Investigates the color term knowledge of two-year olds and the influence of schooling on their color term acquisition. Findings reveal considerable knowledge in these children. Conclusions are that contemporary children's early and frequent experience with color terms may account for this cohort's improved performance over previous generations of…

Observed home interaction between parents and 2- and 4-year-olds at Time 1 and 2 years later. Found that parent mental state talk to children varied by child's age, context of talk, and parent gender. Four-year-olds with older siblings produced and heard more cognitive talk and less desire talk than children without older siblings. Time 1 family…

Examined the relationship between high risk mothers' teaching interactions with their 20- and 36-month-olds, and their children's behavior in first grade. Found that maternal teaching scores were correlated with children's social behaviors as assessed by their teacher, and with children's cognitive ability as measured on a standardized…

In this commentary on a previous article that revealed modest and inconsistent results of the Parents as Teachers program, program evaluation work is urged to move beyond simply measuring intervention outcomes to examining the complex interactions between family and child characteristics, intervention goals addressed, processes employed by…

In this commentary on a previous article that revealed modest and inconsistent results of the Parents as Teachers program, issues are highlighted that those involved in real-world evaluation need to consider. Study attrition, defining meaningful primary outcomes, and need to use a participatory approach to develop outcome-based interventions are…

This longitudinal case study examined the emergence of oral language skills in a child with deafness whose cochlear implant was activated at 20 months. Normal or above-normal rates of development were observed in decreased production of nonwords, increased receptive vocabulary, type-token ratio, regular use of word combinations, and phrase…

The play and language behavior of mothers with (n=49) and without (n=49) specific reading disabilities was investigated during play with their 14-month-old children. Typically reading mothers produced significantly more symbolic play and language in play interactions with their children than did the mothers with reading disabilities. (Contains…

Research findings from a series of longitudinal studies of the language, speech, and social-emotional development of children with hearing impairments and hearing parents found language development is positively and significantly affected by the age of identification of the hearing loss and age of initiation into Colorado early intervention…

A study involving 17 Belgian children with hearing impairments and 33 parents, 10 with deafness, found that parents with deafness differed significantly from hearing parents in the use of a visual communication style adapted to the developmental communication needs and abilities related to the 18- to 24-month age period. (Contains references.)…

Describes the Crosswalk program in Spokane, Washington, which provides teenage street mothers with housing, day care, and the opportunity to attend school. Discusses the development of the program, and describes the cases of several typical teenage mothers in the program. (MDM)

This paper presents encouraging results concerning speech perception, speech production, and language evaluation for an initial group of five children implanted with cochlear implants under the age of three years at the Children's Cochlear Implant Centre in Sydney, Australia. Preoperative assessment procedures and postoperative management are…

This article examines categories of eligibility for Public Law 99-457 Part H services and their relation to factors of multivariate risk and mandated family focus. Professionals are challenged to reconsider the purposes of screening and evaluation as well as the relation between primary health care and community-based early intervention. (PB)

A survey of 49 state Part H coordinators was conducted to review standards in place for personnel serving infants, toddlers, and their families. The study analyzed, by state, the standards for all 10 professional disciplines addressed under Part H of the Education of the Handicapped Act. Implications for state practice and policy are discussed.…

Maintains that reading humorous storybooks to toddlers can support their development and learning. A bibliography of humorous children's books is included. (BB)

This article reviews 46 experimental studies on behavioral and developmental outcomes associated with prenatal exposure to illicit drugs. Only half of the 460 individual outcomes significantly indicated adverse effects of prenatal exposure. The greatest number of these outcomes was for infants younger than one month, with relatively few outcomes…