Poster group
Details of individual items:
poster
Aim of the studyQuality of parenting has been found to affect various aspects of childdevelopment. There are considerable differences among parents in thequality of interaction with their infants. If we aim to enhance the qualityof parent-infant interaction in at-risk dyads it is important to gain moreinsight in which factors determine the quality of parental interactivebehaviour. Belsky (1984) distinguishes three groups of determinants:parental characteristics, child characteristics and contextual influences.The present study focuses on the contribution of parental characteristics(personality, i.e. ego-resilience and Big Five personality factors, andattachment styles) to the quality of parent-infant interaction. It isexpected that parents' ego-resiliency and a secure attachment style will bepositively related to the quality of parental interactive behaviour. MethodParticipants were 120 parents and their 15-month-old infant (very low tovery high SES). Parent-child interaction was videotaped at home duringvarious instruction tasks. Quality of parental interactive behaviour wasrated using five 7-point scales developed by Erickson, Sroufe, & Egeland(1985): supportive presence, respect for the child's autonomy, structureand limit setting, quality of instruction and hostility. The parents'attachment styles were assessed using the four-category system ofBartholomew & Horowitz (1991). The parents described their own personalityusing the Dutch version of the 100-item California Adult Q-Set (Block,1961). From these CAQ descriptions, scores were computed for parents'ego-resiliency and the Big Five personality factors. ResultsAt the time of writing this abstract results are not yet available. Datacollection and observation of all videotapes has been completed. Resultswill be presented at the conference.
poster
This study examines the development of emotion-attention couplings acrossthe key developmental transition in the early mother-infant relationshipfrom face-to-face social play without objects to social object play aroundthe fourth month of life, when objects begin to be included into thecommunicative dialogue (Fogel, 1997). Some early attempt to coordinateattention to people and to objects has been observed during longitudinalobservational studies since the fourth month of age (Brighi, Genta, Mattei,in press). The onset of joint attention is generally operazionalized asthe' frequency and/or duration of episodes that are characterised by theinfant and the mother being visually focused on some object, and at somepoint during the episode the infant makes an overture to the partner'(Saxon, Frick & Colombo, 1997; Tomasello & Todd, 1983). Studies investigating the impact of maternal behaviours before or duringjoint attention interactions report associations across time withchildren's competencies (Belsky, Goode & Most, 1980;). Moreover, Garner andLandry (1994) found that quality of timing of maternal behaviour inrelation to the infant's focus of attention was associated to positive andnegative affect in preterm and full-term infants.The aim of this study was to determine whether the patterns of associationsbetween maternal attention-directing strategies and infantsattentive-affective responsiveness exist during spontaneous interactionsinvolving both face to face and joint play exchanges. In our study 22 full-term and healthy infants were observed (andvideorecorded) with their mothers once a month at 2,3,4 and 5 months ofage. Mothers were requested to play freely, using or not a set of availabletoys, for 5 minutes, while the baby was lying on a carpet aside or in frontof the mother. The timing of maternal strategies for controlling infantattention was coded according to the following categories: Introduce,Maintain, Redirect, Observe, Mutual Attention, Joint Attention (Garner &Landry, 1994; Saxon, Frick & Colombo, 1997); Infant affective-attentiveconfigurations were coded using a set of categories which depict differentlevels of activation in the quality of attention and affect displayed bythe infant (Lavelli & Fogel 1998). The categories are: Neutral, Simpleattention, Concentrated attention, Excited attention, Astonished attention,Attentive smile, Fussing. In order to test the association between infantaffective-attentive configurations and maternal strategies for controllinginfant's attention during the 4 age level, a log-linear analysis was done.Results show that more complex forms of infant affect/attention at 2 and 3months are associated with Mutual communication ('Excited Attention' withMutual at 2 and 3 months: St. Res. 2 months 11.86 at 2 mo and St. Res.19.37 at 3 mo) while at 4 and 5 months this kind of attentive/expressiveconfiguration is associated with Joint attention episodes (St. Res. 4.44 at4 mo and 6.69 at 5 mo). At 5 months Joint Attention episodes are alsolinked to Concentrated attention (St. Res. 7.63) and to Attentive smile(7.16). Simple attention is linked to the maternal 'Maintaining' at all agelevels.
