The article describes a support program for families of handicapped children (ages birth to 3) involved in an early intervention program. A cognitive-behavioral "Coping with Stress Model," used as the basis for intervention planning and programming, helps families assess their coping effectiveness and identify unmet needs. (JW)

Reviews the research literature on the abilities of infants to categorize visual information on dot patterns; schematic faces; hue; and orientation. (HOD)

Studies the communication of affect between depressed mothers and their infants and its relation to infant socioemotional and cognitive development through face-to-face interaction. Findings indicate that there are correspondences between the behavior of depressed mothers and their infants. (Author/BB)

Attention patterns of 93 preterm infants were observed and measured at term, at four months of age, and at eight years. Suggests that preterm infants who continued to fixate an unchanging stimulus for protracted periods of time were less intellectually able in childhood. (Author/DR)

Examines alert newborn and five-month-old infants' responsivity to variations in spectral composition of a rattle sound. Head orientation and cardiac responses to sound were recorded. Heart rate change did not vary as a function of frequency at either age, suggesting that all stimuli were equally effective in eliciting the infant's attention.…

Offers caregivers in day care centers broad guidelines for promoting early infant-infant and infant-toddler social interactions. Argues against the common belief that a child is developmentally unsociable before three years of age and advocates engaging him/her in meaningful daily care activities. (DT)

Tests the ability of 43 children, ranging in age from 20 months to 40 months, to discriminate between pictures of boys and girls and male and female adults. Compares children who passed this gender-task with those who failed it on three behaviors most often categorized as sex-typed: toy choice, aggression, and peer playmate selection. (HOD)

A study identified the antecedent characteristics of child and family best predicting behavioral/emotional problems at three years of age. Considered were the relationship of the index of attachment security to several mother-child relationship measures and to other child characteristics, such as difficult temperament and sociability. (Author/NH)

Discusses a model of the bi-directional relations between children and the context of their living situations and explains how the usefulness of this model may be evaluated by assessing the relations between child temperament and maternal attitudes and behaviors. Also indicates how the child's temperament may influence the mother's decision to…

Although formal assessment of children with severe disabilities raises many problems of measurement, evaluation by "standard rulers" is still essential. This article examines the role of the school psychologist in the measurement process and identifies issues related to the assessment of developmentally disabled children. (Author/EGS)

Nine- to 18-month-old infants were presented with simple two-location manual search tasks involving invisible displacements of objects with sequence of displacements occurring before infants search. Results provided insights into age differences associated with development of logical search strategies, information-processing skills, and temporal…

Distress in response to brief maternal separations was examined in a sample of 93 predominantly home-reared infants using the Ainsworth strange situation paradigm. At 18 months, the age when separation protests begin to decline, securely attached infants are better able than anxiously attached infants to tolerate maternal separations. (Author/RH)

As part of a longitudinal study on the environmental origins of mastery motivation, 6- and 12-month-old infants were observed at home with each parent separately and their motivational characteristics were assessed in a laboratory setting. Differential relationships between two aspects of parental stimulation and the infants' mastery motivation…

Studies examining the effectiveness of early intervention for infants and children with organic impairment and and developmental delay were reviewed using recently developed quantitative methods. Results suggest an accurate interpretation of the early intervention research literature cannot be made without consideration of specific design…

Research on cognitive development of low-birthweight infants is reviewed. The study of high-risk populatons should include measures of psychological development. Detailed assessment of the children's daily life and behavior patterns can provide clues for causal linkages to account for the association between social economic status and cognitive…