Outlines the provisions of The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 (PL99-457), which funds educational and family services programs for three- to five-year-old children with disabilities or substantial developmental delays. Suggests ways that child care advocates can help implement this law. (NH)

Early intervention services provided to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families include case management. A historical framework for the concept of case management is presented, the role of the case manager in early intervention is explored, and competencies involved in the role are outlined. (Author/JDD)

Tested 13-, 16-, and 20-month olds' and 24- and 28-month olds' categorization of global- and basic-level object sets composed of prototypical and nonprototypical exemplars. Findings offer new information on the effects of prototypicality and on the process of differentiation of early global categories into more specific basic-level ones. (DR)

Twenty-four- and 30-month-old children were presented with a picture that showed the location of a hidden toy and were then asked to find the toy. The 30-month olds, but not the 24-month-olds, were successful in retrieving the toy. Concludes that 24-month olds did not interpret the pictures as representations of reality. (BC)

Treatment of behavioral problems of 3 girls (ages 31-37 months) with Rett's disorder is discussed. Behavioral treatment using operant conditioning principles did little to alter the course of the disorder for these individuals. The one consistent improvement for the girls was a decrease in tantrums. (SW)

Assessed the relationship between sleep problems and temperament in 63 toddlers who had night-waking problems and 35 nonreferred toddlers. On the Toddler Temperament Questionnaire, night wakers showed lower sensory thresholds and less adaptivity than did controls. On the Parental Stress Index, night wakers were rated as more distractible, less…

Focuses on coparenting, spouses as partners or adversaries in parenting role, in families raising toddler sons. Reviews preliminary longitudinal research findings concerning nature of coparenting and contextual determinants of different types of coparenting alliances. Proposes coparenting processes to interact with marital and parent-child…

Long-term recall memory was assessed in 14- and 16 month-olds using a nonverbal method requiring subjects to reenact a past event from memory. The results demonstrated significant deferred imitation after delays of two and four months, and that the toddlers retained and imitated multiple acts. (MDM)

Children who interacted with a robot that spoke reciprocally to them uttered more speech that maintained the topic of conversation, and engaged in more verbally mediated social play than children who interacted with a randomly speaking robot. Gender differences in children's looking at their mother in the room were observed. (BC)

Analyzed data on 437 handicapped infants and toddlers referred for services between 1988 and 1989. Findings provide a realistic view of the type and intensity of services often needed by this age group, frequency of specific handicapping conditions, and types of recommendations made. Findings provide information useful to future planning related…

A total of 41 hearing-impaired toddlers, 41 toddlers who could hear, and their mothers, all of whom could hear, were observed in Ainsworth's Strange Situation and during free play. Results suggest that development of a secure attachment and a good mother-toddler relationship does not depend on normal language development during the toddler years.…

Assessed effects of maternal employment on socioemotional development of young children. After controlling for differences at time of child's birth, found that children whose mothers worked full-time beginning in child's first or second year scored more poorly on composite measure of adjustment than did children of mothers who were not employed…

A group of 111 2- and 3-year olds were tested on 3 phonological memory (PM) measures to ascertain whether PM skills could be assessed in children younger than 4 years of age. Results indicated that PM skills can be reliably assessed in very young children by using conventional serial span and repetition procedures. (MDM)

Examined 2-, 2.5-, and 3-year-olds' reasoning while searching for a ball that had been rolled behind an occluder. Found only 3-year-olds were able to reliably select the correct door; all children could retrieve a toy hidden in the same apparatus if it was hidden from the front by opening a door; and younger children used a variety of strategies.…

Four studies examined 2- and 3-year olds' word order and verb morphology productivity. Findings indicated that younger children neither used nor comprehended word order with novel transitive verbs. Older children comprehended and used word order to mark verbs' agents and patients. Children as young as 25 months added "-ing" but not…