Notes that federal requirement to develop Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) for all infants and toddlers with special needs has major conceptual difficulty stemming from linkage of family service to family assessment. Sees many authorities as advocating parents and professionals as partners in assessing needs and planning services. Questions…

Summer is the time to take full advantage of the myriad wonders of nature--and all the outdoor play spaces--with children and toddlers. In this article, the author presents several outdoor summer activities for infants and toddlers.

This commentary on the research reported in this monograph stresses the importance of the analogy between the processes involved in pretense comprehension and the processes required to comprehend written or spoken text. The commentary also raises the concern that children could perform correctly on pretense problems using processes of text…

This response to the commentary on the research reported in this monograph discusses children's understanding of pretending adults' attitudes to pretend situations; the effect of the distinction between fictional and instructional texts on interpreting children's understanding of pretense, when pretense comprehension is seen as analogous to text…

Nearly 20 years ago, before e-mails, listservs, and blogs, the author had participated in an intense discussion with a group of early childhood education and care (ECEC) program directors about the pros and cons of publicly funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K). They debated about how universal pre-K (UPK) might impact the cost of infant and toddler…

Presents four principles which are used within cultures for the organization and elaboration of emotional experience. Proposes these principles as a way to expand the Miller and Sperry (Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1987) descriptive ethnographic data on the emotional development of three young children in a south Baltimore community. (NH)

Argues that the developmental origins of actions are actions themselves and that a future-oriented mode of control is basic to movement at all ages. Suggests that, through active movement, children learn about changing and invariant properties of movement and about coordination with the external world. This learning constitutes the foundation of…

Comments on the article by von Hofsten in this issue by examining four of von Hofsten's propositions: (1) physical actions are expressions of self-organizing systems composed of bodily, task-related, motivational, and environmental factors; (2) the ability to perform actions develops with age; (3) action is situated in a total postural background;…

Reviews study of toddlers' responses to specific and neutral requests for clarification, focusing on ability to locate linguistic errors that provoked clarification requests and their successes in repair. Argues that this behavior provides evidence for a speech monitor that detects errors and enables repair. Suggests that metalinguistic ability…

Describes an ethnographic study of African American toddlers and families that focused on children's productive competence in naturally occurring narrativelike conversation. Examines emergence of narrative competence; posits definition incorporating minimal requirements for child participation within the fundamental essence of narrative structure.…

Delineates advocacy strategies for action related to the provision of child care for infants and toddlers. Goals, target groups, and approaches are specified for publc information campaigns, training, and policy formation. Related printed materials and organizational resources are listed. (Author/RH)

Outlines the provisions of The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 (PL99-457), which funds educational and family services programs for three- to five-year-old children with disabilities or substantial developmental delays. Suggests ways that child care advocates can help implement this law. (NH)

According to this author, when parents provide competent daily care, they are teaching infants what love and trust are. All the daily routines parents perform, including feeding, cleaning up, diapering, undressing, dressing and settling into sleep, help provide infants with emotional comfort as well as the courage to learn. This article also…

Public concern about day care now focuses on infants and toddlers who began receiving out-of-home care before they had established attachments to their parents. In 1987, public conscience was inflamed by a series of reports in the popular media and the professional literature that underscored potential risks inherent in out-of-home care intiated…

Discussion of ways to encourage walking by young children with visual impairments first notes factors that constrain motor development. Suggestions include providing incentives for movement, building trust, fostering postural readiness, encouraging cruising, utilizing familiar spaces and short distances, and using protective and support devices…