Infancy to early childhood

About this book

Infancy to Early Childhood is the first published volume resulting from the MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study, a unique collaboration of a group of leading developmental scientists and behavioral geneticists. Their interaction has enabled them to offer an original theoretical framework explaining how changes occur in different domains and how genetics and the environment influence those changes. The study employed parental reports and observational methods that included experimentally-elicited behaviors as well as more free-running behaviors of children interacting with their environment. Infancy to Early Childhood focuses upon a major transformation: the transition from infancy to early childhood that takes place toward the end of the second postnatal year. An array of developmental acquisitions that separate the human from other primates is initiated during this transition, e.g., acquisitions in speech and empathy as well as new aspects of emotion regulation, temperament, cognition, and self-awareness.