Unfortunately, the term "infant mental health" can be confusing for some people because it may be understood as translating into "mental illness." Others may not appreciate that babies and toddlers have the capacity to experience complex emotions. The Guest Editors of this issue of the Journal explore the meaning of infant mental health.

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation's (OPRE's) Division of Child and Family Development (DCFD) is responsible for research and evaluation related to Head Start programs, early childhood development, childcare, child maltreatment, and child welfare services. OPRE's research in the area of child and family development focuses on young…

It is not only in families that young children are influenced to become members of their culture. Around the world and within individual countries, culture influences how care is provided to infants and toddlers in child care settings. In turn, infants and toddlers begin to learn how to act and think as members of their culture. From ways that…

Early intervention for infants and toddlers began with high hopes, but became mired in overspecialization, bureaucracy, and turf guarding. Nevertheless, two important advances in the field have been (a) a recognition that the child's natural caregivers are in the best position to be the intervention agents and, concomitantly, (b) a rethinking…

This research synthesis is a review of the literature on developmental screening measures used to identify young children with delays. Research on 14 commonly used tools to screen infants, toddlers, and preschoolers was examined. Findings may assist users and consumers in identifying developmental screening measures that have a body of evidence.

Including fathers is the next frontier for infant mental health. In this article, the authors describe the inclusion of fathers as equal partners in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), an evidence-based treatment for young children experiencing or at risk for mental health problems following exposure to violence and other adversities. The authors…

In previous studies, very young children have learned words while "overhearing" a conversation, yet they have had trouble learning words from a person on video. In Study 1, 64 toddlers (mean age = 29.8 months) viewed an object-labeling demonstration in 1 of 4 conditions. In 2, the speaker (present or on video) directly addressed the child, and in…

These studies investigated two hundred and forty-four 24- and 30-month-olds' sensitivity to generic versus nongeneric language when acquiring knowledge about novel kinds. Toddlers were administered an inductive inference task, during which they heard a generic noun phrase (e.g., "Blicks drink milk") or a nongeneric noun phrase (e.g., "This blick…

The Spanish-language MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (S-CDIs) are well-established parent report tools for assessing the language development of Spanish-speaking children under 3 years. Here, we introduce the short-form versions of the S-CDIs (SFI and SFII), offered as alternatives to the long forms for screening purposes or…

Learning in the earliest stage of life--the infancy, toddlerhood and preschool period--is relational and rapid. Child-initiated and adult-mediated conversations, playful interactions and learning through active involvement are integral to young children making sense of their environments and to their development over time. The child's experience…

This paper critically examines current concerns regarding professional issues in labour force development for teachers with children up to two years of age (UtoT). The concerns in New Zealand (NZ) relate to whether initial teacher-education (ITE) qualifications prepare teachers to work with children UtoT, involving synergy between ITE and the…

The article explores the need to eat as a biological and social practice among children in a preschool in Norway. The children in this preschool are aged from one to two years of age, and some of them have just started there. Different events from mealtimes relate to Derrida's concept of touch and Grosz's notion of bodies in-place and…

Depression is a serious disorder with severe and far-reaching consequences. Two decades of observational research have shown robust associations between maternal depression and adverse consequences on offspring (S. Campbell et al., 2004; S. Campbell, P. Matestic, C. von Stauffenberg, R. Mohan, & T. Kirchner, 2007; S. Campbell, A. Morgan-Lopez,…

This article discusses a teacher educator's reflections on her participation in an international study group and visits to the infant-toddler and pre-schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, as inspiration for early childhood teacher education in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The following five themes are reflected on, for teacher education in the context of Abu Dhabi:…

This study investigated fast mapping in late-talking (LT) toddlers and toddlers with normal language (NL) development matched on age, nonverbal cognition, and maternal education. The fast-mapping task included novel object labels and familiar words. The LT group scored significantly lower than the NL group on novel word comprehension and…