poster
The aim of the present study was to compare mothers' and fathers' behaviour during 5-minute free-play and 5-minute structured play situations at 12 months of age. Thirty infants (18 boys, 12 girls) were videorecorded separately with their mothers and fathers during a 5-minute free-play and a 5-minute structured play situations at home. During the structured session parents were individually asked to teach their child to play with a different challenging toy (either a Montessori tower or a shape-matching toy). Interactive behaviour of the parent-infant dyads during free play and the teaching session were rated on 5-point scales assessing aspects of parental and infant behaviour, and the quality of interactions. In addition, behaviour of the dyads during the teaching session was evaluated by continuous fine-grain coding in four domains (parent and infant activity, direction of parental and of infant gaze). For mothers, results showed that, although individual differences were stable across free play and the teaching sessions, they were less accepting and/or more intrusive during teaching. Compared to free-play, infants were more fretful during the teaching session and the interactions were less smooth. Results from the fine-grain analysis of the teaching interactions showed, that the way mothers taught their infants was related to their sensitivity and intrusiveness, and also to the quality of dyadic interactions at free play: higher sensitivity in free play was associated with orienting the infant's attention to the task, rather than demonstrating the solution. Less sensitive and/or more intrusive mothers tended to demonstrate the task more often especially when the infant's attention was off task (see Table 1, and Table 2.). Mothers' teaching style was not affected by the infant's sex. Father-infant interactions are being evaluated with the same methods. We expect, that similarly to mothers, fathers also behave in more intrusively and/or less accepting way during the teaching session. We also expect, that the microanalysis of fathers' teaching behaviour will show sex-of-infant effects: fathers are expected to make more effort to orient their sons' attention to the task, while more often demonstrating the solution to daughters.
poster
The formation of early self knowledge is dependent upon infants' ability toperceive the contingency between self action and external responses. Infantsreadily perceive the effects of their own actions during social exchanges; they areattentive to socially contingent interactions and decrease their attention tononcontingent social displays. This reduction in attention to noncontingencycarries over to subsequent contingent interactions; i.e., infants are lessattentive to contingent interactions that follow noncontingent interactions. Pastresearch that demonstrates these carryover effects has not consistently controlledfor the order in which the contingent and noncontingent episodes were presented,thereby confounding possible carryover effects with effects of fatigue. There alsoare discrepancies about whether infants' decreased attention to noncontingency isevident for both mothers and strangers. The present study addresses these issues.It was hypothesized that (1) infants would be more attentive to contingency thannoncontingency when interacting with mother and with stranger, and (2) infantswould show carryover effects from noncontingent episodes to following contingentepisodes regardless of the order of the episodes. Thirty-seven infants, ages four- and six-months, interacted with their mothers(Mother Phase) and female strangers (Stranger Phase) via videomonitors. In bothphases, infants saw three two-minute conditions: two contingent conditions (C1 andC2) in which the adult interacted on line with the infant and one noncontingentcondition (N) that was a replay of the adult interacting with an infant. Theconditions were presented in three different orders: C1,N,C2; C1,C2,N; N,C1,C2.Half the infants saw the Mother Phase first and half saw the Stranger Phase first.The infants' attention to the adults in each condition and phase was scored inone-second time blocks. Results from an ANOVA with two within variables, conditions (C1,C2,N) and phase(Mother, Stranger), and three between variables, condition order (C1,N,C2; C1,C2,N;N,C1,C2), phase order (Mother first, Stranger first), and age, revealed that bothhypotheses were supported. There was a Condition X Condition Order interaction,F(4,64) 4.11, p<.005, with no other variables interacting with either conditionor condition order, indicating that the interaction was present across both agesand in both the Mother and Stranger Phases. For the C1,N,C2 order, infantssignificantly reduced their attention from C1 to N and the reduction in attentionwas maintained in C2. For the C1,C2,N order, infants maintained their attention inC1 and C2 but significantly reduced their attention in N. The N,C1,C2 order showedno difference in attention to the three conditions; the attention to N wasmaintained in C1 and C2. The carryover effects from noncontingent interactions tosubsequent contingent interactions demonstrate infants' ability to formexpectations of future interactions based on brief encounters. Infants' ability to notice contingency in social interactions is adaptive andserves multiple developmental functions. In addition to facilitating infants'sense of self-efficacy by allowing them to perceive the effects of their ownbehavior on the behavior of others, contingent interaction serves to orient andattract infants to others who are responsive to them, thereby facilitating theiraffilitative and attachment behavior. Thus, contingency in social interactionprovides infants with the dual benefit of increased knowledge of both self andother.
