Event-related potentials (ERPs), in response to 4 facial expressions of fear, angry, happy, and sad, were collected from 72 institutionalized children (IG), ages 7 to 32 months, in Bucharest, Romania, and compared with ERPs from 33 children, ages 8 to 32 months, who had never been institutionalized (NIG). The NIG and IG exhibited different…

The association between nonverbal requesting (as measured by the Early Social Communication Scales) and problem-solving skills (as measured by an object retrieval task) was examined in 16 toddlers who had Down syndrome, 18 toddlers with developmental disabilities of mixed etiologies, and 19 typically developing infants and toddlers. Toddlers with…

As part of a study of mother-child interaction, 31 children were observed at 21 and 35 months of age to assess the influence of the birth of a sibling on the stability of temperament. All subjects were only children when they were surveyed at 21 months of age. By the time of the second observation, when subjects were 35 months old, the birth order…

A short-term longitudinal study of the peer-related social interactions of 111 developmentally delayed toddlers and preschool children was carried out. Results suggested the existence of unusually marked deficits in peer interactions. Possible contributing factors were discussed. (Author/RH)

Expressive-language-delayed (ELD) families were substantially similar to families with normal younger children and different from families with normal older children in their pragmatic interactions. Mothers' mean length of utterance did not differ among the groups. Pragmatic language interactions in the ELD families were determined largely by…

Compared mothers' play with infants with Down syndrome (DSC) and typically developing children (TDC) matched for mental or chronological age. Found that TDC mothers exhibited more object demonstrations with their developmentally younger children, who showed less object play. DSC mothers were more directive and supportive than mothers of younger…

Compared parents and nonparents to examine differences in the use of gender stereotyping to classify children's toys, and differences according to children's ages. Findings for 206 toys suggest that while toys are gender stereotyped for all age groups, there is more flexibility in gender stereotyping of toys for infants and toddlers. (SLD)

Analyzed vocalizations/verbalizations from children acquiring English or French in later single-word period to identify trochaic bias. Found that neither language's vocalizations were exclusively trochaic. French/English differences in iambic productions and acoustic realization of accent were traceable to adult input. Distribution of trochaic and…

Examined the relation between mothers' perception of their capacity for controlling infant crying and a later measure of compliance with parent requests by toddlers. Found that toddlers of mothers in the low and high illusion of control (overestimating of maternal control) groups were more likely to be highly defiant than were toddlers of mothers…

Compared the proportions of nouns and verbs in early vocabularies of English- and Mandarin-speaking toddlers and their mothers. Found that Mandarin-speaking children had relatively fewer nouns and more verbs than English-speaking children. When reading books, children's vocabularies were dominated by nouns but not when playing with toys. Mothers…

Compared food texture preferences during infancy and toddlerhood. Found that infants displayed more negative expressions and head and body movements in response to complex textures than to simple textures. Toddlers displayed more positive head and body movements and more eagerness in response to complex than to simple textures. Experience with…

This study compared the language behaviours of parents of toddlers with language delay (LD) and language of parents of typically developing toddlers (LN). Results indicate that parents of children with a language delay and children with normal language produced comparable amounts of linguistic input, but differed on some qualitative measures.…

This study compared behavioral presentation of toddlers with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and toddlers with global developmental delay (DD) or developmental language disorder (DLD) who display some characteristics of ASD using the diagnostic algorithm items from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Generic (ADOS), the Childhood Autism…

This study used an intact group comparison to examine attention following in 34 children aged 2 years diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) matched pairwise for vocabulary comprehension with a group of typically developing toddlers. For both groups of children, the presence of verbal labels during a referential task increased attention to…

Background: Children who have reached the age of 2 years without having acquired a 50-word vocabulary and/or who use no word combinations are referred to in the literature as "Late Talkers". Research has not yet identified the factors that cause slow development of expressive language; in particular, relatively little research has been carried out…