Regardless of birthweight, ventilated infants received the lowest ratings for overall performance on the Infant Behavior Record. Ventilated newborns of very low birthweight were more likely to receive ratings characterizing an overly active infant with a short attention span, and never-ventilated infants of very low birthweight were most likely to…

Assessments of play, sensorimotor, language, and general developmental skills were administered to two preterm and 20 full-term infants. Preterm infants showed some delays greater than would be predicted from biological maturity alone, but delays were not present for all skills and generally were not maintained beyond 2 years of age. (Author/RH)

Explores particulars that may partially account for the remedial influence on development of interactions between infants and caregivers. Videotaped interactions between 20 prematurely born toddlers and their mothers were described in terms of dyadic joint attention to features of the environment. (Author/RH)

The development of 100 preterm infants from various social class and ethnic backgrounds was followed from birth to 5 years. Results indicated that developmental outcome at age 5 could be predicted moderately well from a single measure (infant visual attention) administered as early as term date. (Author/RH)

Examines components of familial risk in the context of a four-year longitudinal study of children with mentally ill mothers. Risk factors examined were parental mental health, social status, parental perspectives, and family stress. Interactions among risk factors were found to be complex and different for cognitive and social-emotional…

Findings indicate that high-risk infants are not exposed to greater exogenous stress during the prenatal and perinatal periods, although subsequent caregiving provided by disturbed mothers may not be optimal. Several findings point to the existence of a constitutionally vulnerable subgroup of high-risk infants. (Author/RH)

Addresses three questions: (1) To what extent do risk factors of prematurity and illness affect neonatal characteristics? (2) Do these risk factors continue to account for differences in mother and infant social interactive behavior at three months? and (three) To what degree are neonatal characteristics predictive of mother and infant behavior at…

Questionnaires were used to measure mothers' social networks, coping abilities, and life stress. A mother/child interaction situation was used to measure maternal control, maternal maturity demands, maternal nurturance, mother/child communication, and child compliance. Results indicated significant differences in the lives of single and married…

Data support three conclusions: (1) that notable individual differences in the interaction patterns of mothers and Down syndrome children exist, (two) that maternal directiveness and sensitivity are separable dimensions of maternal style, and (3) that individual differences in mother/child interaction patterns may be related to mental development…

Comparing developmental education for parents, parent education in child management, and a control situation, this study assessed treatment effectiveness in motivating parents to participate in home programs for developmentally delayed infants. Results indicated the superiority of the developmental program in terms of parent participation and…

Examines young children's developing ability to talk about emotions, considers evidence concerning the ability to talk about emotions in the conduct of interpersonal interaction, and offers ideas about future directions for research, emphasizing the functionalist approach to the analysis of emotion-denoting terms. (HOD)

Describes preschool children's ability to simultaneously perceive multiple aspects of an object in two experiments during which three- to five-year-olds were asked to describe part/whole pictures. (HOD)

Describes two experiments that assessed young children's understanding of the characteristic uncertainty in the physical nature of random phenomena as well as the unpredictability of outcomes. (HOD)

A series of six experiments compares young children's competence in attributing absence of knowledge (ignorance) to their competence in attributing a false belief to the other. (HOD)

Examines how reference points for the categorical interpretation of high and low (adjectives) were defined by three- to five-year-old children and adults. Shows categorical interpretations of relative terms to be complex dependent. (HOD)