No abstract

We studied individual differences in 3-month-olds' perceptions of smiling and the experiential correlates of those differences. In the laboratory, infants saw a graduated series of smiles that grew in intensity of expression. As a group, 3-month-olds preferred increasingly intense expressions of smiling, but individually they showed different growth rates of preference across the smiling series. Further, infants' preferences related to their home experiences: Infants who showed greater sensitivity to smiling had mothers who more frequently encouraged attention to themselves when they were smiling and their infants were looking at them. Infant discrimination within and between categories of facial expression and the relative strengths of association between different kinds of naturally occurring experiences and infant perceptual sensitivity are discussed.

We studied individual differences in 3-month-olds' perceptions of smiling and the experiential correlates of those differences. In the laboratory, infants saw a graduated series of smiles that grew in intensity of expression. As a group, 3-month-olds preferred increasingly intense expressions of smiling, but individually they showed different growth rates of preference across the smiling series. Further, infants' preferences related to their home experiences: Infants who showed greater sensitivity to smiling had mothers who more frequently encouraged attention to themselves when they were smiling and their infants were looking at them. Infant discrimination within and between categories of facial expression and the relative strengths of association between different kinds of naturally occurring experiences and infant perceptual sensitivity are discussed.

No abstract

This paper reports the findings of a prospective longitudinal study of the development of representation and communication in toddlers from middle-class Caucasian families. Toddler language and play were assessed independently at 13 and 20 months. These two abilities covaried at 13, but not at 20 months. Toddlers showed individual stability in language from 13 to 20 months, but not in play. Two domains of parent-child interactions were also evaluated in separate mother-toddler and father-toddler observations at 13 months. The two domains included social interactions (verbal and non-verbal affectively-oriented, dyadic communications) and didactic interactions (verbal and non-verbal encouragement of attention to extradyadic properties, objects, and events in the environment). Mothers and fathers behaved similarly, and the two domains were independent. Mothers' and fathers' interactions covaried with specific toddler abilities at 13 months, but neither parent nor interaction domain uniquely or consistently predicted toddlers' abilities from 13 to 20 months.