Growth modeling was used to examine the developmental trajectory of infant temperamental fear with maternal fear and depressive symptoms as predictors of infant fearfulness and change in infant fear predicting toddler anxiety symptoms. In Study 1, a sample of 158 mothers reported their own depressive symptoms and fear when their children were 4 months of age and infant fearfulness at 4, 6, 8, 1...

The aim of this study was to investigate the toddler and preschool predictors of early peer social preference. Behavioral and social functioning were examined in a sample of children across the toddler and preschool years from parent and teacher observations. Kindergarten social behavior and peer social preference were assessed in the children's kindergarten classrooms using standard sociometri...

The purposes of this study were to present a conceptual model for selection into the early childhood profession and to test the model using contemporaneous assessments. A stratified random sample of center-based child care providers in 4 Midwestern states (n = 964) participated in a telephone interview, and 223 were also assessed with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale—Revised or the ...

In this study we used Virtual Reality technology to simulate a toddler’s first few days’ experiences in daycare and improve the caregiver’s understanding of their state of mind. The virtual worlds were developed in accordance with the toddler’s way of thinking and from her/his cognitive and visual viewpoint. The aim of the research was to investigate whether the caregiver’s awareness to the cog...

Information from the nutrition facts labels of toddler foods marketed in low- and high-income New York City zip codes were analyzed for sodium content, the proportion of sugar-derived calories, and presence of sugar and/or high-fructose corn syrup as an added sweetener in the list of ingredients. Among the 272 toddler foods analyzed, more than a quarter were high in sodium, over one-third deriv...

PURPOSE This preliminary investigation explored potential cognitive and linguistic sources of variance in 2-year-olds’ speech-sound discrimination by using the toddler change/ no-change procedure and examined whether modifications would result in a procedure that can be used consistently with younger 2-year-olds. METHOD Twenty typically developing 2-year-olds completed the newly modified todd...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of an age-appropriate additional parenting intervention for very preterm born toddlers. STUDY DESIGN In a randomized controlled pilot study, 60 of 94 eligible very preterm born children who had received a responsive parenting intervention in their first year were randomized to usual care or the additional intervention, consisting of...

BACKGROUND The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (III) is a tool developed in a Western setting. AIM To evaluate the development of a group of inner city children in South Africa with no neonatal risk factors using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (III), to determine an appropriate cut-off to define developmental delay, and to establish variation in scores don...