A total of 23 infants were longitudinally studied to ascertain how kind and amount of prereaching activity changes with age during the first four months of life. Substantial changes were observed in the pattern of prereaching around two months of age. (RH)

To document movement patterns and to examine developmental interrelationships, the ontogeny of rooting, lip, lateral tongue, mouth opening, biting, and Babkin reflexes and the development of emerging chewing behaviors were observed in two normal infants over a period from 1 week to 35 weeks of age. (Author/RH)

The concurrent and predictive relations of sensorimotor behavior and play to language in the second year were assessed among 19 preterm and 20 full-term infants tested at 13 1/2 and 22 months of age. Numerous associations between play and language were identified; sensorimotor behavior and language in the same age period were relatively loosely…

Vocalizations of infants were classified and analyzed in a longitudinal sample of infants ranging in age from 2 to 14 weeks. Results suggest that infants performed different types of vocalizations that can be interpreted as affective states from 2 weeks of age on. Parents responded with a highly diversified pattern of reactions to different infant…

Infants whose mothers were supportive of their autonomy displayed greater task-oriented persistence and competence during play than did infants of more controlling mothers; securely attached and avoidant infants tended to exhibit greater persistence at tasks than anxious-ambivalent babies, and ambivalent babies were the most negative in affect.…

Combinatorial abilities in language and elicited symbolic play were compared in a longitudinal study of 30 children at 20 and 28 months. In addition, multivariate analyses were used to assess the stability of individual differences. Generally, different symbolic play variables contributed unique explained variance to different language variables.…

Twenty-five infants were tested every two weeks on the AB Object Permanence Task, from the time they first reached for a hidden object until they were 12 months old. Results indicate that the AB provides an index of the ability to carry out an intention based on stored information despite a conflicting habitual tendency. (Author/RH)

Mothers' and fathers' socialization of one- and two-year-old children's sex-typed play behaviors was examined. For each parent, dyadic interactions were videotaped in the home on two occasions six months apart. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the social learning account of sex-role development. (Author/RH)

To test hypotheses concerning interactional histories associated with variation in quality of infant-mother attachment, data were gathered during naturalistic home observations of 60 infants 1, 3, and 9 months of age. Responses were elicited on the Ainsworth and Wittig strange situations. Results concerned mothers' relatively greater influence in…

In a longitudinal study, infants 6 to 18 months of age were observed in their homes playing with their mothers and with peers to determine how they coordinated attention to people and objects. Person engagement declined with age, while coordinated joint engagement increased; both passive and coordinated joint engagement were much more likely when…

Adopts a longitudinal design to track mother-child developmental change in infant task-related mastery and concomitant maternal behavior. Finds that, as infants gain more mastery across time, mothers gradually withdraw support in terms of concrete, specific and nonverbal means of instruction. Results support a one-step-ahead model for maternal…

Patterns of mothering and fathering in 72 families were observed longitudinally and from the perspective of the family system when infants were 1, 3, and 9 months old. Findings suggested similarities and differences in mothering and fathering. (Author/RH)