poster
Interactional synchrony, or nonverbal coordination, has historically been measured in face-to-face interactions and free-play sessions only. The context of the behavior has been ignored, and past conclusions have been based on results from one context only. In this study, mother-infant interactional synchrony in 25 dyads was examined longitudinally in 7-, 13- and 20-month-old infants in both a free-play session and a joint book-reading interaction. Posture similarity and coordination/smoothness, global measures of synchrony (Bernieri, Reznick & Rosenthal, 1988), were rated by 15 raters using a Likert-scale (1-9). Results indicated that context affects synchrony; ratings decrease with age in play settings and increase with age in book settings. At 7- and 13-months, there were no significant differences between the synchrony ratings in free-play and book sessions, but at 20-months book-reading synchrony scores were significantly higher (t[24] -5.0, p < .01). Pearson correlations were not significant between interactional synchrony scores in the book-reading context and dyads' amount of experience book-reading (r .07, p .76). Dyads displayed stability in their synchrony scores between 13- and 20-months in both contexts based on significant Pearson correlations (r .49, p < .01 for play; r .61, p < .01 for book). The findings indicate that it is important to consider the context of behavior when studying interactional synchrony. By examining interactional synchrony in only one context researchers may be missing important information about this construct. Using data from two contexts will make findings more valid and generalizable, and will provide a more complete picture of the nature of interactional synchrony.
poster
Infants display a variety of behaviors in response to a non-interactiveparent during the still-face paradigm. In addition to the commonlyreported changes in behavior in response to parental still-face (e.g.increased gaze aversion, increased negative affect, and reduced smiling),infants have also been anecdotally reported to produce behaviors whichappear to be attempts to re-engage the parent in interaction (Segal, Oster,Cohen, Caspi, Myers, & Brown, 1995; Tronick, 1989; Tronick, Als, Adamson,Wise, & Brazelton, 1978). Empirical studies of re-engagement attemptsdisplayed by infants during parental still-face, however, are rare. In arecent study, Striano and Rochat (in press) reported that infants (7 to 10months of age) who attempted to re-engage an experimenter during thestill-face were more likely to display several types of joint attentionbehaviors. A relationship between re-engagement attempts and jointattention behaviors indicates that infant behavior displayed during thestill-face may provide some insight into the communicative ability of theinfant. Both attempts for re-engagement and joint attention behaviors canbe used by the infant to achieve a communicative goal.To further examine the relation between still-face response andcommunicative ability, 50 healthy infants from middle-class families wereassessed at 6, 12, and 15 months of age. Each infant participated withhis/her parent in the face-to-face/still-face paradigm at 6 months. Infant's attempts to re-engage the parent were defined as a combination ofgaze directed at the parent's face plus at least one of the followingbehaviors: smiling, frowning, vocalizing, or gesturing (e.g. reaching,banging hands or feet). The complexity of each re-engagement attempt wasdetermined based on the number of behaviors the infant displayed duringthat attempt. Both the number and complexity of re-engagement attemptswill be compared to the joint attention and language abilities of theinfant.Responding to joint attention (gaze following) was assessed at 6 months ofage during a gaze following task. In addition, the Early SocialCommunication Scales (Mundy & Hogan, 1996) were utilized at 15 months ofage to assess responding to joint attention, initiating joint attention(triadic referencing, pointing, showing), and initiating requesting(reaching, giving, pointing). The size of the infant's vocabulary wasestimated at 12 and 15 months of age using the MacArthur CommunicativeDevelopment Inventories - Short Form, Level 1. The frequency andcomplexity of infant re-engagement attempts during the still-face episodewill be correlated with the frequency of infant joint attention behaviorsas well as with the infant's vocabulary size. It is hypothesized thatinfants who display more attempts and more complex attempts to re-engagethe parent will also produce more joint attention behaviors and have largervocabularies than infants who display fewer attempts to re-engage theparent. All data have been collected and are in the process of being coded andanalyzed. Complete results will be available by the time of theconference.
