is described. The model includes three major components: specification of family needs; identification of sources of support and resources to meet needs; and determination of staff roles in helping families access resources from their…

When vocalizations of three-month-olds (N=40), experiencing either conversational turn-taking or random responsiveness of an adult, were counted and categorized, results indicated that turn-taking caused changes in the quality of vocal sounds. When the adult maintained a give-and-take pattern, the infants produced a higher ratio of…

Correlates of father involvement were examined in 40 dual- and single-earner families with 1- to 25-month-old children. Fathers' work hours, sex role attitudes, perceived child care skill and perceived love for wives were assessed. On nine occasions, parents were asked to report on child care, leisure activities, and marital interactions during…

A study tracked the developmental and behavioral recovery of infants and preschool children (N=12) who had suffered brain injuries. Significant developmental recovery and behavioral progress occurred during the first 3.5 to 4 months following insult. However, self-stimulatory and atypical rhythmic habit patterns increased as the children passed…

Examines the capability and motivation of 18- and 24-month-old infants to share, help, comfort, and cooperate with their older siblings; the frequency of such prosocial behavior by both siblings; and the children's response to sibling distress. The relationship between prosocial and conflict behavior was also studied. (HOD)

Follow-up study of 4- to 14-year-old children (N=42) who had participated in a home-based infant stimulation program indicated that approximately 66 percent of subjects (most of whom had serious developmental disabilities) were in special education programs full-time, 20 percent were mainstreamed, and 15 percent were in regular classrooms…

Examines the relationship between pre-school reading and reading achievement among 343 seven year-old students. Pre-school reading scores were significantly related to word matching ability, concepts about print, letter identification, word reading, and oral vocabulary. (RKM)

Tested were the impact of rejection and acceptance experienced by adolescent mothers during childhood; social support received after their baby's birth; and infant irritability on angry, punitive maternal behavior. Possible links between maternal behavior and indices of child anger, noncompliance, low confidence, and social withdrawal were also…

Babbling samples from 11 normally hearing infants and 14 hearing-impaired (HI) subjects, aged 4-39 months, were analyzed. Differences were observed between consonantal phone inventories of hearing-impaired subjects and hearing infants, between inventories of HI subjects with sensori-neural loss and those with conductive loss, and between younger…

The exploratory study examined the effectiveness of the Van Dijk method of developing language skills with four deaf-blind infants and their mothers over a two-month period. Findings indicated increased expressive/elocutionary communicative output with concomitant reduction in self-stimulatory, abusive, and tantrum-like behaviors. (DB)

Reports on a study that investigated the quantity, quality, and distribution of talk generated by the use of a computer program when working with a class of six and seven-year-old children. Outlines practical implications for the teacher when using computers to generate talk in the classroom. (ARH)