Interviews with 536 families receiving early intervention services for their young children with disabilities identified significant barriers to service utilization for American Indian families, low-income families without medical assistance, and families with children under 18 months of age. Additional factors influencing the service utilization…

This paper describes Project Assist, a model for developing and implementing a flexible system of social support that can be individualized for families of infants/toddlers with disabilities. The model uses group support, individual support, and follow-up support to meet a variety of family needs and promote family adaptation. (JDD)

Observed teachers touching 5- to 63-month-old children in a nursery program to establish baseline touching levels. Teachers were then instructed to touch children more frequently; and teachers', children's, and parents' touching was subsequently observed. Found that boys were touched more frequently than girls by teachers and peers, and older…

Examined relationships between quality of center-based child care and infant cognitive and language development. Subjects were 79 African American 1-year-olds. Found that quality of infant care positively correlated with scores on standardized assessment of cognitive development, language development, and communication skills. Quality of care in…

Examined the effectiveness of the Avance Parent-Child Education Program in teaching low-income, Mexican American mothers of infants to teach their own children. Found significant program effects on Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores, on view of self as teacher, and on videotaped mother-child interactions. Found results…

This article describes basic assessment considerations for infants and toddlers exhibiting nonorganic failure to thrive. The evaluation process must examine feeding, maternal-child interactions, child temperament, and environmental risks and behaviors. Early identification and intervention are necessary to minimize the long-term developmental…

A study evaluated the use of a clinical tool developed to determine the listening behavior of young children at risk for developmental communication delays. The evaluation procedure was developed and successfully applied to 66 children (ages birth to 3) attending an early intervention program over a period of 3 years. (Contains six references.)…

A study compared the progress of 12 Greek children (ages 8 months to 5 years) with disabilities who received a weekly educational visit from early interventionists for 2 years with that of 12 controls. Results showed significant gains for treated children in overall functioning level and in different domains of development. (Contains references.)…

Related maternal depressive symptoms obtained when infants were 1, 6, 15, 24, and 36 months old to child functioning at 36 months. Found that women with chronic symptoms were least sensitive during mother/child play from infancy through 36 months. Maternal sensitivity accounted for group differences in school readiness and verbal comprehension and…

The Mayes Motor Free Compilation (MMFC) assesses mental ability in young (under age 2) children with motor disabilities. This study evaluated the concurrent validity of the MMFC by administering it and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to normal children. Findings suggest that the MMFC provides a valid estimate of mental age, even without…

Examined relations between nonmaternal child care and maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement ratings during mother-child interaction; infants were between 6 and 36 months old. Found that more child care hours predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child engagement. Child care effect sizes were similar to those for…

Forty-eight portfolio projects were completed by 65 urban, infant-toddler childcare workers who participated in a professional development program designed to increase the quality of childcare for children with and without disabilities. Results indicated a significantly higher number of strengths-based themes in child stories written after…

How do children determine the syntactic category of novel words? In this article we present the results of 2 experiments that investigated whether German children between 12 and 16 months of age can use distributional knowledge that determiners precede nouns and subject pronouns precede verbs to syntactically categorize adjacent novel words.…

Published articles about assistive technology (AT) from 1980 through 2004 were reviewed to identify those that focused on infants and young children. A total of 104 articles about AT with infants and toddlers were identified, and of these, 23 reported practices for teaching switch activation (12), computer use (6), power mobility skills (4), or…

One symptom of depression is loss of motivation, which can be defined as responsiveness to response-eliciting stimuli and quantified as reward-related behavioral output. Long-term changes in reward-related behavior have been shown to follow early life stress. Most rodent studies investigating the effects of postnatal separation, an early stress,…