poster
Characteristics of mothers' interactive patterns of behavior have beenassociated with significant consequences for both normal and disabledinfants. For example, mothers' ratings of responsiveness during dyadicinteractions have frequently been positively associated with theirchildren's subsequent cognitive and language competence (Bornstein, 1989),while maternal directiveness, sometimes considered the opposite ofresponsiveness, has often been negatively related to such outcomes (Marfo,1992). However, most studies of maternal interaction styles have ratedmothers at only one age and in only one setting. If characteristics ofmothers' styles are indeed predictive of children's later abilities, itwould be important to determine whether those characteristics demonstratestability over time and consistency across interactive contexts. Ten girls and 10 boys were videotaped in play and bath situations intheir own homes with their mothers at 10, 13, 17, and 21 months of age.The sessions lasted about 15 minutes and included toys. Mothers'interactive styles were measured with a slightly modified version of theMaternal Behavior Rating Scale (Mahoney, 1992), which rates 12 aspects ofmaternal style, organized through factor analysis into 4 subscales,Responsiveness, Directiveness, Affect/Animation, and AchievementOrientation (Mahoney et al., 1997). Two observers achieved inter-raterreliability averaging 98% agreement within one point for the 12 behaviorsand rated mothers' interactive styles from the beginning of the third tothe end of the tenth minutes of each videotape. A repeated measures ANOVA found an effect for context and a context bysubscale interaction, with higher scores during play than bath, especiallyfor Responsiveness and Achievement Orientation. There was also an effectfor subscale and a subscale by age interaction, with highest andincreasing scores for Responsiveness and lowest but increasing scores forAchievement Orientation, while Affect and Directiveness declined slightly.All maternal characteristics demonstrated greater stability over timeduring bath than play. In bath, mothers' ratings on all 4 subscalesshowed stability from 17 to 21 months. In addition, Responsiveness wasalso stable from 10 to 13 months and from 13 to 17 months, whileAchievement Orientation was also stable from 13 to 17 months. In play,mothers' characteristics were each stable during only one interval.Analyses examining consistency in styles across context revealed thegreatest consistency for Responsiveness, which was correlated across thetwo contexts at each age. Affect/Animation was significantly relatedacross contexts at 10, 17, and 21 months. Directiveness and AchievementOrientation were not related across contexts at any age. Finally,Responsiveness and Directiveness, often considered polar opposites, were unrelated to each other at 10, 13, and 17 months in free play, but weresignificantly and positively correlated with each other at each age in thebath context and at 21 months in the play context. These findings demonstrate striking differences among maternal stylecharacteristics, with Responsiveness the most stable across time andconsistent across situation. The results also highlight the importance ofconsidering context, with the more structured bath situation elicitingmore stability and differentially influencing the expression of responsiveand directive behaviors.
poster
The past several years has been marked by an increasing focus on thedevelopment of patterns of interaction between parents and infants and theirsubsequent impact on developmental processes (e.g., attachment, emotionalregulation; Gabel & Isabella, 1992; Isabella, et al., 1989). Traditionally,inter-person interactions have be conceptualized and as a contiguity ofseparate behaviors between individuals (e.g, Isabella et al., 1989).Recently Fogel and his colleagues (e.g., Fogel, Walker, & Dodd, 1997) havereconceptualized interpersonal interactions within a framework ofco-regulated patterns of communication. Similar to dynamic systems models,co-regulated communication can be viewed as a system of mutually innovativepatterns of 'aggregated co-activities' (Fogel, et al., 1997). Fogel (1994)developed a systems-based coding scheme that captures relational qualitiesin mother-infant communication along dimensions of symmetrical,asymmetrical, unilateral, coercive, and non-regulated patterns ofcommunication. This current investigation further validates Fogel'sco-regulation coding system by demonstrating relationships between patternsof co-regulated communication infant temperament and infant exploratorybehavior. Participants included 56 first time mothers and their 6-month oldinfants (31 female, 25 males) who were recruited from local birthannouncements. Mothers (age M years 25.0, SD3.6) were predominatelywhite, well educated (years M14.70, SD2.16), and from intact marriages. At6-months participants were invited to a laboratory session where Bayleyassessments were completed and mother and infants were videotaped in a15-minute free play episode. Following the laboratory visit motherscompleted the Infant Characteristic Questionnaire (Bates et al., 1979). The15-minute free play episode was coded using