Stability of temperament over successive ages in the first 2 years was evaluated for 109 full-term and 81 preterm infants who were assessed at 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months of age. At each age subjects were engaged in a series of age-appropriate vignettes in the laboratory; experimenters used a structured sequence of activities. Composite ratings…

Statistical analyses of the incidence of "what"-questions requiring variably complex responses are presented. The responses were asked of a bilingual child by different sets of caretakers in English and German over a one-year period starting at age 16 months. Results show that the caretakers' questions are geared first toward the child's…

Part of an 18-month longitudinal investigation of mother-child language-teaching interactions, this study describes changes in mothers' use of elicting strategies over time as their children's language became more complex. The focus was the adjustments mothers make to fit their behavior to their child's linguistic skills and development. Samples…

This paper asserts that infant-toddler teachers, like preschool teachers, need to be cognizant of individual children's developmental levels, chronological ages, and general developmental stages, as well as infant-toddler theories and developmentally appropriate practice for infants and toddlers. In that spirit, the paper describes the purpose and…

The developing child and his/her eco-social-cultural context is the focus of study of 28 children ages 0-3 years in the rural area of Cocal, Piaui in Northeast Brazil. Ethnographic methods, naturalistic observations and semi-structured interviews were used to ascertain the physical context (the house and its surroundings), as well as maternal…

To identify maternal scaffolding behaviors, this study used conventional sequential analysis to examine mother-child dyads interacting in problem-solving and exploration contexts. Conventional sequential analysis estimates the temporal contingency between the antecedent behavior of one person and the consequent behavior of a second person.…

Mastery motivation is an inherent force that stimulates exploration of the environment and attempts at mastering moderately challenging tasks. It is important to develop good measures of this motive because there is evidence that indicators of task orientation are predictors of later school success, and no doubt mastery motivation is a precursor…

This paper provides guidelines for the audiologic assessment of infants and young children, highlighting recent technologic advances in auditory electrophysiology, acoustic immitance measure procedures, and behavioral audiometric techniques. First, audiologic assessment guidelines developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association are…

The paper describes the use of an operant procedure to assess the speech perception of 11 young (7 to 35 months old) hearing impaired children and 11 normally hearing subjects. Subjects were presented with a repeating background stimulus and conditioned to turn their head on presentation of a contrasting syllable. The head-turning responses were…

An analysis of one theory of the acquisition of head movement by children is presented, using longitudinal data from the Mayan language, K'iche'. This theory assumes that children would just require positive evidence of head movement in the input language to instantiate the constructions of their own grammar. The Incorporation Theory addresses the…

This paper details Michael Lewis and Mark Starr's model of early child development known as the salient responses of the human organism. The model is described as a representation of the actions taken by humans in their qualitative attempts to move to more progressive states of development through interactions with the environment. The salient…

This study investigated the influence of the speaker's experience and addressee's developmental level on baby talk characteristics. A total of 240 mothers of only child infants (l-l8 months) or of children 2-3 years old responded to an Infant or Child Series of drawings with an attached list of sentences. Subjects described situations in drawings,…

This paper addresses the issue of how children should be reared from birth to become members of a faith community. The paper begins by seeking answers in psychological theories and research studies of Piaget, Bandura and Sears, Mahler, and Erikson. It is asserted that interactions with primary caregivers are the essential ingredients by means of…

This investigation addresses problems of defining verbal imitation, and suggests solutions by analyzing verbal interactions between two children and their mothers. Children were between 18 and 35 months old, with a mean length of utterance between 1.4 and 4.2 morphemes. Analyses focus upon the uses these children made of maternal models; 10…

Using the same approach of family involvement and empowerment that has guided Head Start, Early Head Start offers its services to pregnant women and children, birth to age 3. One of the characteristics that differentiates Early Head Start from traditional Head Start is the mandate to offer full-day, full-year services to infants and toddlers. The…