The ability to predict upcoming events is essential in infancy because it enables babies to process information optimally and have successful goal-directed interactions with their environment. In this article, we examine how infants generate predictions in perception, cognition, and action, and address whether and how their predictions are…

This review describes a computational approach for modeling the development of speech motor control in infants. We address the development of two levels of control: articulation of individual speech sounds (defined here as phonemes, syllables, or words for which there is an optimized motor program) and production of sound sequences such as phrases…

Purpose: This study tested whether the Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play) physical therapy intervention indirectly impacts cognition through changes in perceptual-motor skills in infants with motor delays. Methods: Participants were 50 infants with motor delays randomly assigned to START-Play plus Usual Care Early Intervention…

Grounded in best practices and current research, this hands-on resource connects the dots that link brain activity, motor and sensory development, movement, and early learning. The expert authors unveil the Kinetic Scale: a visual map of the active learning needs of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and primary graders that fits each child's…

Background: Siblings of children with autism (sibs-A) are at increased genetic risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and milder impairments. To elucidate diversity and contour of early developmental trajectories exhibited by sibs-A, regardless of diagnostic classification, latent class modeling was used. Methods: Sibs-A (N = 204) were assessed…

The social cognition and perception-action literatures are largely separate, both conceptually and empirically. However, both areas of research emphasize infants' emerging abilities to use available information--social and perceptual information, respectively--for making decisions about action. Borrowing methods from both research traditions, this…

Discusses the development of the human hand from birth to age three as it contributes to the formation of human personality. Considers how parallels in eye, hand, brain, and motor skill development portray the evolving complexity and adaptation of the human grasp and illustrate Montessori theories about the relationship between physical experience…

Examines the meaning of reaction time (RT) and the possibility that it may predict other cognitive and motor skills in the first year of life. Considers two competing models that specify the information-processing components underlying RT performance. Describes the neural data needed to definitively choose between the models and considers…

This paper describes the development of the senses of speech and thought and identifies the physical organs associated with those senses. The child's word sense is born only after the development of the ability to walk. From direct experience, communicated to them by the speech sense, children know that words are different from any other sounds…

Background: The relationship between the age of reaching infant developmental milestones and later intellectual function within the normal population remains unresolved. We hypothesised that the age of learning to stand in infancy would be associated with adult executive function and that the association would be apparent throughout the range of…

The hypothesis, that the importance of language to mankind lies not so much in the fact that it is the means by which we cooperate and communicate with each other as in the fact that it enables each of us, as individuals and in cooperation, to represent the world to ourselves as we encounter it, is presented. In infancy, the representation is made…

The book offers 14 papers presented at two conferences on assessment and intervention with handicapped infants, sponsored by the Western States Technical Assistance Resource. Titles and authors include: "Neonatal Diagnosis of the Neurologically Handicapped" (M. Coleman); "Principles of Infant Assessment" (J. Swanson); "Focus on the Parent-Infant…

The 13 chapters of this text focus on the complex development issues and interdisciplinary service needs of infants and young children at risk and their families. The text is organized into four sections on: developmental and intervention principles, identification and assessment, developmental issues, and early intervention. Chapter titles and…