Fogel's (1994) globalCo-Regulation Coding System. Infant exploratory behaviors (i.e., visualexploration, manipulation, shaking, mouthing, and non-exploration) were alsocoded (e.g., Caruso, 1993). Proportion scores were calculated using durationtotals for each of the communication/exploration categories and dividing bythe total time of the play episode. Preliminary evaluation did not reveal any difference between maleand female infants on communication pattern or exploration variables. TheICQ Fussy/difficult and Unadaptable factors were found to be negativelycorrelated with Symmetrical Co-regulation (r-.30, p <.05; r -.33, p<.05,respectively) while Fussy/difficult was positively correlated withUnilateral Co-regulation (r.29, p<.05) and Unadaptability was positivelycorrelated with Non-regulation (r .29, p<.05). Furthermore, the ICQ Dullfactor was found to be positively correlated with Non-regulation (r.34, p<.05) while the Unpredictability factor was positively related to Unilateralregulation (r.34, p<.05). In addition to links to co-regulation, infanttemperament was also found to be related to infant exploration with ICQFussy/Difficult and Unpredictable being positively related to Nonexploration(r .32, p<.05, r .29, p<.05) and Unpredictability negatively related tovisual exploration (r -.29, p<.05). In addition to temperament, bothBayley motor and mental indexes where found to be positively related toshaking exploration (r .35, p<.01 and r .28, p<.05 respectively).Finally, a direct relationship between infant exploration (mouthing) withsymmetrical co-regulation was also observed (r .25, p<.05) as well asbetween visual exploration and asymmetrical regulation (r .32, p<.05).Unilateral co-regulation was also found to be positively related to infantmanipulation (r .33, p<.01). These findings suggest that relationalfeatures of mother-infant communication as well as individualcharacteristics influence infant exploratory behavior. In particular,symmetrical patterns of co-regulation are directly related to more activeforms of infant exploration.
poster
The power of natural interaction procedures has been demonstrated,both live and over television (TV), in studying infant socialperception; however, this procedure has problems with stimuluscontrol. This is the first attempt to impose stimulus control using acomputer controlled interaction procedure to simulate live,face-to-face interactions over TV. This computer procedure involvedstoring sixteen short (3-7 sec) video segments of pre-recorded adultsresponding to infants during face-to-face TV interactions in acomputer. These segments were chosen to span the range of facial andvocal expressions used by that adult when interacting with an infant. The segments were played to an infant on a television monitor by anexperimenter who observed the infant's behavior over a secondtelevision monitor in a control room. The experimenter activatedcomputer segments appropriate to the infant's social signals using thecomputer keyboard and attempted to simulate the contingent socialstimulation she would deliver during normal, face-to-face, TVinteractions.In Experiment 1, 25 normal periods of adult-infant TV interactionswere analyzed to determine the typical adult and infant behaviorsdisplayed during this procedure. In Experiment 2, 24 infants wereassigned to one of three groups: TV Control, Computer Control andComputer Still-Face. The control groups received live or computerizedcontingent adult stimulation during three 60-second periods. TheComputer Still-Face infants received computerized contingent adultstimulation during Periods 1 and 3 and a computer-generated still-faceduring Period 2. The Still-Face group was included to compare liveand computer contingent social stimulation effects using amanipulation that normally produces a very powerful infant reaction(during TV interactions, almost all infants stop smiling and lookingat an adult's TV still-face).Adult and infant visual attention, affect and vocalizing behaviors andcontingency were measured. An analysis of Period 1 indicated that theadult and infant behaviors displayed during the computer interactionprocedure were comparable to those displayed during normal TVinteractions. However, for the computer groups, the adults respondedcontingently to only 40% of infant behaviors compared with 74% for theTV group. An analysis of the three periods of interaction for theComputer Still-Face group indicated that the still-face effect wasobtained for infant gaze and vocalizing. Infant positive affectdecreased from the first period to the second period as expected;however, contrary to predictions, infant smiling continued to decreaseduring the third period.Clearly, infants did engage in face-to-face interactions withcontingent, computer presentations of adult facial/vocal socialdisplays. Perhaps smiling did not follow the expected pattern in thestill-face effect because of the lower amounts of adult contingentdisplays delivered in the computer interaction procedure. However,the procedure does provide excellent stimulus control for testinginfant social perception indexed by visual attention measures. Improved procedures and directions for future research will bediscussed.
