Six experiments involving 192 infants and 1 experiment with 16 college students examined sensitivity to acoustic correlates of phrasal units in English. A basic finding is that nine-month-old infants are sensitive to acoustic markers that correspond to major phrasal units, a sensitivity that develops after six months. (SLD)

Infants' orienting of attention undergoes marked development in the first six months of life. Changes in attentional control appear to be related to infants' susceptibility to distress. (Author)

Examined antecedents of maternal separation anxiety in 83 Italian mothers prior to their infants or toddlers entering group care. Mothers' anxiety did not vary with the child's age. Anxious mothers were younger and less educated, received less support, had temperamentally negative infants, and provided less varied stimulation in the home. (MM)

This article reviews the development of a collaborative interdisciplinary graduate program in services to infants at the University of Illinois. The program's framework includes collaboration across and within departments, in course work within and across disciplines, and in clinical supervision. (DB)

This article highlights the complexity of and critical need for service coordination for medically fragile infants and their families through an in-depth case study of a child and his family who "slipped through the cracks" of the system. The retrospective analysis describes problems and suggests alternative strategies for more effective…

Measured the impact of managed care on the utilization of preventive health-care services by 867 inner-city Los Angeles families and assessed the relationship between insurance type, source of care, and access to immunization services. Results show that, lacking financial incentives, managed care is unlikely to improve immunization rates among…

A family-focused intervention model was implemented with 16 families having young children (birth to 3 years) with moderate or severe disabilities. Individualized Family Service Plans were formulated and implemented, resulting in high levels of parental satisfaction, accelerated rates of progress by the children, and acquisition of functional…

The process of designing a child care center is described. This process includes the conceptual and schematic design, schematic pricing, design development, and construction documents. Overall design criteria, and interior program components, are discussed. (LB)

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered to 96 expecting mothers. In a one-year followup, mothers were seen with their child in the Strange Situation procedure. Maternal representations of attachment from the AAI predicted infant-mother attachment patterns in the Strange Situation. (BC)

Explores issues for counselor education programs raised by federal legislation requiring services for children from birth if they are at risk or have disabilities. Sees need for educational services to help parents understand these children's needs. Explores counselor preparation issues using Dimensions of Counselor Functioning model, focusing on…

Described is the Ninos Especiales Program, a 3-year demonstration project in Hartford, Connecticut, which provided culturally sensitive early intervention services to 34 infants with severe disabilities and their families of Puerto Rican heritage. Included is information on program philosophy, services, evaluation, and participating families.…

Development of 315 children and quality of their parents' marital relationship were evaluated when children were 3 and 24 months of age. Found marital discord at 3 months did not affect children's emotional well-being at 3 months or 24 months. Behavior problems increased and cognitive performance decreased for children whose parents' marital…

A two-year-old child and an eight-year-old bonobo exposed to spoken English and lexigrams from infancy were asked to respond to novel sentences. Both subjects comprehended novel requests and simple syntactic devices. The bonobo decoded the syntactic device of word recursion more accurately than the child; the child performed better than the bonobo…

Two experiments with young children with mental retardation found that a milieu teaching approach was effective in facilitating subjects' use of such prelinguistic communication skills as requesting, commenting, and vocal imitation, in both the training and generalized settings. Evidence of reciprocal effects on teacher-student interaction was…

A questionnaire about "spoiling" an infant was completed by 303 parents. Three types of spoiling beliefs (disbelievers, believers, and happy spoilers) were identified and correlated with demographics, definitions of spoiling, and belief about spoiling's impact on development. Results have implications for early interventionists working…