A. Rebecca Neal

Neural plasticity, joint attention, and a transactional social-orienting model of autism*

An especially rich vehicle to elucidate the influence of brain development on psychopathology has emerged from work being conducted by investigators in the area of neural plasticity. … Rather than adhering to a unidimensional belief in the deterministic role that unfolding biology exerts on behavior, a number of theorists operating within this tradition believe that brain function, and its subsequent influence on behavior, possesses self organizing functions that can, in fact, be altered by experience at certain sensitive periods of development that occur across the life course. Moreover, this framework moves … to a more integrative and dynamic transactional view on development that stresses the importance of both psychological and neural self-organization ( pp. 533, Cicchetti & Tucker, 1994 ).

Child, Caregiver, and Temperament Contributions to Infant Joint Attention

Little is known about variables that may contribute to individual differences in infant joint attention, or the coordination of visual attention with a social partner. Therefore, this study examined the contributions of caregiver behavior and temperament to infant joint attention development between 9 and 12 months. Data were collected from 57 infants using a caregiver-infant paradigm, an infant-tester paradigm, and a parent report of infant temperament. Nine-month measures of caregiver scaffolding and infant initiating joint attention (IJA) with testers were significantly related to 12-month infant IJA with testers. A temperament measure of positive emotional reactivity was related to 9-month IJA, and a measure of negative emotional reactivity was related to 12-month IJA. Temperament and caregiver scaffolding measures, however, were not associated with the development of infant responding to joint attention. These results further the understanding of the multiple processes that contribute to joint attent...

Late Onset Canonical Babbling: A Possible Early Marker of Abnormal Development.

By their 10th month of life, typically developing infants produce canonical babbling, which includes the well-formed syllables required for meaningful speech. Research suggests that emerging speech or language-related disorders might be associated with late onset of canonical babbling. Onset of canonical babbling was investigated for 1,536 high-risk infants, at about 10-months corrected age. Parental report by open-ended questionnaire was found to be an efficient method for ascertaining babbling status. Although delays were infrequent, they were often associated with genetic, neurological, anatomical, and/or physiological abnormalities. Over half the cases of late canonical babbling were not, at the time they were discovered associated with prior significant medical diagnoses. Late canonical-babbling onset may be a predictor of later developmental disabilities, including problems in speech, language, and reading.