Two experiments tracked infants' eye movements to examine use of word-initial information to understand fluent speech. Results indicated that 21- and 18-month-olds recognized partial words as quickly and reliably as whole words. Infants' productive vocabulary and reaction time were related to word recognition accuracy. Results show that…

Explored relation of biological and psychosocial risk factors to infant development among pregnant women who had pregestational diabetes, gestational diabetes, or were nondiabetic. Found that infants of diabetic mothers scored lower on the Bayley Scales at 1 year and revealed fewer positive and more negative behaviors than infants of nondiabetic…

Notes that infant curriculums involve every aspect of child development and should be appropriate for the individual child. Highlights characteristics of ideal curriculums, and provides guidelines for assessment of child and curriculum, and of communication regarding curriculum. (LBT)

Responds to Needham and Baillargeon's criticisms and offers an alternative resolution of the conflicting results between the laboratories regarding abilities of infants less than 12 months to use property/featural information for object individuation. Maintains that kind concepts are acquired as infants approach their first birthday and that…

Ecological contributions to attachment transmission were studied in a sample of 64 adolescent mother-infant dyads. Maternal sensitivity was assessed when infants were 6 and 10 months old, and infant security was assessed at 15 and 18 months. Maternal attachment state of mind was measured with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) after the 1st…

Despite previous research indicating that early negative child behavior and the quality of parent-child relationships are predictive of later externalizing problems, few investigators have attempted to trace these antecedents back to infancy. In a sample of 100 infants from low-income families, infant persistence and maternal responsiveness were…

Noting that by playing with their child, parents create a bond of intimacy important for the child's healthy development, this book describes developmental events in a baby's first 12 months and suggests play activities and their developmental purpose. Organized in a month-by-month format, the first part of each chapter presents an overview of…

A resource for child caregivers providing family day care for infants and toddlers, this book is designed to provide information and suggestions in a format that is easy to follow, and in language that is easy to read. Chapter 1 gives tips on "baby-proofing" the home, as well as ideas for toys, equipment, and how to integrate a baby into…

This paper presents a study of the looking and looking away or gaze alternation behavior of both full term and preterm infants in the presence of varying degrees of facial animation. The faces used in the study included, in increasing order of animation, a Raggedy Ann doll's face, a moving and talking doll's face, a mother's less animated face…

Text, illustrations, and exercises are utilized in these four learning modules to instruct parents and nursing students in topics related to child care and development. The first module, "Growth and Development: Let's Test Your Baby's Reflexes" by Bonnie Wojcik, describes the behavioral signs that are indicative of eight normal primitive…

This paper presents a study designed to determine if providing information to primiparous mothers about the behavioral characteristics of their infants would affect reciprocity in mother-infant interaction. Thirty married, Caucasian, middle class mothers of healthy, normally carried and delivered 48-hour-old first-born infants served as subjects.…

This paper discusses the nature of the infant social world. Infants develop attachments to both parents. Father-child and mother-child relationships are qualitatively different. They involve different types of experiences and have different implications for the child's personality development. The fathers' sex-differentiating behavior focuses the…

This study examined the effect of a day care program on mother-child interaction patterns and attachment behaviors, and compared these patterns of behavior with those obtained from a matched sample of more advantaged home-reared infants. Subjects were 60 infants, ranging in age from 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 months, and their mothers. There were three groups…

This paper reports an exploratory investigation of motor patterns characteristic of maternal gameplaying behavior conducted with forty-eight 4-, 6- and 8-month-old infants and their mothers. Videotapes of 6-minute laboratory mother-infant play sessions were segmented into maternal games which were categorized according to the type and complexity…

The present investigation examined the ability of the Inventory of Home Stimulation (STIM) to predict changes in relative mental test performance of children between 6 months old and 36 months of age. The six STIM subscales were used in discriminant analysis to classify infants into three groups (gainers, stable, losers) in terms of their change…