Type and quality of nonfamilial child care were found to have no significant effect on peer social skills, sociability with strange adults, and child personality. The major determinants of personality maturity were background variables. Prior social skills and age were the best predictors of peer social skills. (PCB)

Examines the relation between dyadic synchrony and child compliance during the toddler period. Demonstrates that children are more likely to comply with synchronous caregiver instructions than with asynchronous instructions. Discusses results in light of both cognitive and emotional factors of toddlers. (Author/RWB)

Studies influences and interrelations of family dynamics and of varying quality of child-care on the child's capacity for compliance and self-regulation. Multiple regression techniques were used to examine relationships between child care, family, and child and parent behaviors. (Author/DR)

Investigates the impact of early maternal employment--direct (mother-child) and indirect (father-child) effects--in families with firstborn 20-month-olds. Shows maternal employment is not related to toddler outcomes (security of attachment or problem-solving behavior). (HOD)

Assessment of the prelinguistic behaviors of 43 deaf children (ages 8 to 49 months) of hearing parents in Israel found only partial resemblance to the theoretical model of prelinguistic communication in hearing infants. Unique interrelationships among pointing and early noncommunicative behaviors were found with no correlation between use of…

The Infant Parent Social Interaction Code was developed to measure infant-parent interaction utilizing four parent variables, four infant variables, and one dyadic variable for which operational definitions were developed. Preliminary and validation studies with a total of 232 infants and toddlers suggest the measure reveals important interactive…

The emergence of sex-role stereotypes in dependency behaviors exhibited toward day care teachers by male and female toddlers was explored. Communication and interaction attempts, or bids, that 25 male and 25 female toddlers from low income families in day care made toward their teachers were analyzed. Instrumental bids requesting help were…

Two-year-old children's participation in family interaction was examined in two longitudinal observational studies of family conflict that focused on three developmental issues: children's understanding of the feelings and intentions of other family members, their understanding of social rules within the family, and the relation of emotional…

This study explored effects of training 25 mothers to administer focused intervention to teach specific target words to their toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays. Following treatment, mothers' language input was slower, less complex, and more focused. The children used more target words, more words during play, and had larger vocabularies…

Analysis of communicative exchanges between 24 children (ages 2-3) with Down syndrome and their mothers found that the quality of children's responses was highly associated with the degree to which the mothers' requests were related to the child's current activity and matched or were below the child's current developmental level. (DB)

Analysis of the labor participation of 65 mothers of infants and toddlers with disabilities found a slightly greater proportion of 1-parent families than expected, entry into the labor force at approximately the same rate as other mothers, a greater proportion of mothers engaged in part-time employment, and predominance of spouses as childcare…

This article describes the Colorado Phonetic/Phonologic Assessment of Hearing-Impaired Infants and Toddlers (PHONE) and the speech of 91 hearing-impaired infants and toddlers, examining number of vowels, consonants, elements per utterance, and utterances; differences by age and by hearing loss for each vowel and consonant; and relationship to…

"Early Partners" and "Partners for Learning" is a 2-part curriculum to support parent-child interactions in the first 36 months of a premature, low birthweight child's life. Analysis showed that the rate of delivering the curriculum in the child development center and the home added significantly to the prediction of 36-month…

This article discusses the development of an orientation and mobility screening measure suitable for use with children having severe visual impairments (and possibly additional impairments) from birth through five years of age. Twenty instructors rated the measures as being useful. The two forms of the measure (for either ambulatory or…

Discussing findings from three studies, this report focuses on questions mothers ask their children while looking at picture books and recent family photographs. In the first study, 30 mothers and their 12-, 15-, and 18-month-old children "read" a simple ABC book that had one picture for each letter in the alphabet. In the second study,…