poster
The methodologies used in reported infant-laughter studies have not been experimental, but observational, and almost routinely have lacked functional analyses and an operational definition of laughter. The three related studies being reported are components of a sequential-phase single-subject design. First, the Pavlovian paradigm was used to investigate the effects of pairing a prior-neutral stimulus (a sound, the to-be-CS) with the unconditioned stimulus (US) of tickling (the parent applying moderate force to moving fingers in contact with the baby's midsection) to elicit the unconditioned response (UR) of laughter, and then reversing that process in 4 infants 4- to 6- months of age. The learning was denoted by the CS acquiring the capacity to elicit the conditioned laughter response (the CR) in the intermittent absence of the US. Second, under the operant-learning paradigm, the rate of the parental-tickling response (R), both during baseline and after it produced infant laughter (the putative reinforcer) was measured to determine the reinforcing effect (when the contingent stimulus is associated with a systematic rise in the response, we term it a 'reinforcing stimulus') of the contingent infant laughter upon parent tickling (the US of the first experiment). Third, an experiment on the interaction between Pavlovian and operant learning was mounted to investigate the possibility that the Pavlovian CS absent US pairings, for laughter as CR, when presented as an antecedent stimulus can transform to function, under the operant paradigm, can transform to function as an antecedent discriminative stimulus that cues the positive reinforcement of infant laughter. Laughter to the initially neutral sound used with the other participants was also shaped in two additional subjects who were between four and five months of age. The outcomes of the research showed: (1) the successful Pavlovian conditioning of infant laughter to the sound CS; (2) that the parental tickling-response-provided US, that elicits the infant laughter UR, also functions as an operant that is maintained/reinforced by the infant laughter it elicits; and (3) that the CS (sound) eliciting the CR (laughter) can be transformed into a discriminative stimulus that can occasion operant laughter. Laughter to the sound was also successfully shaped in two additional participants. These findings broaden an understanding of the role infant behaviors can play in reinforcing parental behavior as well as the role parental attention can play in infant learning and particularly, in the emotion-denoting behavior of laughter, and by implication in other emotion-denoting behaviors.
poster
Variations in maternal behaviors are often ignored when investigators report their findings of mother-infant behaviors. In general, the mean number of times targeted behaviors are performed by the groups of mothers serve as the focal point of the authors' discussions. However, group means can be deceptive, because they are, by definition, an average measure of a particular behavior, and thus, can mask the variations that occur. When variations are addressed by researchers, they are often described as deficiencies on the part of the mothers. However, it is argued that individual differences in how mothers interact with their children should not be viewed negatively, but should be expected and appreciated as mothers' parenting behaviors are influenced by individual, familial and cultural factors (Sameroff & Fiese, 1990). The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate individual differences in maternal styles that were observed in groups of mothers from similar cultural and economic backgrounds. Twelve African American mothers and their typically-developing infants (ages 13-18 months) participated in the study. Six mother-infant dyads were of low socioeconomic status (SES) and six were of middle SES. The mothers and children were observed interacting during three, 15 minute play sessions. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the mothers that covered topics relating to their background and parenting behaviors. A coding system based on the behaviors observed during play was developed. The proportions of times the coded behaviors occurred in play episodes or periods of joint attention were calculated for each dyad. Several significant group differences were found between the low- and middle-SES groups in terms of their language and interactional behaviors. The focus of this presentation, however, is on the variations that were documented within the two groups. Specifically, the language and interaction styles of four dyads from each of the SES groups will be presented. These dyads share strikingly similar characteristics. For example, two of the mothers from the low-SES group stopped attending school after the eleventh grade, were teenage mothers, had annual incomes of less than $15,000, and did not work outside the home. Despite these similarities, the mothers engaged in vastly different language behaviors. One mother included a language goal in over half of the play episodes involving her and her child whereas the other mother included a language goal in less than 5% of her play episodes. In addition, the mother who commonly included a language goal in her interactions produced nearly three times the number of utterances to her child than did the mother who infrequently included language goals in her play. The findings of this research serve to highlight the need to examine and report individual patterns of behavior as many mothers may not 93fit94 the standard profile that emerges from group means. The implications of these findings for professionals who serve families with young children will be addressed.