Many children who are born into poverty face increased challenges. But different factors can ameliorate such risks and some findings on resilience and protective factors are reported in this paper. The data are based on the Parent-Child Project, a 22-year study of high-risk children. The focus is on protective factors identified in the first three…

Examined the cognitive development of 79 surviving high-risk, low birth weight children at 1, 2, and 3.6 years. Found that children at high biological risk were able to catch up on their cognitive delay in highly stimulating home environments; those at both low and high biological risk in less stimulating home environments showed a decline in…

A longitudinal study examined the developmental progression of mother/child conflict and conflict resolution strategies spanning the toddler to preschool years. Emphasizing verbal negotiations, the study showed that mother/child conflicts peak at 30 months, and, although toddlers tend to rely on refusing, preschoolers rely increasingly on…

Findings from a prospective longitudinal study of 46 boys with fragile X syndrome (ages 24-72 months) found that, although children varied widely, overall development was significantly delayed to approximately half of the rate of typical children. At every age tested, motor and adaptive development was higher than communication and cognitive…

Thirty-six children identified with small expressive vocabularies at age 20-34 months were followed up yearly and tested for expressive language skills in second grade. Of 10 possible predictor variables, only socioeconomic status and early expressive language skills predicted expressive language outcome in second grade with a slight contribution…

This paper presents normative data on height, weight, and body mass in a birth cohort studied prospectively from birth to the age of 7 years. Data are presented by gender and race. The cohort was meant to be representative of the St. Louis metropolitan area in that it included poor people's children, and especially black children who had rarely…

Two-year-old children's participation in family interaction was examined in two longitudinal observational studies of family conflict that focused on three developmental issues: children's understanding of the feelings and intentions of other family members, their understanding of social rules within the family, and the relation of emotional…

A young child's acquisition of language and language-related skills in two modalities is discussed. The hearing daughter of a deaf father and of a hearing mother showed accelerated language development in both sign and speech. Reading readiness tests administered at 27 and 32 months revealed advanced development for her age. (Author/LMO)

Parent-based assessments of vocabulary, grammar, nonverbal ability, and use of language to refer to past and future were obtained for 8,386 twins at age 2. Of the children who had early language delay, 44.1% had persisting language difficulties at 3 years and 40.2% had persisting language difficulties at 4 years. (Contains references.) (CR)

Used prospective longitudinal design to ascertain whether different types of behavioral inhibition were stable from toddler to preschool age, and whether inhibited temperament or parenting style predicted children's subsequent social/behavioral problems. Found that traditional and peer-social toddler inhibition predicted socially reticent behavior…

Studied the ability of measures of inhibition to unfamiliar events that are obtained in toddlerhood to predict social behaviors during an interaction with an unfamiliar peer at the age of five years. Results revealed that the role of child inhibition as a predictor of social behavior may be more evident during the initial encounter with the peer.…

Two kinds of parental beliefs, endorsed rearing philosophy (authoritative-authoritarian dimension) and affective attitude toward child (positive-negative affect dimension), were examined in 20 normal and 36 depressed mothers as long-term predictors of child rearing behaviors and interaction patterns with their children. (BC)

A longitudinal study evaluated child-care effects on young children's self-control, compliance, and problem behavior. Findings indicated that mothering was a stronger and more consistent predictor of child outcomes than child care. There was little evidence that early, extensive, and continuous care was related to problematic child behavior.…

Investigated stability and change in infant affective responses to still-face interaction, impact of maternal depression, and whether infant responses predicted toddler problem behaviors. Found stable individual differences in gazing away and rates of negative affect. Gazing away increased over time. Mothers' current depressive symptoms and…

This article reviews the empirical evidence relating to the development of early solitary object and parent-infant play in typical infants and children diagnosed with autism. Findings indicate that there may be both qualitative and quantitative differences in early play; however, the need for more longitudinal studies is stressed. (Contains…