"Mama! Dada!" Origin of Language Pegged at 6 Months"
This article discusses research performed which suggests that infants can pair sounds with specific meaning at as early as 6 months of age. Specifically, the research found that infants are capable of recognizing the words "Mommy" and "Daddy" with their own parents, rather than unnamed parents or simply men and women in general. The conclusion of the research is thus that an infant's ability to understand language is an inherent quality that develops rapidly between the ages of 6 weeks and 2 years.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/02/990216135800.htm
"Toilet Training Methods, Clinic Interventions, and Recommendations"
This article discusses some best practices that parents may adopt when proceeding with toilet training. The article strongly supports the research which suggests that toilet training should occur when the child appears to be ready. Further, it asserts that there are specific practical methods that are crucial to the child's success, such as using a potty-chair and having specific reminders and reinforcement mechanisms in place.
The article also addresses the issue of how the parent should proceed given regression.
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/103/6/S1/1359
“Reach out and get your patients to read”
by Robert Needleman MD, Perri Klass MD, and Barry Zuckerman MD
This article discusses both the creation of Reach Out and Read, an organization created by two pediatricians in the Boston area in order to promote early literacy, as well as the necessity for pediatric intervention in order to encourage parents of infants and toddlers to read to their child nightly from a young age. The article reviews both the efficacy of Reach Out and Read in the decade since its inception as well as highlights the many positive outcomes that reading to infants and toddlers can have in later schooling.
Finally, the article details the many pitfalls of parents not reading to their infants and toddlers, in particular noting that children who are not read to face the greatest risk of reading problems in the future.
http://www.reachoutandread.org/FileRepository/ContempPeds_Jan2002.pdf
“Our Moving Bodies Tell Stories, Which Speak of Our Experiences”
This article discusses the importance of recognizing nonverbal actions as crucial indicators of infants and toddlers’ experiences. It outlines the Ways of Seeing program, which uses the principles of dance movement psychotherapy, as well as the Laban Movement Analysis system, which works to assess movement in order to create intervention and educational programming for children and parents, as mechanisms by which parents and childcare givers can come to better understand their children’s attempts to communicate as a preverbal stage. Further, both of these programs have aided children with autism, pervasive development disorder, communication and language delay, unspecified development delays, sensory integration disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, as well as other difficulties associated with adoption, trauma and parent-child attachment.
http://www.zerotothree.org/ztt_parentAZ.html
“Music and Movement for Infants and Toddlers: Naturally Wonder-full”
by John M. Feierabend, Ph.D. from the Fall 1996 issue of Early Childhood Connections
This article discusses the importance of both music and movement for infants and toddlers in order to encourage the development of their neurological pathways. It further discusses the combining of music and literature such that infants and toddlers can experience both singing and new vocabulary simultaneously, enhancing the learning experience. Finally, the article suggests how to structure a music and movement classroom, in particular asserting that movements such as bouncing, wiggling, tickling, tapping and clapping should encompass the latter aspect of the classroom, while simple songs, lullabies, and recorded music represent the former.
http://www.giamusic.com/music_education/feierabend/articles/infants.html
