We report on a prospective longitudinal research programme exploring the connection between language acquisition deficits and dyslexia. The language development profile of children at-risk for dyslexia is compared to that of age-matched controls as well as of children who have been diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). The experiments…

Purpose: This study tested the hypothesis that depth of semantic representation influences toddlers' word retrieval. Method: Nineteen toddlers participated under 3 word learning conditions in this longitudinal study. Gestures cued attention to object shape (SHP) or function (FNC) in the experimental conditions. No semantic cue was provided under a…

This study examined whether the differential maternal treatment of twins affected the twins' on-task behaviors in a teaching interaction. A total of 175 mothers and their same-sex 14-month-old twins were videotaped in their homes in triads. This was repeated for 170 of the families when the children were 24 months, and for 146 of the families when…

This report provides descriptive information on variations in selected features of state and local early intervention systems. Information was gathered from 20 states as part of the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS). Results indicate a considerable variation along a number of dimensions, including: eligibility criteria; type…

Based on the view that play is profoundly mutual and social, this book compiles chapters by distinguished psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, social workers, and developmental psychologists, who offer a rich, integrative view of the many dimensions of early play as it occurs among peers, between parent and child, and in the context of therapy.…

Premarital and postbirth indices of parent's marital relationship were related to child functioning. For mothers, high satisfaction, low conflict, and high communication quality were related to child security of attachment and dependency. For fathers, higher levels of premarital conflict and lower levels of communication quality were positively…

Articulatory precision and fluency criteria for identifying formulaic expressions, sublexical forms, and target lexemes in linguistic productions are defined and applied to the analysis of two Danish children's language development. Results are compared to application of standard distributional and frequency criteria in the tabulation of mean…

Compared outcomes for visually impaired children and their families in two early intervention programs: a weekly, home-based program treating children and a program of monthly meetings for parents. Found that the more expensive, weekly program had negligible effects on child and family functioning. (BCY)

Individual differences in inhibition were moderately but significantly stable over the two years of the study. Compared to other children, inhibited children engaged in less high quality peer play at home and in day care, and were less able to play alone in the mother's absence. Other findings underscored the predictive and construct validity of…

Explores spontaneous speech samples from children during the period from one word to multiword utterances in interaction with their French-speaking mothers in order to study the appearance and development of functional changes in their use of language. A longitudinal study of four children revealed the beginnings of references to the past and the…

Related maternal depressive symptoms obtained when infants were 1, 6, 15, 24, and 36 months old to child functioning at 36 months. Found that women with chronic symptoms were least sensitive during mother/child play from infancy through 36 months. Maternal sensitivity accounted for group differences in school readiness and verbal comprehension and…

Examined relations between nonmaternal child care and maternal sensitivity and child positive engagement ratings during mother-child interaction; infants were between 6 and 36 months old. Found that more child care hours predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child engagement. Child care effect sizes were similar to those for…

Recently, there has been a great deal of research on the socialization of children's emotions and self-regulation. In the present study, the specific strategies that mothers use to help their young children regulate their emotional responses were examined using a longitudinal design. Forty-three mother-toddler pairs were observed when toddlers…

Gender schema theory proposes that children's acquisition of gender labels and gender stereotypes informs gender-congruent behaviour. Most previous studies have been cross-sectional and do not address the temporal relationship between knowledge and behaviour. We report the results of a longitudinal study of gender knowledge and sex-typed behaviour…

Does early child care hinder or enhance infants' and toddlers' social and cognitive development? This longitudinal study investigated whether: (1) child care is related to qualities of mother-child interaction and the child's cognitive and language development in the first 3 years of life; (2) the child care environment interacts with the home…