This longitudinal multiple-case study research focused on the scaffolding strategies that two Israeli deaf mothers use to boost their young hearing children's engagement in reading interactions. Despite being significant to language learning, few studies have examined the dialogic reading practices of deaf-signing mothers. The study shows that…

The present study explored the association between the structural quality of child care, caregivers' sensitive responsiveness, children's involvement in play and activity in the setting, and children's expression of aggression. Eighty-four early childhood care settings were classified into either high (29) or low structural quality (55) based on…

Infants and toddlers spend a substantial amount of their time in out-of-home care, and are thus being tended to not only by their mothers but also by their caregivers. It is therefore of considerable importance to study the effects of caregiver-infant compared to mother-infant interactions. To address this issue, first, various variables of…

Unraveling factors that influence parenting is of great importance, since parents play an important role in their children's development. In this study we focused on parental prenatal expectations, parents' gender and child's distress to limitations as possible influences on parental behavior and observed the longitudinal associations between…

The study aims to account for the distribution of finite versus non-finite verbs during a developmental period when children use both types of verb forms in contexts requiring finiteness. To meet this goal, longitudinal samples from three Hebrew-acquiring children (aged 1;4-2;6) are examined from the onset of verb production and across the…

The present study explores the vocabulary development of bilingual children when neither of their languages has a minority language status. With both languages having high relative prestige, it is possible to address the impact of exposure variables: age of onset, length of exposure, and frequency of exposure (FoE) to both languages. Parents of 40…

The study investigates acquisition of verb inflections by four monolingual Hebrew-acquiring children from middle-class backgrounds, audio-recorded in longitudinal, weekly samples at a mean age-range of between 18 and 26 months. Productive use of inflectional morphology is shown to manifest increasing structural specification, as a function of…

The Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC) model is a comprehensive developmental approach to help adults understand their role in child development by enhancing the quality of adult-child interactions. This article describes how the Irving B. Harris Program for Infants, Toddlers and Their Families at Bar-Ilan University…

Despite the abundance of research on attachment and on the effects of separation, very little research examines the actual processes of separation occurring daily when mothers leave their children (age 6-18 months) in out-of-home group care. In the current study, this everyday process of separation was observed for three months…

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of variations in presentation of play materials on social behaviour of 18- to 30-month-old children. The study group included 102 children attending infant and toddler classes in 14 public childcare centres in Israel. Play materials were presented to the children either in a suggestive manner…

Guided by theories of cultural participation, the authors examined mother-child, father-child, and triadic interactive behaviors in 141 Israeli and Palestinian couples and their firstborn child at 5 and 33 months as antecedents of children's social competence. Four parent-child measures (parent sensitivity, child social engagement, parental…

Examines 2,000 Strange Situation classifications obtained in eight different countries. Differences and similarities between distributions in classifications of samples are investigated using correspondence analysis. Substantial intracultural differences are established; data also suggest a pattern of cross-cultural differences. (Author/RWB)

Two hypotheses related to the emergence of multiword speech were explored: (1) that multiword speech follows developments in children's ability to map communicative intents to single-word expressions; and (2) that the acquisition of these mapping principles paves the way for the emergence of syntax. The developments consist of an increase in the…

This study examined: (1) the accuracy with which standards of the state-subsidized Israeli family day care (FDC) program were implemented; and (2) the relationships between specific program service characteristics, program quality, and children's daily experiences in care. Israeli family day care standards concern program participants, caregivers…

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…